“Nursing students needed to work in the University Hospital. Good pay. Orientation.”
As a rising nursing school senior in the 1970s, I naïvely applied for the job above without getting the full details. No one mentioned that I’d be working in a psychiatric unit housing twenty-five aggressive, catatonic or schizophrenic patients, many of whom had been locked away for years.
The entrance sign, which should have read “Locked Psych/Med/Surg Unit,” said simply, …
On the day that I penned this post, I rounded at our community hospital. My first patient was in the step-down unit, which houses patients who are too ill for the regular hospital floor. I spoke to the nurse in order to be briefed on my patient’s status. I learned that this nurse was assigned six patients to care for — an absurd patient volume for a step-down unit.
The recent horrible events involving racial profiling, excessive force, and gun violence are deeply troubling but not new. Who can forget the Bronx shooting of Amadou Diallo in 1999 when 41 bullets rained down on his unarmed body. I can uniquely identify with the black experience because of my own numerous experiences of being pulled over for no other apparent reason except for being in the wrong neighborhood, wrong state …
The bar was fancy, so I let it slide. This was not the first time my response to an occupational query was followed with a statement about bedside toileting; people just don’t know what to do when an educated, confident woman says she’s a nurse.
I smiled tersely, as I have trained myself to. In past years, I’d offer varying responses: anger, heated debate. …
The surgeon is doing a tonsillectomy on a 4-year-old boy. Dr. Jones drops an instrument on the floor of the OR. The instrument is now contaminated and has to be sterilized by a special machine called an autoclave. This was a small hospital, so they did not have a large inventory of duplicate surgical instruments. So the circulating nurse put the instrument into the autoclave. As this machine locked in …
Startups looking to partner with health systems: This list is for you.
So often, it seems like new technologies being developed for health care don’t address the areas of largest need. We sat down with nursing leaders at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) to get a sense of what clinical problems could be best addressed by technology.
The following list was compiled from interviews with Sheila Antrum (president and senior …
Three weeks ago, I changed jobs. I left a high-tech, high-volume teaching hospital in one of the largest medical centers in the U.S. for the greener pastures of a small, private community hospital. Why? I needed a less stressful position, lower acuity patients and to be rid of the madness of commuting.
I am a registered nurse with experience in emergency and trauma nursing, critical care, electrophysiology and cardiovascular surgery. I …
When nurses stand on the steps of our nation’s capital, it is a warning that something is seriously wrong in health care. Much like a canary in the coal mine, nurses are the barometer of the health of our hospitals, nursing homes and health care facilities.
On May 12th 2016, nurses from around the United States convened on our nation’s capital for the …
Thanks to all the nurses who take care of my patients and every other patient. I may be a doctor, but you are the ones who deliver the care. You give the medications and hang the IV fluids. You wash the patients and turn them. You check their vitals and listen for bowel sounds. You walk with them. You talk with them. You fulfill their needs. And you provide comfort to …
Having been a nurse for over 18 years, I have endured a few Nurses Week. At first, I was lured into the charm of my first Nurses Week bag. I had finally arrived: My first official nurse’s bag. I had arrived and for a full week, the folks at the hospital seemed to actually appreciate what we did for our patients. After a few mugs, key chains, beach towels and …
Supply chains and other service industries, like telecom, worry about “the last mile” — the final step in delivering a product or service to customers. Like other industries, health care must connect most meaningfully to the patient, and the nurse is almost always part of (if not the sole manager of) that last mile. The analogy of the last mile defines a deeply rooted issue about nursing’s criticality (and that …
Distinguishing between the terms “bully” and “bullying” is an important step that we can take in order to eliminate or at least minimize any disruptive or undermining behaviors that are often associated with bullying. Yelling at, humiliating, excluding, gossiping about others are a few of ways we humans cleverly demonstrate disrespect for others. And we all know that lack of respect is a persistent and pervasive problem in health care.
One of my most memorable experiences was more than a decade ago while working for a level one trauma center on the East Coast. I was sitting in a hospital break room during one of my breaks as an inventory coordinator when a nurse walked in. I simply asked how her day was going, and she fell into the chair next to me crying.
In September 2010, a seasoned pediatric intensive care unit nurse administered an accidental overdose to a critically ill baby, giving ten times the amount of calcium that was prescribed. Five days later, this baby, with an already tenuous heart condition, died. The nurse recognized her mistake immediately, informed her superior, and also told the family and physicians. She was, however, escorted out of the hospital, put on administrative leave, and …
I recently wrote about inter-professional hostility in health care. I thought I would share some of the inspiration for that post here. Is there really an escalation of scope of practice conflicts and a downward spiral of disrespect, or is it just more palpable in the modern era of anonymous comments and viral online posts? I don’t know for sure, but lately, the conversation seems louder to me.
I remember attending an eight-hour seminar on my job, where experts educated new nurses about the transition we would experience in our profession. We learned about the change theory and the different levels of transition, from novice to expert. I remember not taking the two-day session very seriously, thinking that my accelerated three-year nursing degree had prepared me well for the workplace. Now that my one year of practicing as …
Since 1921, the Miss America competition has ignited public debate. Typically though, the controversy doesn’t revolve around a contestant’s attempt to convey the positive influences nurses have on their patients. Contestant Kelley Johnson’s decision to perform a monologue for the talent portion of the Miss America program was a surprising departure from traditional acts generally showcased. Her recent appearance in scrubs and a ponytail prompted ridiculing banter between hosts on …
When the daytime soaps As The World Turns and All My Children went off the air, I stopped watching any daytime TV. So before their infamy this week, I’d never heard the name, Joy Behar. And maybe I’d heard the name Michelle Collins, but I’m thinking that name was my niece’s friend’s cousin or someone-or-other. And certainly, I’m not familiar with the …
A few weeks ago, after feeding my face with rich, dense chocolate cake brought by a truly awesome nurse (for no particular reason other than a warm and generous spirit), I walked back into a room to check on a post-cardiac arrest patient.
After surveying his vitals on the monitor, I turned my attention to two nurses and a pharmacist who were discussing the management of his six drips. He was …
Ever since Medicare started using patient satisfaction surveys in 2012 to calculate hospital reimbursements, the healthcare system has been looking to the hospitality industry to learn how to make patients enjoy their hospital stay. Hotels do have the answer, but hospitals are looking in all the wrong places.
What hospitals are doing wrong
The concept behind Medicare’s HCAHPS survey — a short questionnaire asking …
