Are You a Well Being?

By Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief

A tweet from the UK’s Nursing Times recently caught my eye. It was directing Twitter followers to a post on its Web site, asking what “well-being” meant to them. The post discusses the work life vs. home life seesaw and whether readers’ chosen careers leave them time to enjoy other aspects of life. There’s actually a national well-being debate in the UK, where the Office for National Statistics is seeking public input in developing new measures of national well-being.

We measure well-being here in the U.S. too, with the CDC’s measures of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) index. While noting that “there is no consensus around a general definition of well-being,” the CDC sketches the concept of well-being in the following way:

“. . . at minimum, well-being includes the presence of positive emotions and moods (e.g., contentment, happiness), the absence of negative emotions (e.g., depression, anxiety), satisfaction with life, fulfillment and positive functioning. In simple terms, well-being can be described as judging life positively and feeling good. . . . physical well-being (e.g., feeling very healthy and full of energy) is also viewed as critical to overall well-being.”

Most people I know say they’re working harder than they ever did before. I see single parents and don’t know how they work full-time, deal with childrens’ schedules and needs, and make time for themselves. (I guess mostly they don’t—especially the part about making time for […]

2016-11-21T13:13:41-05:00March 23rd, 2011|career, nursing perspective|12 Comments
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Workplace Violence: Whose Problem Is It?

By Julianna Paradisi, RN

Once upon a time, I was the assured quality (AQ) representative for a nursing unit. I attended monthly AQ committee meetings with members from medicine, pharmacy, laboratory, and respiratory therapy to review incident reports. We developed processes for improving patient safety and work flow. Agenda items changed monthly, except for the paper towel dispenser problem.

The unit had a paper towel dispenser, which operated by a lever. It was noisy, disturbing the patients. It did not hold enough paper towels for 24 hours. Since housekeeping did not staff to fill paper towel holders on night shift, physicians and nurses entering the room found them empty after washing their hands in the morning. This angered everyone, so it went on the AQ committee’s agenda.

The unit needed new towel dispensers. However, the committee could not determine whose job it was to research replacements. No one knew which department was responsible for ordering new dispensers, or whose budget would pay for them. Since there were other agenda items to discuss, every month the towel dispenser problem was “parked” for the next meeting. This continued for the entire time I served on AQ. The problem remained unresolved when I moved on.

Workplace violence toward nurses feels like the “irresolvable dilemma” of the paper towel dispenser. Over the years, statistics […]

2016-11-21T13:13:58-05:00February 28th, 2011|career, Nursing|1 Comment
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When Patient Safety Trumps All: Conversations With the Texas Whistleblower Nurses

Map of USA with Texas highlighted Image via Wikipedia

You may not remember February 11, 2010, all that well, but it’s a date nurse Anne Mitchell will never forget. It was the date she was acquitted of all criminal charges in a case that garnered widespread coverage not only in the nursing world (see our October 2009 report) but in the general media (see the New York Times article).  Mitchell was the Texas nurse criminally prosecuted for filing a complaint with the Texas Medical Board against a physician for unsafe and substandard practices (that board did agree with her). She and a colleague found themselves embroiled in a nightmare in which they were fired, arrested, and indicted. (Charges were eventually dismissed against Vicki Galle and only Mitchell went to trial.)

The case raised questions about a nurse’s professional and legal duty to safeguard patients—and about the strength of whistleblower protections (Texas has a whistleblower protection law).

In a “what goes around comes around” scenario, this past February those who pressed the charges—the sheriff (who was a patient, friend, and business partner of the physician); the Winkler County attorney; the former hospital administrator; and the physician—were all indicted by a grand jury. Ironically, the indictment was partially for misuse of official information, the same charge they had brought against the nurses.

On February 18, I interviewed Mitchell, Galle, and another colleague, Naomi Warren, who also wrote a […]

2018-03-13T10:43:04-04:00February 25th, 2011|career, nursing perspective|1 Comment
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The Real Criminals Here: Justice is Served in Winkler County, Texas, Whistleblower Case

Map of USA with Texas highlighted

By Maureen ‘Shawn’ Kennedy, AJN editor in chief

On January 13, news from Texas let nurses everywhere take heart that, sometimes, the system works. According to a report by the Odessa American, the Winkler County, Texas, officials, Sheriff Robert Roberts and attorney Scott Tidwell, who had filed charges against whistleblower nurses Anne Mitchell and Vicki Galle, have been indicted on felony charges of misuse of official information. The hospital administrator who fired the two nurses, Stan Wiley, was also indicted. For more on the story, which we’ve kept a close eye on since October 2009 in our news reports and on this blog, see this ABC World News article; the Texas Nurses Association also has an archive of the case.

In a separate civil suit against the county, Mitchell and Galle were awarded $750,000. Very excellent.

Why is this so exciting and significant? The case outcome supports nurses who raise concerns about unsafe patient care and upholds the nurse’s right—duty, really—to advocate for patients. Hopefully, the nurses’ victory and the award from the civil suit will give pause to those who think they can intimidate nurses who are acting on good conscience and within legal and ethical boundaries.

Kudos to the courts for realizing who the real criminals are.

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2016-11-21T13:14:20-05:00January 17th, 2011|nursing perspective|2 Comments
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An NP Prepares: Calling All Nurse Mentors

Well, I’m here to tell you, from the evidence gathered in my own laborious, and mostly fruitless, job search, that archaic ideas about the ease of finding a position as a nurse are dead wrong.... A seasoned professional or trusted peer is crucial in providing helpful advice, guidance, and inspiration.

2016-11-21T13:14:23-05:00January 7th, 2011|career, students|4 Comments
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Views expressed on the blog are solely those of the authors or persons quoted. They do not necessarily reflect AJN’s views or those of Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
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