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Pens and more pens!! Oh please, do not even get me started on that. When I find one that writes well, where the ink flows just right, and the grip is adequate, I try to lay claim on it. Trouble is, most of the time, it is not my own. So then the whole process starts again.

I find it ironic that the healthcare system is set up so that after the surgery is done and the patient leaves the OR, he or she starts competing with other patients for the attention and focus of the nurse, no matter what unit the patient is transferred to. A nurse who, mind you, would love to be able to do and say the same thing as the OR nurse: to be able to focus on one patient at a time without rushing from patient to patient and from room to room. At the Nurse Alliance of SEIU we will continue to fight for legislation that includes the current standards of one circulating OR nurse per room and incorporates safe staffing ratios in the rest of the units of the hospital.

Charting on COWs should be easier, user-friendly, and not take the nurse away from his or her patients even more!! In Florida, last hurricane season, with all the power outages, and generator failures, nurses had to resort to their own resources to get medicines and supplies b/c none of the computerized systems worked!! Oh, the wonders of technology! And where were the back-up plans and systems the facilities were supposed to have in place???

Can you expand on why the worst place to work is the med.ward? I have some idea but would love to read the reasons for your statement.

a great letter to the editor addressing the issues we have been mentioning at this site, and written by a bedside registered nurse was published on saturday, may 13th in knoxville, tn! read it at the following website: http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/perspectives/article/0,1406,kns_2797_4695416,00.html way to go, kay!!

Hi, Nurses across the nation! Happy Nurses' Week! Send an e-card to your fellow nurses from www.valuecarevaluenurses.org. I say if managers, administrators and the rest of the of the crowd out there is silent towards us, we take matters into our own hand. Let's recognize, apprecciate and thank nurses we know and work with, for their hard work, commitment, sacrifices, knowledge and expertise.

We have the solutions: safe staffing ratios no mandatory over-time no collusion among employers to set wages increased funding for nursing education and workforce development Research done by both economists and clinical researchers proves that patients' outcomes improve when RN staffing improves. Read all about it at www.nursealliance.org.

The coherent message will be that current working conditions at the bedside prevent nurses from providing the quality care the patients deserve. When we "triple" in ICU, the patients are at risk; when a med-surg nurse cares for 8 to 10 patients, the patients are at risk. Yet, when nurses excercise their professional judgement and challenge unsafe assignments, their professionalism is not taken into account and they are told to make do, if not something even more threatening. That is where the patient advocacy comes into the picture.

Thanks for the research and the information. Very helpful! I sent a letter to each of the contacts stating that our patients deserve a show that tells the story of the real nursing crisis and allows bedside nurses to fulfill our professional oath: to be a patient advocate. Anyone else????

I hope I am not reading you say that no nurse will step forward and tell it like it is! I know of several nurses that have not shied away from taking on the so called "big-guns". Nurses that testified at Congressional hearings, on radio, on TV, telling the story of bedside conditions and the choices healthcare corporations make that prevent us from delivering the quality care patients deserve. Nurses that have gone against Tenet at CON (Certificate of Need) hearings and won. Nurses that have spoken successfully at County hearings, warning against sale deals of community hospitals to large corporations. I know that the members of the Nurse Alliance of SEIU are always willing to tell the story, both in person and in writing.

Well said! To quote some of my favorite nurses: Marietta and Juanita from Miami: "My voice alone is just a whisper but with all of our voices together it will become a roar".

So, did you write to her about another Nurses Week coming up and why we need to address the serious crisis in healthcare that is gripping this nation?

I beg to disagree with some of your statements, my very dear savanah, though I feel your pain when you describe your turmoil! 1. I do not think that Oprah is not Prime time enough! She would not have gotten to where she is today were it not that so many people watch her show. She just did an exposé on the public school system that should have raised everybody's concern for where our children are going to end up: almost illiterate, reading way below the grade level and without the tools to defend themselves in this high-information society. All because of choices made by other than parents and educators!! But , if you have connections to Prime Time, 20/20 or any other show, I say: contact them and let us have the website so we can do it too! The more journalists that hear about what is happening to the frail, most at risk population, the higher the chances that one of them will be interested in taking this monster on. 2. The government just set minimum standards, like all laws. The facilities have the ability and the choice to improve upon those standards but choose not do so because the decision has been made that it is more important to provide higher revenues for the share holders and Board of Directors than it is to give good care to the patients (or residents in LTC). That is why at the Nurse Alliance of SEIU we have launched a campaign to hold healthcare organizations accountable for the choices they make that drive nurses away from the bedside. Read about it, the research that supports the solutions and participate in the conversation at: www.valuecarevaluenurses.org. All journeys begin with the first step(whoever said that). Are we willing to take it? Our patients and our profession deserve nothing less!

Done!! I sent the producer of Oprah's show an e-mail stating I thought they should do a show where bedside nurses can share their story with the public. Who is the next nurse that is going to send the same request? You know how this works, right? A lot of requests generates curiosity at the very least, and then the show will happen!!!

Can you give us all Oprah's website? That way by bombarding it with requests and stories we could see her response, and call the question on her.