There are bound to be calls for formal inquiries after the long-term care horror show discovered in Ontario and Quebec, and quite likely on its way to being discovered in other provinces. This isn’t actually what Canada or any Canadian province needs, though. We already know what led to the
Continue readingTag: Nurses
Trashy's World: Will Ontarians gamble on the future of their health care?
Harris fired 6,000 nurses when he was Premier. What’s the over/under with Timmy? Timmy Hudak. He’s in over his head. (1) Trashy, Ottawa, Ontario
Continue readingPolitical Eh-conomy: Working class disarmed, Canadian redux
Looking at the prevalence of strikes in the US over the past six decades, Doug Henwood writes, Second Amendment fetishism aside, there’s an old saying that the working class’s ultimate weapon is withholding labor through slowdowns and strikes. By that measure, the U.S. working class has been effectively disarmed since
Continue readingThose Emergency Blues: “We Don’t Care What’s On Your Head. We Care What’s In It.”
So there’s this thing in Quebec which I’m sure my Canadian readers have heard of and maybe also a few of my American readers, which involves the Quebec government devising some legislation called the Charter of Quebec Values. I have to say “charters” and “values” are nice happy positive words,
Continue readingThose Emergency Blues: Best. Comment. Ever.
Blog reader “Sarah” REALLY gave me a big old can of whoop-ass when she wrote something on my blog post “The Value of Nurses” She really schooled me! So take it away “Sarah”! Nursing is critical to patient health and recovery. Nurses are responsible for the day to day care
Continue readingAlberta Diary: One single Alberta government bargaining agency is likely to end badly for Redford PCs
Premier Alison Redford, in lab coat, centre, and her Progressive Conservative cabinet get ready to bring Consolidated Bargaining to life. Actual Alberta politicians may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: Albert Einstein, the well-known genius, and Charles Darwin, who gave us the idea for the Political Darwin Awards. Chances are
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: Let’s Make Our Hospitals Healthy Places!
Richard Hub Hughes-Political Blogger A report released today outlines policies that will require nurses to take flu shots, or wear a mask! Hello! Why wouldn’t shots for all health workers be mandatory? Actually while we are on this topic here are a few more examples of how to reduce sickness
Continue readingThose Emergency Blues: Charge Mommy
A few days ago, one of my colleagues said to me after a particularly frantic day in the ED, “You guys aren’t Charge Nurses, you’re Charge Mommies.” She is right. This is what we do: tell all the kids don’t fight and play nice fix boo-boos give hugs as needed, or
Continue readingThose Emergency Blues: Treat the Patient Not the Disease
Abscesses and wounds, and especially abscesses and wounds which are infected, suppurative, purulent, and generally awful, are embarrassing for patients and difficult for nurses. Embarrassing for patients because they are disfiguring and smell badly, and difficult for nurses for really the same reasons. Personally I don’t mind caring for and
Continue readingThose Emergency Blues: How Nurses Practice
Working on a PowerPoint presentation, and did up this (yet to be formatted) slide: Which column do you think represents the current state of nursing practice? Filed under: Good Nursing Practice is Practising with the Heart and Mind, Nursing Naval Gazing Tagged: good nursing practice, Nurses, Nursing
Continue readingThose Emergency Blues: We Get No Respect
From Ian Miller at ImpactedNurse.com, a few thoughts on under-utilized and under-recognized senior nurses who are leaking out of the profession: Nursing has few opportunities for promotion and recognition of senior expertise within the clinical setting. How often have you watched senior (and I’m talking about years of experience here) nurses
Continue readingThose Emergency Blues: When the Police Come Calling
The police are more-or-less a permanent fixture in every Emergency department. They bring in the drunks, the suicidal, the psychotic, the homeless and yes, the criminal, who have either sustained injuries as a result of their activities, or else have developed sudden (and convenient) cardiac symptoms upon their arrest. Most of
Continue readingThose Emergency Blues: Do Not Fold, Spindle or Mutilate the Nurse
An unpleasant, no, ugly and unfortunate situation at Victoria General Hospital is preventing a woman from seeing her son. From the National Post article: A 73-year-old woman who travelled to Victoria from South Africa to care for her seriously ill son has been banned from Victoria General Hospital after she
Continue readingThose Emergency Blues: Epic Hitler Emergency Department Charge Nurse Rant
I never thought I’d use the words “Epic” and “Hitler” and “Emergency Department” and “Charge Nurse” and “Rant” as a blog title, but what the hell. I was bored one night and thought it would be fun to make a Hitler rant parody. Filed under: What Passes for Humour Around
Continue readingThose Emergency Blues: A Nurse Contemplates Leaving the Profession
Dinner last night with an old friend who toils in the mines of Labour and Delivery. She has worked there for four years. She told me of an incident not too long ago working the night shift, faced with a post-partum patient who was bleeding, hypotensive, and tachycardic, in short,
Continue readingThose Emergency Blues: Saved by Words for Friends
Ok, we’ve both been out of commission for a couple of weeks. Our Miss Jean Hill, bright future of the nursing profession and co-blogger extraordinaire, has a computer which has suffered last week the CPU equivalent of a massive cerebral bleed and maybe ethanol withdrawal too; the computer has since recovered, but
Continue readingThose Emergency Blues: Guest Post: How We Can Fix the Malaise in the Nursing Profession
Nurse Practitioner (Photo credit: ekea7) by Amanda Trujillo If the newer generations of nurses out there are more confused than ever about their roles in healthcare — they should be. I’m one of the newer generations of nurses and I — AM — CONFUSED. Seriously. Think about it. We are taught
Continue readingThose Emergency Blues: Fat Nurses Need Not Apply Revisited
More on the Texas hospital, Citizens Medical Center, which banned fat people from being hired. Citizens Medical Center, you might remember, made it policy to exclude new hires with a body mass index >35, and explicitly stated employees appearance should “fit with a representational image or specific mental projection of the
Continue readingThose Emergency Blues: Nursing Week Ain’t What It Used to Be
My Nurses Week joy was shattered last night when the son of a patient reamed me out for discussing the patient’s condition and treatment plan — wait for it — with the patient. He thought his father, who was a rather elderly but very independent and shrewd man who still
Continue readingThose Emergency Blues: Nurses Practice Beyond Their Scope — And It’s Not a Bad Thing
A very good, if obvious, idea on the use of RNs: nurses should be used to the full extent of their abilities. From the Toronto Star (and kudos to the paper for their Nursing Week insert in Saturday’s edition): “The bottom line is that we’re wasting valuable resources with our
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