Oh Dear Dear Senator Walsh

Oh Dear Senator Walsh,

I was hoping you’d had some bad personal experiences with care rendered by nurses to you, family, or friends.

Not because I want anyone have substandard care much less unsafe care by nursing professionals, but because I hoped your excuse wouldn’t have been as pathetic as a reference to ‘being tired.’

Just a few weeks ago we had a dozen nurses in our OR working on a patient in a life threatening situation. One nurses sole job was to check, match, infuse packed red blood cells, and monitor the patient for a reaction to the infusion while the surgeon sewed vessels and suctioned blood seeping out from a ruptured aneurysm. I met another, the OR circulating nurse the next morning as she came out to meet my pre-op patient. She was focused, checked everything thoroughly, and reported to the family when my patient was heading to recovery room.

That nurse.

She’d gone home at 3:30 in the morning and returned at 7:00.

Just like you, She was tired also. And she didn’t bring a deck of cards to work.

That was cheeky, I’ll back off.

Your idea of challenging 12 hour shifts with a return to 8 hour shifts…Please do some more homework on this.

Going to a three shift per 24 hour continuum, requires hiring more staffing. My own hospital , that I love dearly, reports that it cost over $25,000 to put a new nurse through orientation.

Please see the below quote by the American Association of College of Nursing:

Federal figures project that if current trends continue, the shortage of RNs will continue to grow throughout the next 20 years. By 2020, more than 800,000 RN positions are expected to go unfilled nationwide, according to the National Center for Workforce Analysis, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Eight hour shifts doesn’t fix this.

Taking better care of our nurses will.

Regards,

________________________________________________

Running this by my WordPress family before editing, adding more statistics on this issue, and sending my letter to Senator Walsh with a request for her to be an advocate for healthcare professional rather than a Joy Behar wannabee, with too much time at the microphone.

Kudos From An Unexpected Place

Dear Susan,
I wanted to let you know that we published a list of Top Nurse Blogs on our website (at blog.nurserecruiter.com/top-nurse-blogs ), and that we were very happy to include “Don’t Curse The Nurse” as well. ___________________________________________________________

I just posted last week about stress and the heart. I didn’t want to post just how much of it I was sure was coming from work because I love what I do.

It’s the bureaucracy and politics that sometimes seep into my work life and steals my joy.

So, this was nice to see on my comment dashboard this morning!

I wasn’t trying to start anything…

I was just going to the doctor’s because I have a sore throat  that won’t go away. Nodules on my thyroid have turned me into a hypochondriac in regards to anything to do with my neck. So…

I sit down. It’s a small waiting room. There are three other people waiting also. Politics must  have been in the air because, seconds after sitting, the women to my right says, ” Well, he’s our President, so we need to respect him, even if he is not a very nice person.”

Oh, this is going to be fun.

They all looked over eighty. I might just listen. Old fashioned respect  keeps me from wanting to be contrary.

The man sitting in one of the chairs lining the far wall followed with a comment of his own. With an accent that sounded a little northern, he stated, ” He’s working on good things like getting rid of Planned Parenthood. You know they are selling body parts! Making lots of money. Using my tax dollars.  That’s the worst part. ”

Whaaaaat?!

I turned in my seat and had a total diarrhea of the mouth moment.

“Really?”

“Yep” He snapped. ” Saw film on it.”

“Hmm.” I couldn’t let it go.

“Sir, the Federal portion of funding for Planned Parenthood cannot be used for abortions. There is something called the Hyde Amendment that only makes exceptions in the case of rape, incest, or endangerment to the life of the mother.”

( Past incendiary comments by politicians forced me to do my homework. A few of them have stated that in no circumstance, should termination be an option.)

He pulled his chin up and retorted in a controlled voice, ” You need to see the film.”

Selling body parts. Selling body parts. Scenes from the movie Coma came to mind.

If I wasn’t in my nursing scrubs, I’m sure his response would have been more emotional.

The three women around my actively changed the subject. It somehow jumped to the women on my right  sharing that she is eighty-five and works at SAMS, says it  keeps her joints moving.  I told her I lived real close to COSTCO – would have to drive far to get to a SAMS. The female across from me murmured ” I like to crochet and watch anything except the news.” Smart lady.

I didn’t have just a sore throat anymore. I also had an itch under my skin.  A national agency selling body parts. 

My name was called. The first thing I did was tell my doctor there was someone in his waiting room spreading fear.

Then I went home and googled it. Here’s a link to something closer to the truth.

http://www.npr.org/2016/01/28/464594826/in-wake-of-videos-planned-parenthood-investigations-find-no-fetal-tissue-sales

 

I Don’t Want To Share

Governor Rick Scott has appointed nine to a panel with the task of reviewing hospital outcomes. More specifically, he wants a review of hospitals receiving taxpayer funding, executive compensation, lobby funding, and advertising funding.

But, that’s not all! He wants this group, a group that includes only one medical doctor, to explore the idea of profit sharing.

Yes, the once CEO of Columbia /HCA, the company fined 1.7 billion dollars for Medicare fraud, wants us to learn how to share.

I work for a system that had layoffs last year. I’m not sure I can take Rick Scott seriously. If I did, I’d just get scared. I’ve given it some thought though. So…

My bonus last November was a 12 pound turkey. Fine — as long as I get to keep the white meat.

My manager, her office is smaller than my bathroom. Rick, I can get you in there — good luck finding room for your chair.

Our department Director, made seven trays of appetizers for the recent Nurse Week celebrations. The managers paid out of their own pocket for the remaining food. We’ll share our food. In exchange, we need the addresses for these people on the panel. They owe us dinner at least once a month.

I can do any night except Thursday.

Call me.