A nurse is a nurse is a NURSE???????

imaRN · Jun 1, 2001

Dr. William Goodall is in bad need of a

Ticket for the "Clue Bus".

Does this guy really believe what he says?

Goes to show how far removed someone can be in today's medical system!

"It doesn't matter what kind of letters you have before or after your name, you still can be the most ignorant person walking upright" quote by: imaRN

GO MN NURSES !!

ladybyrd · Jun 28, 2001

per Dr. William Goodall, vice president for regional medical affairs for Allina Hospitals and Clinics: quote:

"There is a national standard for physicians and nurses, and the nurses, whether I'm drawing on a pool of nurses from Minnesota or California or Texas, it shouldn't make much difference," Goodall said.

OK, lets see....if hes an MD and has passed the same "national standards" as every other MD, then

he should be able to handle "everything" from newborns to NEUROSURGERY...without the benefit of specialists, or consultants....

...and his patients who need "organ transplants" should stay at their local hospital cause they will get the same treatment and results as if they went to one of those biggger hospitals in Texas or New York...

...sorry gotta take a bathroom break...

CraigB-RN, MSN, RN · Jun 29, 2001

It's funny, when we're not talking about strikes and unions, then a nurse IS a nurse. We can't have both. Lets keep our reactions in perspective and compare the apples to the apples and the oranges to the oranges.

JenKatt · Jun 29, 2001

I don't think you get it Craig, this doc is saying in essence that any nurse can do any other nurses job. I sure as heck don't agree. There is no way I can do L&D. There is no way I can go work in LTC right now. I don't have the experience or the knowledge. So to say that any nurse can replace any other nurse is foolish and demeans what we do and how hard it truely is. Right now I'm the only person on my floor with a fresh post op and a wheezing asthmatic. The buck stops with me. I don't know many NICU nurses who would even dare to do my job, I know because when I got to this job I said there is no way. But AFTER TRAINING AND ORIENTATION I can, the replacement nurses don't get it. Do you now?

Home Health Columnist / Guide · Jul 2, 2001

You don't want me birthin any babies. I only remember lochia changes, massage that boggy uterus, problems if fetal HR goes below 100. Have done routine postpartum teaching after birth of my two sons and CPR instruction. I would be TOTALLY out of my element in LDRP without an extensive orientation and a danger to patients if assigned float to that area. Feel that nurses should ONLY work in areas oriented in( not a 2 hr paperwork orientation either). Do feel that cross training in similar areas keep your brain cells flowin.

I agree with the above posters and would be interested in Dr Goodalls response to his ability to do organ transplants since he is a physician. Where does he get his physicians from to ataff Allina hospital? How much time does an RN spend with a patient compared to a physician? Is he willing to be treated by any doctor on staff for a medical problem, cause after all, they are ALL LICENSED doctors!

fiestynurse · Jul 2, 2001

"A nurse is a nurse" has always been a degrading concept. It means we are just cogs in a wheel, not educated professionals with specialized skills.

CEN35 · Jul 2, 2001

hmmmmmmmm.........no comment......this thread is just gonna start fires. :rolleyes:

HazeK · Jul 2, 2001

once upon a time....not so many years ago,

our DON tried to use the "a nurse is a nurse is a nurse"

idea to create a policy of ANY nurse can float to ANY unit, and do BASIC nursing skills..... this didn't last very long!! Why? Nursing, like medicine is too specialized to function in all areas, without orientation to the area.

EX. I was floated to a medical floor from Labor & Delivery, & informed that I would be "The Med Nurse" for 16 beds! So.............. I got out the PDR & the Hospital Formulary and looked up each and every medication I had to pass that I was not fully familiar with, prior to passing each medication!!!!

When 8am meds weren't completed by 9:30 the charge RN called and got another "real" Med/Surg nurse to float to the unit...and had me give bed baths and make beds!

After a few episodes like that, Nsg Admin finally got the picture that we could only float within specialty areas, OR the level of functioning would be minimal!

I feel sorry for Dr Goodall, as I suspect he is now aware of his 'misinformation'!

Haze

p.s. for you non-L&D folk, we only use about 50 meds total in our entire practice...so new M/S drugs aren't really familiar to us, for the most part.

Q. · Jul 3, 2001

Likewise Haze - if any nurse would float to L&D, I think that they also would find themselves quite lost...even the 50 or so meds we DO give, all carry significant risk to mom and fetus.

This is why in my hospital, we don't float to any floor, and we don't accept floats either. We are totally self-sufficient. Not that this always works out for us - we have mandatory overtime alot, etc., but there is NO way that a non L&D person can take a laboring patient, just as there is NO way I could float to any ICU or ER.

Except for the birth of a baby in the car....

CraigB-RN, MSN, RN · Jul 3, 2001

I get it very well. He did "SAY" that an OB nurse is an ER nurse, he SAID that a nurse from CA is the same as a nurse from minisota or TX. He may have meant that but he didn't say it.

We as nurses perpetuate the nurse is a nurse concept. I"m currently taking the CCRN exam. 1700 hours in a busy SICU at a major medical center isn't the same as 1700 in the ICU at a 24 bed rural hospital. But for testing perposes they are the same.

Give me proof that they are assigning unqualified people to work the specialty areas. If they are, then a by all means, post that to the editor of the local paper, send it to the radio and TV news.

My only statement about that quote was to be carefull and don't put words in people mouths. That can only hurt us as a profesion. I agree that he probably does see nurses as numbers only, but he didn't say that specificly, unless it was later in the quote.

We have to be carefull what we say and were we take our stand. I seam to remeber a labor action in CA in the late 80's were the ER nurses (MICP's) siad that they HAD to give medical command to the EMS units. WEll when they went on strike, they found out that the system worked just fine without them. I know this isn't the same, I'm just using it as an example of statements not able to be held up by fact.

Little_Bit · Jul 3, 2001

I agree completely with the L&D nurse who was floated to the medical floor. I work for a contract agency & provide supplemental nursing in a part of my state where there is a shortage of nurses. I have been put EVERYWHERE by the hospitals I am sent to. No one bothers to ask... "by the way, have you ever worked ICU before?"

There are far too many areas of speciality in nursing for nurses to be thrown here & there to satisfy staffing needs. Facilities are only worried about CYA - not the welfare & safety of their employees or their patients.

What this profession needs to do is focus on finding ways to draw new nurses in before the rest of us "dinosaurs" become extinct.