A non-nurse who gets what nurses are about.

[3rdcareerRN]

This person (who happens to run some completely awesome websites on healthcare informatics) gets what hospital nursing is about:

"If you are a nurse, happy National Nurses Week, which started Thursday (happy birthday, Florence Nightingale!) I love nurses (literally, since I married one), so here's a shout-out to the one group of professionals (both male and female) that hospitals can't run without. I wrote this in 2003 in their honor, obviously from a community hospital perspective since I was working at one of those instead of an academic medical center at the time:

The only critical people involved in patient care are nurses ... My experience is that 80% of patient care is directly influenced by nurses, often via skillfully planted recommendations that allow doctors to believe they thought of it themselves. Your patient satisfaction surveys are almost purely driven by the quality and compassion of your nurses. So is your level of patient safety. Nurses clean up the vomit, hug the babies, keep doctors from killing patients, give the drugs, do the Code Blues, and comfort the families. All the rest of us are hangers-on who look like deer in the headlights on the rare occasions when we stray into an actual patient care area where human triumph or tragedy is unfolding with a nurse at its center ... Not too long ago, a hospital was basically a clean building in a peaceful setting (!) where patients could rest and mend. That and nurses were about all anyone needed. Hospital work was charity. No MBAs, no arrogant doctors, no government red tape, no formulary of 5,000 drugs, and no cadre of specialists making large salaries to do small tasks. Oh, and by the way, no computers either. You know what? Life expectancy wasn't that much different (if you exclude the benefits of vaccinations and reduced infant mortality.) Costs were a lot lower. No one got rich in healthcare. Without all the research, the computerization, the fancy architecture, and the lack of John Wayne "I will not let this patient die" heroics, things weren't really all that much worse when it came to living and dying. If I'm sick, keep the CEO, CIO, PFS manager, and risk manager out of my room and give me the best nurses you have. When you get right down to it, a hospital is still a clean building with nurses. Everyone else is supporting cast, even if their salaries make them believe differently."

from http://histalk2.com/

We appreciate it - Rock on, Mr. Histalk, whomever you are!

[GM2RN]

This person (who happens to run some completely awesome websites on healthcare informatics) gets what hospital nursing is about:

"If you are a nurse, happy National Nurses Week, which started Thursday (happy birthday, Florence Nightingale!) I love nurses (literally, since I married one), so here's a shout-out to the one group of professionals (both male and female) that hospitals can't run without. I wrote this in 2003 in their honor, obviously from a community hospital perspective since I was working at one of those instead of an academic medical center at the time:

The only critical people involved in patient care are nurses ... My experience is that 80% of patient care is directly influenced by nurses, often via skillfully planted recommendations that allow doctors to believe they thought of it themselves. Your patient satisfaction surveys are almost purely driven by the quality and compassion of your nurses. So is your level of patient safety. Nurses clean up the vomit, hug the babies, keep doctors from killing patients, give the drugs, do the Code Blues, and comfort the families. All the rest of us are hangers-on who look like deer in the headlights on the rare occasions when we stray into an actual patient care area where human triumph or tragedy is unfolding with a nurse at its center ... Not too long ago, a hospital was basically a clean building in a peaceful setting (!) where patients could rest and mend. That and nurses were about all anyone needed. Hospital work was charity. No MBAs, no arrogant doctors, no government red tape, no formulary of 5,000 drugs, and no cadre of specialists making large salaries to do small tasks. Oh, and by the way, no computers either. You know what? Life expectancy wasn't that much different (if you exclude the benefits of vaccinations and reduced infant mortality.) Costs were a lot lower. No one got rich in healthcare. Without all the research, the computerization, the fancy architecture, and the lack of John Wayne "I will not let this patient die" heroics, things weren't really all that much worse when it came to living and dying. If I'm sick, keep the CEO, CIO, PFS manager, and risk manager out of my room and give me the best nurses you have. When you get right down to it, a hospital is still a clean building with nurses. Everyone else is supporting cast, even if their salaries make them believe differently."

from http://histalk2.com/

We appreciate it - Rock on, Mr. Histalk, whomever you are!

[oramar]

I like this guy.

[dudette10, MSN, RN]

Why did the author reduce other members of the healthcare team to "deer in the headlights" in order to elevate the role of nurses? While this might be a feel-good piece, the way he went about it sort of sucks.

[GilaRRT]

Why did the author reduce other members of the healthcare team to "deer in the headlights" in order to elevate the role of nurses? While this might be a feel-good piece, the way he went about it sort of sucks.

Agreed, many people make the world of medicine go round. To marginalise their role with overinflated self importance does little to promote the positive aspects of nursing. He seems to forget that that the hospital of the past was not a nice, clean, comfortable place where people would relax in harmony as all their ailments were cured by nothing more than compassionate nursing care.

I am all about promoting nursing; however, when we go overboard with self importance, it begins to look ugly. I appreciate the guys passion, but the execution is a fail.

[lucylu 777]

It is writen by someone who is not providing bed side care. Nurses do it all? - Please, only if they don't have the CNA working with them, than they have to. How about a shout out to all the CNA's,PCT's and whatever you call them, for their hard work, cleaning the vomit, changing the dipers, doing the most menial work in the hospital, so the nurse have an adequate time to pass the meds?!!!!!!!

[annacnatorn]

it is writen by someone who is not providing bed side care. nurses do it all? - please, only if they don't have the cna working with them, than they have to. how about a shout out to all the cna's,pct's and whatever you call them, for their hard work, cleaning the vomit, changing the dipers, doing the most menial work in the hospital, so the nurse have an adequate time to pass the meds?!!!!!!!

i could not agree with you more!:redbeathe:yeah::yeah:

[annacnatorn]

Lets not forget all the other people who make the Hospital work...from the Ground up! Janitorial, kitchen, laundry, housekeeping, techs , radiology, central suppliers...etc the list goes on and on...KUDOS to all of you. With out you, I could not do the job that I have!

[morte, LPN, LVN]

Oh.Good.Grief. just enjoy the complement.....remember he/she is married to a nurse.

[Muffy5]

"All the rest of us are hangers-on who look like deer in the headlights on the rare occasions when we stray into an actual patient care area where human triumph or tragedy is unfolding with a nurse at its center."

I don't think that the OP had the intent of offending anyone, but was rather, pointing out the obvious discomfort in certain situations. In those situations, often times you hear, "I will go get your nurse." After all as it states, US hangers-on. They are actually writing about them selves. I often hear nurses say that we do not get the credit we deserve, here someone is trying to give it to us, and we attack their post. I agree with the person who said just enjoy the compliment and don't over analyze things so much.

Happy nurses week:nurse:

[Orca, ADN, ASN, RN]

Given the perspective of the writer, I take this piece as a supreme compliment. I'm not going to dissect everything that was said and how it was put.

[cherrybreeze, ADN, RN]

Given the perspective of the writer, I take this piece as a supreme compliment. I'm not going to dissect everything that was said and how it was put.

Agreed. I am not about to pick apart something that was written to complement the jobs that we nurses do. We DO do all of those things that he mentioned, so to us! That is ALL.