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Nurses keep up the fight for RN to patient ratios…we should all be very glad they do! We thought we’d check in with our friends in Massachusetts who are working on legislation—so Casey and Dan visit with RN and president of Massachusetts Nurses Association, Donna Kelly Williams. Donna brings us up to speed on current issues—with a central focus on staffing ratios.

Expert says compassion is key. Have you ever witnessed a parent or guardian verbally or physically abuse a child in a public setting? Did you walk away because you didn’t know what to do…or did you intervene? Find out what our expert has to say about what you should do. Cyndy Doherty, executive director of Marin Advocates for Children joins Casey and Dan to talk about what her organization is doing to help and prevent this epidemic. You won’t want to miss her advice and insights.

AND—We’ll have some fun as we continue our look back at callers from the early days of Nurse Talk. Lucille Jones and her cross-country trip with her ill mother. Oh, she was priceless! You can find this and more at Nurse Talk’s Comedy Pharm.

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Nurses keep up the fight for RN to patient ratios…and we should all be very glad they do! We check in with our friends in Massachusetts who are working on safe staffing legislation. Casey and Dan visit with RN and president of the Massachusetts Nurses Association, Donna Kelly Williams.

Donna discusses how critically important nurse staffing legislation has become especially with the increase of for-profit hospitals. It’s “deplorable and patients are at greater risk every single day,” says Williams.

“When for profits are looking to increase profits they look for cuts in front line nurses at bedside…It doesn’t make sense for anyone with any sense of morality at all.”

Based on scientific studies, the MNA advocates for a ratio 4-5 patients per nurse on medical surgical units. Donna also talks about the MNA’s endorsement of U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren, who supports safe staffing ratios on a national level.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 53:43 — 49.2MB) | Embed

Please enjoy this Best of…as Casey and Dan, the nurses usually on duty, celebrate spring break in Mexico with all the college students! Not really, but we thought it was a good visual. Join us next week for all new shows!

On the Show This Week

Nurses keep up the fight for RN to patient ratios…and we should all be very glad they do! We check in with our friends in Massachusetts who are working on safe staffing legislation. Casey and Dan visit with RN and president of the Massachusetts Nurses Association, Donna Kelly Williams.

Donna discusses how critically important nurse staffing legislation has become especially with the increase of for-profit hospitals. It’s “deplorable and patients are at greater risk every single day,” says Williams. “When for profits are looking to increase profits they look for cuts in front line nurses at bedside…It doesn’t make sense for anyone with any sense of morality at all.” Based on scientific studies, the MNA advocates for a ratio 4-5 patients per nurse on medical surgical units. Donna also talks about the MNA’s endorsement of U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren, who supports safe staffing ratios on a national level.

Wait, wait, there’s more…Marin Advocates for Children is with us and we have a new blog contributor, Joyce Hoffman with her Tales of a Stroke Patient. Keep Reading…

I love to have my old hands massaged. Missy was giving me a bath this morning. She always massages wonderful smelling lotion on me after my bath. On days that she feels ok, she massages my hands for a long time with the lotion. It feels so good. It is a treat she gives me.

Today while she was massaging my hands it made me think of my husband, he used to massage my hands at night after I had worked hard in the factory all day, his old arthritic hands, massaging mine.

When he was dying of cancer, Missy used to get in bed with him and massage his back and hands for hours to help his cancer pain. When she would massage his hands he would just smile at her…I will never forget that sight, such love.

One night I was massaging his hands and he told me how beautiful I was. I told him he must be hallucinating. He told me he was sorry over the years he didnt tell me enough. He said, “You know its like living by the beautiful ocean, or by the Grand Canyon, you see it everyday, you forget the ahh of it.”  He said, “I forgot becuase I saw you every day, how beautiful you were…I took your beauty for granted.”

Him massaging my hands, Missy massaging his hands and trying to ease his cancer pain, this morning Missy massaging my old hands. Read more…

[Editor's note: This article is part of the series, The Tales of a Stroke Patient. You can access the other articles here.]

The 27-year-old analysis, including 28 studies of more than 300,000 people, determined there were 8,478 strokes. Depressed people were 45% more likely to experience any type of stroke than those who were not depressed. They were also at 55% increased risk for dying from that stroke.

We have Netflix, and it’s especially useful in the winter when there’s no point in taking a trek outside. I watched “Whose Life Is It Anyway?” last week, sort of knowing what it was about but not realizing the impact it would have on me. (Seriously, I should have known).

The 1980s film features Richard Dreyfuss as sculptor Ken Harrison, who became a quadriplegic after a car accident, and who’s hell-bent on the right to end his life. Also featured are Bob Balaban as a lawyer who helps Harrison achieve his wish for death by stopping the dialysis and being discharged, John Cassavetes as Dr. Emerson, who is determined to keep his patient alive even against Harrison’s wishes, and Christine Lahti as Clare Scott, a doctor who falls in love with Harrison. Read more…

The UAB ER rap was concepted and created by ER nurses for a National Nurses’ Week contest and celebration. UAB nurses and other staff members are featured in the video.

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David Goldhill, a media and technology executive is the author of the Atlantic article, “How American Health Care Killed My Father.” Listen to his story. He asks, “Aren’t we also likely to get worse care in any system where providers are more accountable to insurance companies and government agencies than to us?”

Read the whole article at: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/09/how-american-health-care-killed-my-father/7617/ Read more…

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In my day we didn’t spend a lot of money on medications to cure depression. We didn’t have Zoloft or Paxil. If we complained my mom pushed us outside and told us to get back on the horse. What she meant was, get over it. Never did find that damn horse.

If we started to whine, she would pour herself a glass of red and say, “You kids are driving me to drink. Don’t you listen to Bing Crosby? You know, ‘You gotta Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the positive. Eliminate the negative. Latch on to the affirmative and don’t mess with Mr. In-Between.’ And, don’t get in his car either.”

We didn’t hospitalize people with depression. If someone in the family was acting funny, we locked them in the attic and we waved to them when we backed out of the driveway. And sometimes they even waved back and my mom would say, “See I told you. He’s fine.” We didn’t go to psychiatrists either. No one in his right mind would pay some stranger good money just to complain. We just talked out our troubles to our friends and if they didn’t listen, we talked to strangers.

Now don’t get me wrong, depression is really serious. Read more…

Inside the Dementia Epidemic: A Daughter’s Memoir, is a book by Martha Stettinius of  Syracuse, NY, an editor with a master’s in English Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, she  love’s  language and  she plans to self-publish this important memoir and call to action. She needs financial help to get it on the shelves.

Learn more about Martha’s Kickstarter fundraising campaign, and how you can get acknowledged for your contribution with autographed copies, you or your loved one’s name listed in the book, or a home baked Finger Lakes specialty, the grape pie, made and shipped overnight express just for you.

The following from Martha’s Kickstarter fundraising campaign page:

READ AN EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK.

Why Support This Book Project?

Seven years ago, my mother, Judy, who is living with late-stage Alzheimer’s disease, moved in with me and my young family. I write about the challenges I faced as her dementia worsened, and how I sought help as she moved from her remote cottage on a lake in Upstate New York, to our home in a cohousing neighborhood, then to an assisted living facility, a rehabilitation center when she fell and suffered a fracture, a “memory care” facility for people with dementia, and a nursing home. Read more…

RN Greg Mercer of Arlington, MA has called for a boycott on the State of Arizona in response to the Amanda Trujillo case. He is collecting signatures on change.org, here is the what they say:

BOYCOTT ARIZONA FOR NURSES AND PATIENTS

After multiple invitations to a civil dialogue regarding AZ BON, Governor Brewer has not replied or addressed any of the issues raised. In fact, the only response to date hase been an increase in the seeming intimidation and abuses of power directed at a nurse, Amanda Trujillo, whose seemingly frivolous and abusive case before the Board has languished unresolved for a year to date, leaving her unemployed and impoverished.

Ongoing research suggests serious corruption in both local nursing management and BON functioning, with many serious conflict of interest, intolerably poor accountability and transparency, and a system that allows for and even tacitly encourages abuses of power. All these concerns threaten the ability of Nurses in Arizona to meet their ethical and professional obligations, and thus threaten patient education and safety. Nurse Amanda Trujillo’s case is but one example.
While reasonable people can disagree on the interpretation of the case that led to her firing, no informed person can reasonably doubt that this case shows the regulation of Nursing in Arizona to be inadequate at best, and harmful to the public safety at worst. Read more…