Jul 17
No license, no job: Why many have put their lives on hold – TwinCities.com.
Can you imagine going all the way through nursing school and then not being able to work because a state government shutdown has prevented you from getting a license? Or for that matter, what if you are an experienced nurse and can’t renew your license because the state board of nursing is closed? That’s what Minnesota nurses are facing. Government shutdowns have unintended consequences.
It’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything meaningful here. A lot has been going on that I’ve wanted to post about. But. One thing overshadows everything else.
In August, I lost my younger brother to suicide. It’s been a shattering experience. It’s almost kind of ridiculous to try and write about it. The most accurate thing I’ve heard describing the experience of dealing with the suicide of a loved one is that there are no words to describe it. But I feel paralyzed in this blog until I address it. So here’s the thing. When you find out. Immediately there’s a violent gash that separates your life. The Before and the After. You desperately want to return to the Before but you know there’s only the After. Chaos. Pain. Insomnia. Anger. Confusion. Anxiety. Guilt. That’s how the After starts. In September I found an incredible art therapy support group called the Rita Project. I started going and my recovery began. Now it’s February and I’m almost feeling normal. I can never get back to the Before. The pain is still there, hard as a rock and confounding, but the chaos, anxiety and confusion have thankfully subsided. Anger is still there. I’m working on that. And no anger for my brother, like I always assumed is what happens after a suicide. Just generalized anger at the world. But onto my brother…
Mar 6
On Thursday, President Obama held a summit to discuss our current state of health care. It was attended by representatives of various health care organizations as well as a sampling of senators and representatives. I also had the pleasure of attending. (Okay, I didn’t really attend but I watched the live stream and tweeted about it, so that’s kind of like attending, right?) At any rate, I think our health care woes can be summed up rather succinctly: We want better health care, for more people, and we want it to cost less. If only the answers were that simple. As you would expect at an event with plenty ‘o congressmen in attendance there was lots of complaining and pontificating. Despite that, I managed to suss out some interesting ideas for you ; ) Nurses were well-represented by Rebecca Patton, president of the ANA. As a nurse, I’m proud to say that she was one of the few people bringing actual ideas to the table, rather than just complaining about the situation. She presented the idea that nurses should be allowed to use the full extent of their clinical skills. I took this to mean nurse practitioners should be allowed to practice, and RNs should be utilized more for their clinical skills rather than just doing endless rote tasks and paperwork. She also suggested that more public reporting of outcomes and staff ratios should be required. I think this is a great idea, although it doesn’t address the issue of lowering health care costs. A facility that has a low nurse-patient ratio is certainly going to have higher costs, unless they choose to cut corners somewhere else. Daniel Smith, president of the American Cancer Society discussed raising the tobacco tax. The argument against this is if you raise the tax on cigarettes, you will disincentivize people to smoke, hence you will not raise more revenue in tobacco tax. But if the tax hike is significant enough (say by 75%) and the amount of smokers reduces by only 15%, you’re going to have a net increase in tobacco tax revenue. Bonus points: This could facilitate a reduction in lung cancer and COPD; thus saving more money down the road. The idea was also presented that we utilize more home care services for chronic illnesses and end of life care. I couldn’t agree more. First of all, it cuts down on nosocomial infections, and secondly, I think people would rather receive treatment in their own homes, particularly if we can show that this improves outcomes. Also, what a great way to utilize your nursing workforce. We still have a long way to go towards improving our health care system. There was also a lot of talk of “we’re all going to have to pay our share, and sacrifice a little bit,” (Wait – wasn’t the the whole point to NOT sacrifice better care, and to NOT have to pay more?) Really this just means that some of us will be required to pay higher taxes to fund all of this. One group that was conspicuously missing from the health care summit was doctors. That’s unfortunate. After all, doctors are the one group that really spend their time at the intersection between reimbursement and patient care. Shouldn’t we be listening to some of their ideas and solutions?
Mar 3
First off, what is HealthCamp Philadelphia? It’s a free mini-conference that gives health care providers and technically minded people the chance to come together and discuss their ideas. So why am I going? First of all, I’m looking forward to meeting some of my favorite tweeps like @holaolah, @LizScherer, and @PhilBaumann in person. Secondly, I’m hoping to have a discussion about the way patient information is exchanged between health care providers. In nursing we like to refer to this as “report.” Technology should theoretically allow our reports to be exchanged in away that is timely, accurate, and efficient. We have computerized nearly all the aspects of our health care delivery from ordering, to charting, to health records. Yet our nursing reports still consist of handwritten notes and rushed phone conversations! Why is this? To explain my frustration, I offer you a typical MICU scenario: A doctor goes to the computer and places an order for your patient to go to radiology for a procedure. You haven’t seen the order yet because you are in your other patient’s room, doing an assessment. You get a phone call. It’s the procedural nurse. “Your patient is coming to radiology, right? We haven’t gotten your transport sheet yet.” “I haven’t even seen the order yet.” “Well, try to hurry up and send us the transport sheet.” (The transport sheet is basically a patient report sheet that you fill out by hand and fax to the appropriate people.) So you finish the assessment while thinking about what meds you will need to give before your patient can leave the floor. You get another phone call. This time it’s the transport team. “Your patient is going to radiology, right? We haven’t gotten the transport sheet yet. We’ll have a team ready in 15 minutes but you have to fax us the transport sheet.” “Just got the order. I’ll get it to you as soon as I can.” As an ICU nurse, you have to grab this piece of paper from the nurses station, open up your electronic chart, and start writing down the information on a piece of paper so it can be faxed to 2 different parts of the hospital. Do you see the folly in this? (I guess you could say the transport sheets are kind of like my TPS Reports.) The flow of patient care has just been interrupted not once, but twice, by people telling you to “Hurry up and fax us the transport sheet!” You’re already working with electronic charting. Why do you have to transcribe something with pen and paper? Isn’t the whole point of making things ELECTRONIC so that you don’t have to do it that way? If another health care provider needs access to this information a patient report should be automatically generated and sent to the appropriate areas of the hospital. Then, if anyone has any questions about the patient, they can call you to get clarification, hopefully without too much interruption. So what’s the answer? There are many different ways to solve this problem. I’ll focus on one: I believe that twitter could serve as a model for relaying patient information efficiently, timely, and accurately. (And obviously you would address the issue of patient privacy as well.) Bonus points? The 140 character limit forces you to enter the most relevant and concise facts about your patient, so you’re not flooded with information that you don’t need at that particular point in time. And that’s just one use for twitter in the health care arena. Check out Phil Baumann’s slideshare presentation of 140 more! Is twitter an oversimplified way of solving this complicated problem? Perhaps. But the point is that we have to start discussing this. The technology exists to make hospitals so much more efficient, and yet I can tell you from a nurse’s perspective, we aren’t seeing much in the way of innovation. Hopefully in the near future we will be seeing more of these Healthcamp-like events where people can get together and start the discussion.
Feb 27
(Foreman performs the life saving “titty twister technique” after House OD’s on methadone)
Renewed my CPR today. In the beginning I was so blase about it. I couldn’t believe that the content could actually take up 4 hours and I complained about it. But once I was there I had a better attitude because I remembered that this is pretty important stuff, and so it’s important to practice and brush up on your skills every once in awhile. By the end of the class I was really starting to thing that I am ready to go back. I’m not afraid. It’s going to be a good thing. Oh sure there will be some tough days (and nights) but I’ve done it before and I’ll do it again.
A couple surprises, though:
1. They didn’t mention the Stayin Alive factor. Something I find incredibly useful in keeping pace.
2. They didn’t mention the “titty twister method.” For those of you unfamilliar with this it was on House last week. House went into respiratory arrest and Foreman brought him back with an heroic titty twister. My initial thought? This would be perfect for those who like to fake seizures.
Dec 16
It’s that NCLEX time of year again. While most of us are stressing out about Christmas, I know there are a select few of you who are stressing out about NCLEX. I want you to know, it’s not as bad as you think. I actually wasn’t too nervous about taking the NCLEX back in 2004. In fact, I felt pretty confident. Why? Because my nursing school had a good passing rate. Something like 92%. That means that 92% of the students from the previous class had passed the NCLEX on the first try. While I wasn’t at the tippy-top of my class, I knew that my grades were respectable. Perhaps even admirable. So statistically speaking, it would be very unlikely that I wouldn’t pass. In the end I think passing the NCLEX comes down to three factors:
And finally, congratulations to Not Nurse Ratched, RN(!!!), who passed the NCLEX early and inspired me to write this post! Creative Commons photo courtesy of Nicole St. John
Oct 17
There’s been a lot of recent discussion about nursing salaries and the nursing shortage.
I wanted to chime in because (a) I love to over-simplify things, and (b) I am on the verge of becoming one of those nurses they refer to – the kind who works 2-3 years after school and then quits.
The reasons aren’t complicated. Here’s why I’ll probably end up quitting:
Sure there are many peripheral issues – nurses dumping on each other, lack of autonomy, lack of time and resources to get the job done right. But other than that it’s a personally rewarding, and (at times) intellectually challenging job. It feels good to help people when they are sick. I love being the voice of calm in a storm. I love working as a team and saving lives (sometimes.)
I just don’t love it enough to get over the three points that I listed above.
It’s that simple. If I became a nurse when I was 22 I might have gotten a few more good years in, but sadly, I didn’t. So if there’s any constructive advice springing from this negative view of nursing it would be this: Get ‘em in while they’re young. The earlier you start your nursing career, the later your burnout will be.
Oct 12
I recently was fortunate enough to attend Blog Word Expo 2008, the world’s largest blogging and new media conference. Part of my agenda was to meet with other health care bloggers like Kim from Emergiblog, and Dr. Val Jones from GetBetterHealth, to discuss the possibility of putting together a track dedicated to health care bloggers at next year’s conference. We also met with Rob Halper, who oversees the Johnson & Johnson Youtube channel, and Shane Pike, of HealthCareToday. Together we brainstormed ways that we could make this happen. The result? A health care blogger track is a sure thing for next year (September 2009), and it’s going to be the first event of its kind that will bring all types of health care bloggers together. Potential topics include: HIPAA issues, using blogging to affect change in health care policy, and using your blog to leverage your expertise in your field. If you’re interested, Emergiblog has a poll up where you can see the list of topics and vote on the best ones.
One of our goals for the health care blogger’s track is to include all types of bloggers in the health care arena. That includes nurses, doctors, students, EMTs, technicians, medical librarians, social workers, pharmacists, researchers, and patients. One of the great things about health care blogging is that it brings together people from all specialties, and the result is one of the largest (and liveliest) ongoing multidisciplinary discussions on the state of health care. If you are still new to this idea of people blogging about health care, I would urge you to check out Grand Rounds. It’s a weekly roundup of some of the best blog posts with a medical theme.
Blog World Expo is a worthwhile and energizing experience for any type of blogger. If you have a blog, whether it be about nursing, or any thing else, I would urge you to go. Presentations included topics such as how to make money from your blog, building readership on your blog, and how to analyze your blog statistics. One of the best things about Blog World Expo was getting to meet other bloggers face to face. I had known of Kim and Dr. Val through their blogs for a couple of years now, but this was the first time I had a chance to sit down and have a conversation with them. It was a very energizing experience.
If you’d like to learn more about Blog World Expo and the health care blogger’s track, stop by Emergiblog and leave a comment with your email. Kim, the author of Emergiblog, is putting together an email list and will be updating us through out the year on this event. Hope to see you there!
Sep 25
In this post, we’ll take a look at Facebook, Blogger, and WordPress. Facebook is kind of a grab-bag for all of your social networking activity. You can create a profile, upload photos, write notes, and post links, and find people that you may know from high school, college, or previous places of employment (among other things.) If you are a traveling nurse and still aren’t using facebook, I suggest you sign up. It’s a very convenient and fun way of staying in touch with people. There are also social sites dedicated strictly to nurses and people who are interested in nursing. Nursinglink is one of them. It contains many of the same features that you see on Facebook but centers around nursing. If you are really ambitious about social networking you can start your own blog. What is a blog, exactly? The original word comes from web + log, and the first blogs were kind of like personal journals. They date back to earlier in this decade. These days a blog can be about anything you want it to be. It can be a personal diary, a way to update your friends and family on where you are traveling, or it can even be a collection of articles that you have written on a chosen subject. Travel nursing and blogging go hand in hand, and there is a great community of nurses who blog out there. Setting up a blog is really very easy to do, and free as well. You can start a free blog at wordpress.com or blogger.com. Each of these sites have templates that you can choose from and fairly easy to use interfaces. There’s a large community of nurses who blog. You can find a partial list of them at OrientedX3.com. There’s also a biweekly roundup of some of the best nursing blog posts called Change of Shift. You can see the latest edition of Change of Shift at crzegrl.net. In part three we’ll take a look at Twitter, a micro-blogging tool, and LinkedIn, a social site for professionals.
Sep 25
What could a travel nurse possibly want to know about social networking? How about everything? In my view, every travel nurse should acquaint themselves with at least one or two of the social networking tools that are available. I can’t think of a better way to stay in touch with friends and family while you’re on the road. With that in mind I wrote a series of articles for my friends over at travelnursingblogs.com. You can find part one here. I’d also like to thank Medical Solutions for sponsoring my trip to Blog World Expo. It was well worth it! Also, I just finished writing my about page. I’ve had this blog for a long time and it recently occurred to me that I’d really like to tell the story of how I got here to people who arrive by *accident* Enjoy!
Linen Theme by The Theme Foundry
Copyright © 2013 . All rights reserved.
