Op-Ed: Nurses know best about patient care

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.appeal-democrat.com/articles/nurses_61827___article.html/patients_care.html

March 23, 2008 03:24:00 AM
By Michael S. Green/Appeal-Democrat

If you've never worked with nurses, it's hard to truly grasp how hard their jobs are. That's more true today than it was when I worked at a hospital some 20 years ago, not as a nurse but a lowly clerk working his way through college.

Honestly, you have no idea. Not even the doctors do. Nurses face hazards that include needle sticks and exposure to infectious diseases, plus the risk of physical injury when Patients Go Wild. When it comes to patient care in a hospital setting, nurses know what they're talking about. The rest of us just think we do.

Which brings us to the nurses strike against Fremont Rideout Health Group. The California Nurses Association is breaking new ground in Yuba-Sutter, which isn't a hotbed of union activity. As a result, the union and its member nurses have been taking flak, some of it fair but most of it not. It bears repeating: You have no clue what they go through.

Even back in the day, at a teaching hospital in Fresno, nurses didn't like "floating" to areas outside the scope of their training and experience. Nursing is not a one-size-fits-all profession, any more than auto repair is. You could hire a Chevy expert to work on your Beemer, but why on earth would you want to?

I didn't like floating as a clerk any better. I mainly worked on a trauma ward, where most patients had broken bones or head injuries plus the occasional stabbing or gunshot wound. The 4 East nurses were tough cookies because they had to be, not just to deal with surly patients and visitors but also the surly interns and residents who would sweep in from time to time barking orders.

Put those same nurses in the intensive care unit, however, and they'd look about as clueless as I did. No cushy desk job here; in ICU, I literally ran blood samples to the lab to see if the patients were getting enough oxygen.

That's why "floating" and "patient care" are among the main issues between CNA and FRHG. Today's hospitals are more specialized than ever, and so are the requirements of nurses who work within those specialties. The employer's desire for flexibility when dealing with chronic nurse shortages — which will only get worse, thanks to union-backed state mandates on nurse-patient ratios — runs head-on into the nurses' desire to avoid working where they lack proper training.

FULL article at link.

Note: My oldest daughter Bobbi is soon to be a Physicians Assistant. :-)

[Warpy]

1. 50% of trained RNs in this country have left the profession

due to brutal working conditions. Throwing money at the rest won't stop the process.

Floating is being cited because it endangers patients. The extra 12 hour shifts at management's convenience, the lack of assistive equipment to move heavy patients, the lack of managerial support when doctors go on a tear, the lack of legal support when nurses are assaulted on the job, all are factors in driving nurses out of the profession where they are more needed every single day.

All this is made worse by hospital management that tries to save a few bucks on staffing, both nursing and other departments, putting all the extra work on the backs of already stressed nurses.

I know all this because I was a nurse for 25 years. If the only way for me to survive is to go back, I will start swallowing an overdose.

[Clear Blue Sky]

2. Medicine has become increasingly complex.

The amount of knowledge that nurses must know continues to increase. Patient demands have increased as well. And lawyers are ready to pounce on any error. Tough business for nurses these days.