Let's call Oprah

twotrees2 · Apr 20, 2006

I think it is appropriate to have nurses on a forum on national television in primetime. Not the nurses the administrators would choose, but a few well-spoken nurses, who are not afraid to speak openly and honestly about nursing! While I am all for teachers and value them, I am sick to death of hearing their praises, the money and pension they receive for their jobs and the value others place on them. I am not sorry to say my main concern is money. What other job do you know of that requires one to be exposed to abuse from patients and/or their families, exposure to deadly and infectious diseases, mandation of overtime, continuing education, etc, while maxing out on their salaries in five years, maybe having a 1-3% payraise based on subjectivity by one's supervisor? Toss in the fact if a patient and/or family has a complaint about a nurse or his/her performance, the nurse is always presumed to be guilty. He or she is also the last one to know. Secretive meetings are held without the nurses knowledge while superviors "gather the facts." I have not had this happen to me personally, but have witnessed it on a number of occasions in my >20 years of critical care nursing. I could go on and on! So if we want a forum to discuss our problems, does anyone have an opinion on how to start? While I do not agree with everything she writes, Suzanne Gordon would be a good jumping off point.

it isnt the fact of what money we make ( or dont make lol) its the lack of care - adequate care we are able to give which boils down to this - it isnt US at all - its the resident / patient - they need to do more undercover stories like theone i described and get a patienst point of veiw to be able to see what we have to goi through - we can whine all we want it wont do no good - its the patients that need to be speaking up - but that is even difficult - i have encouraged a many folks who complain to me abot other nurses ( that i go repprt but they do nothingcause its nurse against nurse ) they figure its personality conflict and patients are afraid to make waves that it may only get worse for them. my humble opinion only. hugs

homenurse12 · Apr 22, 2006

I wrote Dateline a few months back and asked them to do a show on the real nursing shortage. I explained that it can't just be nurses in NY and LA and it could not just be hospital nurses. We need to look at how badly all nurses are being treated. I know I have been over and over again. I love my patients but find it hard to stay employed at any one job for over a year or two because managements are so cruel. I don't think most nurses want to leave the profession, but are tired of being treated badly. Maybe we all need to write to all of these netwok news shows. If they get enough e-mails, they might take an interest.

James Huffman · Apr 22, 2006

From a long time of activism on various counts, some suggestions about contacting people (Oprah, government officials, or whomever):

1. Don't use email. It gets lost in the shuffle. Count on it. People in the news get thousands and thousands of emails, and a large part of them are likely just discarded.

2. Make phone calls. To continue the Oprah example, call the show's producers, and suggest that you have a show idea, and ask whom you should speak to. Get that person. Explain what you have in mind. Phone calls show that you have a certain amount of guts (you have to talk to a real, live person) and it gets the attention of the individual. And no one does it. So when you do it, they notice.

3. If you need to send a letter, fax it. At least there is a physical copy to deal with, unlike an email.

4. If you really want to get someone's attention, send an overnight package, and pay to require the individual to sign for the package. This is not an inexpensive option, but it DOES get attention. (What do you think when you get a Fedex package?)

Jim Huffman, RN

MissPiggy · Apr 23, 2006

From a long time of activism on various counts, some suggestions about contacting people (Oprah, government officials, or whomever):
1. Don't use email. It gets lost in the shuffle. Count on it. People in the news get thousands and thousands of emails, and a large part of them are likely just discarded.
2. Make phone calls. To continue the Oprah example, call the show's producers, and suggest that you have a show idea, and ask whom you should speak to. Get that person. Explain what you have in mind. Phone calls show that you have a certain amount of guts (you have to talk to a real, live person) and it gets the attention of the individual. And no one does it. So when you do it, they notice.
3. If you need to send a letter, fax it. At least there is a physical copy to deal with, unlike an email.
4. If you really want to get someone's attention, send an overnight package, and pay to require the individual to sign for the package. This is not an inexpensive option, but it DOES get attention. (What do you think when you get a Fedex package?)
Jim Huffman, RN

What you have to say is great, Jim, but I'd like to add something to that, and that is that there are some of us who are planning on getting out of nursing ASAP. For those of us who would be willing, WE are the ones who should speak up as soon as we are away from it so that we will no longer be subjected to the fallout and neither would those who stay in the field, as they'd be the innocent bystanders... Any other ideas? If interested, feel free to PM me anytime.

meownsmile, BSN, RN · Apr 23, 2006

Good idea--the 12 hr shifts--then the challenge becomes this: How many areas (and what kind) of nursing should be videoed???? No doubt should have some hospital(pediatric, ER, med-surg) and LTC represented, but in the long run there will be some nurses feeling that their specialty areas were not well-represented(if at all). I think 20/20 or 60 Minutes would be better options to explore the nursing issues.

Primetime just did an expose on blended families where hours upon hours of video were taken. Of course it was edited and compressed into a 2 hour show, but it got the point across.

This same problem (in discussion) spans nursing as a whole so it wouldnt make a whole lot of difference what departments were taped. Im sure each have their own fair share of problems with staffing and ratios and equipment as well as difficulties with ancillary staff and doctors.

PANurseRN1 · Apr 23, 2006

Primetime just did an expose on blended families where hours upon hours of video were taken. Of course it was edited and compressed into a 2 hour show, but it got the point across.
This same problem (in discussion) spans nursing as a whole so it wouldnt make a whole lot of difference what departments were taped. Im sure each have their own fair share of problems with staffing and ratios and equipment as well as difficulties with ancillary staff and doctors.

OT, but I saw that...that was sickening! I felt so sorry for that poor girl. She had her share of blame, but the other two were adults (supposedly).

SharonH, RN · Apr 23, 2006

Well if you guys are really interested in doing something, we can certainly do it. Nurses' week is coming up the first week of May and perhaps we can all write letters to the editors of our local newspapers and also to national newspapers like USA Today. If they received just 100 letters on the same subject within a couple of days time span, that would certainly make them sit up and take notice. But it would take a lot of people to do it all at once, to get any attention. And to add on to what James wrote, for those who need a less expensive option, we could all send out letters in a red envelope or something like that to get attention. These are just a few ideas certainly open to other suggestions.

I think all letters should have a few things in common:

1. We should use nurses' day as a starting point or reference to discuss work conditions and the nursing shortage.

2. All letters and/or emails should mention that our main concern is the impact that the shortage has on patient care.

3. If you agree, then you should definitely make note that it is poor working conditions that are driving nurses away from the bedside. It's very frustrating to me that all articles on the shortage tend to focus on retiring nurses and the difficulty getting into nursing school.

4. Try to quote statistics and studies to back up your points if you can, such as the one by Dr. Linda Aiken which showed that higher nurse patient ratios lead to patient deaths.

5. Finally, you should suggest what you think would be a solution whether you think we should focus on unions or higher pay or mandatory nurse-patient ratios; otherwise it will sound like so much whining.

Any takers? The more the merrier. Imagine if the newspapers are flooded with thousands of letters, that would really showcase the power of this forum.

TsunamiKim · Apr 23, 2006

i would be more than happy to make several trans-atlantic phone calls to grab the attention of the right people in the us media. this is not as expensive as it sounds believe me as i have no spare cash available to me anymore. while i was forced to leave the us due to the hardship of loosing my home after wrongful termination from my job for blowing the whistle on hospital negligence i am still actively campaigning to correct this matter. if i can find out how to get access to the right contact info i will do this on behalf of the nurses left stranded in your us for-profit healthcare system that certainly knows how to silence dissenters. my career has been virtually scuttled by the powerful hospital that demonized me, but i really have nothing left to loose anymore. with the tenacity of a cornered rat or that famous symbol of dogged determination, the british bulldog, i will simply not give up and go away, ever!

i believe that my case was a truly shocking example of ignored negligence, inhumane working conditions and serious abuse of power. however, all of this is also very easily proven to be true under the right scrutiny, hence the petition i will be posting soon. the links in this petition, while slowing things down right now, will prove a valuable resource to you all as this struggle goes forward. i found numerous articles on the real reasons behind the “nursing crisis,” the patient to nurse ratio, the harmful affects of fatigue and how these factors contribute to medical errors. i cannot jump the gun and post this yet, but i can send a draft copy containing the links to anyone who contacts me through my message box.

as tedious as the delays are i must also time this carefully with a well organized press release. i have found a means to disseminate this press release effectively and affordably using a site called pr free. the site is at: https://www.prfree.com/contact.html . for a small donation they will enhance my submission’s access to the media and this is probably a worthwhile investment for anyone considering opting for a press release. even something as trivial as paying a quite small donation has to rely on the help of my us friends as i lost all access to credit during my futile attempts to hang on to my baltimore home. this ongoing reminder that i will never be creditworthy again is a humiliating nuisance, but will not deter me for very long. we need to seriously think about getting more media attention focused on nursing issues. i am good at pr, but my personal resources are really restricted by the above circumstances. another link of mine goes to a workplace fairness site and they have media lists for sending out a press release option as well at: http://capwiz.com/workfair/dbq/media/

when i worked at the most prestigious hospital in maryland i spoke up on behalf of nurses when i first saw them exiting our or in droves. first their “vacation time” and “sick bank time” was rolled into one cutting their overall access to time off by over one week a year for most nurses. then there was the introduction of the “occurrence policy” that made it a disciplinary offence to call in sick more that three times a year! these little incentives to quit got rid of the more discerning older nurses and increased the call burden on those left behind. no one had a right to a life outside work: there was more call, mandated overtime and, well you all know the story.

surgical techs. were impacted by the nursing shortage too, lack of knowledgeable tenure nurses to support us in surgery plus we shared the increased call and schedule coverage burden. however, the worst organizational changes targeted nurses so my comments could never have been misconstrued as self–serving since i was not a nurse. i went to the then director of surgical nursing and said we cannot afford to loose this many of our most experienced nurses, we have a “nurse exodus” right now. she said: “oh this just happens every once in a while.” the reality of it is that it works really well for them, so they just make it happen every once in a while. we are seeing it all over the us: a toxic work environment drives out the most experienced nurses. at my former hospital the new nurse grads were paid only fractionally more than us as or techs, but they were lining up to take the place of experienced tenure nurses. with the best teaching nurses gone, they took on too much responsibility just barely out of training, but they were ready to make major compromises to earn their reputation at the “best hospital in america.”

now my former hospital has earned the designation of a “magnate” nursing institution, but i doubt that the basic work environment has changed. new nurses are not “magnetized” to that hospital because of the excellent pay or exemplary working conditions of the most prestigious teaching institution in the country, they are thinking about how good it will look on their resume if they can just put up with the supper demanding bs and stick with their really tough or job. the surgical department is still dominated by the same or management team that left me stranded in surgery continuously without a break for 8-10 and 12 hours. just one month after i left, for some mysterious reason, they felt compelled to start calling in their call team to stand by for trauma as required under comar. this same group of corrupt managers who retaliated against me for daring to complain about inhumane treatment and their inadequate trauma coverage, even lied under oath at my arbitration hearing to secure my dismissal. corrupt is corrupt: if they will cross the line once they will not hesitate to do it again in the future: they need to be removed! i am not trying to be vindictive here or seek revenge. simply put: all employees must be subject to exactly the same level of discipline for patient negligence and misconduct, from the top manager to the person mopping the floor.

i have always remained very vocal on behalf of the nursing cause and you may be surprised to learn that i am not actually a nurse. i have to admit that, unfair as it may seem, i have enjoyed better clinical opportunities by avoiding the nursing license. at my first hospital techs started most of the ivs, drew blood, inserted ng tubes, fowleys etc. while nurses were tied up with medical legal documentation. at my last hospital the circulators in the or were constantly running for supplies that should have been retrieved by ornas. they were pestered by surgeons beepers that should have been left with secretarial staff at the main desk. once again i was deterred by the copious amount of paperwork and lack of opportunities to scrub into surgical cases as a nurse. not very fair perhaps as i was essentially working under someone else’s license as a tech. i had had more than enough responsibility when i captained yachts on trans-atlantic delivery crossings, so it was not like i didn’t take responsibility for people’s lives very seriously. however, responsibility and accountability must come with some degree of control. in a previous post i elaborated upon this as my main reason for the decision not to become a nurse and i will reiterate the point here:

rns are saddled with the full accountability associated with working under their license, but without sufficient authority to insure that the patient environment is genuinely safe. responsibility without appropriate control is the real downfall of the nursing profession today; as a yacht captain offshore it was my license, my responsibility, but under my command. for this reason i have never elected to become a nurse, but believe me it's no disrespect to this noble profession, far from it. i also believe that us nurses are greatly undervalued and appallingly misused; their talents are frequently squandered and they are forced to tolerate serious disrespect on a daily basis. assistive personnel should have taken over some of the more mundane routine tasks, thus freeing up experienced nurses to concentrate on more important patient care issues. instead they are assigned another mindless drudgery task, filling out excessive paperwork! ambulance crew’s have reduced paperwork with well designed forms. hospitals should revamp nursing forms to place more emphasis on computerized data entry and leave more time for direct patient care.

before entering conventional medical institutions i was especially well attuned and sensitive to the problems of fatigue; i was at sea for over twenty years delivering yachts offshore. as a us coast guard licensed captain i was responsible for the welfare of my crew while at sea; ensuring that they did not become sick, exhausted and fatigued was a top priority. as a captain it is necessary to watch your crew like a hawk to spot tell tale signs of any potential medical situation long before they come to you for assistance. mid-ocean evacuation by helicopter is expensive, dangerous and sometimes impossible; it was my job to make sure those on board stayed fit. a captain can choose who is qualified to sail with them, who is fit and rested enough to stand a night watch and how many people it takes to man the vessel. in the majority of cases this level of control is denied to nurses even when they are assigned as the charge nurse. we trust nurses to recognize critical trends in their patient’s vital signs, but we deny their instincts with regard to their own basic needs and fitness for duty. this is disrespectful and, all too frequently, downright dangerous; nurses know when they need to eat, drink and rest. they also know when they should call in sick and not come in to work caring for vulnerable patients! however, if a mistake is caused by under staffing, untrained assistive personnel or fatigue, will the hospital managers who created this appalling situation be held accountable? i doubt it.

i know that i have not raced ahead of myself in considering drawing media attention to my own situation. i went up the chain of command first: it got me fired. i trusted in the integrity of the hr process: they cheated, lied and suppressed documents to help rubber stamp my removal. i appealed to the hospital’s internal compliance line to protect me from retaliation and investigate the negligence issues: they refused to protect me and only vowed to “keep an eye on” the negligence issues. i went through an eeoc mediation: eeoc was shown paperwork i was denied access to. i asked the maryland commission on human relations to investigate: they were shown fabricated rule violations that did not exist when i was fired. i appealed to the maryland trauma agency meimss: i was told that the alleged comar violations, “did not specifically endanger trauma patients.” i appealed to the maryland board of nursing, jcaho and the board of healthcare quality all of whom buckled under the power of maryland’s biggest employer. i attended an arbitration hearing that i was not informed would be binding: the top or nurse manager in that hospital deliberately lied under oath to victimize her subordinate and permanently remove me from my job.

it has now been over five years of patiently wading through the correct procedures in the right order and being denied justice time and time again. during that time i have even had access to the press, but determined to wait for justice to take its course i remained silent about my wrongful termination; misplaced loyalty and faith in a corrupt system. i became quite adept at getting good press coverage for an unrelated cause, even scoring a cover story in the city paper, but still i said nothing about my lying, cheating, negligent hospital. this should prove my personal integrity beyond any doubt, but no more mr. nice guy: i am turning to the press for justice now. the most powerful thing in favor of forcing real changes is the sheer might of that prestigious institution: they simply cannot afford bad press. this is a big bargaining chip that we can use to persuade them to institute changes that will reverberate throughout the entire healthcare industry. this is a very realistic possibility and it is what drives me at this late stage. i have no hope of financial compensation, but i need to know that the appalling personal sacrifices i was forced to endure, like the loss of my home as i was driven into debt, were not in vain. as for opera she is more than a little familiar with baltimore city as this was where she got one of her first big career breaks. we need to consider formulating an advocacy group and i put my ideas on this subject into another previous post:

i have sent "citizen opinion" letters to my us senators and congressman plus i am considering launching a new advocacy group i call "team" rather than targeting any particular medical institution or hospital, i would like to create an advocacy group that really helps level the playing field with regard to all medical facilities, but paying especial attention to "iconic" institutions to insure that they do not receive special immunity from scrutiny as they did in my case

transparency for equal accountability in medicine : t.e.a.m.

not another "support group," but the " t.e.a.m." advocacy group?"

it would take good solid support from nurses to head this up and, being the other side of the atlantic, i might have little input beyond launching an idea, but i think it is very necessary. any ideas or input please let me know. if you have waded through all this, i must apologies for its length, thank you for bearing with me,

fair winds & following seas, tsunami kim.

tlcprn2u · Apr 23, 2006

Well if you guys are really interested in doing something, we can certainly do it. Nurses' week is coming up the first week of May and perhaps we can all write letters to the editors of our local newspapers and also to national newspapers like USA Today. If they received just 100 letters on the same subject within a couple of days time span, that would certainly make them sit up and take notice. But it would take a lot of people to do it all at once, to get any attention. And to add on to what James wrote, for those who need a less expensive option, we could all send out letters in a red envelope or something like that to get attention. These are just a few ideas certainly open to other suggestions.
I think all letters should have a few things in common:
1. We should use nurses' day as a starting point or reference to discuss work conditions and the nursing shortage.
2. All letters and/or emails should mention that our main concern is the impact that the shortage has on patient care.
3. If you agree, then you should definitely make note that it is poor working conditions that are driving nurses away from the bedside. It's very frustrating to me that all articles on the shortage tend to focus on retiring nurses and the difficulty getting into nursing school.
4. Try to quote statistics and studies to back up your points if you can, such as the one by Dr. Linda Aiken which showed that higher nurse patient ratios lead to patient deaths.
5. Finally, you should suggest what you think would be a solution whether you think we should focus on unions or higher pay or mandatory nurse-patient ratios; otherwise it will sound like so much whining.
Any takers? The more the merrier. Imagine if the newspapers are flooded with thousands of letters, that would really showcase the power of this forum.

:balloons:

I am totally on board. I just attended the Nurse Alliance of Colorado Conference in Denver, where Diana Mason, RN and the Chief Editor of the American Journal of Nursing was the principal speaker. She talked about the same points.

1. Utilize research. It is out there so it cannot be denied nor do we have to rely on "common sense" or "intuition"(though both were proven right by the researchers): Linda Aiken, Jack Needleman, Peter Buerhaus, Institute for Women's Policy Research. To dowload the actual documents, visit www.nursealliancefl.org. and www.valuecarevaluenurses.org.

2. Enlist your co-workers and other Registered Nurses you know to write to the editor of your local newspaper. One letter is one voice, 10 becomes louder, and so forth. Nobody can do this alone.

3. A personal story as to how current conditions at the workplace prevent us from delivering the quality of care that our patients deserve resonates much more than just research. Hundreds of nurses are telling their stories on www.nurseblog.org.

4. Visit your elected officials in their offices, write an e-mail, fax in a letter or call your legislators on the phone and let them know what is going on. Elected officials are lonely! They only get to hear from lobbyists, not from their constituents. They love to hear from us, the people who elected them! If they receive 10 calls/letters/faxes/e-mails about the same subject, it raises said subject to the top forefront of their attention. And if it does not, guess what? We can vote them out next time!!

5. Suggest a concrete solution(good will and kindness are not tangible and difficult to enforce). Every day, with every patient and their families, nurses are creating care plans that are exactly that: concrete solutions to improve the patient's health. Using the nursing process, we can assess a problem, find a nursing diagnosis in which it fits, create a plan, design different implementations, and evaluate.

All right!!! We can and we will do this!!! All over the nation, nurses are going to implement these steps and this will be a Nurses' Week to remember!!!!:balloons:

SharonH, RN · Apr 23, 2006

:balloons:
I am totally on board. I just attended the Nurse Alliance of Colorado Conference in Denver, where Diana Mason, RN and the Chief Editor of the American Journal of Nursing was the principal speaker. She talked about the same points.
All right!!! We can and we will do this!!! All over the nation, nurses are going to implement these steps and this will be a Nurses' Week to remember!!!!:balloons:

Alrightey then, that's two of us. Anyone else? chop-chop ladies and gents, time's a wasting.

smk1, LPN · Apr 24, 2006

This should be a sticky for awhile, because i think lots more would be interested in doing something like this for nurses day, but may not be looking at the thread...

joejoe101 · Apr 24, 2006

On Oprah's website she has a spot to suggest topic for shows. I actually suggested that she do a show about nurses about 6 months or less ago. Maybe if more people went to Oprah's website and suggested it, we may get a response? :idea: It's worth a try anyway, maybe we could be on a Oprah's favorite things show!!! :lol2: