You are part of the problem with healthcare today if...

sunkissed75, CNA · Mar 24, 2010

if you have no idea why the blue thermometer tastes better than the red one, you are part of the problem with healthcare today!

i don't mean to interupt...... :chair: ........ but why does the blue thermometer taste better?

CuriousMe · Mar 24, 2010

i don't mean to interupt...... :chair: ........ but why does the blue thermometer taste better?

the red thermometer is used for taking rectal temperatures.

noc4senuf · Mar 24, 2010

I admit that i have known some of the types of administration people that the OP mentioned. I am a DON and I do not live by those types of rules. Yes, I dress in business casual, BUT, everything I wear is wash&dry. I am out on the floor as needed, I toilet, feed and answer lights... nothing is beneath me as I would not expect my staff to do anything I would not do. I also am in charge of the staffing office, medical records, MDS and such. Staff sho-up in my office with complaints to handle and I get right out there and address them.

All of managment including myself took a 5% pay cut a year ago, no raise since either. The floor nursses got to keep their wages and for those still climbing the scale continue to do so.

I get to work at 5:00AM and am ther at least until 4:00PM. I like being able to see all my shifts and let all the staff know that I am available. Granted I do not normally work weekends but, am on-call 24/7 and have been known to pop in at night or weekends.

The last facilty I was in, I would shampoo carpets, was once on a ladder tearing down a sheetrock ceiling, and when a cook did not show up in the afternoon was in the kitchen cooking a meal for 65 residents.

I took the OP's original message with a grain of salt since i have worked for peopl like that in the past and vowed to never be like that myself. I just laughed at some of the examples listed.

RNngldbp, RN · Mar 24, 2010

Wow, you are ABSOLUTELY CORRECT!!!!! What happened to patient care?? No one wants to spend time with their patients anymore.

wildboo · Mar 24, 2010

Joules, I thought this was quite funny, and, with the passage of "universal healthcare, timely as well. I've really needed a laugh, and leave it to one my my fellow nurses to provie it for me. Keep up the good work! We're going to need it! :banghead:

tencat · Mar 24, 2010

Middle management=stuck between a rock and a hard place. I'm willing to bet (though I am not management) that a middle-manager has less power to change things than most of us think they do, and their way of coping with it is to hole up in their offices. I have noticed that those who actually try to help their employees don't last very long because they get sick of getting nowhere with their higher-ups. Now this is just my experience, and I'm sure there are good managers and good places to work, but I'm also sure that they are few and far between.

lamazeteacher · Mar 24, 2010

This sort of thing came to a stop in December 2008, although drug reps are still allowed to buy meals for us.

Yes, we now carry pens with hospital, private PT, pharmacy, etc. names on them.

lamazeteacher · Mar 24, 2010

Middle management=stuck between a rock and a hard place. I'm willing to bet (though I am not management) that a middle-manager has less power to change things than most of us think they do, and their way of coping with it is to hole up in their offices. I have noticed that those who actually try to help their employees don't last very long because they get sick of getting nowhere with their higher-ups. Now this is just my experience, and I'm sure there are good managers and good places to work, but I'm also sure that they are few and far between.

As an Infection Control Nurse, I had the power and used it to shut down units at the hospital, including the nursery, wherever I was employed. I was empowered to make "Purchasing/Acquisitions " buy more gloves, sharps containers, PPE, putting them in places for convenient access by nurses; and had administration approve the building of more "special" isolation rooms.

I saw to it that doctors, nurses and auxilliary staff who repeatedly (you could say willfully) defiled their working environment with their contaminated personal; sec retions and patient and visitors' scattered biologic debris (despite 1:1 teaching), and had that put in their evals/personnel file (that included those who tore the forefinger covering off their gloves, to start IVs). Anyone wearing acrylic or other false nails stayed at home unpaid until false nails were removed, or be put on "low patient contact" duty when the union protested.

When a staph infection was rampant in the "extended care" unit of the acute care county hospital where I was the IC Coordinator, I took cultures from staff and patients until I found the culprit who was sharing stethascopes (and staph), and made her stay home until that organism had quit her system, as shown by repeated daily cultures of her ears (where staph had resided for many years - does anyone hear MRSAs?) following antibiotic treatment. Lucky for her, it responded to treatment, as did the patients' low grade infections at every possible bodily entry. I had that unit closed by the Infection Control Committee, until cultures of practically everything in it came up clean.......

When a doctor failed to culture his/her patient's infected wound or any other suspected infection with exudate, nurses called me before administering the ordered antibiotics, to get a culture approved on my IC budget (unless it was crash IV antibiotics needed for a situation in a crisis, and then they took the culture pending my OK to send it to the lab). If the culture was positive for an organism not covered by the ordered antibiotic, it went on the patients' bills. Of course copies were sent with alacrity to their physicians (who thanked me).

I could go on. Please don't get the impression that I was seen as the "monster" where I was employed, I usually handled situations on an adult to adult level, then joked about what could have happened in the event of "pathogenic takeover" (that was the child to child" direct communication" we all need to take the heaviness out of stuff). When events required my action, I always handled them in person, no matter how small the problem was (never saw anyone ducking into hiding places) as soon as possible.

As an Employee Health Nurse, I was responsible for arranging continued appropriate income and treatment for those injured on the job, in all departments. I recommended and achieved changes of physical settings to be safer, (hopefully before "incidents" occurred) supplied ergonomically correct workplace seating, equipment, etc., after making rounds of every nook and cranny of the workplaces throughout the hospital/clinic, taught the appropriate use of equipment to avoid skeletal and muscular, possibly neural problems that could be avoided by proper use of equipment, or not bending knees when lifting a heavy object. Immunizations were made available to all staff at no cost to them, that I instituted, and it saved staff $$$, and was a tax deduction for administration. Of course compliance with Rules and Regulations for certification is a requirement, and when I cited those not being followed, I could get anything I wanted (especially before inspections).

When I worked as the Director of Prenatal Education for an umbilical cord blood preservation company, I travelled extensively, giving presentations for hospital OB staffs at practically every hospital that would have me (Plano, TX wouldn't) in every big city in our country and in Canada, thereby initiating widespread use of that program, possibly saving lives of those I'll never know. I hired, trained and monitored 48 area coordinators, to see that information/teaching the option of having stem cells from umbilical cord blood stored, to every person taking prenatal classes in their communities was given, and materials made available. Then I left that organization, as the Foundation wasn't operating as they promised, for free stem cell storage to those who couldn't afford to pay for it. Canada was so impressed with the potential for the preservation of life, at lowered cost that they set up their own labs for that purpose, and now have it available for anyone who wants to do that. One of the Area Coordinators I hired was chiefly the resource for that, and I applauded her efforts (much to the consternation of the company founders in CA). Sending a big Hi to anyone reading this, who I met while I was in that role in 1995.

So newbies, that is just a part of the changes I've been able to achieve as a middle management person. In the 50+ years of my work as an R.N., PHN I've touched a lot of people and things, learned incredible data, and contributed more to health care than many others I know. Of course you who work in the nursing "trenches" have the responsibility to keep conscientious, quality nursing care alive and well, while tending to the requirements expected of health care in a country with first rate results. (Hopefully we'll achieve that staus sooner, with the passage of the health care act.)

As a volunteer I've impacted many lives for the American Cancer Society, American Red Cross and Hadassah, as well as working long and hard for all of us, to get the reform of health care act passed I (as some of you-all know). I profusely thank anyone who called their representative on behalf of the bill, at my urging or on their own. Now you can really achieve change through your expanded roles, more jobs coming available and more patients whose care and education can now begin at earlier stages of their diseases. Of course the docs sobbing about their loss of income (read that Ferraris, multiple homes and lifestyles of the rich and incredible) will need your kindness and care, too. Their malpractise exposure and income tax should decrease as a result of the emphasis of the new health care program on wellness, and with it the premiums for protection against that............

I hope there aren't too many replies to this post about how the health care program just passed (and with that, now the cases before courts from some states, that will be thrown out) about the additional deficit figures, constitution affronts, etc. Have some trust in our President's good will, intentions and wisdom, you guys. :yeah: When someone tells you about some terrible event that will happen due to it, please ask how they know that could happen, exactly what studies show that, which economists' projected doom and gloom theories, etc. :down: Then research those references for validity, and then post the results, if true (which I doubt).

Thanks for reading this long post. :nurse:

Who?Me? · Mar 24, 2010

While fairly humorous, remember there is more to nursing than just one facet. That is why many of us entered the field to begin with. I am in direct patient care, but am very proud of my alphabet soup!!!

certified OR nurse, graduate degrees x2---Thank you very much!:smackingf

allnurses Guide · Mar 24, 2010

Educators and managers who remember what it's like to be at the bedside, thank you!!! I hope you go to bat for us when you are in a room full of people who never knew, or forgot, what it's like to be at the bedside. It just can't be a fluke that so many nurses feel isolated and ignored when the latest ridiculous dictum comes down from on high.

sdwmb · Mar 24, 2010

.....

sdwmb · Mar 24, 2010

If you spent 41 years working full-time in every imaginable capacity to better patient care, you are part of the solution
If you came in to work on countless holidays while others took the day off, you are part of the solution
If you always put patient safety first you are part of the solution
If you took risks to improve the status quo even when it was scary you are part of the solution
If you got yelled at by a physician while advocating for a patient or for other staff you are part of the solution
If you ensured new nurses got the education and support they needed you are part of the solution
If you spent many unpaid hours reasearching best practices to promote better care you are part of the solution
If continuing education was not a chore but an expected way of life you are part of the solution
If you promote a healthy work environment by example you are part of the solution
There's too many more of these to write, but it's a great thread!! come on folks, this is one to contribute to

what a way to turn a negative into a positive