That extra mile

When do you want to go that extra mile for a patient? Or more accurately I should say 'why' do you go that extra mile?

It's not a big deal, in fact it can be quite small, but doing that bit extra can be as simple as forking out 50 cents for the old fella in room 1 who hasn't got money for his morning paper.

It may involve rounding up four nurses on a busy morning to help one patient to the shower who's been bed sponged for the last month.

It may be phoning up a patients neighbor to make sure their pets get fed.

The list of extra things we do is not always part of the job description, but we do them anyway. We do them because it is not just right, we do them because it feels right.

But there's one thing I've noticed about the people for whom I do the extra things.
They're not demanding. They're often old. They're really nice to the people looking after them. They appreciate what we do for them.

Their only fault is that they sometimes suffer in silence because they don't want to be a burden.

They're not rude, obnoxious, demanding, threatening or abusive.

It pays to be nice. And we appreciate your appreciation. You see, we like to go that extra mile.

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keep your clothes on

She was every man's worst nightmare, at least to work with. She was eighteen years old with wavy blonde hair, blue eyes, a perfect figure, but worst of all, she knew she was a knockout and knew how to use it.

I gotta say something, I can't keep looking at the ceiling. Hell, the low seating sure doesn't help. I'll have to say something. Not sure if it's appropriate, but it's making me uncomfortable.

"Chloe, this is getting ridiculous, please cover yourself" I demanded.

"Why sir? What on earth is wrong" Chloe flicked her hair and beamed a smile at me.

"It seems you've never learned to dress yourself properly. Your blouse is half undone, the top half that is, and everyone can see your chest" I explained.

Chloe made no effort to cover herself "It's awfully hot sir, just getting some fresh air" Chloe's smile was definitely looking predatory.

"Chloe, do I have to call your father and tell him you can't dress properly? I'm sure your assets work well with the rest of mankind, but in my health center you're going to dress properly." Chloe still didn't make an effort to do up her top.

It was time to cruel. Cruel to be kind that is. "And besides Chloe, as a nurse I've seen more breasts than you can imagine, and much more memorable ones."

Chloe quickly buttoned her top up.

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Let's get constuctive, not destructive

In New Zealand some Maori folks like to call the health system racist. They say their needs aren't being met.

Now let's just think about this a moment.

1. Some individual people may be racist, but how can you call a system racist when all it tries to do is help the sick.

2. No system is perfect, and people from all backgrounds probably feel at some stage or another that their local hospital doesn't quite meet their needs.

3. How is calling the system racist help anyone? Think about it a bit. Whether it's meant to or not, all talk like this is going to do is make a lot of good, caring, hard working nurses upset. Nurses take this personally, at least every single nurse I've worked with does.

4. Wouldn't it be more constructive to say "Hey, we've got a big problem with whatever..." be it with drinking, smoking, diet, access to health, heart disease etc. And then say "What can be done to solve these problems?"

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The solution really is simple

One hundred patients through our emergency room door was a very busy day for us. Hell, eighty through our doors was busy enough. I've since moved on from my busy, challenging, exciting little hospital, and I'm relieved I have.

I loved the emergency room. The staff, the challenges, he excitement. But now we easily see 150 plus 4-5 days a week. They've added a new nurse position to help with the extra work load.

It's six years since I last worked there, but I keep in regular contact with the few old friends I've still got there.

95% of the original, experienced staff I worked with have left. The new staff last about 2-3yrs on average.

Total burnout plus fear of screwing up due immense workload = Run for the hills.

The hospital has a budget it can't go over. The government has set aside 13 billion for expected legal expenses due to litigation.

What if six billion of this was spent on adequate staffing. I'm pretty sure you'd save at least as much as you spent.

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NZ's racist healthcare system

The New Zealand health system isn't immune, and I bet the States isn't either, or the Australian. You see, we've all got something in common. We've either got an indigenous people, or at the very least a group of people who migrated to our respective countries before us white people did. This means you probably have a racist healthcare system. At least that's what the maori tribes in NZ are claiming. In fact some Maori elders claim there should be a separate health system because the current one is so racist.

Can someone please explain what a racist health system is?

I've looked after nearly every nationality in the world, and I treat people all the same, even the assholes and other less deserving (whether or not you think there are people less deserving is another argument we can save for another time.) I've treated white skinned people, brown, yellow, black and even a blue person once.

I've treated the very old to the newborn and everthing in between. I've looked after the foulest criminals to priests, monks, and judges. I give them all great care. But when the Maori tribes call the health system I work in racist, you're in effect calling me racist, and I'm a bit unhappy about this.

The NZ health service is free, meaning it's funded by the goverment and everyone has equal access. That sounds pretty fair to me.

Sometimes a Maori patient will get angry becuase we won't allow a dozen of more relativies in to visit, or we sometimes limit their visiting hours. In Maori culture family is an important part of healing, so when we ask all the relatives to leave, they say it's racist. I think it's racist, or at least very narrow minded for the Maori family to think that they are the only people who considers family an important part of healing.

I sometimes say it's not fair on the other three patients in the room who need to rest. The Maori family will say 'Give us a single room then'. In my hospital, single rooms are reserved for the seriously ill, and you should be thankful you're not in a single room. They then complain and call me racist. I say we have limited resources and we do the best we can. I try to be as tolerant as I can of your special needs, but the other patients have special needs as well, and sometiems these cannot be accomadated. A bit of tolerance goes a long way when your a patient or family member.

I don't want to generalise, and in fact most patients I care for, no matter what background, are very happy and grateful for the care they recieve. The problem seems to be with the upper hierachy, that is the tribal leaders. Of course it's the tribal leaders that are on television and the local news. I hope it's just these leaders getting worked up and not the general maori population.

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Is American Healthcare better than mine?

Again, I've been careless and raising my blood pressure by listening to Fox News. As the debate over government funded healthcare rages, fox news decided to support their ideas by saying the british health system is a disaster as well as the canadian public system. They may as well have attacked my new zealand system because we have a natinal health service.

Naturally they highlighted some individual disasters where people have suffered because of a public system, but it's easy to find examples to suit your argument, both for and against. Do you americans with good health insurance still have bad experiences? Of course you do.

Here in NZ everyone has free hospital healthcare, but if you can afford it you can pay for private healthcare. It seems to work. Whether I work in NZ, Britain, Australia, we all seem to deal with the same problems. We deal with the same people, the nice, the bad, the rich and the dirt poor. We deal with the same conditions, the strokes, the MI's, the trauma. From the american nurses I've worked and shared experiences with, it seems we all end up dealing with exactly the same stuff.

One thing which is interesting is that waiting times in British ER's are substantially less than that in most American systmes? Fox news didn't bother to mention that.

Anyway, I realise there is a lot more to and against this argument, but that damn Fox News is so bloody frustrating. I haven't actually heard any news from them, only one sided, uninformative and insulting comments to support their own agenda.

Tell me what it's like to nurse in America.

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