ABC 20/20 nursing story on Nov 26th

Nurses General Nursing

Published

RED ALERT---Call/E-mail everyone!!!

ABC 20/20 Nursing story is on for the 26th

Pass it on

Read this from Silvia;

Thanks. I hope a lot of people will see the story. The AHA president is

already doing damage control -- interestingly, not by alleging that our

story is wrong. That would be a stretch, given the number of nurses I've

heard from.

Sylvia

Hi everyone... would love to know about the 20/20 Nursing story.. can anyone fill me in please? Im from Aus do not know about it as yet.

Cheers Margy.

Please visit our web site for more information on this very important issue. We are at http://www.web-nurse.com We have opened up a new topic on our updated forums about this issue. This can be found at http://www.web-nurse.com/forum

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Anne Van Dyke, RN

Web-Nurse

Anne,

Thank you for e-mailing me, asking for information about ABC's 20/20 Program airing tonight.

PLEASE----everyone participate!

Thanks,

Rita Barton, Founder, CNG

Concerned Nurses Group at www.hospitalhub.com

Hello all fellow nurses:

The show was enlightening and long overdue. I am surprised that the nurses talked so freely and correctly about how it really is out there. I can honestly say, our hospital listens to the nurses and our staffing overall is good. We have a large ratio of nurses, both RN's and LPN's in relation to nursing assistants. Our patients rate us very high on satisfaction. We have a great Director of Nursing that listens to our nursing staff and goes "to bat for us" when it is necessary. She was a staff nurse and charge nurse prior to becoming director so she really has a handle on what it is like out there. When new nurses are hired, it is interesting to listen to them how staffing was so poor where they came from. Very high patient ratio to nurses on duty. This is very dangerous. Overall, I would rate it a 9 on a scale of 0-10.

I'm glad the public is being made aware of what's going on out there, because I think public demands can really help to implement change, but I wish they had been a little less alarmist in their presentation. It's interesting that the next segment was about media sensationalism and how it scares the public, because that's exactly what they did with this piece. Everyone who saw this show is going to be scared to death the next time they, or someone they care about, has to go to the hospital. Granted, in some instances, the concern is justified, but in others, it's just needless anxiety. I would have liked to have seen some of the facilities that try to do the right thing, like Ruby's, represented, if only to provide a standard for people to judge the competition. Trust is vital to developing a therapeutic relationship, yet how are patients supposed to trust us when they think evey place is like the ones shown in the story?

I worked in a nursing home that used 3 local (big city) hospitals ( and a couple smaller comunity hospitals within the same city) for acute care, and the care, or lack there of, I see coming out in comparison to going out goes from adequate to apalling (sp?) and i do believe it relates to the concerns brought up by this article

I have seen a resident retun p weeks of wound care for stasis + diabetic ulcers but they did not treat her diabetis at all, and her isulin was listed on her transfer sheet, and IDDM was also listed as a Dx, when I called the floor she was on to ask how they were treating her Diabetes I was INFORMED she was NOT a Diabetic, their own labs show >400 FBS (on more than 1 occasion >650) and 2 Endocrin consults

I have seen them transfer someone with an ADVANCING pnemonia to our care because the infection had "cleared up"

I have had them send a patient to a nonsubacute, but still skilled facility with a central line, NOTHING in report about it

I have had patients returned when a bedside debredment was done with NO anasthesia while the transpot waited in the hall and watched from the door, no dressing, no treatment, and NOTHING in report (again)

I have heard nurses (when giving report to the ER) ask whether someone has REAL insurance, because they were busy that night (not that they would refuse care, but it was an ODD ?? nonetheless

then there is the 2 times a hospital "lost" a patients advanced directive when they went bad (one time the person eneded up on IV fluids in ICU with a crash cart next to the bed) *again* all this was on the transfer form, they were MY patients, I wrote or reviewed the trasfer forms, and I only worked there 6 months

Then there was my 49 year old coworker who died of an embolus from a work aquired injury that was treated at one of these ERs and told to just "go back to work" with a fractured hip and a DVT, both of which showed up on the ER X-Ray, but she was told it was in her head, and D/C sheet said she was able to go back to work on Tylenol, no other Therapy.

These are not all from the same hospital, but the worst instances I can remember from each.

I should stop i am getting outraged again, but i get over it, because there is NOTHING i can do other than complain to the hospitals, and report the GROSS neglect (that is a different set of criteria than my setting) to the athorities when my boss would not.

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*** May we all have the serenity to accept what we cannot change, and the determination to change what we cannot accept. ***

[This message has been edited by ecb (edited November 28, 1999).]

I saw the documentary. Finally a news program describing the changes in hospitals.

Wow! Seems I am always a dollar short! I don't get local TV where I live, way out in the sticks. Usually I don't mind, but I am sorry I missed this story. Unfortunately, our society has become so desensitized that sensationalism is often times all that will reach them. I hate that. Realities in life are often difficult to assess until someone does an expose. I read the posting from the nurse whose patients have suffered under hospital care. My hospital gets sooo many nursing home patients. It breaks our heart to clear up their bedsore, pnuemonia, malnutrition, etc, and send them back. We know we will see them again. Obviously, not all nursing homes are like this. Anybody want to tackle our penal system? Or the fact that most of it is going into the private sector? I would love to hear from nurses who work there!

Wow! Seems I am always a dollar short! I don't get local TV where I live, way out in the sticks. Usually I don't mind, but I am sorry I missed this story. Unfortunately, our society has become so desensitized that sensationalism is often times all that will reach them. I hate that. Realities in life are often difficult to assess until someone does an expose. I read the posting from the nurse whose patients have suffered under hospital care. My hospital gets sooo many nursing home patients. It breaks our heart to clear up their bedsore, pnuemonia, malnutrition, etc, and send them back. We know we will see them again. Obviously, not all nursing homes are like this. Anybody want to tackle our penal system? Or the fact that most of it is going into the private sector? I would love to hear from nurses who work there!

Hi...Way to go, CNG, Sylvia Johnson, and 20/20 staff. As a registered nurse, I have long thought that the public should be outraged at today's healthcare delivery...now they are. Oh, they may not say much now, but you can bet on their next admission to the hospital, they WILL ask...who is at my bedside?? As the demand for nurses increases, so must our willingness to DEMAND our hospitals from insurers and HMO's and other such necessary evils.

mirn,

Thanks! I ask you and all nurses to offer their opinions of the 20/20 program at

abc.com.

I'd like to see them do constant updates on this subject and express the urgency of it to the public. As we nurses well know, this is NOT a new problem.

Thanks to all!

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