Lorie A Brown, R.N., M.N., J.D., Author at Empowered Nurses

Mentors Are A Must In Nursing

May 11, 2023 5:53 pm Leave a Comment

As nurses, we are assigned a mentor or preceptor at a new job. Mentors are critical in your development and success. A mentor is an experienced and knowledgeable nurse who guides and supports the nurse still growing in their experience by guiding them to navigate the complexities of the nursing profession and how to help them to gain success in their new role.

However, I strongly suggest that you get a mentor who is outside of your employer because when you are swimming in the water, you can’t always see the shore. A mentor from the outside has a different perspective on things and can actually see the land because they are not in the water with you. This allows them to guide you more effectively in your progress.

The benefits of having a mentor include one of improved job satisfaction. Starting a new job is stressful and can be overwhelming. A mentor can provide guidance and support to allow you to adjust to your new role. This leads to an increase in your satisfaction which is essential for success in your long-term career.

A mentor can give you enhanced learning opportunities. Someone more experienced in the field can provide you with practical advice on patient care, offer guidance on clinical procedures and share their knowledge of evidence-based practices. This can accelerate your learning and help you develop skills and confidence to excel in your new role.

Third point, a mentor assists with career development and advancement. A good mentor provides valuable advice on your future career development. They can provide guidance and professional development opportunities, conferences or training programs to help you identify areas from improvement. With the support of a mentor, new nurses can find they will advance their careers and be able to take on new challenges.

The fourth consideration is that a mentor can help diminish the stress and anxiety of a new job. When you start a new position, it’s nerve wracking and can make you feel unsure of yourself in this new environment. A mentor can provide encouragement, support, and help build your confidence in your abilities by giving you valuable feedback. This experience will allow your confidence to grow, make you ready to take on new challenges and have a positive impact on patient care.

Lastly, another benefit of mentorship is improved patient care. A mentor can help nurses develop their skills and knowledge which can result in improved patient outcomes. As you gain experience and confidence, you will find more ease in taking on more complex patient cases and providing better care.

Nurse mentorship is a valuable tool for any nurse. It provides guidance and support, enhances learning opportunities, and promotes career development and advancement. By building confidence and improving patient care, nurse mentorship can help nurses excel in their careers and make a positive impact on the healthcare industry.

The Mess In Healthcare

May 4, 2023 11:23 am Leave a Comment

Surprisingly, or maybe not so surprisingly, a survey performed by AMN Healthcare, one of the largest staffing agencies in the country, did a survey. 18,000 nurses responded and surprisingly, or maybe not so surprisingly, only 15% of nurses who work in a hospital setting stated they plan to stay in their current position 1 year from now.

But what about the other 85%? They plan to leave their current position within the year. They said they may be seeking travel nursing opportunities, considering going back to school, looking for part time or per diem work or departing the profession altogether. This is both sad and shocking!

The profession is still in crisis mode with unparalleled feelings of burnout and stress. It seems that new nurses, who already have the highest turnover rate, report significantly lower job satisfaction than do older career nurses.

I can’t imagine coming into this profession at the time of the pandemic or now. There are no other words to describe it except healthcare now is a mess. The survey found that things which can reduce the negative effects of stress include increasing support staff, decreasing nurse to patient ratios, increasing salaries, a safer working environment, and nurses’ input at decision making tables.

Certainly, putting money by increasing salaries is not the answer. I am not saying nurses do not deserve more because they do! The stress and the burnout will still exist and continue to paralyze the profession, with nurses leaving in droves. Any suggestions on how to improve the situation in healthcare? I would love to hear your comments.

Secrets To Networking

April 28, 2023 4:26 pm Leave a Comment

One of the best ways to get business is to network and in doing that, there are some secrets you need to know.

Secret #1: People don’t come to a networking event to buy your product or service. They came to sell you theirs. The key to networking is to create a relationship and then, after the event, set up a call or a coffee to continue the relationship. You certainly can do a virtual coffee on zoom as well. Go with the attitude what can you give not what can you get.

Secret #2: There are so many networking events going on, you could literally go full time to networking events. But not all networking events are created equally, and they are not all your ideal client. One of the biggest mistakes people make is attending the wrong events. You can identify the best place to network by knowing what problem you solve and that way you can talk to the right target audience.

It’s important to pick the right networking event to make sure that it is in line with who you are and what you do. For example, you will not want to go to a PETA event if you have a non-vegetarian food business.

Secret #3: Assume that the person you’re talking to is not your ideal client, but their friend is. That way, when sharing about your services, ask who do you know?

When you network with this approach, your ideal client will say, “Tell me more.” However, if they are not your ideal client, they can refer you to their friend because you asked, “Who do you know?”

Secret #4: You are the best kept secret if no one knows what you do. Be super clear on what you do and the value and benefits you bring to people so that they’ll want to say, “Tell me more.”

Secret #5: Create your elevator speech so that people can say, “I need that; I want to work with you.”

If people don’t understand what you do or if you use a lot of jargon, they may not understand your point and then likely will lose interest in what you have to say.

Secret #7: As a business coach, my saying I help people love marketing is so far-fetched because most people can’t even relate to that statement. Be super clear about what you do so that the person who may be interested in your services could easily say, “Yes, tell me more.”

Secret #8: Another secret for us introverts (yes, including me), pretend that you are the host of the party. Stand by the door and greet everyone, show them where the food is and start creating that relationship. If you act as if you’re the host of the event, you will meet a lot more people. Always exchange cards, but make sure you follow up. Many people go to networking events, collect a handful of cards, and never call to follow up. Is it if you?

I say you be in charge of the referrals. Expecting that someone will pull your card and call you when they need your services is like asking someone about a restaurant or movie they went to months ago. Out of sight out of mind.

Secret #9. Set an intention of how many people you want to meet at a networking event or in other words, how many hot leads. Networking is a highly effective business skill, if done properly and can bring in several great leads to your business. Now it is up to you to follow up!

Nurses Speak Up

April 27, 2023 12:09 pm Leave a Comment

You may recall that previously I had written about Julie Griffin RN, a cardiovascular ICU nurse (CV ICU) who was working at an HCA Healthcare hospital in Plantation, Florida near Miami.

Ms. Griffin claims she was fired from her position as retaliation for making whistleblower complaints about short staffing at the facility. She was required to care for 3 cardiac patients at the same time, all who required continuous monitoring, a task that was impossible for her to safely do.

In one room, the screen could be split for data on only two patients, but there was no way to monitor data on a 3rd. Ms. Griffin claimed that this situation violated the physician’s order for continuous monitoring as there was no full-time staff at the nurses’ station to constantly monitor telemetry for all CVICU patients. Meanwhile, the unit had 2 patients die because they were not being continuously monitored.

On the day she was asked to accept a 3rd patient, another nurse was assigned to just 1 patient. Ms. Griffin refused this request and, as a result, was placed on administrative leave and subsequently terminated.

What is interesting is that other nurses would accept a 3rd patient even though it was in violation of the hospital policy and physician order to continuously monitor all these patients.

Ms. Griffin did speak up and voiced her concerns to management and administration, truly expecting the problem of no continuous monitoring to be corrected but unfortunately, her concerns fell on deaf ears.

On a very positive note, although it was made months after her termination, Ms. Griffin’s complaints DID result in the hospital’s policy being changed to where nurses can now continuously monitor all CVICU patients!

I am sure that a number of nurses in that unit were afraid to speak up for fear of losing their jobs as that happened to Ms. Griffin. If we are complicit, the hospitals will walk all over us.

Fortunately, Ms. Griffin filed a complaint in Broward County, Florida regarding retaliation and termination for making whistleblower complaints. Before her matter could come to trial this past February, she and the hospital were able to successfully resolve this matter.

If you encounter a patient safety issue, don’t hesitate to speak up. It can be scary doing so because of the fear of losing your job. But, as I say, “You can always get another job, but you can’t get another license.”

Should you choose to file a complaint, note that different states can have their own laws regarding “whistleblowers.” They’re also available on an online site, the Joint Commission To Report Patient Safety. In the Radonda Vaught case, which I have reported on in other blogs, someone filed an anonymous complaint through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services which brought her situation to light.

It’s unfortunate that with corporate health care, it seems that facilities are putting profits over patients. HCA Healthcare owns 185 hospitals in the nation and earned nearly $47,000,000,000.00 in 2018; the CEO was paid over $10,000,000.00 for her services during 2019 while that same year, the Chairman of HCA was paid over $20,000,000.00 for his services.

Also, over the last 20 years, HCA reportedly has paid out close to $2,000,000,000.00 in criminal and civil damages, penalties, fines, settlements, etc., for various fraudulent and illegal schemes.

Can you imagine how many additional nurses could be hired if even a portion of that $10,000,000.00 or $20,000,000.00 was available for patients to get the care that they deserve?

Good Nurses Gone Bad

April 19, 2023 5:46 pm Leave a Comment

Unfortunately, there are some bad nurses who work right alongside the thousands of good nurses.

A 29-year-old registered nurse was working in the neonatal intensive care unit of Good Samaritan Hospital in Long Island, New York when a father of one of the infants was filming his infant child through the glass.

As he was filming his crying baby, he was horrified to see the nurse lift his 2-day old son into the air and slam the infant face down into the bassinet. While still in shock, he realized that his capturing of the battery on video was evidence that he could show the hospital officials as evidence. He wanted to make sure that no other child would ever be a victim of that nurse again.

Fortunately, despite the attack, the baby is now home. However, for the nurse, her career in nursing is virtually done. She was immediately fired and now faces criminal charges.

Something like this should NEVER have happened. Every nurse should tend to their duties as if the eye of a camera is always on them. One never knows who is watching and never knows if anything improper has been caught on tape.

I have no doubt that this nurse’s license will be revoked and she will be convicted of criminal charges for endangering the welfare of a child.

Polarity in Nursing

April 13, 2023 3:38 pm Leave a Comment

Polarity is the principle that everything has two poles, good and bad, love and hate, attraction and disconnection, and scarcity and abundance.

Everything exists at the same time, so we can see people living in abject poverty in tent communities all over the country. And then we see the royals and celebrities with massive wealth and abundance. Both sides are here and at the same time.

As a rebound from the pandemic, hospitals are offering lucrative incentive bonuses for nurses to fill the many vacancies in healthcare facilities.

Sentara Martha Jefferson Hospital in Virginia is offering a $15,000 incentive as part of the hospital’s largest recruitment campaign. However, on the other end of the spectrum, at least 52 hospital/health systems are laying off 4,000 workers, many of whom include nurses. These closures or layoffs can be seen in approximately 20 States and that the list is not yet exhausted.

What’s happening now is that health systems are determining that they don’t need so many facilities, so they are reducing or even closing some facilities. Unfortunately, with not-for-profit healthcare systems, the funds need to go back into the. organization to avoid taxes. That’s why we see new buildings being constructed, new services being provided, and hospitals being bought out so that the money can be reinvested to avoid taxes.

It is reported that California itself has an overall shortfall of almost 45,000 registered nurses. With its mandatory staffing laws, it means that nurses who work on units in facilities cannot work short-staffed.

Palomar Health in San Diego County announced an incentive program where they will award up to $100,000 for newly eligible registered nurses for a 3-year commitment. It’ll be interesting to see who takes Palomar Health up on this because, indeed, $100,000 is a lot to pass up.

Be careful if you are offered a sign-on bonus because one must wonder how the facility is staffed if they can afford to give away $15,000 per nurse as enticement and, even more so, with a $100,000 lure.

Also be careful of what you sign up for because if it turns out that the facility is not a good fit for you and decide to leave, you may have to pay the money back.

I know all of this is unsettling, but don’t be swayed by the money. Do your homework and make sure it’s a good fit for you. One of the best ways to check out a facility is to talk to former employees if you can. See who is no longer working there.

You can seek these people on social media to get a real feel for what’s going on there before you accept a position or even maybe move across the country to accept the job.

Nurse involved in George Floyd type case

April 6, 2023 11:11 pm Leave a Comment

Criminal charges against nurses just keep on coming. It’s a devastating trend and, in 2020, a nurse and 7 California Highway Patrol officers (CHP) were charged with involuntary manslaughter and assault in the death of a man who had been court ordered to have his blood drawn.

I’m not sure why it took so long for this particular case to get filed but Edward Bronstein age 39 was arrested for driving under the influence and taken to the police station in Altadena where he refused to allow a blood draw. His family members said that Bronstein had an intense fear of needles.

The matter was then presented before a judge who issued a warrant ordering Mr. Bronstein’s blood to be drawn by a nurse.

Despite the order, he again refused to have his blood drawn whereupon the CHP officers took him to the ground to restrain him. During that effort Mr. Bronstein tried to tell the officers that he was unable to breathe and, as a video of the encounter showed, he then acquiesced saying he would comply with the blood draw.

However, the officers did not release the restraints. The video showed that 6 minutes after his last attempt to say he could not breathe, his body went limp, and he was “completely lifeless.” Court documents showed it was yet an additional 7 minutes before CPR was started but the reason for that delay was not explained.

The officers were charged and, for reasons I have yet to learn, R.N. Arbi Baghalian was also charged with involuntary manslaughter. My concern regarding the nurse would be the extraordinary delay in starting CPR. Who would have thought that by doing their job, although it may have been negligent, they would be subjected to criminal charges?

The police need to respect and immediately relax restraints on any person who says they cannot breathe. There are ways to restrain somebody without compromising their ability to breathe.

It is time to stop criminally charging nurses in situations like this. Nurse Baghalian was there only to draw the blood.

It is unfortunate that nurses are placed in situations with police officers who don’t know how to keep a patient safe while being restrained. Such circumstances, as in the death of Mr. Bronstein, can result in a nurse becoming involved and winding up with criminal charges, as it is with Nurse Baghalian.

A Successful Side Hustle

March 31, 2023 11:28 am Leave a Comment

I love helping nurses to become successful.

Have you heard of Stephanee Beggs, R.N.? Stephanee was in nursing school during the pandemic when the time for her to take the NCLEX neared. Because she learns a subject better by teaching that subject, she started a TikTok channel.

That’s right, Stephanee used the social media platform to provide instruction for the NCLEX test. Her channel was so successful that eventually she had 600,000 followers.

Nursing students and other followers kept asking Stephanee to please provide study materials and, as any entrepreneur would do, she saw a need and seized the opportunity to fill it. She repurposed her information into study guides and materials for nurses which she sold through the global online marketplace Etsy, where people make, sell, buy, and collect unique items..

Her business, RNExplained, was an immediate success and took off like a rocket to the moon! To date, her business has brought to her over $2,000,000 in revenue.

Though I am not one of Stephanee’s magical mentors, I’m sure she has had plenty of mentors to help her achieve this success because I don’t think anyone can do something like this by themselves.

Forbes.com lists Stephanee as being among this year’s “30 Under 30” successes, an annual presentation of the 30 top entrepreneurs who have not yet enjoyed their 30th birthday.

What I admire about Stephanee is that she took a personal need, tools to help her study, and used them to teach others as well. When she realized the number of others she was helping, she created the study guides and sold them on Etsy. Who knew that would create a $2,000,000 per year business?

I am proud of the accomplishments that Stephanee has had in her young career, and how they serve so many other nurses while providing her with profitable results.

Business ideas are everywhere. Find a need and fill it. Stephanee is still working as a nurse in a Los Angeles emergency department, even though she is the CEO of RNExplained, “an educational platform that offers nursing study sheets and tips/tricks for nursing students and nurses around the globe.”

I love how she took a need that would not only help her but also help thousands of others to pass the NCLEX, showing how even a side hustle can make a considerable amount of money. She still loves working in the emergency department, using her critical thinking skills in caring for people in need.

One of the directors of her alma mater at Mount Saint Mary’s offered her a position to teach at the Los Angeles university. So, she’s able to continue practicing her love of teaching while the sale of her Etsy study materials provides her plenty of passive income.

Stephanee said her biggest problem at the moment is learning how to grow and scale the business. I think this is true of most nurse business owners because as they say, “New level, new Devil.” When things are going well, how can you scale and take your business to the next level?

Oh, I’m so proud of 28-year-old Stephanee’s selection as 1 of the “30 under 30” by Forbes.com and her $2,000,000 business that is filling such a great need in the nursing community. The learning from this is to create a successful business, you need to find a need and then fill it.

When it comes time for you to face the new challenges of taking your business to the next level, seek the assistance that will help you be successful.

A Nurse’s Hero Journey

March 30, 2023 6:28 pm Leave a Comment

Just like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz waking up in a new land, imagine one day you wake up wanting to be a registered nurse in a new world of health care.

As anyone who has read the Frank Baum classic, we know Dorothy sets out to find her way home after a tornado blows the young girl to the land of Oz. And nurses too set out on a hero’s journey after being swept away to the health care world.

In the first step of a nurse hero’s journey, there is a call to action. In The Wizard of Oz, a tornado blows Dorothy away to Oz. For a registered nurse, the call to adventure may come in the form of a desire to help others or a passion for health care. This calling leads them to nursing, where they can make a real difference in the lives of their patients.

Next, we have the threshold crossing where the nurse hero leaves their normal world and enters a new, unknown one. For Dorothy, she steps out of the black and white farmhouse into Oz’s colorful world. For registered nurses, when we step onto a floor on the first day of our job, we are met with excitement and overwhelm as we must adapt to a new environment and learn new skills.

The third step of the nurse hero’s journey is called “the road of trials.” This is where the nurse hero faces challenges and obstacles that test their skill and determination. In The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy faces challenges such as the Wicked Witch of the West and falling asleep in the deadly poppy field.

Rather than a Wicked Witch, nurses face similar challenges with bullying, lateral violence and enemies who do not want the nurse to succeed. It is also important not to

“fall asleep in the poppies” where you get complacent with your practice because, as a nurse, lives are on the line. Remember that you are always growing and learning.

After the road of trials comes meeting the magical mentor. In The Wizard of Oz, the mentor is Glenda, The Good Witch who provides guidance and support to Dorothy during her journey.

For nurses, the magical mentor is usually our preceptor and other nurses who provide us with support and guidance on our journey as we navigate our careers. This mentorship is invaluable in helping nurses develop their skills in becoming more competent and confident in their work. However, if your magical mentor is really disguised as an enemy, speak up and get a new mentor so that your journey is not derailed.

The final step in the nurse hero’s journey is the return home. This is when the nurse brings back the knowledge and skills they have gained from their journey to their daily world. For Dorothy, this is when she wakes up in her own bed, realizing that she has been returned home and that she had everything she needed inside her all along.

For registered nurses, this is when they applied the knowledge and skills they have gained in their work, improving the care they provide to their patients. It is also a nurse’s knowingness that you’ve had it inside you all along and that all the challenges and obstacles you faced on your journey was specifically in your path to lead you where you are now: a hero, a competent and skilled nurse, providing better care to patients and making a real difference in the world.

Nurses On Boards

March 23, 2023 8:33 am Leave a Comment

Only 5% of board members for America’s healthcare systems are nurses. This is shocking and terrible, given that nurses are the biggest group of professionals working in hospitals.

At Palo Pinto General Hospital in Mineral Wells, Texas, near Fort Worth, two of the seven board members are nurses. This is extremely rare. Nurses have so much to offer at the board level that there is even an organization called Nurses on Boards Coalition. It is this organization’s goal to find and encourage as many nurses as possible to be serve not only on hospital boards, but on any other such boards around the nation. The thinking is that nurses can make such a difference in their communities if they are in leadership roles throughout their areas.

I would love to see more nurses on boards of all kinds of organizations along with those involved with healthcare. It is no small wonder why healthcare is run more like a business by putting profits over patients rather than as a care driven organization designed to provide patients with the best care available. I think this is because there are so few nurses on Boards of Healthcare Corporations. Nurses bring the compassion and humanity.

There are some wonderful resources on the Nurses on Boards Coalition website at nursesonboardscoalition.org. There you can find a board for which to sign up to participate. The website also provides a board readiness assessment.

I highly recommend that you be the change you want to see in healthcare by getting involved with boards at the local, state, county or even hospital levels.

Get involved by participating however you can.

Author Archives: Lorie A Brown, R.N., M.N., J.D.