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Orienting Foreign-born Nurses to Work Effectively in American Hospitals: A Training Manual for Health Educators
This comprehensive tool to train foreign-born nurses to work and adapt successfully is A MUST for nurse and health educators!
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The Do's (and Don'ts) of Getting your Busy Manager's Attention
As many nurses are aware, many managers are extremely busy people with a lot of pressing responsibilities that often keep them away from staff.
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Calling on Managers: Managers can make a Marvelous Difference in Retaining New Nurses
Nurses who express satisfaction with their jobs often cite their relationship with their managers as the reason for their longevity. With retention as a front burner issue, skilled, visible managers are more important now than ever before. Here are five recommendations a manager can implement to keep that new nurse a satisfied, retained nurse!
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Best Practices Newsletter
The Saga of my Fractured Meta-Carpal
August 9, 2008 | by supportfornurses | Permalink
In May, I fractured my hand (meta-carpal, right hand); hence I had my first trip (as a patient) to the emergency dept. Since I have never experienced being a patient in emergency, I braced myself for what I anticipated would be a long wait with a lot of confusion. And, my assumptions were not that far off. Indeed, I was told to wait no matter where I went. Communication between doctor, nurse and various techs left a lot to be desired. At one point, a well-meaning nurse was about to place an IV in my arm, even though an operation had not yet been authorized. The staffing, of course, was a problem; a nurse placed a blood pressure cuff on me and then had to attend to another patient; I had to find her in order to remove it. That was pretty much the scene; people were friendly and polite (which was very nice); it is unfortunate that due to staffing problems, that communication between roles seemed to be minimal.
I quickly became my own patient advocate, asking questions and wanting to get a complete understanding of what was about to happen. Sometimes I received clear answers, sometimes not. What I did learn was that I had to have an operation to place pins in my hand (not fun); but the big issue was when to schedule the surgery. This is where my learning curve truly began. First, I was told that the operation would occur that evening; I was then told—forget that—it would happen the next morning; in fact, I was given an appointment slip with instructions as to how to prepare for a 10:30 surgery: don’t eat breakfast; have someone drive you back and forth to the hospital, etc.
The next morning I called the hospital to confirm the operation, and I was told that my appointment was pre-empted by a trauma patient; (remember, I mentioned that I was a patient at a very busy, big city hospital—lots of trauma patients); I then asked, innocently enough, when I would be rescheduled, and I was told, “I don’t know”; a next question followed: “Can I eat breakfast?” Answer, “I don’t know”. Needless to say, I wasn’t happy with either of those answers. I was then moved to put on my assertive hat; I demanded to speak to someone who might know, like the surgeon who was assigned to operate on me so I could find out when I was going to get the surgery. My demand initially was not well-received; and, quite frankly, I didn’t care. Finally, I was able to speak to an ortho surgeon, and I was told to come in at 4pm that afternoon. I was also told not to eat after 9am; that was no fun, since I was very hungry, and I didn’t know when the actual operation was going to occur.
At 1pm, I called the hospital to confirm that I would arrive at 5pm; the person who answered the phone recognized my voice and my name, and she did something wonderful; she said “come in at 4pm; that way you have a better chance of having the surgery scheduled that evening”. The ‘better chance’ phrase didn’t inspire confidence, but I so appreciated useful advice that could optimize my chances of getting onto that operating table! I followed that recommendation—arrived just before 4pm; the clerk at admitting couldn’t find my name, and I gingerly told her that I had all of the time in the world, because I was not going to leave the hospital until I had surgery, a splint and pain pills. After that exchange, my name was found and that lovely clerk cheerfully escorted me to the section of the hospital where we ortho patients go to get our poor limbs put back together. Everything was fine after that; I actually met my surgeon, had a nurse whom I adored and waited another three hours for the operation. At that point, the wait didn’t bother me; I knew I was at the right place, at the right time and THEY were expecting to operate on me!
The moral of the story: as always, clear, specific communication between patient and medical staff and between staff is optimal. And since nurses (and other roles) are so busy, the importance of being or having a patient advocate is essential. It worked for me; I received real answers, advice, etc. when I took on that role. And now that all is said and done, a big thank you to my talented surgeon, my competent nurse and all of the other support roles who were so helpful in putting my meta-carpal back together again!
Want more good tips and strategies, check out SupportForNurses.com excellent, top quality Tips Booklets! http://www.supportfornurses.com/booklets.php
