I emailed Dr. Phil regarding having a show that specifically addresses the so-called nursing shortage and the issues that create it........among other things.
The reply I received was that I would be contacted if my request to have this show is approved as a topic for his show. The response goes on to say how many requests they receive a day, blah, blah, blah, so basically......don't hold my breath.
Next on my list are the congressmen and those in the White House. I also plan to write "this nurse's story" and seek to get it in print in a magazine that is well read by the public, etc.
One step, two steps, three steps, more....one day at a time.
To address your questions, may I suggest you read the thread I started titled "Dear Patients". It speaks volumes about where I am coming from and the type of issues I'd like the public to be aware of.
My knowledge on the subject? 17 years of being a bedside Registered Nurse who has witnessed with my own eyes the changes that have taken place in nursing as far as bedside nursing is concerned. I've seen nursing on the floors (particulary med/surg units) go from the nurse having time to truly know her/his patients health history, medications and the side effects of those new meds that keep popping up faster than we can keep up with today. I've seen Primary Care Nursing turn into a disaster. Today we have nonmedical uncertified personnel assisting us with our patients unlike when I worked as a Nurse Assistant where we had to be a Certified Nursing Assistant or a nursing student in her/his final year of clinical rotations. I've gone from having known doctors that saw a lot of their patients to doctors that see very little of their patients today. Family and patients voice how irate they are about not seeing their doctor enough while hospitalized. They want test results that only their doctors can give them, yet the doc is scarce these days. Their involvement has dwindled, and they tend to pass the buck more by saying "That's not my organ system" when I as a nurse ask them something about their patients. Today, the nurses have to call "the appropriate organ doc" before something can be done about their patients needs. Family members and patients are no longer trusting in their physicians the way they use to when I first became a nurse. Actually, it was in 1996 when I first noticed the drastic changes taking place in nursing. I was working in California at that time.
Other issues are as they are mentioned in my "Dear Patients" thread: Not being able to care for the patients needs in a timely manner which causes PR issues to arise because family are now coming to the hospitals with much attitude today than they ever have before..........and can we blame them? No, we can't. They are being told by the media, the T.V. shows ER and Scrubs (and the like) that NURSES are to blame for excess patient falls, dirty patient rooms, cold mealtrays, late baths or no time for baths for their loved ones, late pain meds because they do not understand where the heck their loved ones nurse is.......never mind if we are with another one of our patients who is having chest pain or vomiting blood or is in need of being transferred to ICU because they are crashing right before your eyes....that is not their issue, their issue is seeing to it that the nurse gets what their loved one wants and/or needs. And we should be able to do these things.
I do NOT in anyway fault the patients or their family/friends who show concern for them. In today's nursing, they have every right to be concerned..........truly concerned.......as we are as the nurses who care for them under the conditions that we do...not enough staff, not enough trained help who are certified, not enough support from TPTB, and a lack of understanding from a few of the docs on board.
Resolutions to these problems? They have to come from the heart of hearts and put humanity back in healthcare from the TOP of the rung to the lowest rung on the ladder. What goes upline, flows back down through the line affecting attitudes, morale, cohesiveness on the floors between staff, and so forth.
IF California puts its patient/nurse ratio policies to full force and uphold that law across the board without fail, I would say that is a start towards making our patients and ourselves more at ease...at less risk for accidents...more time to get to know our patients.
Yes, it cost money for those services. It is also costing patients their lives which no amount of money can replace. Gone is gone. Money comes and money goes, but our loved ones are here but once.
Specializes in Medical/Surgical/Maternal and Child.
I also think you should go to OPRAH. The public needs to really know why there is a nursing shortage and why nurses are burning out and going into other jobs.....I for one love nursing but I'm so sick and tired of working on short staffed units and getting in trouble because I can't complete my work on time!!!!!!!!!
Just FYI I have read the Dear patient thread and have seen a lot of true concerns, I have also seen a lot things that are just the way nursing is. We should take and make time to answer questions.
I am not sure what your facilty policy is but I have never heard of a policy stating that only the physician can inform patients of their test results and lab values etc. granted if there is a mass found on the CT you want the physician to explain this and give answers and possible outcomes, but we must also be available to give support and remind them later of what the options are/were.
Noticed a change in 1996... that is about the time that it was declared that doctors are not Gods and patients have the right to question every step and be involved. We began educatiing with an eye toward the Pt being more directly involved in their own care.
I read alot of disjointed thoughts that were not linked to any particular resolution. The only resolution even mentioned is better Nurse to Pt ratios which I agree would be a good thing. I however did not see such things addressed as how facilities can pay more nurses or where these nurses are going to come from.
Should some type of outpatient system be devised to care for patients that come through ED/ER and end up admitted and don't want to be admitted. Short term stay floors like Angio. Where once the immediate concern is under control they can be D/Cd without an entire admission workup?
My facility has been advertising openings for the last two years running and they even offer $3000 sign on bonus for days and $10,000 for nightshift.
Retention was not addressed.
After hiring these nuses how are facilitties going to entice them to stay?
Does the current shortage show any sign that it will be better or worse within the coming 5 year period?
On this very forum there are such posts as the one I am linking that has much of the information I was alluding to. I agree there are many problems.
What I don't want is someone to go on a TALK SHOW and have the world thinking that nurses are just a bunch whining/complaining stressed out overworked underpaid disgruntled people that could at any given moment snap and (forgive the phrase) Go Postal!
There are many concerns and issues and changes need to be made to the system as a whole but lets not put the cart before the horse so to speak by inviting the entire nation to view us as incompitent, complaining, professionals that do not have the foresight to determine the problems and find possible solutions before runing around like chickens with our heads cut off and playing the blame game.
I am not directing these comments at any person just attempting to address the issues
Hummmm. . . . . I've been asking for tow years now, but will ask again;
Wonder what would happen if Oprah, Dr. Phip, newspapers, etc. received 10,000 letter, e-mails, etc. every week for the next six or eight weeks?
As to Congressmen and legislators, most are in the pockets of the Health Industry, but it never hurts to try. Public education as to what nurses really do, their value to society, the reason for the false nursing shortage, facility games and lies, etc. is one of the things most lacking in nursing. Lord know no one else is going to do it; and getting the public informed and educated wure would help.
Hummmm. . . . . I've been asking for tow years now, but will ask again;
Wonder what would happen if Oprah, Dr. Phip, newspapers, etc. received 10,000 letter, e-mails, etc. every week for the next six or eight weeks?
As to Congressmen and legislators, most are in the pockets of the Health Industry, but it never hurts to try. Public education as to what nurses really do, their value to society, the reason for the false nursing shortage, facility games and lies, etc. is one of the things most lacking in nursing. Lord know no one else is going to do it; and getting the public informed and educated wure would help.
Exactly! :)
I am only 1 voice of the mass of 10,000. I speak for me and for what I personally and professionally witness while caring for patients. I cannot speak, nor will I try to speak, for the other 9,999 voices which is why I am bringing these issues to light.
Wow, ccu nrs, you seem to have a lot of good ideas going on, not to mention the fact that you are also very passionate (seemingly) about these issues.
Why not join forces with cheerful, or come up with an outline of your own listing all of the problems/solutions?
4loveoflife......thank you for seeing the need for us to band together, offering our own personal and professional experiences as a unified force instead of looking for what is or what has not already been mentioned by a single nurse, whether that nurse is myself, or another nurse. :)
CCU NRS.......To pic apart my own personal experiences as a nurse and what I bring to the table of unified ideas does not show unification among nurses. That type of needling only continues to prove to the public and TPTB that nurses are NOT professional, only whiners.
We will NEVER get anywhere by tearing apart ideas each nurse brings to the table. Let's try to be unified as nurses for once instead of presenting the "catfights" that we nurses already KNOW exist in our place of employment between us. Perhaps starting with ourselves as a "broken unit" will take us further towards the healing of this profession.
As we read one another's comments and suggestions, let us NOT assume that what one offers on this table of discussion as problems that need addressing are the entire nursing force's voice...point of view -- if you will......., but yet one nurse's voice out of hundreds of thousands.
No one's viewpoints should be excluded as long as we are working towards the same goals, and not just to have another post of flaming what someone else says.
Sometimes I think we (nurses) are our own worst enemies in our own profession. How sad that is too because together we can be a mighty force.
I hope you get on the show. The public needs to know that there are plenty of nurses, but many of them not willing to work as nurses anymore. They need to know this is a HARD job and how thin we are spread out during our work day. If you do get on the show I don't expect you to come up with all the resolutions to our problems, but I do expect that your appearance would bring thought and discussion about these problems. And IMHO that is a step in the right direction. Good luck.
cheerfuldoer, you and ccu Rn as stated before should get together with the support of all of us nurses out there and speak OUR voice, so we can be heard. If patients and citizens of our country would actually know the day to day activities of a nurse how many patient to staff there are and how many ways one person can be pulled(The last time I looked I'm not Gumby) they would understand why Grandma isn't getting what she needs when she needs it. From a statement from my evaluation yesterday, the NM stated that I feel 8-12 or more patients is to much. Well yah, damm right it is . Her feedback, "You know you are not doing primary nursing, there is other staff here to help you, well true but what do you think they are doing, sitting on their behinds, NOT. Most nights at my facilty consists of one maybe if you are lucky 2 Rns, a lpn and a tech if there is one and that is if the lpn is not pulled to help out OB or ICU because they need help. Does anyone out there think 1 rn should be with a lpn and one tech with an average of 20 or more patients, I think not! As for the "false" nursing shortage I have been reading in posts, does it really matter how or why this happened and it should not be considered a nursing shortage because their are licensed RN not working in the profession. Isn't that telling everyone something about the profession or should i say working conditions. A shortage is a shortage no matter how you slice it, no staff is no staff Period!
live4today, RN
5,099 Posts
CCU NRS,
To address your questions, may I suggest you read the thread I started titled "Dear Patients". It speaks volumes about where I am coming from and the type of issues I'd like the public to be aware of.
My knowledge on the subject? 17 years of being a bedside Registered Nurse who has witnessed with my own eyes the changes that have taken place in nursing as far as bedside nursing is concerned. I've seen nursing on the floors (particulary med/surg units) go from the nurse having time to truly know her/his patients health history, medications and the side effects of those new meds that keep popping up faster than we can keep up with today. I've seen Primary Care Nursing turn into a disaster. Today we have nonmedical uncertified personnel assisting us with our patients unlike when I worked as a Nurse Assistant where we had to be a Certified Nursing Assistant or a nursing student in her/his final year of clinical rotations. I've gone from having known doctors that saw a lot of their patients to doctors that see very little of their patients today. Family and patients voice how irate they are about not seeing their doctor enough while hospitalized. They want test results that only their doctors can give them, yet the doc is scarce these days. Their involvement has dwindled, and they tend to pass the buck more by saying "That's not my organ system" when I as a nurse ask them something about their patients. Today, the nurses have to call "the appropriate organ doc" before something can be done about their patients needs. Family members and patients are no longer trusting in their physicians the way they use to when I first became a nurse. Actually, it was in 1996 when I first noticed the drastic changes taking place in nursing. I was working in California at that time.
Other issues are as they are mentioned in my "Dear Patients" thread: Not being able to care for the patients needs in a timely manner which causes PR issues to arise because family are now coming to the hospitals with much attitude today than they ever have before..........and can we blame them? No, we can't. They are being told by the media, the T.V. shows ER and Scrubs (and the like) that NURSES are to blame for excess patient falls, dirty patient rooms, cold mealtrays, late baths or no time for baths for their loved ones, late pain meds because they do not understand where the heck their loved ones nurse is.......never mind if we are with another one of our patients who is having chest pain or vomiting blood or is in need of being transferred to ICU because they are crashing right before your eyes....that is not their issue, their issue is seeing to it that the nurse gets what their loved one wants and/or needs. And we should be able to do these things.
I do NOT in anyway fault the patients or their family/friends who show concern for them. In today's nursing, they have every right to be concerned..........truly concerned.......as we are as the nurses who care for them under the conditions that we do...not enough staff, not enough trained help who are certified, not enough support from TPTB, and a lack of understanding from a few of the docs on board.
Resolutions to these problems? They have to come from the heart of hearts and put humanity back in healthcare from the TOP of the rung to the lowest rung on the ladder. What goes upline, flows back down through the line affecting attitudes, morale, cohesiveness on the floors between staff, and so forth.
IF California puts its patient/nurse ratio policies to full force and uphold that law across the board without fail, I would say that is a start towards making our patients and ourselves more at ease...at less risk for accidents...more time to get to know our patients.
Yes, it cost money for those services. It is also costing patients their lives which no amount of money can replace. Gone is gone. Money comes and money goes, but our loved ones are here but once.