REPOST FROM THE BEGINNING AND STILL TRUE

What Nursing Can Mean--New Followers Re-post

Political Possibilities

POLITICAL POSSIBILITIES

Everyday in the practice of Nursing, I see RISKS. Nurses across the country work in precarious situations, not only a danger to patient safety, but to their licenses and livelihood. These situations occur due to staffing issues and patient acuity. The population is aging and health is deteriorating for many of these individuals. The responsibilities of nurses are increasing everyday and the higher acuities make it worse and more dangerous for nurses to provide even adequate care.

The nursing shortage is already at dangerous levels and is only going to increase. The changes are not occurring rapidly enough and they are rarely directed in the right paths.

I propose and hope to see in my lifetime these changes and I am HOPING that you will HELP me.

A federally funded nursing retirement plan: This could not only improve the influx of people into the profession, but also be a great benefit to nurse retention, especially if it includes past service and years of experience. This could bring nurses back to the bedside; if they were assured of having a dedicated plan for the years of service (Nurses who have left the profession after i.e. 12 years of service come back for eight years and have a full retirement). AARP recently noted that less than 60% of nurses have retirement plans. This federal plan would be portable from job to job. Facilities could enhance retirement benefits or provide other inducements to the profession with the funds currently in use. IF railroad employees, teachers, firefighters, and police officers can have full retirement after 20 years, WHY have nurses been left out? The nurses I have presented this idea to most frequently ask me that question. WHY is this idea not already in practice?

Increased political awareness and interest for nurses. Facilities should have a dedicated position related to nursing politics. I have talked to many coworkers and they agree that knowing more about how their local, state, and federal politicians vote on issues regarding nursing would affect not only their voting participation but how and who they voted for. (i.e. IF you believe patients and families have a right to know what SAFE staffing ratios are and how those ratios affect patient safety and care, in addition to how the facility they are currently admitted to staffs their floors, then a politician votes against a bill that promotes these issues, Would you vote for that politician??).

An agency that monitors the dangers and RISKS that nurses are often subjected to: to have written protocols and standards of what constitutes patient safety in relation to acuity and ratios. (i.e. What constitutes a 1:1 patient, a 2:1 patient, a 4:1 patient???). One that monitors how often those standards are not met and why. How to make it better to keep nurses at the bedside.

National Nursing Licensure

Better Health Care Coverage—since we provide so much of it, it should be a reward.

So much more, these are only a few of the issues I would like to see instituted and implemented and truly believe it will affect the future of nursing. So many agencies and groups protect patient safety and there are no real protectors of nurses and their work conditions. Such an agency will only enhance patient safety. The CAN (Center for American Nurses, part of the ANA) is a start, but so far, no one is really affecting change in workforce conditions, thus the NURSING SHORTAGE.

REPOST--NURSING and what it can mean

WHAT Nursing Can Mean

These are only a few of the pressing issues that need to be improved and examined to waylay the oncoming shortage and the danger this presents to the increasingly sick population coming into facilities around the country. Staffing is an issue unto itself and needs extreme measures and policies implemented to ensure patient safety, satisfaction and the care they deserve. Tied to this is nursing satisfaction. Patient safety and satisfaction decrease with decreased nursing satisfaction. Research has noted that patient mortality and morbidity, that is their deaths, increases with nurses unhappy in their situation. Safe staffing ratios can be found throughout nursing studies; many have shown that a nurse with more than two patients in a critical care area compromises patient safety and care, and the nurses on the floor should have no more than four patients to care for and ensure their safety. Some states have even mandated that hospital units advertise their staffing ratios so patients and families know what they are walking into.

Attitudes are changing; hospitals across the nation are adopting more nurturing and less punitive reactions. Nevertheless, they seem to have missed the realization that as the nursing shortage continues; the value of a skilled and professional nursing staff that feels appreciated is paramount to the stability of any facility. The attitudes unfotunately are still Like it or leave. And Big Clue Here...Guess what is happening?? NURSES will continues to leave this wonderful profession for the same reasons that they have left for the last many decades. NEW NURSES will LEAVE for the same reasons because the issues are not being repaired; the problems with this profession are not being fixed. These newly educated nurses are walking into seriously compromised staffing situations and viewed with many of this younger generation’s work ethic, they will not stay as long as the nurses currently in place. THE DEATH OF THE BEDSIDE NURSE IS WHAT IS HAPPENING... For any who care...

SAFE STAFFING MATTERS: Another Bill and A Great Reason for NURSES to get Involved

REPRINT:

SAFE STAFFING MATTERS: Another Bill and A Great Reason for NURSES to get Involved

Safe Staffing Matters: Patient Deaths, Medication Errors, Slips, Falls, Patient Bed Sores and so many issues can be severely reduced or eliminated with SAFE STAFFING.

GET INVOLVED and PROTECT YOU PRACTICE and your LICENSE

The AMERICAN NURSES ASSOCIATION (ANA) Makes it easy....

This is the letter to support the named bill below, that can be sent to your politicians:

I am writing to ask you to cosponsor the Registered Nurse Safe Staffing Act (H.R. 2083/S. 1132) which would require hospitals to utilize the direct care nurses' experience to work in concert with management to establish staffing plans unique to each unit. This approach recognizes that fixed mandated nurse to patient ratios, although easier to understand, do not acknowledge the complexities involved in delivering safe, quality care.

For years, my RN colleagues have expressed frustration and concern when working chronically understaffed shifts. Safe staffing levels are key to patient safety and nurse retention. H.R. 2083/S. 1132 would hold each hospital accountable to create staffing plans that are truly reflective of patient needs and requires public reporting of the number of licensed and unlicensed staff involved in direct care.

The link between patient safety, outcomes and nursing care is well-established.  According to a 2002 study by Linda H. Aiken, PhD, RN, each additional patient added to the average workload of staff registered nurses (RNs) increased the risk of death following common medical procedures by 7%, and the risk of death was more than 30% higher in hospitals where nurses' workloads were 8 patients or more each shift. Furthermore, research has shown when there are more RNs, there are shorter lengths of stay and fewer complications with resultant reduced costs.

Please help ensure patient safety and cosponsor H.R. 2083/S. 1132, the Registered Nurse Safe Staffing Act today.

Check out this website and get involved:
https://secure3.convio.net/ana/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=451

If You have trouble there go to this site: the American Nurses Association Political Action Committee
http://www.rnaction.org/site/PageNavigator/NSTAT/nstat_ana_pac