Starting your day B.I.G. means to “Begin In Gratitude!”
First thing in the morning, if you take a few moments to think about what you’re thankful for, it will start your day in a positive vibration and in gratitude for all the good that you have.
Nurses are undercelebrated. We have Nurses’ Week once a year and I remember gifts in appreciation and celebration of Nurses’ Week!
like a $5 Starbucks gift card and, at one time, I was given a ham even though I don’t eat pork!
But nurses have the hardest job in the world and should be celebrated every single day of the year. Nurse business owners in particular need to be celebrated. Having the guts to start a business in the first place is a major accomplishment. Even if you should feel like you don’t have anything to celebrate (which you know you always do), just be grateful for waking up and breathing because, as we know, every day is a gift as we see patients in the hospital die.
You had the idea for a business because you can do it. I have no intention to be a marathon runner because I am built like a terrior not a greyhound. I was not given the idea to be a marathon runner because I have no desire to do it.
You will be surprised how much more you can accomplish and how much better you feel when you begin in gratitude.
Your home play is to write down all the things for which you are grateful and, tomorrow morning, start your day B.I.G.
You can help us share these articles by passing them along to current and potential nurse business owners who you know. Thanks.
In a recent study conducted by United Kingdom’s National Health Service showed that 300 nurses committed suicide in their country from 2011 to 2017. In 2014, one nurse committed suicide each week. That nurses would take their own lives is appalling and sad. Nursing is so stressful. Remember the nurse in England who gave out confidential information to a radio show thinking the caller was the Queen and, the nurse in Seattle that gave a baby a lethal dose of medication, both took their own life because they could not live with themselves.
Given the recent events in El Paso, Dayton and Philadelphia where nurses took care of victims from these horrific tragedies, who was there to help the NURSE? When there is a tragedy in schools, grief counselors are there to assist the students in dealing with their feelings.
Fortunately, UC-San Diego is doing something about it. Feeling it is time for nurses to get the mental health assistance they need; they are pushing as part of the health system to provide services to their nurses.
Nurses are expected to be stoic and even after a tragic loss, would be lucky to get a ten-minute break to grieve that loss.
The USC School of Medicine created the Healer Education Assessment and Referral Program, also known as “HEAR”, which takes a proactive approach to self-care for health care professionals.
I would love to see more programs like these to help nurses deal with the difficult situations in which they find themselves. Here are some suggestions to help you. First, nurses are not good at reaching out for help. We think we have to do everything ourselves. If you feel you are normally able to deal with stress and trauma but find you are having a harder time dealing with things which shows up in anger, frustration and irritability, get help from a competent mental health counselor or your EAP (Employee Assistance Program) which is required to keep everything confidential and is free. Next, make sure you are getting enough quality sleep. Lack of sleep can trigger negative emotions. Lastly, talk to others. Be part of a community whether it is inside or outside of nursing to help you process your feelings without revealing confidential information.
While tragedy in the workplace can be a big trigger, I am also curious how many nurses may have taken their lives because of a Nursing Board matter.
I’d like to hear in the comments below how your facility helps you with stress and mental health issues.
Julie Griffin, R.N., once worked as a cardiovascular ICU nurse (CVICU) at Westside Regional Medical Center near Miami in Plantation, Florida owned by Hospital Corporation of America (HCA).
On August 10, 2018, Ms. Griffin filed a lawsuit claiming that she was retaliated against and fired for making whistleblower complaints. She had concerns that were brought to the attention of management and administration claiming that the hospital required nurses to care for 3 cardiac patients at the same time. There is an order stating that all patients need to be continuously monitored which cannot be carried out with 3 patients.
In one room, the screen could be split for data on only 2 patients but there is no way to monitor data on a 3rd patient. Nurse Griffin believed that violated physician orders for continuous monitoring as there is no full-time staff at the nurses’ station to monitor telemetry for all CVICU patients.
In an interview with Ms. Griffin conducted by Hospital Watchdog, she stated that other people on her unit had expressed concerns about taking 3 patients but never said anything because either they were close to retirement or they had children and feared for their jobs.
Ms. Griffin also was bullied by her Director. One day while sitting at the nurses’ station preparing to leave, her Director approached and said, “There are no personal food or drink allowed at the nurses’ station.” She replied that her cup was clean and empty, and she was preparing to leave. The director threw her cup in the trashcan stating, “You know the rules.”
Westside did acknowledge that the Director’s actions were inappropriate.
Ms. Griffin felt that she was harassed. She was asked to accept a 3rd patient (while another nurse had only 1 patient) and when she refused, she was immediately placed on administrative leave which, 2 weeks later, was followed by her termination.
Westside since has changed its policy and now continuously monitors all patients in the CVICU. For that, Ms. Griffin is glad she spoke up and that change was made. However, it’s unfortunate that she was forced to seek the legal system to accomplish that.
Many nurses are afraid to speak up in such situations because they can’t afford to lose their jobs. But it is only by speaking up that change can be made.
Hospital Watchdog also reported that HCA is the largest for-profit hospital chain in the United States. It brought in almost $47,000,000,000 in 2018. This year, 2019, the CEO is being paid $10,000,000 for his services and the Chairman is being paid over $20,000,000. That’s over $4,800 per hour for the CEO and almost $10,000 per hour for the Chairman.
As hospitals now are corporations, we cannot risk putting patients in danger due to profits. In fact, HCA has reportedly cut many corners and has paid out close to $2,000,000,000 in penalties, fines, settlements, criminal and civil damages, etc. for various fraudulent or legal schemes over the last 20 years.”
Although Nurse Griffin did go up the chain-of-command, it was not effective. The entity overseeing hospitals, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has information on how to anonymously file a complaint as well as the Joint Commission.
Should you be in a situation where you do not feel that your patients are being cared for adequately and you are put in a situation that compromises patient care, I highly encourage you to report it!
Do you feel like you can speak your mind or are do you fear being terminated? Is your facility listening to your concerns? Let us know your comments below.
Can you believe that we recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 moon landing? And Neil Armstrong was the first to walk where no man had ever gone before. Who can forget his historic voice from a quarter-million miles away: “That’s one small for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind!”
However, I was saddened to hear that his passing away seven years ago was due to medical malpractice. I was surprised that during the landing anniversary it was revealed that there had been a $6,000,000 medical malpractice settlement on behalf of his family.
Though in good physical condition throughout his life, Armstrong had been hospitalized in the past. In 1979, while working on his Ohio farm, he caught his ring finger in the gears of a tractor and the digit was torn off. He drove himself to the hospital with his ice-packed finger where it was surgically reattached.
But in August 2012, the 82-year-old astronaut underwent heart surgery at Mercy Health Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio. He died 2 weeks later.
During that surgery, a pacemaker was implanted and when the device’s wires were removed, he began to bleed. He was taken to the cath lab rather than straight to the operating room. The bleeding resulted in a rapid drop in blood pressure and an echocardiogram was performed showing significant and rapid bleeding. Had he been taken directly to the operating room; he could have been saved. The decision to go instead to the cath lab was a major error.
No one, not even the famous, is immune from medical errors. Research shows that nearly 1 in 5 (19%) of elderly patients die as a result of their medical care. Common injuries noted included being given the wrong medication, having an allergic reaction to a medication or receiving treatment that led to more complications than the existing medical problem.
Medical errors are the 3rd leading cause of death in the United States. Research has shown that as many as 225,000 Americans die from hospital related causes.
We can do better than this.
We have one of the best medical systems in the world but it will not improve until patients are put first. This begins with staffing and root cause analysis of any hospital error rather than sweeping it under the rug.
What does your facility do to prevent medical errors? How can we reduce this number? Please let me know your comments in the section below.
The only thing you need to do to get clients is to talk to people!
That’s IT! You just need to talk to people.
Talk to people who could utilize your services, your ideal client. That is the only way. If you are sitting around designing business cards, building your website, creating brochures … none of this will get you business.
Instead focus only on money generating activities (“MGA”) which is talking to potential clients. Go to where they hang out, speak at events where they are, or even attend events where your ideal clients are located.
There is so much noise on the internet right now and if people don’t know, like and trust you, they are not going to find you or use your services. So, get to know people one-on-one, talk to them and invite them to work with you. Show the value and benefits that you could provide and then ask what they need and how you can support them.
Recently in Dallas, Jonathan Moore was involved in a crash killing a former councilwoman and her daughter. The police were able to obtain a breathalyzer which showed a blood alcohol level of 0.00. However, Moore failed 6 of 6 field sobriety tests and did not have normal use of his mental and physical faculties. The Police believe that the man was on drugs and wanted the nurse to draw blood for a drug screen.
Moore had 5 prior DWI convictions (driving while intoxicated) and had been off probation just 5 days but the alcohol detection device showed no alcohol.
The arrest affidavit stated that “he had been taking Xanax” and had “bloodshot eyes and was speaking at a rapid pace.” He could not recite the alphabet properly.
The nurse told the officers that she could not draw blood without patient consent and, because he was intoxicated, he could not give consent.
What’s interesting about this case is that the police said that he gave consent on the body camera. The Texas Nurses Association stated that the police did not need a search warrant. “If a person is in custody and has been arrested, law enforcement can request taking a blood draw without an individual’s consent. It is law enforcement’s responsibility to know that the person has been arrested for an offense that does not require … consent.”
However, the hospital’s policy stated that it’s the officer’s job to obtain a warrant and cite the reason for the blood draw. It is not the responsibility of the registered nurse.
A warrant was obtained within the hour and the blood was able to be obtained.
I would love to see clear policies on these types of issues, so nurses don’t get caught in the middle and in line with the state nurses’ association. I think a physician’s order would have been appropriate as well.
This case is clearly different from the case in Utah with Alex Wubbels. In that case, Wubbels was taking care of a victim of a car crash, not the person who was arrested for causing the crash. In addition, police had not obtained consent on a body cam because he was unconscious. The nurse in this case could obtain consent but felt that if the concern was the man was intoxicated, then he could not consent.
Again, this case could have easily been resolved with a physician order and I’m not sure why that was not obtained.
It would be nice if hospitals had clear policies and do not put their nurses in these types of position. While nurses want to cooperate with police, they have a duty to protect patient privacy as well.
For those of you that work in the emergency room, do your hospitals have clear policies and procedures in place to ensure that you know when and under what circumstances you can draw blood?
Guest blog by Sandra Risoldi MSN Ed., DNP, RN, CLNC
Some say nursing violence is a part of the job, while others refuse to believe being punched, spit-on, kicked, or verbally assaulted with insults is normal. The subtle increase in violence is affecting not only the morale of nurses and other healthcare workers but also their mental health and safety. Many healthcare workers have spoken with me about how family members and patients threaten their lives or even stalk them from the hospital to their homes. When they would call the police to file a report, their employers have asked them to do it on their own time, and off the clock. The culture of safety in organizations has failed healthcare staff on so many levels from reporting systems to protecting them when their shift ends while walking to their cars.
To add insult to injury, the healthcare worker or nurse has been shunned by other staff members after receiving an injury, whether it be through making them feel worse or guilty for having to leave to be evaluated. More times than not, the facility does not have a hearty float pool, and staffing is dwindling due to the need for sitters. More times than not, even nurses are pulled to watch patients that are in danger of hurting themselves or others. The other nurses that already have heavy patient loads are forced to take on the injured nurse’s patients, and even though they like that nurse, their patience grows thin. Someone will have the violent patient on their already exhausting patient load.
When you have the issue of the acuity not matching the patient load and is habitually occurring, nurses absorb the negative behavior and do not feel supported by the administration or the organization. After some time, it slowly wears down on the nurse and may become indirectly and directly affected. Some identifiers of personal behavior change the nurse may start to see from prolonged stress, are sleep disturbances, heightened awareness, quick temper, and may even see changes in their relationships at home. The nurse and healthcare worker need support and mentorship, especially while working with patients that are addicted and suffering from acute mental illness.
The problem of violence from patients and co-workers has mounted the increase of poor job satisfaction, with the result of high turnover rates. Employers are not only losing quality nurses but also losing money but not addressing the problem. If this makes total sense, this is what we are working on over at Nurses Against Violence Unite, Inc. a non-profit 501 c(3). It was created to give nurses an outlet to express their feelings, join together as a community, and help others that need a safe place to vent. In combination to the free service we offer, we are having a peaceful rally/march coming up August 2nd at 10 am, meeting in Freedom Plaza located in Washington, DC, aimed to End Healthcare Violence. We would love for you to come to join us! For more details about the event and what is to come, join us on Facebook #NursesAgainstViolenceUnite in the group page and experience the revolution.
I am deeply concerned about the status of our health care system. Massive nonprofit hospital systems pay no taxes as they have tax exempt status and they put the profits back into the system to continue their growth.
Health care was originally designed to provide medical care to citizens in our community. Churches and counties then owned the hospital to provide medical care. Yet with the advent of health care corporatization, things have changed.
Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare runs 6 hospitals around Memphis, Tennessee for which 25% of residents live below the poverty line. That hospital system made $2,100,000,000.00 in revenue. They also have their own department that very aggressively pursues collections. From 2014 to 2018, Methodist filed more than 8,300 lawsuits for unpaid medical bills. They were successful in securing orders garnishing people’s wages in 46% of those cases. [click here to read more]
Methodist President and CEO earned $1,600,000.00 in total compensation in 2017.
It concerns me because hospitals were not meant to make money off of sick people. Hospitals are here to provide a necessary service to citizens just like education. It surprises me how aggressive this hospital is in seeking repayment from low income patients. I wonder if these patients have insurance or money to cover it. I thought that Medicaid would cover the 25% of people below the poverty line but to get a garnishment order, they must be working.
We need to define who we are as a society. Is healthcare a right or a privilege? If it is a right, should people have to pay more to subsidize those without? Why is the CEO making a salary of 1.6 million when our school superintendents who supervise our children and large school systems on average make $117,000? These are issues we need to wrestle with and decide if we are a society that provides care for the sick and then sue them to pay their hospital bills or is healthcare a right which everyone deserves regardless of the ability to pay. What are your thoughts? I would love to hear your comments below.
We all have our comfort zone of 72 ̊. When the temperature rises, the air conditioner kicks on. When the temperature drops, the heat kicks on.
We also have the same set point for our weight. While we gain some weight, we lose it to get back to our set point or if we lose weight, many times we gain it back to get to our set point.
This phenomenon is from the reptilian brain which was a relic from the days when if we left our cave, we would be eaten by a tiger or a brontosaurus. It is the fear button.
However, nowadays, the fear button gets pushed even though there’s nothing to fear. Fear is the number one thing that keeps nurses stuck.
We have so many fears. Fear of missing out, fear of failure, fear of success, fear of being a fraud, fearing that we don’t measure up to others, fear that keeps us in analysis paralysis and fear in which we think we need to be perfect and we may not measure up.
But these fears are not real. Consider this. I call fear false evidence appearing real. Fear is simply a relic from the days in which we were going to be eaten. True fear rarely exists in our society these days. Fear is either coming from the past or the future. It is not in the present moment. In the present moment, there is truly really nothing to fear.
As nurses, we get stuck in the fear which is designed to keep us safe and in our comfort zone. Instead, we need to walk past the fear and do the things necessary that may not be comfortable for us to succeed in our business.
I would love to hear your thoughts below where does fear stop you and how you overcome fear?
In 2018, Tina Suckow, LPN, a nurse for over 30 years, had been working at a mental health hospital in Iowa for the four previous years. One day, patient became violent and she was brutally assaulted. She was severely injured and required multiple surgeries. After her FMLA and accrued medical leave had been exhausted, the facility fired her. What a great message for nurses: if you don’t heal fast enough, your job is done!
In addition, workers compensation, the only remedy for Tina to cover her medical expenses, questioned whether some of Tina’s injuries were related to the assault, such as her knee surgery. She was a member of the union but unfortunately the Iowa unions can only negotiate salary.
This result sickens me. It is bad enough that nurses like Tina and others are subjected to violence from patients but when they are unsupported by the facility, I draw the line. This is not right.
Tina is entitled to workers compensation but compensation damages in Iowa pay among the lowest in the nation. Should she be unable to work again, how is she going to support herself?
Do you remember a few years ago when the Texas nurse contract EBOLA? Same thing. Her pay was limited based on workers compensation. Who knows if she will return to the nursing work force while she continues to suffer the long term effects of EBOLA.
No doubt Tina also will suffer long term effects from the brutal beating she received at the hands of a patient.
Things need to change. Facilities need to step up and protect their staff. There was a “turtle shield” that was available to the facility that could help in their situation. However, the staff was not trained on it. The turtle shield is used for crisis intervention and assault management but if the staff is not trained in how to use the shield, it can’t be effective and may cause more harm to the nurse. Proper training is essential or it can exacerbate the injury.
I’m sending my best to Tina and all other nurses who been similarly assaulted while doing their job. And I hope we all can send a message to the facilities that should a nurse be hurt at work, she should receive her full pay and all medical care until she can return to work. And that her job be protected. I would love to hear your thoughts below.
