Re: future nurse

"RalphRepo" <Alice.BangZoom@Moon> wrote in message
news:umjd12p9i5oeqim6u1ni1fric7lq4tdkt1@xxxxxxxxxx
On Tue, 14 Mar 2006 11:12:29 GMT, "Mortimer Schnerd, RN"
<mortschnerd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

RalphRepo wrote:
I think that eventually, congress is going to be forced to
authorize
some mid level technical bedside care giver to suppliment RN's.
This
would also have the effect of diluting the supply side advantages
that
RN's have had for the last 20 years.


The hospital, recognizing the fact that these people have nothing
more than a
high school diploma, won't pay them ***. And so irregardless of
whether they
can do some of the work for RNs, they won't be lining up at the door
to do the
work.

Besides, most of my work is done with an ink pen. Are they going to
do my
charting? I already have someone to do my baths, vital signs,
getting them up
and feeding the patients. (They don't pay my assistants ***
either.)


If nurses are smart about it, they would take the bull by the
horns,
and organize some sort of action to build the RN ranks according to
their professional agenda; that is, before someone else (like the
AHA
through congress) takes the initiative away from them.


For some reason, I'm just not too worried.

Mort, I agree with all that you've said, but must point out the fact
that for someone who has little education and hardly any job
prospects, doing "hospital" work is a big step above working over a
slop sink, if you can get it.

That said, I recall someone telling me that in Brazil, years ago; many
hospitals used to have one RN. The director of nursing. The rest were
really just aides or nsg students.

My fear is, that there may come a time where the RN is still
responsible for everything, but his or her tasks will be done by
uneducated hands. Can you imagine an aide hanging Chemo? Sounds
insane, but I wouldn't bet against it in this political atmosphere.

Ralph

Don't know who you are, or what your education/experience in nursing
is/has been but much of what you say in your posts seems to have no
bearing on what is currently going on in nursing, especially clinical
settings.

It is very unlikely anyone is going to give a person without a license
and proper education authority to dispense meds,hang IV's or any other
thing coming under that office. Potential for error is too great along
with the consequences of errors. Things were bad enough before the
"nurse Cullen" business, now one has patients and their families
questioning (and in some cases even noting) every single med/IV or
whatever is given and by whom.

As for "taking the bull by the horns" and RNs grouping together
demanding "change"; been there and done that with mixed results.
Californian passed mandatory staffing laws, but no one bothered to
think just where all the nurses would come from to make the thing work
without lots of overtime.

Problem is and has been for quite sometime several competing "ideas"
from various camps of what a "professional RN" is supposed to be. There
are those who believe in total "primary" care where the RN does
everything for her patient, from bathing through treatments even down to
bed making. This they say allows the RN to spend time with her patient,
asses and "diagnose" problems/conditions. The other camp would be the "I
didn't spend four years in college to do......", nurses, who seen the RN
as head of a "nursing team" which may include LPNs, CNAs and other
nursing "technicians". Here the RN will make her assessment and
diagnoses, and plan a course of care for the patient. Here the RN does
meds, treatments, and the "star" work, while aides, and other non-RNs do
the "pillow plumping/bed pan emptying" work.

There probably is a good spectrum between the two camps, but the fact
remains no one to date has managed to come up with one nationwide job
description of what a professional RN does. And because of this you have
nurses frustrated because they want to do the "pillow plumping" patient
care but find they cannot and those who wish to do all the "ER" type
care and find they are still expected to do some "pillow-plumping".

As for pay scales for aides, much depends upon where you live. Large
urban areas, private and for profit hospitals/clinical settings can and
often do pay very well. We're not talking Donald Trump money, but
compared to other positions for comparable education skills, it is not
too shabby.


.

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