Rita's coming-my hospital won't close!!

mountain_rn · Oct 8, 2005

Anyone who puts there own life at severe risk for a job is foolish. If you are not functioning in a military capacity or have taken a voluntary position with no expectation of harm or death, than it is incumbant upon you to look out for you and yours. I am ex-military, combat decorated and a tabbed Ranger. During my eight years of active military service, I was never asked by a commander to throw my life away or the lives of my men while some officer was in the rear tending to HIS personals. It is absolutely absurd to presume that you must throw your life away because the hospital was unwilling or incapable of managing a disaster situation. Any friggin NP who believes otherwise has NEVER been in any life threatening situation!! I suspect NP has never been shot at, stranded, injured or severly hungry. It is in this regard that NP cannot be judgemental. Perhaps NP's encounter rate for life altering crisis should ramp up a little. NP can then rank herself within the legion of "HERO" in America. :madface:

RN34TX · Oct 8, 2005

I was glancing through this thread and when I saw one of your comments I had to pause and say "huh?"
"Why put young healthy staff in danger to care for someone on their last legs on a vent through a major hurricane 4 blocks from the water?
Had my own parents or grandparents been that unstable in ICU, I certainly wouldn't expect the staff to stay with them and put their own safety on the line for someone who's outcome was not looking good in the first place."
I work at one of the hospitals in Houston that the other ones evacuated to and we were supposed to have some of the nurses come with the patients that evacuated and none did. They just cut and ran, leaving our hospital overwhelmed with patients and underwhelmed with nurses. We would have sustained somewhat of a hit from the storm but not like the ones on the coast. However, we were made to stay and we were allowed to bring our families with us as the nurses from the evacuating hospitals would have. The big major hospitals can stand hurricane force winds and since Allison have better plans for flooding.
Maybe you thought that us "older nurses" should be the ones to take the risk to go with the patients since we have nothing to lose? And would you like to have the ICU staff abandon their patients in their care to fend for themselves because the nurses have to think of their own needs only. (Isn't that what happened to the nursing home residents in Louisiana?) I have to wonder why some people got into nursing. The nursing home residents that were killed in the bus fire were sent off in the same manner. Where were their nurses? How would you have felt if that was your mama or daddy? By the way, I am 44 and I have children as well as grandchildren. I brought my family to stay with me in the hospital where I knew that they would be safe (and given the traffic situation, I'm glad I did). We were also overwhelmed with family members. We went from a hospital with 300 beds to taking on 900 people which included staff, family and patients.
Secondly, we did have some nurses that didn't stay at our hospital and some others in the area. Some of them lost their jobs or were disciplined in one way or another.

I'm very sorry for the added patient load and lack of staffing at your hospital during Rita.

Interestingly enough, in the midst of things at the bargaining phase, those of us wanting to leave offered to follow the patients to the other hospitals and work in hopes of getting out.

That idea was rejected citing that it was "more complicated than that" and would "create more chaos" trying to put staff to work at hospitals that they aren't currently employed at and that the receiving hospitals have prepared in anticipation for our patient's arrivals and that they'll be ok.

Apparantly they weren't ok but it's not because we didn't try (at least on a staff nurse level.)

At that point, I was more than happy to ride it out at a Houston hospital and work, I just wanted off the gulf and the potential surge but it was rejected.

I'm interested in finding out who promised you nurses to go along with the patients to help out and where these nurses were coming from.

Your story is just one more that burns me up with all of their blowing their own horn over the "successful" evacuation.

You empty out one hospital, fill up another and leave them hanging with a skeleton crew.

I'm sorry that we disagree on the other things, but I won't stay here again.

If you want to pm me and figure out a way for me as well as others to come and work at your Houston hospital during the next big one and bipass the red tape, I will join you and work through it. But I won't stay here.

BTW, those nursing home residents in Louisiana should have been evacuated along with the staff. I guess people would apparantly feel much better if the staff died along with the residents. The captain goes down with the ship?

i

RN34TX · Oct 8, 2005

Like I said, the staff that remained behind made their decision, you made yours. And it apparently was good that some remained, to care for the burn patient that arrived on their doorstep.
Grannynurse :balloons:

Oh God!

I finally got you off the whole "3 remaining patients" thing so now we're going to talk about her.

Yes, it was great that some remained to care for her.

Never mind the fact that we were all told to not count on 911 and to stay on the island would be at your own risk.

So in her case, it was great that people stayed to care for her despite the fact that she had no business being there to begin with.

Had we gotten the predicted direct hit, I'm sure it would have been comforting for the families left behind by the dead EMS and hospital workers that they stayed there for those who refused a mandatory evacuation.

grannynurse FNP student · Oct 8, 2005

Oh God!
I finally got you off the whole "3 remaining patients" thing so now we're going to talk about her.
Yes, it was great that some remained to care for her.
Never mind the fact that we were all told to not count on 911 and to stay on the island would be at your own risk.
So in her case, it was great that people stayed to care for her despite the fact that she had no business being there to begin with.
Had we gotten the predicted direct hit, I'm sure it would have been comforting for the families left behind by the dead EMS and hospital workers that they stayed there for those who refused a mandatory evacuation.

Thank you for sharing your perspective with me. This has been most enlightening, the intergenerational differences in perception. Brings to mind the "half-full" versus "half-empy" argument.

Grannynurse :balloons:

austin heart, BSN, RN · Oct 8, 2005

HMMMMMMM, it must be very hard having to know EVERYTHING and ALWAYS be right. I would think that it would be a burdon. Guess not.

I will quote myself (Not directed to OP).

Somehow RN34TX I don't think that you will ever be able to get your point across. :confused:

suzanne4, RN · Oct 9, 2005

Rita has passed, and the pieces are being picked up in peoples lives. It is going to take some time, but the original post of this thread has well been covered, and it is time to move beyond this.

Please feel free to start another thread discussing what we can do to help, or what needs to be done.:wink2: