Web Crawl: Unprofessional Workplace Behavior Irks Nurses; APNs Seek Primary Care Rights; Whistleblowers on Trial; More

Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, AJN interim editor-in-chief

I spend a lot of time checking various web sites for news or new information nurses need to know, for interesting items for blog posts or articles, or for trends that may be coming down the pike. Here’s some “food-for-thought” items I found in my recent web crawls:

On nursingworld.org, the American Nurses Association, in a recent poll, asked site visitors if they had been “a target of unprofessional behavior” in the workplace. A startling 82% of respondents said yes. While “unprofessional behavior” was not defined (when you think about it, it could be any number of things, ranging from gossip and practical jokes to bullying and unwanted sexual advances), the fact that so many people feel this way deserves further exploration. What about you? What have you seen on your unit that might fit this category of “unprofessional behavior”?

Vindy.com, an Ohio news outlet, reports that advanced practice nurses (APNs) in the state want more recognition and freedom to practice. According to the article, the Ohio Association of Advanced Practice Nurses (OAAPN) is seeking legislators to remove restrictions that prevent them from heading the medical home models of primary care. Currently, physicians must be the designated head of the medical home. (See our article on this.)  Jacalyn Golden of OAAPN said APNs “have proved themselves since they began providing primary care in 1965.” Amen.

Remember the “Sentosa Nurses,” the nurses from the Philippines who became embroiled in prosecution after they quit en masse from New York nursing […]

2016-11-21T13:20:12-05:00January 14th, 2010|Nursing|4 Comments

Nurse Whistle-Blowers Pay Heavy Price For Doing the Right Thing

By hellosputnik, via Flickr By hellosputnik, via Flickr

Late Friday afternoon I spoke with Clair Jordan, the executive director of the Texas Nurses Association. Jordan and others at the TNA have been working in support of two Texas nurse whistleblowers, Anne Mitchell and Vicki Galle, who in June were fired from their jobs, arrested, and indicted on third-degree–felony criminal charges, Jordan said. Mitchell and Galle had filed an anonymous complaint with the Texas Medical Board against a physician at their workplace, Winkler County Memorial Hospital, in Kermit, Texas. The nurses believed the physician to have acted in ways that jeopardized patient care; the complaint, in documenting examples of this care, identified patients by their case number. The physician complained; the local sheriff investigated; charges were filed; the nurses lost their jobs. […]

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