Archive for June, 2008
June 24th, 2008
Think as a nurse you can adequately care for your patients while tired? Research shows you can’t. The results of sleep deprivation have effects on both the nurse and the patient’s safety a new study presented at the 22nd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies has found.
Many nurses even turn to early retirement because of the long hours and sleep deprivation. For baby boomers, after 40 years in the business, 12 hour work days and pulling a double shift can start to ware on anyone, let alone a high-stress job like nursing, which can lead to heightened fatigue and sleep deprivation.
Its recommended adults get between seven and eight hours of sleep per night. As a nurse you’re probably laughing at this statistic. Seven hours is probably more like a dream-come-true then a reality.
The study, authored by Jeanne Geiger-Brown, PhD, of the University of Maryland, focused on 2,273 registered nurses. Work schedule variables, including hours per day and per week, days per week, weekends/month, shift typically worked, quick returns (less than 10 hours off between shifts), mandatory overtime, and on-call were analyzed.
According to the results, having inadequate sleep on three or more nights per week is associated with schedule-related poor sleep opportunity. Specifically, shift work, mandatory overtime, and on-call, quick returns, and long shifts increase the odds of having insufficient sleep. The worse the schedule, the worse the sleep for most nurses.
So remember, taking care of yourself is just as important to caring for your patients. Without you being at the peak of health you can’t effectively care for them.
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June 24th, 2008
Let’s be realistic, nurses are the heart and soul of hospitals. Of course the doctors, surgeons, radiologists, phlebotomists and countless others are important, it’s the nurses who tend to the daily needs of the patients.
Nurses are the trusted face of the hospital. When a patient is bed-ridden, scared or alone it is the nurses whom they see on a daily basis and come to know and trust. Nurses are the friendly face, as well as the spokesperson, for the family member of the sick. They relay the important health state of their loved one and assure them of the plan to get them well.
Nurses administer medicine, assist them in walking and moving about, help with their personal hygiene, see to it they’re properly nourished and hydrated and make sure they are receiving the proper care and pain management they require.
Unfortunately, today’s conditions are making nurse’s jobs a whole lot more stressful. Instead of giving the needed attention to several patients per shift nurses are now being required to tend to 8+ patients. This is leading to disgruntled nursing and a nursing shortage epidemic.
Oklahoma in particular is seeing a real shortage. State health officials will have approximately 3,000 few nurses than it will need in four years.
Experts blame the shortage – a major issue in Oklahoma and nation-wide – on retiring baby boomers and a lack of educators to produce new nurses. According to the Associated Press, nursing faculty at college often earn less in the education field then in the clinical setting – meaning being a practicing nurse as opposed to a professor is more financially profitable. Due to a lack of educators Oklahoma had to turn away at least 40 percent of qualified applicants to nursing and allied health programs.
If this is happening in Oklahoma you can rest assured its happening all over the country. Nurses are our caretakers in our time of need, should we not being paying them what their worth? Their skills are priceless. Let’s compensate them and encourage experienced nurses to step into the educational field to pass along their skills and expertise to a new generation of nurses.
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June 23rd, 2008
Nurses in Ohio are standing up for their rights and the rights of their patients. On Tuesday, June 17th Ohio R.N.s descended upon Ohio state house lawmakers, along with patients, to put laws into place that would require a minimum nurse-to-patient ratio.
The law would limit no more then four patients per nurse. A much more acceptable number then the 6-8+ patients many nurses around the country care for in a give shift.
Additionally, the Ohio nurses, sponsored by the National Nurses Organization Committee, want “whistleblower” protection if they refuse unsafe patient care assignments, expose unsafe conditions or advocate for patients protections.
All these instances touch home for many nurses who feel patients care isn’t what it should be, doctor recommendations are always in the best interest of the patients and hospital conditions are less then ideal.
Luckily, Ohio R.N.’s have an ace up their sleeve – State Representative Kathleen Chandler of Kent spoke on their behalf.
The nurses are looking to receive legislative protection so they can act as advocates for the patients rather then for the economic interests of the hospital itself. To help back the nurses are former patients and their families who say they suffered due to the substandard care they received because their nurses were overworked
This call follows the lead of California nurses who fought for improved patient care. This helped end the nursing shortage in California and could potentially do the same for other states if nurses had such protection.
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