The hospital put up posters in the elevators advertising their need for volunteers. This colorful poster shows a smiling, happy volunteer as she assists a smiling patient...very nice photo. It describes some of the things volunteers help out with and then makes the statement, "Volunteering is the greatest job you'll never get paid for!"
Is just me, or is that statement not very motivating?
Thursday, June 30, 2011
All in a Day
I see a lot of interesting or even heartbreaking things within a day at the hospital. Here's a sample of things I witnessed just today...
Caring for crazies - a patient in intensive care sat in her bed mumbling on and on, words that were seldom coherent. Her hands and feet restrained, she began kicking the foot of the bed fiercely in an attempt to escape. Her nurse was able to calm her thankfully. I couldn't help but think that in former times people would have assumed such a person was possessed. Today though, we have more knowledge of things like mental disorders, drug withdraw, ect.
Letting nature take its course - a patient was brought into the ICU from another floor. His health was failing and the doctors realized there was little more they could do. I watched as a family member signed a waiver agreeing to "let nature take its course".
The man with the robot voice - I was a bit startled when I heard a very distinct tin-sounding robot voice coming from the hall. Peering out of the room I had been cleaning, I saw that the sound was indeed coming from a patient. There was obviously something wrong with his throat or vocal cords. He would press a device to his mouth that transmitted the vibrations into actual sound, though the result sounded very artificial. First thought, I'm so glad I have my voice. Second thought, it's wonderful they've created devices like that to help people.
Begging and sobbing - I heard and saw a woman running through the hall, talking on her cell phone and sobbing loudly. She was talking to her mother apparently (not that I was eavesdropping, but seriously everyone could hear). It wasn't a show. It was the sound of true despair and distress. Stuff like that always pulls at my heart, especially when there's nothing I can do about it.
Well...tomorrow is office day so it shouldn't be as exciting. However, that's actually okay with me.
Caring for crazies - a patient in intensive care sat in her bed mumbling on and on, words that were seldom coherent. Her hands and feet restrained, she began kicking the foot of the bed fiercely in an attempt to escape. Her nurse was able to calm her thankfully. I couldn't help but think that in former times people would have assumed such a person was possessed. Today though, we have more knowledge of things like mental disorders, drug withdraw, ect.
Letting nature take its course - a patient was brought into the ICU from another floor. His health was failing and the doctors realized there was little more they could do. I watched as a family member signed a waiver agreeing to "let nature take its course".
The man with the robot voice - I was a bit startled when I heard a very distinct tin-sounding robot voice coming from the hall. Peering out of the room I had been cleaning, I saw that the sound was indeed coming from a patient. There was obviously something wrong with his throat or vocal cords. He would press a device to his mouth that transmitted the vibrations into actual sound, though the result sounded very artificial. First thought, I'm so glad I have my voice. Second thought, it's wonderful they've created devices like that to help people.
Begging and sobbing - I heard and saw a woman running through the hall, talking on her cell phone and sobbing loudly. She was talking to her mother apparently (not that I was eavesdropping, but seriously everyone could hear). It wasn't a show. It was the sound of true despair and distress. Stuff like that always pulls at my heart, especially when there's nothing I can do about it.
Well...tomorrow is office day so it shouldn't be as exciting. However, that's actually okay with me.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Firing Nurses Isn't Groovy
So the hospital I work at is one of many owned by the Hospital Corporation of America or HCA. And recently, more and more HCA hospitals are becoming unionized. Our hospital became unionized last fall and the unions are still working on our initial contracts to begin changing working conditions. Anyway...there are two unions involved: National Nurses United is for RNs and 1199SEIU for all non-RN staff (people like me). Both of these unions frequently post flyers in our break rooms to notify us of what is going on in bargaining or in other unionized hospitals around the country. Today, one such flyer caught my eye...
This flyer said that in an HCA-affiliated hospital in Texas, seven nurses were recently fired. The reason? These nurses worked in the ICU and they refused to accept an additional assignment that in their professional judgment was unsafe.
Hospital management demanded the nurses, who in the ICU provide constant care for the hospital’s most severely ill patients, take on additional duties of temporary charge nurse, who make clinical assignments for patients and staff on the floor, and code team assignments, which can require them to rush to other hospital floors to assist with patients – leaving their own ICU patients and their ICU charge duties behind.
In addition, when the chief nursing officer was notified by email of HR's decision to threaten termination of the nurses, his response was, "Groovy". So today, RNs at the hospital where I work were passing out stickers that read: "Firing Nurses isn't groovy". Sounds like they might be wearing these stickers to the next union bargaining session.
This flyer said that in an HCA-affiliated hospital in Texas, seven nurses were recently fired. The reason? These nurses worked in the ICU and they refused to accept an additional assignment that in their professional judgment was unsafe.
Hospital management demanded the nurses, who in the ICU provide constant care for the hospital’s most severely ill patients, take on additional duties of temporary charge nurse, who make clinical assignments for patients and staff on the floor, and code team assignments, which can require them to rush to other hospital floors to assist with patients – leaving their own ICU patients and their ICU charge duties behind.
In addition, when the chief nursing officer was notified by email of HR's decision to threaten termination of the nurses, his response was, "Groovy". So today, RNs at the hospital where I work were passing out stickers that read: "Firing Nurses isn't groovy". Sounds like they might be wearing these stickers to the next union bargaining session.
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