Theresa Brown, “When No One Is on Call”
“Narcan?” The nurse didn’t have time for that. Caring for eight patients on a busy medical-surgery floor meant that getting through the day’s tasks took up all her time. Half an hour later, though, the patient needed an emergency team to revive her. I held her hand while an anesthesiologist stuck a tube down her throat. She ended up in intensive care.”
That is an excerpt from our friend and past guest Theresa Brown RN; from her opinion piece that was published in the New York Times last Sunday. “When No One is On Call” is a well-written and important eye-opener supporting a recently introduced bipartisan bill to promote adequate nurse staffing in hospitals. All nurses know how important staffing levels are to safe patient care but she really breaks it down in terms of economics but…
“What this discussion of finances misses is that having enough nurses is not just about dollars and cents. It’s about limiting the suffering of human beings…”
Click here to read the article in full.
Theresa Brown is an oncology nurse and the author of Critical Care: A New Nurse Faces Death, Life, and Everything in Between. She is working her second book, THE SHIFT. As she edits her manuscript this fall, she will also be traveling to give some talks, so state tuned to Nurse Talk for updates.
