Understaffing: A Policy Oblivious to the Unforeseen Swerves of Life and Nursing Shifts
The Roads of Life and Nursing 2019 by Julianna Paradisi
Neither life nor nursing shifts develop in a linear fashion. Both roads are full of unforeseen swerves. I was reminded of this over the weekend while sitting with a relative in an emergency department. Our weekend plans had been put on hold to accommodate this unforeseen swerve in health.
An ED staff under stress.
I couldn’t help but notice the emergency department staff were experiencing their own set of unforeseen curves this particular shift. Although it was early in the evening, to my experienced nurse’s eye they were already exhausted.
When we arrived, the triage nurse was being verbally accosted by two people who’d walked in off of the street, ranting and high, until a trio of security officers intervened. Another nurse hustled between triage and the bay area. A photograph of her young daughter on the reverse side of her ID badge dangled from the lanyard around her neck. Everyone looked tired.
The tricky ambiguities around nurses calling in sick.
Once my relative was confirmed as stable, I revealed to the other nurses that I was a nurse and said I’d noticed how busy they were that shift. […]
