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| No. 60 | 
Apr 13, 2008, 05:23 AM
 Re: Nurse sees worst, best of profession during daughter's ER visit Originally Posted by stevielynn 
In reading the comments after the article, I see someone else noticed that the mom said "blow" into an incentive spirometer and I thought "no, you suck on it like you are drinking a thick milkshake through a straw". But someone else posted that there are incentive spirometers where you do blow . . . hmmm.
steph
Yeah, back in the 80's we still had "blow bottles"...
Looked like two incentives pushed together, but one side was filled with water, usually dyed blue and the chambers were joined by a small integrated tube. The object was to blow in the tubes and the pressure pushed the water from one bottle to the other.
rb
 | | Advertisement Sponsored Links | | | | No. 61 |
Apr 13, 2008, 06:31 AM
Updated
Apr 13, 2008 at 06:33 AM by workingforskies
Re: Nurse sees worst, best of profession during daughter's ER visit Originally Posted by sgherzi4 Hi all...
I must add my "two cents' worth" here. I, too, was on the other side of the guerney...stressing out with a 17 yr. old boy (in excellent physical condition) who had chest pain, difficulty breathing AND a Troponin of 30...yes...30. Thank God the small hospital where I work has an ER with some very good nurses who jumped right on top of him. Long story here...but I, too, being a nurse was dealing with laid back nurses and drs in the larger hospital where he ended up being transfered to who didn't have a clue what was wrong with him and my being a "pain in the b***" got him the care he needed. The cardiac MD didn't know what was wrong with him, yet kept insisting I sign for a cardiac angiogram and I kept saying "no". Turns out, my son ended up with pnemonia and pericarditis. If I had signed for the angiogram, no telling what might have happened since the heart was already irritated. And yes, that nurses' daughter COULD have died or ended up with massive peritonitis and a bowel resection had thing not progressed as rapidly as they did. Sometimes we have to be the advocate for our family members as well when they become the patient!
I absolutely do respect the view from the other side of the ER gurney. My issue with this bird cage liner of an “article” is that the author decided to place all of the blame for all of the issues solely at the feet of the nurses. Not once did she question the system that exposed her daughter and her daughter’s nurse’s to the experience that led to her frustration. Not once did she question or even try to acknowledge other, far greater, forces at work that led up to what she experienced. Administrative and corporate decision. Decisions at the local, state and federal level. Societal issues. Political issues. All of those things have interplayed and conspired to create this huge mess healthcare is in right now.
Like a mafia cartel, Wall Street skims more and more money off the top of the health care pot. In her eyes, that is the nurse’s fault. People can’t afford health insurance so they abuse the ER and stretch it tighter and thinner, yet in her eyes, it’s the nurse’s fault. Administration can’t or won’t staff units appropriately, again, that is somehow the nurse’s fault. Our current herd of sell out politicians refuses to address, let alone tackle this issue on a realistic level and that is the nurse’s fault.
I can understand that perception from the average “Bubba’s” point of view who does not, nor is expected know any better. But for the love of God, SHE SHOULD KNOW BETTER!!! She is a nurse. Where are her critical thinking skills? What has her past experience taught her? She is a member of academia. What is this person teaching the next generation of nurses? She is allegedly one of our own and yet she ignorantly and callously throws all of us under the bus with her emotional, boohoo story and a blithe sense of entitlement chip on her shoulder! (Guess what sweetheart? EVERYONE in that ER was someone else’s son or daughter!!!)
Imagine a soldier blaming all of the troubles in Iraq on the ground troops. I suspect the grunts getting shot at on a daily basis would be as equally and as rightfully outraged.
| | No. 62 |
Apr 13, 2008, 06:03 PM
Re: Nurse sees worst, best of profession during daughter's ER visit Originally Posted by workingforskies I absolutely do respect the view from the other side of the ER gurney. My issue with this bird cage liner of an “article” is that the author decided to place all of the blame for all of the issues solely at the feet of the nurses. Not once did she question the system that exposed her daughter and her daughter’s nurse’s to the experience that led to her frustration. Not once did she question or even try to acknowledge other, far greater, forces at work that led up to what she experienced. Administrative and corporate decision. Decisions at the local, state and federal level. Societal issues. Political issues. All of those things have interplayed and conspired to create this huge mess healthcare is in right now.
Like a mafia cartel, Wall Street skims more and more money off the top of the health care pot. In her eyes, that is the nurse’s fault. People can’t afford health insurance so they abuse the ER and stretch it tighter and thinner, yet in her eyes, it’s the nurse’s fault. Administration can’t or won’t staff units appropriately, again, that is somehow the nurse’s fault. Our current herd of sell out politicians refuses to address, let alone tackle this issue on a realistic level and that is the nurse’s fault.
I can understand that perception from the average “Bubba’s” point of view who does not, nor is expected know any better. But for the love of God, SHE SHOULD KNOW BETTER!!! She is a nurse. Where are her critical thinking skills? What has her past experience taught her? She is a member of academia. What is this person teaching the next generation of nurses? She is allegedly one of our own and yet she ignorantly and callously throws all of us under the bus with her emotional, boohoo story and a blithe sense of entitlement chip on her shoulder! (Guess what sweetheart? EVERYONE in that ER was someone else’s son or daughter!!!)
Imagine a soldier blaming all of the troubles in Iraq on the ground troops. I suspect the grunts getting shot at on a daily basis would be as equally and as rightfully outraged.
Bravo  , sadly, academia is part of the problem. Really how can they understand when they have good pensions, weekends and holidays and evenings and nights off. If they want to schedule a vacation around a holiday no ones gives them a hard time, if they choose two weeks off together it is not a problem. A lot of times if there is a big snow storm classes are cancelled, even clinical on occasion. They also have lighter work loads in summer time when you and I are taking double assignments to make up for vacations. I will go easier on educators who work at the bedside but this woman is a PhD. They have a stake in perpetuating the present system and it shows.
| | No. 64 |
Apr 14, 2008, 03:03 AM
Re: Nurse sees worst, best of profession during daughter's ER visit
" I will go easier on educators who work at the bedside but this woman is a PhD. They have a stake in perpetuating the present system and it shows. "
Actually, according to the Cox College Web site,...Mrs. Madsen has ADN, BSN, MSN. She is an Assistant Professor. Not sure how long she actually worked as an RN before teaching,..or how long it has been since she was at the bedside. I'm still trying to find out if she teaches lecture only or is a clinical instructor. Either way,.I would think her coworkers at Cox College and Cox Hospital would be upset with her article.
| | No. 65 |
Apr 14, 2008, 05:06 PM
Re: Nurse sees worst, best of profession during daughter's ER visit
An assistant professor just means she isn't tenure yet (which at most places takes about 7 years). It also means that being a faculty member is her full time job. Though I am a full time faculty member, and still work as an NP about 20 hours a week.
I really think she is giving a bad name to nurses and nursing faculty at the same time. I certainly don't share hew views!
| | No. 66 |
Apr 14, 2008, 10:45 PM
Re: Nurse sees worst, best of profession during daughter's ER visit
I remember someone in nursing school teaching us that you must always remember that while it may be just another day to us, it may well be the worst day of that particular patients life, and treat them accordingly. I was recently a patient too, and rec'd very good care, but I've also been on the receiving end of some callous nursing, once with a laceration to my head that required stitches, and the nurse didn't even offer a washcloth to clean me up, and another time with my 6 yr old son with pneumonia, was told that I should just take him home, it was "just a fever", ended up in hospital on isolation and 2 IV antibiotics for 4 nights, all during 1st year finals.... wasn't offered much compassion.
| | No. 67 |
Apr 15, 2008, 04:45 AM
Re: Nurse sees worst, best of profession during daughter's ER visit
Well everyone....I know why writers like Karen Madsen get away with their comments. Nurses just don't react. I fully expected tons of comments and visits to the US News website with comments. Honestly, it's a poor showing.
Maybe I am more sensitive s/p another fantastic day(NOT!) in triage, but I am more sure than ever we are our own worst enemies! If the author does look at our website, it won't be too impressive.
Her message reached the world, ours didn't make a dent.
People need to step up, and stop being bystanders. Everyone who responded, "Thanks".
Maisy
| | No. 68 |
Apr 15, 2008, 06:27 AM
Re: Nurse sees worst, best of profession during daughter's ER visit Originally Posted by nurseinlimbo I remember someone in nursing school teaching us that you must always remember that while it may be just another day to us, it may well be the worst day of that particular patients life, and treat them accordingly. I was recently a patient too, and rec'd very good care, but I've also been on the receiving end of some callous nursing, once with a laceration to my head that required stitches, and the nurse didn't even offer a washcloth to clean me up, and another time with my 6 yr old son with pneumonia, was told that I should just take him home, it was "just a fever", ended up in hospital on isolation and 2 IV antibiotics for 4 nights, all during 1st year finals.... wasn't offered much compassion.
Oh good Lord! The author of the article used personal anecdotes to indict one group of professionals, (nurses), without even looking at what the real problem is just beyond her field of vision. It was posted on a major news site for the express purpose of creating an uninformed, knee-jerk reaction to her contrived sob story from people like you apparently.
Don’t you see the real issues beyond what she wrote about? Things like understaffing, ER overcrowding and inappropriate utilization, managerial ineptitude, administrative indifference, (either by incompetence, or more likely, by design), peoples unrealistic expectation of medicine in general, societal ignorance of the nursing role/function, (such as blaming the nurse for failure to diagnosis and treat which are MEDICAL roles as dictated by law I might add), corporate greed, utter and near complete impotence on a political level. Didn’t you see any of that?
As a nurse, I am truly sorry for that lady that her daughter had to wait so long in pain prior to being treated. As an ER nurse, I can’t tell you how many times I have been frustrated, far beyond my own tolerance level, by watching people in pain and not being able to do anything about it. It sucks being handcuffed by such a horrendous system we have. But the fact of the matter is that is our system. What she experienced was not the exception, unfortunately, it is the rule.
Are there uncaring, “soulless” nurses working in today’s ER’s? Of course there are. But to equate an inability to meet an individual’s expectation due to a bordering on fatally flawed system in which she is practicing in verses base indifference is just flat out ignorance. I work with and have worked absolutely stellar clinical nurses who I could see being perceived as uncaring to the untrained eye. But to those in the know, they are the ultimate conservators of emotional and intellectual energy. They may not have offered a head lac patient a wash cloth to wipe off the blood because they know the patient is well enough to do it on their own. But they are also the first ones there to get an impossible IV stick, they are able to mind and titrate 4 different IV drips, they are able to provide comfort to those at the true depths of sudden human sorrow and 2 minutes later, be the ultimate cheerleader for those in need of such valuable reinforcement.
These observations have been pointed out by myself and many other posters in this thread. Either you did not read them of you did not agree with them. Either way, in this nurses humble opinion, based on what you contributed, I seriously question your apparent lack of critical thinking skills.
| | No. 69 |
Apr 15, 2008, 06:31 AM
Re: Nurse sees worst, best of profession during daughter's ER visit Originally Posted by MAISY, RN-ER Well everyone....I know why writers like Karen Madsen get away with their comments. Nurses just don't react. I fully expected tons of comments and visits to the US News website with comments. Honestly, it's a poor showing.
Maybe I am more sensitive s/p another fantastic day(NOT!) in triage, but I am more sure than ever we are our own worst enemies! If the author does look at our website, it won't be too impressive.
Her message reached the world, ours didn't make a dent.
People need to step up, and stop being bystanders. Everyone who responded, "Thanks".
Maisy
I will admit that I did not post on the magazine web site. But I did send her a 4 page email. (Her addy BTW is: kmadsen@coxcollege.edu ) I will post what ever reply she decides to send.
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