The Little Superstitions of Nurses
The nurses I work with don’t discuss superstition any more openly than they discuss spirituality or religion. Most of us, however, have certain notions that we recognize and quietly adhere to.
What Lies Ahead? AACN Presidents Weigh In on Health Care Reform, Rapid Response Teams, and More
By Shawn Kennedy, AJN interim editor-in-chief
On my last day at the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses’ annual meeting last week in Washington, DC, I had a chance to speak with both Beth Hammer, whose term as president ended with the meeting, and Kristine Peterson, the new president. Our conversation ranged from how they felt about being president of such a large nursing organization to their views on health care reform and how rapid response teams are affecting the work environment of critical care nurses. You can hear the conversation free on AJN’s Web site: go to the Podcasts tab and click on Conversations. Or just click here (the download may take a minute or two).
And don’t miss my first post from the exhibit hall floor at the meeting (the National Teaching Institute & Critical Care Exposition, or “the NTI”) and my second post on a conversation with a critical care nurse about a bad staffing practice, which seems to have hit a nerve!
Prospects for New Nurses: Thoughts on Graduating during a Downturn
By Christine Moffa, MS, RN, AJN clinical editor
Impending graduation is usually a happy, exciting time, especially for those who, after putting in years of hard work, are finally about to get that college degree. In the mid-1990s I was in what I considered to be a pretty tough nursing program. For example, during my second semester of core classes we went from 30 students to 19; the drop-off was due to students failing out. Graduation couldn’t come fast enough.
However, when you find out that people who graduated one and two semesters before you are still looking for work, it can be a real buzz kill. That’s how it was for me in May 1995. During that time several hospitals were going through restructuring or reengineering (as this AJN article reported) and were replacing RNs with UAPs. It was next to impossible for a nurse without at least a year of recent experience to find a job in a hospital. Now, as a result of the recession, new graduates are facing a similar situation. It took me almost a year to get my first job—and this was not without some sacrifices: I had to relocate from New York to Miami and work the 12-hour night shift.
It ended up being worthwhile, but it was one of the hardest years of my life and potentially could have turned me off of nursing forever. Has anyone else out there had a similar experience? What […]
‘Go Home, Stay, Good Nurse’: Hospital Staffing Practices Suck the Life Out of Nurses
By Shawn Kennedy, AJN interim editor-in-chief
After I last wrote to you from the NTI (the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses’ annual National Teaching Institute and Critical Care Exposition), I headed back to the exhibit hall to check out the helicopter and the Army’s mobile operating tent. But I didn’t get to either one, because I met a young critical care nurse from a regional hospital in Missouri. We chatted about her workplace, and it was obvious that she was very proud of the work she and her colleagues did. When I asked her, “What’s your biggest issue?”, she said that it was probably staffing. I expected her to cite the shortage and the difficulty of finding qualified critical care nurses. But that wasn’t what she meant—rather she was talking about bare-bones staffing because of tight budgets. Her hospital routinely switches between two tactics: it sends nurses home when the patient census is low (when this happens, the nurses are paid only $2 an hour to be on call, but must still use a vacation day to retain full-time benefits, a tactic that rapidly depletes their vacation time); or, when the patient census is higher, the hospital imposes mandatory overtime, creating havoc in nurses’ schedules, finances, and personal lives. And people wonder why there’s a nursing shortage! […]
Thousands of Critical Care Nurses, a Helicopter, and More! AACN’s National Teaching Institute & Critical Care Exposition
By Shawn Kennedy, AJN interim editor-in-chief
I’m writing to you this morning from Washington, DC, where I’m attending the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) 2010 National Teaching Institute & Critical Care Exposition (known simply as “the NTI”). I’m probably miscounting, but I think this might be my 15th visit to the NTI. I first attended when I was an ED staff nurse at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. I marveled at the hundreds of nurses who attended from all across the country. It was energizing and inspiring and overwhelming, and I learned a lot.
Now, it’s not just hundreds but thousands of nurses who attend the NTI, and they come not only from states across this country but also from around the globe. It’s still energizing, and there’s no doubt I can still learn a lot. Throngs of nurses have crowded the sessions, so much so that it’s hard to remember there’s a nursing shortage; but critical care nurses are still much in demand, and representatives from many hospitals—as well as from all branches of the military—are manning recruitment booths. The exhibit hall is still overwhelming: this year there are more than 500 exhibitors and the exhibits include a Life Flight helicopter, a couple of full-size buses equipped as classrooms or EDs, and a fully-equipped military emergency treatment tent.
I’ve attended some very good sessions and a couple of clunkers—a better ratio than I’ve found […]