Hipwrecked. Scripting and Rounding. Baking Soda.
This week on our lovely “sheeew”—we talk about a customer service practice that is now being used in the healthcare field. It’s called scripting and rounding. In the corporate world scripting and rounding has been part of the customer service model for giants like Disney, major fast food chains and many five star hotels. Now—healthcare? RN DeAnn McEwen gives us a “spirited” overview!
You won’t want to miss Phyllis Katz. Like any skilled improviser, when longtime performer and director with the famed Groundlings comedy troupe was faced with her insurance company being unwilling to pay six figures to fix her two hips, she improvised. Good-bye, Los Angeles. Hello New Delhi. Phyllis is here to talk with us about her wonderful new book Hipwrecked, My Health Insurance Sucked so I Went to India for Surgery.
And if you haven’t heard the our new segment “In My Day” with comedian Lynn Ruth Miller–you need to. This week Lynn Ruth talks about a favorite all-purpose remedy her mother used: baking soda. Told only as Lynn Ruth could—it definitely harkens memories from the old days!
All-Woman Senate Panel Moves to Ban Viagra. National Nurses. Single Payer in California. Lotsa Laughs
The show begins with Casey, “Dan as you know, we try to shy away from controversy but sometimes a gal just has to speak up. I must comment on the recent congressional hearings on contraception. First of all—I thought that train left the station in the 70’s! And can we talk? The expert panel assembled consisted of all males! “Where’s The Beef?” as our old friend Clara Peller used to say in the famous Wendy’s commercial. Without going into further detail, we wondered what it would be like—if the shoe were on the other foot—so to speak. You know, the deck being stacked to fall the other way?”
AS LUCK would have it—a little research provided us with the perfect opportunity to share just that kind of breaking news. Listen this Saturday as California State Senator Janelle Jones introduces groundbreaking legislation (Senate Bill SB 1240) that moves to criminalize the very dangerous Viagra. That’s right—Viagra. The all-woman senate panel that drafted this bill says there is mountains of evidence that Viagra should be banned! Don’t miss Senator Jones on Nurse Talk!
AND..we have an update on the very active nurses from National Nurses United. Deborah Burger always brings life and humanity to the critical healthcare issues in our country.
We’ll check in with our friend Andrew McGuire. Andrew is the Executive Director of California One Care. Cal One Care envisions a health care system where every child and every adult receives the health care they need, when they need it, and at a cost that is affordable.
For those of you who care to venture to our website blog—I encourage you to read the entries written by Barbara Taylor Vaughan. Barbara is 89 and in the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s. She started a Facebook page to help chronicle her illness and put a face on Alzheimer’s. Barbara hopes educating others will inspire them to volunteer to help ease the suffering of those with the disease, families, caregivers. Her relationship with her daughter and caregiver, Missy, and her compassion and humor are inspirational. You can subscribe to her on Facebook where she has opened her page to offering advice to your questions about life and living with Alzheimer’s “from a little old lady.” Check our Barbara’s latest entry Giggling and Watching the River | Alzheimer’s in the First Person In Barbara’s words: “Well, I want to tell you, it has been a strange strange day. There is nothing so strange as making all your funeral arrangements and talking about your own death…” Read more…
ON THE SHOW THIS WEEK… While we were away patching cracks in the arctic glaciers, our producer dusted off a great show to share with you…or shall we say…re-share? An expert on teenagers, a social studies lesson, a little yoga…stuff everyone needs. Read more… You can listen on the air in Boston and San Francisco this weekend or online, right now, right here! 
Our Hero Barbara. Other Side of the Pond. The Teen Doctor. Nurse Yoga.
Lower Blood Pressure. Laughing Your Way Through a Conference. Critical Care.
RN Deb Gauldin, Laughologist
Have you ever listened to a baby laugh? You know, the kind of laugh that is so contagious YOU start to laugh? Well, who knew laughing was so good for you! We thought we’d reminder ourselves and our listeners that laughter really is the best medicine.
On the show this week we have RN Deb Gauldin, the incoming president of The Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor She is a professional humorist and entertainer specializing in health care morale and women’s well being. Deb joins Casey and Dan to talk about humor and the upcoming 25th annual conference where all they do is laugh and talk, and laugh and talk, and then laugh some more.
Why quit your job as an English professor to become an RN? Theresa Brown did. Before becoming a nurse, Theresa
obtained a Ph.D in English and taught literature. After being an RN for four years, she’s written a book called, Critical Care: A New Nurse Faces Death, Life and Everything in Between. We’ll talk with Theresa about her career and her very interesting and poignant book.
And we share a recent interview (from our friends at Labour Radio) with RN Higgins. Karen addresses questions about the proposed Financial Transaction Tax..50 per $100 ? Wow, so little could raise billions of dollars for vital health care education and other services. Why is this so hard?
Read more about this show. It’s packed!
Patsy Cline. Sputnik. Beatnik. Boston. Compassion.
On The Show: 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.
What about Patsy Cline, beatnik and Sputnick? Read more >
Presidential Hopefuls. Nursing Master’s. Frying in Fresno. What’s So Funny?
Dan and Casey say they have really made an effort to stay away from the presidential primary but sometimes it’s hard. Roll clips of two presidential hopefuls with one having more hope than the other! We’re just sayin’—one of these men might need to look into “anger management.” Just sayin’. Check it out…on the show this week.
AND we talk with Rob Horgan. Rob is a recruiter for the University of San Francisco School of Nursing and Health Professions. Rob joins Casey and Dan in studio (true) to share about the Master’s of Nursing Program USF offers at their Santa Rosa, California campus.
And as the assault on public healthcare workers continues—things are heating up in Fresno, California with major cuts proposed by that county’s Board of Supervisors. RN Mary Morrison joins us to talk about the proposed cuts and how they’re potentially devastating impact on yet another community.
And later we’ll visit with one of our favorite people Karyn Buxman RN, MSN. Karyn is a humorist who really does employ humor in the healing process. She’s here this week to talk about her new book “What’s So Funny About Diabetes.”
Mary Ellen. South Chicago. Pizza Parlor. Multiple Sclerosis.
Photo: Nurses from Chicago’s landslide vote to join NNU
Well, this week we continue with our little walk down memory lane. We’ll hear from a caller named Mary Ellen who by the end of the call was not very happy with us. She recently sent us an email telling us her legs still hurt and we are crackpots!
For more where this came from check out our Comedy Pharm at nursetalksite.com.
Joining Casey (Dan was excused to go to Chuck E. Cheese with seven 8-year olds) is RN Dorothy Ahmad. Dorothy is a CCU nurse at Stroger Hospital in Chicago. Recently registered nurses at Jackson Park Hospital and Medical Center on Chicago’s South Side voted by 85 percent to join National Nurses United, the nation’s largest union and professional association of RNs. The Jackson Park RNs voted 94 to 16 to join NNU.
Casey then visits with Jennifer Gainza, the communications director for the Northern California chapter of the Multiple Sclerosis Society. We asked Jennifer to come on the show and talk with us about MS, the signs the symptoms and current treatments.
We were recently prompted to inquire about Multiple Sclerosis when our Nurse Talk web producer Tonia McCallum’s 20-year-old niece Austyn was diagnosed. Nurse Talk is sponsoring her team. Read more…
Honesty and Ethics. Heel. Toe. Blue Eyes.
Let’s take a little walk down memory lane and listen to some old stories we told when Nurse Talk was first on the air. Not sure any of you remember RN and co-host Maggie McDermott. Maggie comes back to visit from time to time and she always has a story about a funeral she just attended or a “fender bender” that wasn’t her fault. We think these Comedy Pharm clips are at least amusing—funny? Well, that is in the eyes of the beholder!
Moving on—Lost for many observers in last month’s end-of-the-year hullabaloo was the annual Gallup Honesty and Ethics Survey which by a wide margin again ranked nursing as the most honest and ethical profession.The survey found that 84% of Americans believe that nurses have “very high” or “high” honesty and ethical standards. RN and co-president of National Nurses United Karen Higgins is with us to talk more about the survey and what it means for the nurses, health care and social activism.
AND we share a wonderful story from RN, writer JoAnn Spears. JoAnn has generously contributed some stunning blog posts about her life and career as a nurse. On a recent post she describes what she learned from a mute patient in a chronic psychiatric ward. Read more…
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A Personal Account of Alzheimer’s. Donna Smith with a Look Back on 2011. Comedian Lynn Ruth Miller Unplugged and Out of Control. Hiatal Hernias.
Not a surprise that for the 4th year in a row the Gallup Honesty and Ethics Survey again ranked nursing as the most honest and ethical profession by a wide margin. Cheers to the nurses!
On the show this week…Casey reads from a blog post—a first hand account of what it is like to know you have Alzheimer’s written by 89 year old Barbara Taylor Vaughan, Putting A Face on Alzheimer’s. Barbara started a Facebook page to facilitate an open dialog about the disease.
AND…She has been hailed as the “Meryl Streep of nurse activism,” our great friend and D.C. correspondent Donna Smith adds color commentary and perspective to our 2011 year in review.
If there were a radio jail…we’d be in it after comedian Lynn Ruth Miller gets together with Casey and Dan! The bleep button only goes so far. Read more…