Archive for May, 2007

The Center for Nursing Advocacy is finding fault with the New York Times’ coverage of Corzine’s recovery.

Here’s the New York Times Article:

(Here’s a tip: If you want to read an older article from NYT or WSJ but it requires a paid subscription, google the entire title of the article in quotes and you will usually find the article posted somewhere else for free. In this case the NYT article was posted on the Herald Tribune’s site.)

And here is the Center for Nursing Advocacy’s response.

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While I don’t particularly agree with every issue the CNA brings to light, as an ICU nurse I had to chime in on this one. ICU nurses do everything with respect to titrating pain/sedation meds. No, we don’t actually write the order, but we are continually negotiating with the patient and the doctor to get the level of sedation to the point where it serves the patient in his recovery. This is a major part of my job in caring for ventilated patients. It’s disheartening not to see the ICU nurses at Cooper given credit for this.

But the one time a nurse is mentioned:

with Mr. Corzine unable to speak because of the tube connecting his windpipe to the ventilator, David Donaghy, a nurse, read his lips as one way to respond to his wishes for more pain medication or ice water

I really find fault with. Since when is a ventilated patient allowed to have ice water?

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Change of Shift is up at Emergiblog.

“We’re Bringing Nursing Back,” the video produced by Binghamton University Decker School of Nursing students and made popular on YouTube has now made its way to a government site…

www.careervoyages.gov is a joint effort by the department of education and the department of labor to help people investigate career opportunities. If you click to the page about becoming an RN, the Decker SON girls are right there on the front page.

And if you like that one check out the new video for the pre-K, pre-nurse set…

On May 24th, Dr. Patrick Hickey, nursing professor from University of South Carolina, successfully climbed Mount Everest to raise money for the Summit Scholarship fund for nurses.

As he was climbing he sent updates to his blog, so you can see an overview of his adventure here. As he says on his blog:

“In 1993 I climbed a mountain that would forever change my life. From that climb came a dream to conquer the 7 Summits of the World. Join me as I try to make that dream a reality; I have saved the biggest and best for the last… Mt Everest.”

His goal is to raise $29,035, or one dollar for every foot he climbs. So far he’s raised $7427, so we are hoping to get the word out via the nurse blogosphere so he can meet his goal.

Thanks to RN Someday for the tip!

Take the Nursing2007 Job Satisfaction Survey.

My 2 cents about the recent loss of 2 more great medical bloggers, Fatdoctor and Dr. Flea: I think it stinks.

Blogging about your workplace is a dangerous thing. Throw in HIPPA compliance and it becomes even more treacherous. If only we could all be like dooce and get fired from our jobs and become full-time bloggers. I blame my shortage of good work stories lately on the fact that I haven’t actually been working. But before I stopped working I noticed that there was a story to be told almost every time I set foot in the MICU. Then I would come home and the logistics of telling the story and distorting the details to protect patient privacy just bogged me down.

And distorting the details also makes the stories seem kind of bogus.

For instance, a lot of my good “stories” would involve hepatic encephalopathy. I’ve yet to find a “disguise” that would adequately capture this particular brand of mental status. The liver patients seem to flicker in and out of reality and many times they seem comfortable with this. Then there’s the lung transplant patients. I don’t know of any other medical condition that is similar to their plight. I think they have the toughest road as far as transplant patients go; if I were to replace this detail, I wouldn’t be doing them justice. So I refrain from writing about them at all and their stories remain untold. For now.

Many times I have been tempted to reveal where I work. You could probably figure it out if you were so inclined, I’ve left clues. But I continue to refer to my hospital as the GHOAT (the Greatest Hospital of All Time) because if I ever called GHOAT by it’s real name it would become fodder for google. And then I’d be in trouble. Also by not naming where I work I provides another layer of patient privacy.

So maybe password protecting your blog is the way to go. It just seems so depressing that way, like locking your doors when you live in a bad neighborhood. But I guess if the alternative is losing medical bloggers on a weekly basis that it may just be worth it.

Or whatever you have handy.

PixelRN is continuing to scour the web for nursing info so you don’t have to! Check out Tuesday Newsday at OrientedX3.com.

I am now back in full swing with this site. This morning I am launching a new column called “The Pulse,” which highlights the latest posts from the nurse blogosphere. Check out the “Nurses Who Blog” list on the right hand column. These are the blogs that OrientedX3 subscribes too. If you have a nurse blog and don’t see it on the list, please let me know and I will subscribe to that as well. The idea here is to be comprehensive and not exclusive.

In other news:

Nursingjobs.org kicks off their new blog column today with nurse blogger extrordinaire, Kim McAllister. Added bonus: We get to see what Kim looks like! I’ve always pictured her as her pixellated avatar.

And don’t forget: the Nurse Conference Call with US Rep. Jan Schakowsky today.

What a great way to kick off National Nurses Week 2007!

And in honor of nurses week, PixelRN will leave you with some interesting stats, courtesy of the good old US dot GOV.

• 2.4 million - Number of registered nurses in the United States. (Damn, that’s a whole lotta tchotchkes!)
• 92% - Percentage of registered nurses who are women.
• 623,000 - Projected growth in the number of registered nurses between 2002 and 2012. It is expected that registered nurses will experience the largest job growth of any occupation during this time period.
• 531,000 - Number of licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses.
• 1,181 - Number of nurses per 100,000 residents in Massachusetts, the highest rate among states. (The District of Columbia has 1,498.) Nevada, with 517, has the lowest rate.
• 1.8 million - Number of nursing, psychiatric and home health aides.

A recent reader who goes by “mindchalng” wrote:

I have been an ICU nurse for 10 years. I was accused of diverting a narcotic and when I supplied a letter from the MD stating that he did indeed give me an order for the med….the board didn’t believe me. My urine tests have always been clean. I have stacks of commendations and have tried my best to solve this situation, but nothing changes. I’ve lost my license and have been told that I must enter a 30 day inpatient rehab to even consider getting my license back. Now without a job or insurance I had to join a local mental health clinic and start an intensive outpatient program while I wait to be admitted to the hospital. Over 4 months have passed and the hospital called and refused to admit me because I have no evidence of ever being a drug user and they state “We don’t admit just to help get a license back” I told the board and they said guess you can’t get your license back can you…

So…I think I need to write a book about this situation. My case worker at the clinic sat down with me to MAKE UP a drug history to get into the hospital so I can eventually get my license back. My attorney has no ideas how to progress either. Its been a huge mix up from day one and no matter what I do or say, I have to say I’m some sort of an addict no matter what.

Any ideas?
There’s lots of details that I left out, but thats the gist of all this. My life has been totally changed and I have no plans to remain in this state once I’m relicensed. This is utterly ridiculous!!!

–mindchalng

Readers, what do you think? It’s a chilling story, but there are some missing pieces. Mindchalng, if you are out there, let’s have some more details. Did the nursing board give you a hearing? Were you able to present your side of the case? What kind of evidence did they have against you? It seems that nursing boards can’t just strip away licenses on accusations alone, but then again, what do I know?

Here’s your chance to discuss this issue with U.S Rep. Jan Schakowski.

From Value care, Value nurses:

“To celebrate Nurses Week, we’re holding a national nurse conference call this Monday, May 7th at 12:30pm ET. The call will feature U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, who will be discussing her federal nurse-to-patient ratio bill that’s being introduced in Congress and taking questions from callers. For more info, please check out our site at www.valuecarevaluenurses.org.

Instructions on How to Join:

The number to dial is (888) 428-4478. There is no access code for this call. When you call, you will be greeted by a live AT&T operator. You will then be asked to say the name of the call you’re joining. Respond by saying you’re joining the Nurse Conference Call. The operator will ask for your name and location. Then you’ll be patched through to the call.”

A worthwhile way to celebrate nurses week while eating your hospital provided sheet cake that says “We luv our nurses!” You can even take notes with your hospital provided “National Nurses Week 2007″ cheap-ass pen.

Change of Shift @ emergiblog

Finally, there’s a treatment for Dysphoric Social Attention Consumption Deficit Anxiety Disorder (DSACDAD).

Just thought you should know.