I wonder......

Nurses General Nursing

Published

I wonder if someone collected stories from nurses all over the country about what is happening in healthcare, what we experience, the short staffing, the mandatory overtime etc... the REALITY of why there is a nursing shortage and why it is unlikely to get better, I wonder if such a book would sell.

I think this book should talk about the idea that patients aren't patients anymore, but "guests" or "customers" the stories of nasty and idiot physicians and how they often treat nurses. The stories of clueless administration, the no breaks, no lunches days. You guys know what I am talking about.

Would enough of the public read it and begin an outcry that would force change? Would they care or not?

I would like some imput on this.

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I like the idea, but I don't know how well it would sell to the general public. A lot of sales generated are going to depend upon how well the book is advertised. Get it on Oprah and it will fly off of the shelves. Of course, this may be a story Oprah may be interested in showing.

I think it needs to be seriously examined on Dateline or 20/20 or some other popular news program. They need a camera to follow a nurse on a short-staffed unit. Of course I doubt any hospital would allow this to happen if they knew it would be a story about how and why hospitals are running units short staffed.

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I think it would be great to get our story out into the public. The question is how to get it out there.

Maybe if enough of us write to someone like Oprah maybe it would peak her intrest. The truth of the matter is unless someone personally gets sick or a loved one gets sick and is in need of nurse they rarely think about what is going on. There are however those cases when something terribly goes wrong then the media is all over it.

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There is a similar Canadian book if you are interested. It is called Critical care: Canadian nurses speak for change by Andre Picard and was published in 2000 by Harper Collins

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I don't think the general public or the "powers that be" would be interested in reading it. Other nurses would read it, but what good does that do?

But, along the idea of getting our story "out there" what if we ALL wrote someone like Oprah? It's news worthy. Or how about Stone Phillips. He does stories like that. The nursing shortage is a hot topic right now. Seems we could use that to our advantage.

What does everyone else think? We COULD start a grass roots movement. Nothing unprofessional. Just telling our story.

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Specializes in Corrections, Psych, Med-Surg.

Try the books of Echo Heron. She's been writing about all this stuff, in a very entertaining way, for YEARS.

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I actually like the Oprah idea, at least we might actually be heard!

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Specializes in Hemodialysis, Home Health.

Yep.. Oprah ! Dateline ! 48 hours ! 60 Minutes ! All of the above !

AFTER the preliminary oraganizational arrangements have been initiated re the Nurses March on Washington and leaks out into the public and the press. Hit 'em from ALL sides at once. The people who emphasize with our plight will be watching Oprah... they'll nod their heads in agreement but that will be the end of it.

The people who make the laws are sitting up there in DC.. we need to show up on their doorstep as a UNITED and STRONG front to make our voices heard. IN ADDITION TO getting out those letters to your legislators !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Are these messages getting through to Oprah/other media? Do they care? The idea of alerting Oprah et al has been around for some time but I haven't seen much of anything come from it. Perhaps if A LOT of people wrote or called, then maybe someone influential will investigate the issues.

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Jnette, what march? There had been one that was in the planning stages once, but went down the drain. I won't go into all the specifics here, but trust me on it because I was one of the original organizers. Pulled out after I felt the person running the web site and who had filed the paperwork with the IRS for nonprofit status did not follow that up appropriately, and I also felt that he wanted to profit off the website. I felt strongly about this so pulled out it. However if there is someone out there that is not this person I would be interested in hearing about it.

It is my firm belief that something of some real merit needs to be done. Many of us have written to Oprah, dateline etc... with little result. Stories there is a nursing shortage, but little ever focuses of the working issues. They go into the baby boomers getting older and the nursing getting older. Demographics certainly plays a part, but all of us know that is not the only driving factor.

Anyway, anything anyone else knows about a potential march I would be interested in hearing about it.

Helen

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Specializes in Hemodialysis, Home Health.

Sorry RNcountry... didn't mean to mislead you... I was responding to the previous posts where the talk of perhaps organizing such a march was a possibility.. not anything in the works yet that I'm aware of. Sorry to confuse you on that... I know of nothing yet that is definately in the works. But if something like that COULD be organized, they could count on me to be there !

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Specializes in Community Health Nurse.

Just dropping by to say I like your idea, rn country. Be back later to comment. :kiss :nurse:

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