alaskabound

wow... now i know what to do in this situation. or what I THINK i would do, IF this situation was to ever happen to me. I would go to the nursing super WITH other nurses by my side to see if that could help. Thank you so much for writting such a beautiful, helpful article. You have turned someone's SCAR into a STAR for MANY nurses. Look at ALL THE THANK YOUS!?!?!? That woman's passage may have made it so others who want the same may have that chance through better educated and understanding nurses because we read your article! Maybe this was how it was SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN! Her hubby and herself may have saved several others from this terrible passage into the next realm by they themselves suffering the outcome... Of course, who in the heck am I to say how anything is SUPPOSED to happen! I wasnt the nurse whose heart broke! I was just trying to find the reason for yours, hers, and subsequently our, heartbreak.

why are they here to stay?:typing

where is prov and reg interior? islands? as you can tell by my name, we are planning on moving there within the next 12 months... not sure where though...

thank you so much for your thoughtful response! No way have you scared me away! Although I love my Michigan, I believe that AK is the place for me. Yes, I will email you to "harass you further!" Thanks again!!!!!!

thanks for the tip! may i ask where you lived in AK? Any recommendations? We have family in Fairbanks, looks like that may be an option somewhere down the line. I would personally like Juneau, but my hubby is a union carpenter and i guess its not strong there??? GA sounds nice too! what a climate change! LOL

i also wanted to add, what are some of your favorite things about this whole bush nursing aspect of the AK nurse? What skills do you have to know? i guess, what the HECK is it? :imbar Also, how is the whole in home care scene up there? do they have nurses that help take care of the newbabies born premie that get sent home with memory monitors, trachs, sx, feeding tubes, ect?? seems like the kinda place where people (natives) may have an increased risk of preterm labor. off the wall question, dont alaskans get paid a whop sum for just living there for over a year? from the oil benefits???:typing ( i just love the little typing head!)

maybe no nuchal cord, not around the neck? no question is dumb!

After reading some posts, I have heard the term bush nursing. That sounds fun, but I guess I would like to have some questions answered: 1. Pay scale? 2. Names of some towns, villages, ect. where these facilities/places are? 3. Hire LPNS? 4. Can you get your RN ONLINE in AK? 5. Anyone have a union carpenter hubby who can talk my hubby into moving there? :typing

Im glad to see how many people said to report! gives me back a little confidence lost in my fellow nurses. :icon_roll

my thoughts exactly. without some serious investigating, its WAY too easy to blame and point fingers. Im not saying that she had the right to be non-compliant with her diabetes and ect. in fact i have strong beliefs as to when life actually begins and that preg mom should be held responsible when found guilty of what i would call negligent infanticide. Im really sorry this happened to you. My heart goes out to you. I myself saw a HORRIBLE delivery for my very first student nurse experience. I quit that day, but my dedicated teacher told me to "buck it up" and get back in there. I still need to here those words sometimes again! lol anyways, lets say that she was totally noncompliant and just made some crap choices. now a baby is dead. some people do not value life like you do. you cannot force anybody to make a commitment to anything. She may in fact come back and do all the same crap again. SO, how would are YOU going to be the BETTER NURSE? guessing and complaining on how terrible SHE is wont make you better. How can you teach your patients that satisfies the requirement in YOUR OWN EYES?? How can you improve you assessment skills, people skills, ect based on this tragedy. please do NOT take this as me telling you you did anything at all wrong. Maybe we can find a way to make this little baby;s life a legacy. Maybe her short time in utero will help you to be a better nurse for hundreds more babies in the future? Maybe you can help to save the next one that comes around? (assuming mom wants her baby to live.) Good luck, and YOU sharing the tragedy alone I bet has already begun that baby's legacy in helping rekindle some passion in US.

Yeah, thats exactly my point! While doing discharge instructions, there should be an "automatic referral made for any gestational age fetal demise. then the er nurses can do what they need to do, and social work can do what they are supposed to be doing, which is finding the proper services for the patients. I would hope that it would be made hosp. policy and that the nurse doesnt need to hound the doc every time, or even ask the puter guys to amend the charting system to auto prompt the nurse to print a SW referral whenever a diagnosis of fetal demise is detected on the system. all they would do is click and print and the ward clerks call SW and in they come with the help and resources of an educated team with the time it takes to psychologically help these families.

the first thing I would do is find out how you are liable. you worked hard for your liscense and its important to do the work first before the fun stuff of PR!

i feel the exact same way. i am treated poorly by my private agency. there is a lot of lying going on about the way people are paid. question: if a client is approved for ten hours a day and the client was hospitalized for 3 days that month, do they get to use those extra hours for nurses to come in extra? i know they dont "roll over" to the next month, but what happens to the hours? they are medicaid by the way....

how can i find out how much Medicaid pays in Michigan and whether or not we are getting screwed over too?

maybe you could ask the ed to make it mandatory for a social work referral to be made and target the social workers with your education? Give them the info packets and maybe a card with the numbers of the berv staff. on them with a good link to a comforting website??? I would still have a mini in service with the ed staff to let them know future changes are ahead for these traumatized MOTHERS.