Denver Weatherman Loses Job over Twitter Remarks about Nurses:

hawaiicarl, BSN, RN · May 4, 2019

I think his problem was generalizing the behaviors. Who among us hasn't seen all these millennials attached to their phones like it was un umbilical cord?

Cheers

(pssssst see what I did there? I generalized millennials, how many of you just nodded your head and agreed until you got to this sentence?)

**LibraSunCNM, BSN, MSN, CNM** · May 4, 2019

52 minutes ago, Ruby Vee said:
I understand that it's very difficult looking after a sick parent for years -- I've been there, and I've done that. I've even seen a few obvious mistakes. The difference is that instead of posting about it on Twitter (or Facebook or any other social media), I recognized that nurses and doctors are human and humans make mistakes. And I quietly set about getting my parent what they actually needed without being nasty or derogatory about the hospital staff that missed it.
An idiot that uses his professional Twitter account to lambast millions of people he has never met because a few members of that same profession were "mean to him" or didn't jump fast enough when he buzzed them has every right to exercise his free speech. He also has ever right to the consequences, whatever they may be. In the US, we don't throw him in a cell, torture him or shoot him at dawn. But there are still consequences. People may disagree with him; people may disagree in a strident and unfriendly way. And his employer may take exception to having their business suffer consequences for HIS free speech. They might take exception to the point of suspending or even firing him. Their business; they get that right.
Anyone with any sense doesn't expect to get away with using a public platform to cast aspersions on millions of people without any consequences. Sometimes you don't forsee those consequences before you open your mouth; sometimes you do and decide it's worth it to proceed anyway. The natural consequences of idiocy are not an infringement of your right to free speech.
When I was a brand new nurse mumble-mumble years ago, I had fifteen patients on a Med/Surg floor with a nursing assistant. Most places, staffing ratios have gotten better than that, but the patients are sicker now. Much sicker. In those days, people were admitted to the hospital with a diagnosis of "Work up Failure to Thrive". (W/U FTT) Those were patients capable of walking, talking, feeding and toileting themselves. Walking, talking, feeding and independently toileting patients are rare these days. Instead, you get the patient who transferred out of the ICU a day or so earlier than would have been ideal to make room for another post-op added to the surgery schedule without considering the bed situation. Or the 87 year old who suffered a stroke, has hemiplegia, dysphasia and dysphagia and who is now being monitored because she may be having an MI -- but there's a surgery for that because our society cannot accept the fact that octagenarians die and their is no cure for that. Or a patient who is about to be discharged but still needs education about his medications, when and how to check his blood sugar and by the way, the homeless shelter won't take him in unless he's there before 5 pm. Four or five of those patients, while numerically better than my 15 will tax your time management and prioritization skills to the utmost.
When the idiot local celebrity put on his mother's call light, he expected instant attention, quite possibly because he's on TV. He didn't expect to have to share the same limited resource, the nurse, with five or fifteen or twenty-five other people, each of whom also considers themself or their loved one to be a priority. He didn't expect that Mr. Sanitation Worker's chest pain or Ms. Receptionist's post-op hypotension might trump the Meteorologist's Mother's pillow fluffing, blanket or ice water request. Or that quite possibly someone's shortness of breath might be a bigger priority than the local celebrity's mother's chronic pain management issues. We all expect ourselves and our loved ones to be a first priority for our nurses. We cannot all get that at the same time. Being upset about that is normal. Taking it to Twitter on your employer's account is not.
Might I just add that our collective idea of what constitutes an actual apology has suffered since 2016, and I think that's a big loss to our society.

Beautifully stated. Inquiring minds want to know---what the heck is a workup for failure to thrive in an adult?

Ruby Vee, BSN · May 4, 2019

Just now, LibraSunCNM said:
Beautifully stated. Inquiring minds want to know---what the heck is a workup for failure to thrive in an adult?

Anything the R1 and the med student can talk the patient and the attending into.

Horseshoe, BSN, RN · May 4, 2019

Beautifully stated. Inquiring minds want to know---what the heck is a workup for failure to thrive in an adult?

Anything the R1 and the med student can talk the patient and the attending into.

Are those the people who go into the hospital for what newspapers always call "exhaustion"?

TriciaJ, RN · May 5, 2019

5 hours ago, Ruby Vee said:
Might I just add that our collective idea of what constitutes an actual apology has suffered since 2016, and I think that's a big loss to our society.

I was right with you until I got to this part. The passive voice non-apology has been around a fair bit longer than that.

Pambartow012806 · May 5, 2019

Yes his post is offensive to nurses...I get it. I dont like it, being a nurse myself. Him getting fired though, I do not agree with. He has the right to say what he wants.

Ruby Vee, BSN · May 5, 2019

1 hour ago, TriciaJ said:
I was right with you until I got to this part. The passive voice non-apology has been around a fair bit longer than that.

It's been around forever; it just wasn't as prominent.

Ruby Vee, BSN · May 5, 2019

27 minutes ago, Pambartow012806 said:
Yes his post is offensive to nurses...I get it. I dont like it, being a nurse myself. Him getting fired though, I do not agree with. He has the right to say what he wants.

Yup. He has the right to say what he wants -- we all have the right to say what we want. We don't get hauled off to jail, the government doesn't lock us up or execute us without a trial. But when he exercises his right to say what he wants, he doesn't get to do that without any consequences.

Try yelling "FIRE!" in a crowded nightclub or theater, "BOMB!" in an airport or "GUN!" at a police station. There are consequences. Spewing hateful speech on your employer's twitter account may be your right -- but the employer has a right to decide he doesn't speak for them and terminate his employment.

SmilingBluEyes · May 5, 2019

9 hours ago, Ruby Vee said:
I understand that it's very difficult looking after a sick parent for years -- I've been there, and I've done that. I've even seen a few obvious mistakes. The difference is that instead of posting about it on Twitter (or Facebook or any other social media), I recognized that nurses and doctors are human and humans make mistakes. And I quietly set about getting my parent what they actually needed without being nasty or derogatory about the hospital staff that missed it.
An idiot that uses his professional Twitter account to lambast millions of people he has never met because a few members of that same profession were "mean to him" or didn't jump fast enough when he buzzed them has every right to exercise his free speech. He also has ever right to the consequences, whatever they may be. In the US, we don't throw him in a cell, torture him or shoot him at dawn. But there are still consequences. People may disagree with him; people may disagree in a strident and unfriendly way. And his employer may take exception to having their business suffer consequences for HIS free speech. They might take exception to the point of suspending or even firing him. Their business; they get that right.
Anyone with any sense doesn't expect to get away with using a public platform to cast aspersions on millions of people without any consequences. Sometimes you don't forsee those consequences before you open your mouth; sometimes you do and decide it's worth it to proceed anyway. The natural consequences of idiocy are not an infringement of your right to free speech.
When I was a brand new nurse mumble-mumble years ago, I had fifteen patients on a Med/Surg floor with a nursing assistant. Most places, staffing ratios have gotten better than that, but the patients are sicker now. Much sicker. In those days, people were admitted to the hospital with a diagnosis of "Work up Failure to Thrive". (W/U FTT) Those were patients capable of walking, talking, feeding and toileting themselves. Walking, talking, feeding and independently toileting patients are rare these days. Instead, you get the patient who transferred out of the ICU a day or so earlier than would have been ideal to make room for another post-op added to the surgery schedule without considering the bed situation. Or the 87 year old who suffered a stroke, has hemiplegia, dysphasia and dysphagia and who is now being monitored because she may be having an MI -- but there's a surgery for that because our society cannot accept the fact that octagenarians die and their is no cure for that. Or a patient who is about to be discharged but still needs education about his medications, when and how to check his blood sugar and by the way, the homeless shelter won't take him in unless he's there before 5 pm. Four or five of those patients, while numerically better than my 15 will tax your time management and prioritization skills to the utmost.
When the idiot local celebrity put on his mother's call light, he expected instant attention, quite possibly because he's on TV. He didn't expect to have to share the same limited resource, the nurse, with five or fifteen or twenty-five other people, each of whom also considers themself or their loved one to be a priority. He didn't expect that Mr. Sanitation Worker's chest pain or Ms. Receptionist's post-op hypotension might trump the Meteorologist's Mother's pillow fluffing, blanket or ice water request. Or that quite possibly someone's shortness of breath might be a bigger priority than the local celebrity's mother's chronic pain management issues. We all expect ourselves and our loved ones to be a first priority for our nurses. We cannot all get that at the same time. Being upset about that is normal. Taking it to Twitter on your employer's account is not.
Might I just add that our collective idea of what constitutes an actual apology has suffered since 2016, and I think that's a big loss to our society.

Can I please like this 10000000000x? Well stated.

SmilingBluEyes · May 5, 2019

I think people look no further than our President, and the outrageous things he posts, and think they have the same right to do so.

Think what you want about President Trump like or hate, he is very un-presidential using Twitter like he does. And I think civil society is increasingly UN-civil.

The weatherman got what was coming to him.

Horseshoe, BSN, RN · May 5, 2019

10 hours ago, Pambartow012806 said:
Yes his post is offensive to nurses...I get it. I dont like it, being a nurse myself. Him getting fired though, I do not agree with. He has the right to say what he wants.

No one stopped him. He got to say exactly what he wanted to say.

Forest2 · May 6, 2019

On 5/4/2019 at 3:51 AM, TriciaJ said:
People do have the right to say what they want. He wasn't jailed for what he said. But that doesn't mean he gets to be consequence-free. His employer had the right to fire anyone who posed a threat to their bottom line.

I agree. I think people should be careful of their words. I wish he could have chance to apologize on air and make things right and keep his job. I think that would have been more just, but yes, they have the right to fire him. I wonder what kind of employee he was. Just thinking, we don't really know what goes on behind the scenes do we?