Frank.Whitney@p0.f1000.n261.z1.fidonet.org (Frank Whitney) (05/24/91)
Index Number: 15806 >it wasn't a month gone by before they won it, and now nurses like me and >many others would just give their *eyeteeth* to get into even a part-time >position at any of these hospitals, but they're really choosy, and openings >aer few and far between. (I was just looking back on some of what I wrote, I >sure write LOOONG-winded sentences! :) Well, be talkin' atcha. As a quadriplegic who is at the complete mercy of the nursing staff and the personal care attendants I would like to know what are your feelings towards people like me when under a strike condition. From my own experience the nursing staff in rehabilitation hospitals generally are either the best or unfortunately the worst. I know that it is not easy work and if it weren't for the nurses nothing would get done. Also what do you think of nurses that work doubles consistently? When my wife was in the hospital the last time she was being cared for by a nurse that was working a double and she was really spaced out. My wife questioned the medication that she was going to administer and it was for the patient next door. Then on top of that the nurse replied "that if you would have taken it it wouldn't have hurt you." Well, my wife used to work in a hospital environment and the drug wasn't as safe as the nurse had said. That meant that in addition to making a mistake about giving her the wrong medication she also didn't know or lied about the effects of the drug. I have a good friend that is a nurse and I wouldn't want to have her working on administering drugs to me because I have seen out many mistakes she has made as well as her admitting to making mistakes because of being tired. Let's just say inquiring minds would like to hear your position on some of these facts. As I look back I also have written some very long sentences. Best of luck to you and others in your profession. Frank. -- Via Opus Msg Kit v1.12 -- Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!261!1000.0!Frank.Whitney Internet: Frank.Whitney@p0.f1000.n261.z1.fidonet.org
Susie.Lee@f222.n271.z1.fidonet.org (Susie Lee) (05/24/91)
Index Number: 15808
FW> As a quadriplegic who is at the complete mercy of the
FW> nursing staff
FW> and the personal care attendants I would like to know what
FW> are your
FW> feelings towards people like me when under a strike
FW> condition. From
I have an idea I'll most likely be among the traitorous skeleton-crew who
continue to work. I've been involved in and even encouraged nurses-aide
strikes for unionization and taken on the added workload during my shifts
without batting a stressed eye. (during feeding-times, I'd pull all six
feeders around me in a powwow-circle, ferinstance, or go for the frowned-on
double-padding ((as one under another)) to effect less time during
incontinence-changes and still get to everyone. :)
FW> my own experience the nursing staff in rehabilitation
FW> hospitals
FW> generally are either the best or unfortunately the worst.
FW> I know
FW> that it is not easy work and if it weren't for the nurses
FW> nothing
FW> would get done. Also what do you think of nurses that work
FW> doubles
FW> consistently? When my wife was in the hospital the last
I think it's just begging for trouble, breakdown in the worker both mentally
and physically leading to errors that can too-easily threaten the
health-integrity and even the lives of their charges. No good, no matter how
you look at it. Doing doubles shouldn't be tried certainly shouldn't be
forced more than once a week. I oughtta know, I was notorious for it years
ago, myself, but quit that and stick tight and fast to my own rule, now.
And bad-apple nurses are sometimes hard to catch in the act being fairly
good, most of 'em, about covering up their abuses or mistakes, but believe
me, the rest of us hate 'em like the poison they are, just like the good
cops hate having a bad cop in their midst, messing up a hundred good works
with their one bad example!
FW> friend that is a nurse and I wouldn't want to have her
FW> working on
FW> administering drugs to me because I have seen out many
FW> mistakes she
FW> has made as well as her admitting to making mistakes
FW> because of being
FW> tired. Let's just say inquiring minds would like to hear
FW> your
FW> position on some of these facts. As I look back I also
State and federal laws and guidelines for medication administration are
fortunately getting tougher. For omission-errors a facility can be fined
$10,000.00 (that's ten-thousand) per day, and other med-errors are similary
watched-for by weeklyor bi-weekly visits to facilities of a
pharmacist-consultant, and in some facilities he/she is around daily. Most
places these days are up against the wall with these threats to their
business and are tightening up on seeing to a no-errors Medication
administration and each doing more about it, in-house. One thing a
facility-resident can do is bring their problem to the attention of the
administrator or assistant adminiistrator who will swiftly look into it, and
have the erring nurse either re-trained by another more exacting and
dependable nurse, or observed for three days for bettering her technique or
let go of (depending what the situation is). When I was going thru, nearly
17 years ago, my nursing school training, I had it comfortably drummed in my
head "check labeling, dosage, method, patient *each three times*" That means
read the labels three times and be sure, thrice-over what the heck you're
doing each step of the procedure! I think some schools or instructors either
don't stress this near enough, or the newly graduated quickly forget and
fall into bad habits all too easily. Either way, those of us who really care
and sometimes literally worry ourselves sick over our charges are happy each
time we catch a "bad-apple" and put a stop to her or at least her sloppy
practices.
--
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Internet: Susie.Lee@f222.n271.z1.fidonet.orgFrank.Whitney@p0.f1000.n261.z1.fidonet.org (Frank Whitney) (05/31/91)
Index Number: 15890 >it wasn't a month gone by before they won it, and now nurses like me and >many others would just give their *eyeteeth* to get into even a part-time >position at any of these hospitals, but they're really choosy, and openings >aer few and far between. (I was just looking back on some of what I wrote, I >sure write LOOONG-winded sentences! :) Well, be talkin' atcha. As a quadriplegic who is at the complete mercy of the nursing staff and the personal care attendants I would like to know what are your feelings towards people like me when under a strike condition. From my own experience the nursing staff in rehabilitation hospitals generally are either the best or unfortunately the worst. I know that it is not easy work and if it weren't for the nurses nothing would get done. Also what do you think of nurses that work doubles consistently? When my wife was in the hospital the last time she was being cared for by a nurse that was working a double and she was really spaced out. My wife questioned the medication that she was going to administer and it was for the patient next door. Then on top of that the nurse replied "that if you would have taken it it wouldn't have hurt you." Well, my wife used to work in a hospital environment and the drug wasn't as safe as the nurse had said. That meant that in addition to making a mistake about giving her the wrong medication she also didn't know or lied about the effects of the drug. I have a good friend that is a nurse and I wouldn't want to have her working on administering drugs to me because I have seen out many mistakes she has made as well as her admitting to making mistakes because of being tired. Let's just say inquiring minds would like to hear your position on some of these facts. As I look back I also have written some very long sentences. Best of luck to you and others in your profession. Frank. -- Via Opus Msg Kit v1.12 -- Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!261!1000.0!Frank.Whitney Internet: Frank.Whitney@p0.f1000.n261.z1.fidonet.org
Susie.Lee@f222.n271.z1.fidonet.org (Susie Lee) (06/05/91)
Index Number: 15985
FW> >Now I know that sounds somewhat demeaning (to be an adult
FW> with full mental
FW> >faculties and be thought of as a baby of someone elses
FW> Just because they're
FW> >physically careing for them) But this mindset is about the
FW> healthiest and
FW> >best for the benefit of those needing looking-after.
FW> >left out for conveniences' sake,etc. So, I joke, I kid
FW> around, I make some
FW> >of my people laugh or smile, but I Worry over them all
FW> like a broody mother
FW>
FW> Well, the main thing is to make sure that they get good
FW> quality help.
FW> I personally don't want to be babied I just want to be
FW> treated with
FW> respect and a humane fashion. It's nice that you relate to
Well, you're right, I have been and still do work in nursing homes (with an
occasional half-year or eight months in a hospital to brush up on what I
fell behind in) for the better part of twenty years. And for the most part,
the humane treatment comes thru between my example and others on the staff
who think of our people in a similar fashion. About the only times one hears
the giveaway on the inner attitude on the caretakers is when something goes
wrong, say for instance, someone falls thru someone else's inattention, and
assusation comes out in a loudly indignant "What have you done to my baby!!"
(I had to laugh recently when I heard it again, lately, in an exchange
between aides when one resident had got a small scrape during a transfer
from shower-chair-to-bed. I had once chewed out a supervisor in the same way
when a confused favorite of mine wasn't watched closely enuf and had slipped
and hurt herself before help got to her in time...WHoa, was I ever hot! Now
that I'm supervisor myself, I see more than ever that there was no excuse
for not checking frequently enough) well, anyhow! I think as long as there's
no maudlin fawning or outright babifying as such, it's really basically for
the best. Like you said, it's the quality of the care that really counts.
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Internet: Susie.Lee@f222.n271.z1.fidonet.orgFrank.Whitney@p0.f1000.n261.z1.fidonet.org (Frank Whitney) (06/17/91)
Index Number: 16084
My first bed sore was when I was in intensive care following surgery.
I didn't know anything about bed sores so I requested that the nurse
not turn me at that moment well that moment turned into 2 days and I
got a bed sore that took 9 months to get rid of. It was 20 years
before I got another one and that was again because I was following a
doctor's orders that didn't know what the hell she was talking about.
My wife called to say that things didn't look right to her but the
doctor said that is the way it is supposed to look. That sore
required 1.5 years to correct and to surgeries to get me back to where
I could get back to work full-time. Believe me I really learned a lot
from that experience. Now whenever I have to go into the hospital I
have my wife check to see how my skin is doing. We try to leave
nothing to chance.
Frank.
-- Via Opus Msg Kit v1.12
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Internet: Frank.Whitney@p0.f1000.n261.z1.fidonet.orgSusie.Lee@f222.n271.z1.fidonet.org (Susie Lee) (06/17/91)
Index Number: 16086
In a message to Susie Lee <06-01-91 16:13> Frank Whitney wrote:
FW> My first bed sore was when I was in intensive care
FW> following surgery.
FW> I didn't know anything about bed sores so I requested that
FW> the nurse
FW> not turn me at that moment well that moment turned into 2
FW> days and I
FW> got a bed sore that took 9 months to get rid of.
Depending on one's physical condition at the time, these can sometimes occur
even more swiftly than within two days. Many of the poorly-nourished (folk
whom we can't Force to eat better and barely take enuf in to keep their
souls on earth) or some of those with severely compromising conditions like
a diabetic coma onset that happened to my second husband right outta the
blue and had him in intensive care for two days, the first in that diabetic
coma, had developed a three-inch-wide bedsore on the back of his head from
the first tenhours of lying on his back which wasn't `uncovered' until the
lifethreatening coma was overcome. But getting back to the frail and
malnourished, they will also just-as-quickly develope these things within
just as swift a timeperiod, if not sooner yet! For some of them, just the
onset of reddened skin at a pressure point and it's almost already too late
to halt the breakdown before the delicate tissues have a chance to heal.And
so the `rule' is a MUST-reposition at LEAST every two hours, but that's
stretching it for some, and about every hour to 90 minutes is really better.
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Internet: Susie.Lee@f222.n271.z1.fidonet.orgSusie.Lee@f222.n271.z1.fidonet.org (Susie Lee) (06/19/91)
Index Number: 16235
FW> As far as the resident getting a small scrape during a
FW> transfer, I can
FW> see why you would get upset. Whenever I have to go into
FW> the hospital
FW> I'm always terrified that poor care is going to cause some
FW> sort of
FW> problem. I agree with you that the important thing is to
FW> get the
FW> proper care. I would rather have baby me and give me the
FW> proper care
FW> then to just ignore me and my needs.
And so you understand perfectly just what I'd been trying to get at
! Yes, absolutely, the important thing from the resident (or
sometimes victim's) point of view is the quality of care they're
under and that comes in DIRECT line from the *degree* of careing by
those doing the performing! (or supposed to be doing so) And one of
the biggest and most insidious points of neglect that shows are
what's known as bedsores or pressure ulcers. These happen when
someone cannot move about and requires someone else to reposition
them regularly when either in bed or in their chairs and have
painful pressure ulcers develope at areas where the bone presses
against skin. A true carer will see to it that these never get
started beyond the red-skin stage at most. Someone who doesn't care
as much will be content to leave their charges untended, say for
instance on night shift from maybe 12 am until anhour before
leaveing at 6am, by which time a pressure sore is well on it's way
and Then requires many *more intensive* shift work-hours to attempt
to get these healed. In this way a single lazy person being present
just once a week can Make more work for all the others who may be
on in the interim and care more truly. It's better and actually
easier to prevent such things than to try to help get them healed
once begun into tissue breakdown.Just another point of deep anger
that we who Do care hold against those who show they don't by their
inaction. And don't worry, those of us that do vent PLENTY of steam
at those who don't, especially when we catch 'em at it!
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