tgibson3770

How would we know the level of our own competency when we are prone to overlook our faults more easily than others? Would we seek further training or continue to bluff our way through it, hoping we don't screw up in a way that it will backfire? Would you eat crow to admit that you don't know something that you probably should.? Are you an incompetent nurse? Truthfully. Interesting article I picked up on the web. Are We Really Incompetent?(self-awareness and self-management in the health care industry) Healthcare Review, March 19, 2001, by Margaret J. Palmer Among the issues of conflict that pervade healthcare, one that stings considerably is the indictment of a person as incompetent. Nurses claim that physicians are incompetent and should not be practicing. Physicians claim that nurses are incompetent, a result of the shabby nursing educational systems currently in place. Both accusations are made openly and with certainty by the author. Are we really as incompetent as the accusations suggest? Quality improvement processes have become a normative standard in healthcare systems, allowing close scrutiny of providers' clinical acumen. If there really were cause to believe that gross incompetence has overtaken our healthcare delivery systems, quality teams would find and eliminate it. How can it be possible for such skillful effort demonstrated during a crisis to become incompetence during a lull in the activity? Is it possible that we have misdirected our responses to the changes demanded of us? Are we mature enough in our interpersonal skills that we can discriminate between real incompetence and our own underlying anger and frustration resulting from stressful work conditions? Blaming others for errors, poor communication, or lack of perfection has been a fairly common characteristic of the healthcare culture. Claims of incompetence are a serious matter in any industry; in healthcare, incompetence implies action that can result in serious consequences. Psychologists have named this phenomenon "horizontal violence" - the hostile action that is taken within a group of colleagues that shares a strong camaraderie. Physicians and nurses fall into this category. Because of the unique training each of these groups experiences, there is an imposed isolation that separates them from the other healthcare disciplines. A certain strength is gained by becoming a member of the nursing profession or becoming a physician, creating a strong bond surrounding the profession, giving it definition and uniqueness. This boundary embraces like-minded and similarly trained individuals who support each other, however it also creates a barrier that prevents anger and frustration from leaving the group. Group members soon realize that the only safe forum in which to be understood is within your own professional group. Finding resolution to difficult issues outside of one's group is often met with misunderstanding and confusion. Therefore, keeping within the group is efficient and becomes the natural place to seek counsel. As in a family, the familiarity and comfort that builds within a group encourages freedom of expression. A significant negative factor emerges, then, as your group receives the brunt of your frustration. The safety of one's professional group also supports the internally directed violence. Nurses fight among themselves, especially across departments and between shifts. Incompetence is often sighted as the reason charts are not completed correctly. Medication errors are assigned to incompetent nurses. - Physicians rarely describe each other as incompetent" due to its credentialing implication. But, the direction of incompetence from physician to nurse is common. Little understanding and tolerance exists between the two when situations unfold differently than expected. Many healthcare hours have been spent investigating incidents of alleged incompetence, often revealing a result quite different. Healthcare providers are adept at reducing interpersonal issues to clinical problems. This is done so regularly that clear, honest communication is a rarity. Therefore, incompetence might really be a cover for a relationship in need of assistance. This is not to suggest that incompetence does not exist. It does. In fact, we work diligently to remove it from all aspects of healthcare delivery. But, the common place occurrences between individuals and groups are likely to be based in weak interpersonal communication. The Remedy How do we shift ourselves from the willingness to write off others as incompetent to accepting responsibility for our professional behavior? The answer is simple, but the shift may require large doses of temperance, understanding, and introspection. A true willingness to become self-aware precedes any attempt we might make to behave more professionally. That which we so easily assign to others is likely to be the same issue that we present and, in fact, dislike about ourselves. Are we strong enough to do that introspection? Next issue: Self-Awareness-The Precursor to Self-Management. Margaret Palmer, PhD, is president of the Healthcare Management Consulting Group, a firm specializing in consultation with physician executives and managers regarding management issues, and with hospital administration regarding leadership development and problem-solving. Her practice includes e-consulting to physician executives and managers. COPYRIGHT 2001 Healthcare Review COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m0HSV/3_14/79788231/p1/article.jhtml?term=

Please Note: I do not agree with following article 100% due to the article proclaiming the benefit of drinking whole milk. Nonetheless, this article really depicts what is actually happening within the nursing profession. Not to flame. Just the facts. Does a healthy lifestyle pay off? Apr. 29, 2002 Provided by: CANOE Written by: Dr. Gifford-Jones Have you ever wondered how much benefit you gain from being good? Saying "no" to rich desserts you've enjoyed for years. Tossing away tobacco, too many martinis and other vices. After all, why give up these pleasures if the return is only marginal? Now a Harvard study answers this question. And the findings even shocked researchers. Dr. Meir Stampfer is Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition at The Harvard Medical School. He reports a huge study involving 84,129 women. It's called the "Nurses Health Study" in which researchers have followed the habits of these nurses for over 20 years. Stampfer confirms that a good lifestyle definitely reduces the risk of disease. But that's not earth-shaking news. We'd all have to be living in another world not to know that controlling weight is a prudent health move. That it's wise to avoid nicotine in the lungs, eat less fat and make exercise a lifelong habit. This study simply confirmed these previously known facts. So what is so special about this report? Earlier studies had shown the risk of heart disease if patients were only partly virtuous. This study shows what happens when they decide to be totally virtuous. And the cumulative effect surprised everyone. For instance, nurses who did all the right things were rewarded with a phenomenal decrease in coronary heart disease. They were 82% less likely to develop the nation's number one killer than those who were less virtuous. The report contains other surprises. One would have thought that nurses, of all people, would be prudent about health issues. After all, they've already demonstrated an interest in health by becoming nurses and are dedicated enough about good living to enroll in the study. But only a mere 3% of nurses were making all the right choices. And we know that this figure would be even lower for the general population. Where did nurses fall off the heart-health bandwagon? Dr. Stampfer reports they skidded off at every fork in the road. For instance, 25% of nurses smoked. A shockingly high number were obese. And exercise for many was placed on the back-burner. Stampfer says the study also shows nurses were eating enormous amounts of fat in fast foods. But even those nurses who thought they were eating healthy diets by cutting back on all sorts of fat were still going astray by believing that all fats were bad. For instance, most parents are unaware of the difference between the beneficial fats in milk and those in processed foods that can be harmful. The fat in milk contains 64 different fatty acids and many of these are only available in milk which is fresh, unrefined and unaltered by any manufacturing process. It is the preferred fat. It's also been shown that growing children need the fat in whole milk. Children experience rapid growth during the first few years of life. This makes them nutritionally vulnerable if they do not have sufficient dietary fat. It's also poorly understood that children need whole milk up to 18 years of age. Today, shoppers can choose from a large number of low fat products. But herein lies the trap. To make up for the lost fat something else must be added, and it's usually sugar. By choosing low fat products loaded with sugar, consumers are trading one evil for an even greater one. This report is great news for those people who have eliminated several questionable habits. But it's disconcerting that 97% of nurses have such a bad track record. Time and time again we see how easy it is to talk about healthy lifestyle. But it's not easy to convince people to follow it. At the moment, all the recent nutritional research hasn't made much impact on either nurses or the general population. North Americans have a long way to go to reach Nirvana. http://chealth.canoe.ca/columns.asp?columnistid=6&articleid=491

Intelligence in the making.

I see so many sour faced nurses no matter which facility I go into. Sure, there are many problems that face the profession of nursing each day. But is it fair to the patients to be in a depressed or dissatisfied state of mine? We chose this profession for good reasons I hope. I see many threads on this website that offer a heap of problems with the underlying theme, "We are getting screwed!." With a pessimistic attitude how can any change come about? Let us remain positive despite many incidents of poor treatment of nursing. Let us pull out the positives in this profession and make a change. Our patients deserve this. Let us refuse nothing less than the God-given right to be content and happy. Let us become a harmonious voice spreading good news among our co-workers and supportive of our staff administration. Let us admit our faults and move on. Life is too short to piss it away on a measure of unhappiness.

Your sense of smell has seemingly been impaired. Big fat troll? Sounds like your watching too many scifi movies. Nope. Sorry to disappoint you Ms. Navynurse. By the way, cheers for those that represent the great US of A. I wish to exclaim that many Americans are living in self denial in many facets and we are indoctrinated with half truths from the general media. They tell us what they want us to hear and omit the rest. I served in the military in the Gulf War era and the discrepencies were vastly different then what actually took place. Take this same scenario into homeland issues and what do you get? Misinformation. I am saddened by the loss of human life and wish not to exploit human tragedy in a disrespectful way. But my post was aimed to put our minds to question the validity of media reportings. Question at hand. I know that there are many of you that are facing firsthand the influenza outbreak of 2003. But take away all of the glitter and glamour of media spotlight and really evaluate and assess the reality of it all. It isn't as bad as it may seem. Clinics and healthcare facilities need to get so many patients in a year to gain GOVERNMENT healthcare subsidies. So always at the end of each year, the media spotlights a "new" viral strain to beef up healthcare usage. Sounds a little like a conspiracy theory, but year after year it proves itself time and time again. In my own defense.

I find this to be a very tantalizing subject. No pun intended.

Thousands line up in clinics all over the nation. Reported deaths weekly as reported in media. What is this all about? It seems every year we have the virus of the year award handed out to some waitlist virus. What will be the next virus? Everyone place their bets. Perhaps it is those wintertime blues setting in to ensure that the health care industry meets their annum quota to be able to pay off the incurred debt of 1996.

No veganism isn't a cureall. But I firmly believ we should detoxify and cleanse our bodies a minimal two times a year. This can be achieved by fasting and eat raw fruits and veggies for 2-4 weeks at a time. With this in mind, the cravings for 'bad' foods normally discontinue after the toxins leave the body.

Beautiful and expensive. If you want to splurge, go for it. You can scale down quite a bit and yet achieve the same results in my opinion. You won't be in your room much anyway if you want to explore the sights. Almost forgot, honeymoon. Scale down to cheaper accomodations and stay a few days longer. But you will not be dissapointed in the Moon Palace. http://moonpalace.hotels-cancun.com/

And you call Club Med budget? I think not. Mega bucks. Cancun is usually the cheapest winter and summer destination provided you don't lavish yourself within a 4/5 star property. Cancun is now a commercial entreprise consisting of a zillion resorts loaded down with college students and those who dropped out of college all together for one festive party that never ends. Many South American go there as well and they have sure got the P in party down PAT. Lordy lordy. Go have fun!

It's around, lurking under a rock waiting for discovery again. No really, SARS is still active in certain parts. Just don't hear about it too much. Influenza, AKA. Flu is the news of the hour.

Best advice I've heard in a long while!

WOW! A real life walking dictionary. I'm impressed!

Perhaps we can convince Mr Dean to recruit the OP as the VP running mate.

What the OP stated doesn't sound anything like a boil. Forget the expense factor. I'd recommend going to 24 hour clinic.