KathyDay

I worked ERs both big and small during my career, but things were different then. We had people who were delayed, but it is so common and drawn out now (for patients) that they gave it a title...ER Boarding. It is a dangerous practice for both patients and nurses. Nobody "owns" the patient. My husband was boarded while waiting for an inpatient bed, twice during his terminal cancer journey, and it was a nightmarish experience. The first time we didn't know who his nurse was for many hours, until I made a scene at the nurses station. He got no attention at all...his IV ran dry and the battery on his monitor died...and nobody noticed. I gave him all the nursing care he got that 11 hours. The next visit he was boarded for 28 hours. He had an inexperienced overnight nurse...and during that time his liver tube was dislodged and the skin broke down on his fragile coccyx...leaving him with the start of a bedsore that grew to the size of a baseball during is last days. Also the care that I had been giving him at home was not given in that ER...again, I did most of his care. That nurse should not have been assigned to a complex patient like my husband. As a retired nurse with some experience in both BEING an ER nurse and observing how ER nurses are forced to function now....I would say YES, you are crazy to pursue that.

Consider how technology has both helped and hurt out profession. Much of the RNs time is spent sitting in front of a computer entering patient information into a pre programmed "hospital cash register". Objective/subjective written notes are far and few between. Its mostly checking off blocks in a program. We didn't learn to be computer/cash register entry people, we learned the nursing skills/assessment/touch/care giving for human beings. No AI or technology can ever replace the hands on, eyes on care of an RN.

I was never a snitch, but on 2 occasions, I was compelled to report a fellow RN. One was a new grad who was incredibly unprofessional and who performed poorly in a number of ways. Another was a long respected RN, who in a past job had been my Department head nurse in an ER. We worked in a small telephone triage center at the time that she showed up to relieve me at 11pm, very intoxicated. I was shocked, but also alarmed that I had to hand off to an inebriated nurse. I left, but immediately called our supervisor from home and it was dealt with immediately. Some things we simply can't ignore and being impaired or dangerous is one of them.

While our Federal oversight agencies are being pilfered and ruined by the Trump administration and DOGE, I sit home an simmer. I know I have to do something. I have volunteered for the past 14 years or so as a patient safety activist, and now I am taking it to the streets. On Saturday, I was a guest speaker at the HANDS OFF rally in Bangor, Maine. Here is my speech. Warning...there are a few swear words, but I guarantee that they work.

The situation of nurses being between a turd and a hard place...is decades old. Without a remedy, and/or staff nurses standing up for themselves, their patients and protecting their licenses to practice...........patients will be harmed and or die, and guess who will be held responsible..yup, the staff nurse. This is probably the biggest reason younger people are not going into nursing, and staffing is hard to come by. You can only abuse people...patients and nurses...so much, and they will revolt. Our profession is under attack and has been for a long time. By not standing up for ourselves and in turn, our patients. we buy into the abuse of both.

JFK Jr said that "vaccination is a personal choice". His narrative should be "vaccination is a public health choice". Being "personal" or in my opinion selfish during a measles outbreak and now a death should not be an option. I remember measles as a kid...and how some kids got extremely sick and were hospitalized. We didn't have a vaccine back then, but be assured, if there had been one, my parents would have had us first in line, just like with the polio vaccine. Modern kids and families have not experienced or witnessed what these communicable diseases can do, and so they have an unrealistic view of how safe they are without vaccines. Getting vaccinated is the responsible and public health choice.

And I thought THIS was bad....https://jasemedical.com/case

During my husbands brief fight with esophageal cancer in 2023, his care was horrible. It started with and ER boarding experience. He was seen quickly, assessed, and stuff ordered, then placed back in the waiting room. I asked for a stretcher because he was in pain. He was ignored for the bulk of 11 hours. No blanket or pillow, nobody introduced themselves as his nurse. Nobody checked on him. His IV ran dry, the battery in his monitor died,...nobody noticed. Finally after hours of this neglect I went to the nurses station (we were tucked away in a back hallway all that time) and his nurse laughed when I said my husband was being ignored. Until that point..well into 6 or 7 hours of boarding..we had no idea WHO his nurse was. He was told he could drink and he was supposed to be NPO for an MRI, so he lost his ER priority for that test. His admitting hospitalist was going to discontinue his BP meds because his BP was normal...apparently nobody was watching his monitor remotely because his readings topped out at over 180 systolic. I WAS HIS NURSE THAT DAY. He was finally admitted and was inpatient for 12 days. Then they discharged him when he was at his sickest so far..premature discharge. Predictably, he collapsed at home 3 days later, and we had to call EMS to return him to the ER. The triage nurse immediately told the EMTs to put him in a W/C..with a BP of 60/? He had just collapsed at home. During that 28 hour boarding, his liver tube was dislodged and the skin on his coccyx broke open....and that became a baseball sized bedsore before he died a week later. His nurse (after he got critical ER care), was a new graduate nurse and didn't know how to care for my complex needs husband. His care was atrocious, but the worst of it was the ER care. He was bathed ONE time during all of his time in the hospital, except when I helped him to wash. He never brushed his teeth, unless I got him the necessary things to do it. So, yes, nursing care has gone downhill horribly. There are no excuses for it. Patients are human beings with physical needs that must be met. Nurses need to help patients to stay comfortable and infection free and lack of oral care an bathing is not conducive to that. All patients deserve respect and should feel that their dignity is preserved. I will never forget or forgive the hospital for the awful care he got....but I will always be grateful for the special nurses who actually did care and did their level best in bad circumstances. There is always good mixed in with the the bad. I'm so sorry you had to experience this. Like others have said here...never ever go into the hospital without a trusted advocate (family or friend) to help you with basic needs.

Put yourself in the family's shoes. Perhaps they can't be there all the time, and the camera is also to keep watch on their loved on when you aren't there. You are showing some level of paranoia if you think the cameras are just to watch what YOU do. I wish I'd had a camera in my mothers place at assisted living. After a fall, I was promised she would be checked every hour until the next morning, when she was to see their NP. When I arrived the next morning, she had never been checked. She was in her day clothes, in her recliner, and things were knocked over beside her...spilled water on the floor, and other items had fallen off that table. She had no covers on her and she hadn't even been brought breakfast. Also, she was in a very weakened condition, compared to the previous day. I immediately removed her from that facility, and took her to the ER. She never went back. So, if I am ever in that position again, that my loved one or myself...needing in home care, I will have cameras.

When my husband was hospitalized last Summer for terminal esophageal cancer, an OT visited him. The staff seemed to be on a mission to "rehab" him in one day, so they could justify discharging him home. He could barely stand up. I had just asked for help for him to get back into bed, when that OT arrived. I had found him upright in a chair, which he had not been doing because of weakness....and his head was lolled onto his uneaten lunch tray. He was exhausted and weak. She came in chirping "do we want to try some steps?" I made it very clear that he did not want to do steps. She said "I am speaking to him, and I said I am speaking FOR him". Because of that conversation she documented in his medical record, and named 2 RNs who supposedly agreed with her, that "the patients wife is unkind". I wish I could put those three so called professionals in a room and tell them exactly what happened that day and beyond. They would all be ashamed of themselves.

My husband was terminally ill with Cancer last Summer when suddenly the NCM informed me that he was going to be discharged. I was stunned. His rapid decline was ongoing, and he was a fall risk. I had no equipment at home.... and no help to care for him. I objected to this discharge and from that point on, I was considered "unkind" and non cooperative. I was simply advocating for my husband...his care and safety. We were pressured to take him home prior to our "family meeting" but we refused. I had explained that it was imperative that the "safety check" of my home should be done prior to him coming there. We managed to keep him in the hospital until after the family meeting but then we had no choice. My sons brought him home. The safety check was not done before he got home. He was on palliative care so the durable equipment he needed (as determined by his home nurse visit first day at home, AFTER he got home) would not be there for a full week. He spent his days at home in a recliner because he could not tolerate his bed. So, on his 3rd day home he collapsed...we had no wheelchair so my sons had to practically carry him out for his radiation treatments. He nearly lost consciousness. We had to call 911 and he was returned to that hospital, endured another ER boarding (28 hours). My instincts were absolutely right. He was much too sick to be discharged in the first place. So, my question is this...WHO exactly is responsible for discharging patients to home too soon.

When I was 50ish, I applied for an Employee Health job at the smaller of 2 hospitals in my city. I had experience in the larger hospital and great referrences. I had only worked per diem for a while because I wanted to be available for my young granddaughter...my only grandchild. I had the experience and the willingness to learn more. The interview went well, and I never heard another word from them...not even a rejection letter. I believe it is ageism, pure and simple. I may have put on my disgruntled face when the interviewer said something about how they wanted someone who could it the ground running in their new hire. Yup...runners...that is what they want, and we older nurses just don't fit that bill. Hitting the ground running is a way to say..."you will work your orifice off and you will get no help". I am so glad I am beyond all that now.....

If hospitals can't afford to pay for the people to provide the basics of daily care, then they shouldn't be in the "business" of "caring". It was horrifying to me to see my husbands needs ignored the way they were, and to have staff say that he "refused" help with bathing...he never refused because he was never was offered help with bathing, unless I offered it. I helped him with hygiene. Yes, I am angry, and so very disappointed in the lack of basic care my husband received. I'm sure any nurse in this group worth their title would have felt the same way if it was their loved one.

ahhh, Crusty old bats!! I'm sure that is how I was described by the younger nurses and CNAs where my husband was during his terminal cancer last Summer. My best memory of my training and subsequent nursing experience was how important patient personal hygiene was, and if a patient could not stand in a shower or at a sink, help was provided. Every patient was bathed or helped to bath every single day, and also offered something to wash hands before meals, and again a quick wash up at bedtime with a back rub/AKA skin check. All of that was absent during my husbands stay....also no help for oral care or shaving. It was disgusting and horrid. I did my best...even had to bring in a washcloth and towel to help him stay clean. None were supplied in the room.....the only thing available was bum wipes. What has happened to the basics of nursing? Has it all come down to passing meds and documenting on the tethered computer??? Sorry if this offends, but this was our truth...day after day from July 7 to Aug 7 when my sweet husband died.

I went to Nursing school (3 yr program) in 1967, when young women had limited opportunities...and we were steered by guidance counselors into nursing, teaching or secretarial work. I believe I made the right choice. I worked at 5 different hospital ERs, and an OR. ..both large and small hospitals. I also worked in industrial health, doctors offices and an Indian health clinic. All of my jobs were challenging and they gave me a wide spectrum of experiences and knowledge. After I finished working as a practicing nurse, I became a patient safety advocate, and worked for a dozen years during my retirement promoting safe practices and listening to the "patients voice". Without my education and experience as a nurse, I wouldn't have had the credibility to do my PS work as a volunteer. I am 74 now and will always keep my RN license, although I would never endanger patients by going into a clinical setting to work again. I earned it, I am proud of it, and I can still put RN behind my name if I write an article or do a presentation. I have no regrets.