Our Most Pressing Concerns With Healthcare

Hello Everyone, this is a question I ask nurses that register with the Nursefriendly. Will be posting their responses here, feel free to chime in with your own.

Andrew Lopez, RN

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Your most pressing concerns with the profession and healthcare: That nurses will leave the health care industry for more of a business career. The idea of being a nurse is not as glamorous as it used to be. We work long hours, short staff, less pay, overtime, take cuts in pay just to keep a float. There are no incentives to continue with CEU's for most facilities no longer pay for them. This is a big issue and does not keep the nurses up to date with healthcare. You have to be on too many committees within your facility in order to get a raise. They don't care about your family and if you get to spend quality time with them, as long as the floor has a warm body to give nursing care.

Kathryn Spilker RN, BSN, LNC, Lifeline Medical/Legal Consulting L.L.C.:"As Legal Nurse Consultants, we use our nursing experience, and knowledge of legal issues in preparing cases related to health care issues. Screen cases for merit, prepare chronologies, summaries, timelines and analysis of the medical records. Identify standards of care, causation issues, locate experts, research and review medical data and literature. Assist attorneys with all aspects of discovery and trial preparation. The success of your medically related cases relies on qualified, detailed, and accurate assessment of the facts.
3034 Ridgetop Ct., St. Peters, Missouri 63376
E-Mail: educate5@verizon.net
Homepage Address: http://www.nursingentrepreneurs.com/spilker/

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Any questions, please drop me a line.

Sincerely,

Andrew Lopez, RN
Nursefriendly, Inc. A New Jersey Corporation.
38 Tattersall Drive, Mantua New Jersey 08051
http://www.nursefriendly.com info@nursefriendly.com ICQ #6116137
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Your most pressing concerns with the profession and healthcare: My most pressing concern is putting inexperienced nurses in critical care fresh out of college. They lack the experience necessary to work these areas. When we get a trauma in they panic and puts the patient and other nurses at risk. The saying a nurse is a nurse is a nurse is not true. Areas of nursing are to specialized and nurses need adequate training. The shortage of nurses has put the emphasis on filling vacancy's with anyone with a license.

Patty Olson, RN, BSN, MBA, Independent RN Services, Wisconsin Nurse Entrepreneurs:"Independent contracting to hospitals. Specializing in ER and ICU."
http://www.nursingentrepreneurs.com/olson

Your most pressing concerns with the profession and healthcare: Growing lack of interest in a nursing career. Nursing shortages are at crucial levels across this nation. Many nurses have licenses in escrow because they are burnt- out or just tired of the misuse of nursing talents. Respect for nurses has being a long suffered issue that will only change when nurse unite and no longer fear supporting each other. Make your voice known. Join and take active roles in nurse organizations.

Gerry A. Kinjorski, BS, RN, CLNC, Aidant Research Nurses, Inc., Florida Nursing Entrepreneurs:"Aidant Research Nurses, Inc., is a legal nurse consulting firm that serves the patient-client and the attorney. If you have questions concerning negligence or medical-malpractice, personal injury or assault, toxic tort, worker's comp or any medical injury you may need Aidant."
http://www.nursingexperts.com/aidant/

My friend, to answer your post on new grads in critical care. In our CCU, the experienced nurse becomes a teacher. A good precepter program will get them ready. We put new grads in our CCU then train them for 2 years ant move the best to our CVICU (it is in the same unit, long story). But if the new grad is not cutting it, we ask them to leave to another unit. This is voted on by 4-5 senior nurses after 6 months. We based it on the nurses ability to practice safe, ability to retain information, ability to look up information, attitude towards patient satisfaction. Then you have more personal such as, are they their for a social life, or help patients get better. I have seen some new grads become great nurses after 1 year. And most of the ones that stay for 1 year are here 5 years later. We have a great program.

You must set up a program that does not "eat your young". Take them under your wing. Give constant positive feedback.
When they are off orientation, you must always be their for them. Support, support, support. Most people will achieve your expectations if you set them out at the start and continue to challenge them.

I am 100% behind any form of intern program, as long as it is appropriate for the unit. And I was one of those nurses who thought that all the newbies should spend time in Med/Surg before venturing out.

Teach them from the ground up... weed out as appropriate... everyone has their niche!

My biggest concern with Healthcare (Nursing in particular) is that new grads aren't getting a good enough orientation at their jobs. I think it's pretty accurate to say that most facilities are short staffed and in such despirate need of help that they rush through the orientation phase of the job and basically throw the newbie's to the sharks, so to say.

I personally feel that the lack of guidance and supervision that a lot of new grads feel at their first jobs is turning them away from the nursing profession.

With the nursing shortage, some times, you can't be picky. So, must bend with the situation. Although, med /surg does have hire bonus here. So, most of the nurses do come from the med/surg floor. But, you still must plan for the new grad. I have seen new grads in CVICU (we never do that here) at other hospitals. NOW THATS SCARY.

NURSING SHORTAGE-What I think is funny about the nursing shortage is that, I read somewhere within with site that people were being turned away from nursing school because lack of nursing instructors.The school my hospital system runs is packed.
But as Mr. Nursinghumor said, [ QUOTE ]
Many nurses have licenses in escrow because they are burnt- out or just tired of the misuse of nursing talents.

[/ QUOTE ]

epi, I think that's the BULK of the problem.

Your most pressing concerns with the profession and healthcare:
http://www.nursefriendly.com/concerns/

"Nurses are required to spend a large amount of time documenting and protecting themselves legally, taking time away from patients. The nursing shortage is a concern both for the heavily burdened nurse providing care and the patient in need of quality care. The overuse of pharmaceuticals and the lack of focus on prevention. The cost of preventing a heart attack versus treating a heart attack. The healthcare system practices an expensive emergency medicine approach to most health care issues. Lack of personal responsibility for our own health in the general population is driving the cost of healthcare up for everyone of us."

Kim Markuly, RN, Living Well Solutions:"Consulting and marketing business focused on true prevention with Wellness programs, products and services. Customizing and integrating proven Wellness programs for a wide range of healthcare providers, clinics and businesses interested in promoting health and preventing disease."
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Dallas, Texas 75088
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livingwellsolutions.net
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"Nurses are required to spend a large amount of time documenting and protecting themselves legally, taking time away from patients

yes you have to chart for the jury and I have to remind myself that all the time...I'll never remember what happened in 20 years on that delivery that happened yesterday.

You need to wonder hour for hour, do we spend more time charting the care we give, or actually caring for our patients.

Don't know about most nurses, but I'd rather spend time doing hands-on care then chart the bare minimum. Could that come back to haunt me should a lawsuit arise, sure. For days when falls, medication errors and other "questionable events" occur, you need to pay a bit more attention to your charting.

Otherwise, I'll let the malpractice insurance company handle things if I ever get sued.

Andrew Lopez, RN
http://www.4nursing.com

I have worked for an immediate care facility for 14 years. The business was sold about five years ago and now has internal family medecine, emergency care and walk in patients also. It's a very fast pace enviroment. Caring is not the most important part of their care plan.. They recently hired med. tech's who don't have a clue of what their doing. I called the state nursing board and they told me that if I am the R.N. working with them that I could be held responsible for any medication error that occures. I spoke with the medical director about this issue and she was beyond mad that I had called the state. I did not give the name of the facility. I have since left because of all he stress and errors I saw. They hired three med. tech's to replace me. I found out they are paying them seven dollars an hour. It has taken me several months to get over this. I went on several job interviews and have found the same situation in other urgent care and family facilities. I would not tell anyone to be a nurse. I loved the people I cared for----and I really cared. I saved their tails numerous times. Thanks for reading. My typing is not that good.

Sorry to hear about your situation, never worked in a surgicenter myself. I've always worked on hospitals med/surg, tele units or in long term care.

I wouldn't be comfortable in that type of situation either, knowing I could be held responsible for poorly trained, cheaper employee's screw-ups. Yet you see that type of situation all the time in hospitals when supervising students, lpn/lvns and nursing assistants or unlicensed assistive personnel. It's hard to avoid.

Best suggestion I could offer is try a different type of environment or hospital unit. Maybe try homecare, casemanagement, etc. Chances are you'll find a situation you are comfortable with.

I do recommend nursing with several reservations. I want potential nurses to have a good idea of what they're getting into beforehand.

Andrew Lopez, RN
http://www.4nursing.com

"Your most pressing concerns with the profession and healthcare: Nursing shortage and the fact that current nurses are discouraging others from becoming a nurse. Also increased paperwork for bedside nurses. It is very difficult to provide full nursing care because of the mounds of paperwork required. New forms arrive frequently."

Janet Zarzour, RN, Tennessee Nurses:
Specialty Area: Labor & Delivery
http://www.nursefriendly.com/zarzour

Your most pressing concerns with the profession and healthcare: Healthcare is expanding and growing exponentially. We, as nurses need to be flexible, skilled, and open to fill unique niches to meet the needs of an ever changing society.

Victoria Pettograsso, LPN, BS, MS, Coastal Care Nursing Associates:"Private nurse ownership assures our patients of superior nursing care and personalization. Presently, we are expanding our horizons into the nurse registry-consulting field. We would like to help you set up your own nurse registry. Time saved in policy and procedure development can yield earlier profits."
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Venice, Florida 34285
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Your most pressing concerns with the profession and healthcare: The failure of hospital administration and insurance companies to recognize the real root of the "nursing shortage" problem. This has been going on for the 25 years I have been an RN, and they just don't get it. Like the other service professions i.e., teacher, firefighters, police, nurses are overworked, underappreciated (until you really need one) and underpaid. From the perspective of a CRNA the answer is blindingly obvious. There is no shortage of nurses wanting to become CRNAs. Why? The median salary for a Graduate Nurse Anesthetist is $113,000. (AANA figure) Start paying nurses what they are worth and there will be no shortage. It's simple supply/demand economics that administrators have ignored for decades.


Patrick Dupont BSN, CRNA, CLNC Alpha Medical-Legal Consulting, Inc.:"25 years as an RN including 22 years as a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA) with extensive experience in anesthesia administration for surgical procedures including general, orthopedic, neurosurgical, cardiothoracic, vascular, ENT, GYN, trauma, plastic and reconstructive, cosmetic, interventional radiology, labor and delivery including administration and monitoring of labor epidurals, invasive line placement and monitoring, emergency airway management, outpatient and ambulatory surgical procedures, regional anesthetics, conscious sedation and post-anesthesia care.
15585 Ocean Walk Cir. #113
Fort Myers, Florida 33908 Phone: 239-297-9893, Fax: 239-425-1384
amlc@roverusa.com
http://www.nursingentrepreneurs.com/dupont

Your most pressing concerns with the profession and healthcare: The amount of people that are joining the profession for the wrong reasons. People know of the nursing shortage, and know that jobs in this profession are plentiful, but some people would make a better dog warden than a nurse.

Angela Halley RN, BSN, CLNC, River View Legal Nurse Consulting:"We specialize in providing legal nurse consulting services to attorneys (plaintiff and defense), insurance companies, workman's compensation firms, and individual institutions for risk management services. Our firm has over 20 years of nursing experience in psychiatric, labor and delivery, pulmonary, neurology, medical/surgical nursing, and many areas of nursing management. River View Legal Nurse Consultants provides a time efficient and cost effective answer to your legal nurse consulting needs."
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Your most pressing concerns with the profession and healthcare: The devaluing of professional nurses by institutions such as hospitals. Also the fragmented tier of types of nurses - lack of uniformity. RE healthcare- cost before quality and safety.

Suzanne Schiltz, RN, BSN, Texas Nurse Entrepreneurs:
http://www.nursingentrepreneurs.com/schiltz

Your most pressing concerns with the profession and healthcare:"I am worried re the cutbacks taking place in hospitals as a result of the HMOs and cost-cutting measures. Nurses are asked to do much more with less or unskilled help."

Michelle L. Callan Nurse-Attorney:"Medical-legal consulting and trial assistance to attorneys for Personal Injury and Medical Malpractice cases."
13 Anchor Terrace, Rochester New York 14617
Phone number: 585-266-6574
Fax number: 585-266-6574
mcallan1@rochester.rr.com
http://www.nursingentrepreneurs.com/callan/

Your most pressing concerns with the profession and healthcare: The most pressing concern with the nursing profession, is the increased risk of liability with the advancements in technology, and not enough authority to effect changes. Nurses today, are making the same assessments and decisions that Physicians were making 30-40 years ago. Physicians are becoming more of administrators of care, navigating the waters of insurances and just giving a final okay on most nursing assessments. It is my hope that someday healthcare will return back to being a profession for healers, and not insurance administrators.

Joseph Caracci, RN, BSN, MBA, Nursecorp.com, Nursing Agencies, Staffing Software Support, Arizona Nursing Entrepreneurs:"NursingCorp offers serious investors and entrepreneurs the knowledge and assistance needed to enter the nurse staffing industry. We provide assistance establishing health care staffing companies, and development of nursing based software solutions. Our product offerings include a complete Nurse Registry Business Package, Nurse Staffing Software for use by Hospitals and Nurse Registries, Business Consultation, and customized software development. To learn more about how we can assist you. The founder of NursingCorp.com is a former Co-founder and President of a large Phoenix AZ based Nurse Registry."
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Phone number: 866-211-1167
Fax number: 480-361-7942
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http://www.nursingentrepreneurs.com/caracci

Your most pressing concerns with the profession and healthcare: Factors affect our healthcare costs and result in breaches in standards of care that affect our patients.


Donna M. Post, RN, BSN, MBA, HCM, CLNC, LNCP-C , Mid-Valley Legal Nurse Consulting, Inc., California Nurse Entrepreneurs, Legal Nurse Consultants:"Mid-Valley Legal Nurse Consulting has over 24 years of experience clinically and administratively, in cardiac, adult and pediatric critical care, and dialysis. Our experience extends to both the inpatient and outpatient settings. MVLNC provides effective identification of practice standards, regulatory standards, adherence and/or deviations to these standards. Our background provides our clients the added benefit of understanding healthcare infrastructure, budgets, and healthcare labor issues. This extensive experience allows for identification of medical and nursing issues in any case that involves health, illness and injury. The clients we serve are attorneys, insurance companies, healthcare facilities and others. At Mid-Valley Legal Nurse Consulting, our goal is to provide our clients with cost-effective, efficient, review and analysis – providing you with winning services while critically defending your bottom-line.
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Phone: 559-294-7580 or 877-532-5676
Email: midvalleylegalnurseconsulting@gmail.com
http://www.mvlnc.com
http://www.nursingentrepreneurs.com/post/

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Your most pressing concerns with the profession and healthcare: Limited views on governing and decision making by administration about the nurses they employ.

Tracy McClelland, RN, MSN, Ycarte Health Career Center, Georgia Nursing Entrepreneurs:"Opening doors to the Nursing Profession is our primary concern. We are a nursing tutorial facility designed to assist our community by training healthcare professions with the most updated nursing information and training equipment. We focus on assisting individuals who want to advance in the healthcare profession, or begin with an entry level into healthcare. Our goal is to bring education to you in a comfortable non-threatening environment that allows for learning. Whether you are new to healthcare or desire to advance in this profession, we can provide you with the training you need."
Tracy McClelland, RN, MSN, Ycarte Health Career Center
North Pointe Plaza
1214 North Peterson Ave. Suite P
Douglas, GA 31533
Phone: (912) 384-8680
Fax: (912) 384-4390
info@ycartehealth.org
http://www.nursingentrepreneurs.com/mclelland

I think you guys are absolutly right! I am a new grad and I would love to work in the ICU but I am so glad I started out on a PCU unit. Our system put me through 3 months of internship with a preceptor. I had to take the PBDS before I started and after to see how much I have learned and all the interns had to take a lot of classes through the hospital during the internship. Although I know people who came right out of school and work in the ICU, I do believe that decision is a bit premature. When we graduate we don't really know what the reality of nursing is.

Your most pressing concerns with the profession and healthcare: Burn out, low-self esteem, nurses do not realize how powerful they are

View previous responses: http://www.nursefriendly.com/concerns/

Annette Tersigni RN, Yoga Nursing®:"I am the founder of Yoga Nurse Medical Yoga and Stress Management and am the creator of the enlightening new field of Yoga Nursing® and the Yoga Nursing Institute. Yoga Nursing is the marriage of modern nursing science with the ancient science of yoga. My programs are endorsed by lots of doctors and health care providers as a safe therapy to decrease pain and suffering and help folks to find peace instead of going to pieces. I have dedicated the past 16 years educating people around the world on leading healthier, spiritual lifestyles and with a dose of tough love and loads of laughter helped them to WAKE UP and GET CONSCIOUS NOW.

I am a sought after no barriers heart felt speaker, coach, teacher and writer and am featured extensively in the media including in the Associated Press and on NBC, CBS, Fox News affiliates and have been interviewed on national TV by Arielle Ford as one of America’s Experts. I am producing, writing, and acting in several DVD documentary/educational projects: I am training and coaching other nurses, yoga teachers and health professionals throughout the USA and Canada to be Yoga Nursing Therapists and I lead fantabulous Yoga and Juice fasting Makeover Retreats on the magnificent Pyrate laden Crystal Coast of North Carolina. My programs our hip, conscious, filled with hilarious humor, enlightening and designed to inspire and leave a legacy. This is the most prolific, jamming and juicy time of my life and I get to do it all by serving others. SERVING RULES!"
Street Address: 103 short st apt. E
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E-mail Address: theyoganurse@gmail.com
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Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=629639595&v=info
Homepage Address: http://www.yoganurse.com
http://www.nursingentrepreneurs.com/tersigni

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wow this is old

if that is where they want to work, we should give them the right to learn. they should stay on orientation with an experienced nurse until the experienced nurse thinks it's OK for them to handle things on their own. it's not right to trashtalk new nurses like this... you were a new nurse once too. now you're "eating your young". don't get me wrong, i'm an experienced ER nurse and i have concerns about new grads coming to ER as well, but they have the right to go through a proper orientation program and then if they do well, their preceptor can release them. if they are not cut out for critical care or ER, then the manager should be told after the orientation and the nurse helped to get a job in a different area.

"physicians are becoming more administrators of care"? Yeah right! whoever wrote this knows nothing about being an MD. the nurses are the administrators of care. the physicians just write the orders, interpret and order the tests... and half the time don't even look at the patient. what a crock.

kdrner wrote:"physicians are becoming more administrators of care"? Yeah right! whoever wrote this knows nothing about being an MD. the nurses are the administrators of care. the physicians just write the orders, interpret and order the tests... and half the time don't even look at the patient. what a crock.

Amen to that! THEY write, WE administer the meds, the enema, the IV, treatments, etc.

Thank you for your comments, kdrner!

BTW, I have added to your board reputation.

Teeituptom wrote:wow this is old

And the Thread has gotten alot of views lately. Kinda tells you something, eh, Tom? :dance:

Your most pressing concerns with the profession and healthcare: The Healthcare crisis in the US with the costs way out of control.
Larry Snyder, BA, RN, DBA, RN.ORG, SA, Nursing Continuing Education Providers:"Larry Snyder, RN is the Founder and President of RN.ORG®, SA. As a licensed healthcare professional with over 15 years of experience in nursing as well as a computer authority with in-excess of 20 years of experience, he is knowledgeable with the integration of healthcare and computers and sees a strong need for licensed professionals to maintain their license in an easy, convenient, comfortable no stress environment. Larry has worked in various aspects of nursing in many states in both large and small hospitals and has the experience and background to make healthcare and nursing education friendly. Larry also functioned as a consulant at large corporations in various aspects of IT management including CBS Sports, Sportsline.com, Sports.com, Universal Studios, Nickelodeon, Viacom, Flexsys and Monsanto. Larry also has served as an expert witness on several high profile cases throughout the United States sharing his valuable input as an experienced Emergency Room nurse."
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Larry Snyder - RN.ORG®, SA
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http://www.nursingentrepreneurs.com/snyder/