credit: MissLPS

A Melbourne Nursing Home received a stern warning this week by the Fair Work Ombudsman over what has been described as a “heartless and shabby treatment” of one of their longstanding aged-care nurses.

The Nursing Home has been placed on notice, and will be monitored closely to ensure that it stays compliant with workplace laws after an incident involving the Nurse.

Here’s the lowdown: while at work, an aged-care nurse fell and broke her hip. After seven months of recovery at home, she was basically told not to come back to work, thank you very much.

What’s intriguing and puts a new twist on this story is the age of the nurse – she is a spritely 74 years old.

More injustices came to light when Fair Work inspectors looked further into the situation. From the article at News.com.au:

“The nurse did not believe she had received her full entitlements on termination and complained to the Fair Work Ombudsman.

When a Fair Work inspector first contacted the nursing home, it initially denied that the complainant had been employed there. However, after demanding to see employment records, inspectors subsequently found the nurse had been underpaid annual leave and long-service leave entitlements and for some hours worked.

The company has now reimbursed the nurse almost $30,000.”

My question therefore, is this:

• How much of this has to do with the Nurse’s age? Would a younger worker have received the same treatment?

Additionally, how old is too old to look after ‘aged care’ patients?

From my own foray into the world of aged care several years ago, I know that some patients in Nursing Homes are actually younger then the 74 year old Nurse. Conversely, you also find 90year olds who are living quite happily on their own in the community, so I guess it depends on each individual.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this story?

credit: Bennett 4 Senate

It’s been a while since I dealt with maggots, but an experience I had this week reminded me why maggots feature so highly on the gross-o-meter. Quite a few maggot stories were submitted by readers in our recent Cringeworthy Competition also, so it appears I’m not alone in dealing with this crazy phenomenon.

The Scenario:

Elderly guy, some social issues, lives alone. Found on the floor out in a shed, unsure exactly how long he had been there. Brought into emergency by the ambulance guys, legs wrapped up in old towels.

Prior to my taking over his care, he had spent some hour+ in the shower with nursing staff trying to rid him of the incredible smells that were emanating over the entire department, with minimal success.

As I entered the bay where the man was lying, I could see some flickering movements on the floor by some of the miniature, writhing escapees – obviously they could sense what was to come & were desperate to make a break for it.

Now I’m pretty good at dealing with noxious gases and crazy hospital smells, however when I pulled back the sheets I could almost feel a gag coming on – not only did he have an ulcerated wound the size of his fist in his lower leg with tibia + tendons exposed, but inside this wound were literally hundreds of fat, writhing maggots. This wound was creating some crazy, off the chart smells that caused several people to collapse unconscious (nearly!)

Ouch!
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In my quest to build up a better page of Research & Resource links for nurses and allied health professionals, I’d like to mention a recently added and relatively new online resource called TheHeart.org

TheHeart.org has a tagline of “10 Years of Online Cardiology”, and appears to be a rather extensive resource platform for all things cardiac related.

The Heart is owned & produced by Medscape (one of my favourite online resources), but has a distinct focus on recent articles, trends and research in the world of cardiology. In particular, there is a focus on providing information on caring for people with disorders of the heart & circulation, and on disease prevention.

While most of the information appears to have originated in the Americas, I will say that the information and research is certainly applicable to medical & nursing professions worldwide, and many of the articles are great for any cardiac related study or research that you may be involved in.

Registration is free for healthcare professionals, & main topics generally revolve around specific cardiology themes such as ACS, Arrhythmias, Heart Failure, Hypertension, Thrombosis etc.

A few sample articles (may have to register before you can view):

• Prehospital triage “immediately successful” in boosting rates of thrombolytic therapy for stroke
• Dabigatran
• No link seen between heart failure and coffee intake
• Heartwire news

Anyway, I love finding new resource sites for nurses in particular – please let me know if there are any others we can add to the Research & Resource pages.

** Cringeworthy Competition Winners **

Thanks so much to all who entered our ‘Cringeworthy’ competition! It was a close call with so many great entries.

Many of the entries featured faeces and/or maggot related stories, so I guess these rank quite high on the cringe-o-meter!

Winners!

The five winners are:

Di:
patient presented to emergency having a sausage stuck in his throat. After removing such sausage the doctor left it on the overway, patient re-ate it

Sascha:
When opening up a spigated NGT the gastric contents in the tube flicked up and hit me in the face and mouth. Yuck!!

Kim:
During a code blue, a male colleague of mine knelt on a suppository that had popped out of the collapsed patients bottom!

Julie:
Young bloke, Pilonidal sinus. Asked me out while I was pulling out packing from his a***. Then – said I was “stuck up” for saying NO.

Daina:
The removal of a tampon that had been in situ for just under one month. Still makes me shudder.

Congratulations winners! Prizes will be sent after confirmation of your details.

Special thanks to NurseStuff, who stock some awesome nursing gear. If you missed out on a prize this time round, make sure you go check out their current specials.

Special mention should also go to the following great entries – maybe you can relate to one or two:
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credit: Katie Tegtmeyer

Nurse In Australia is pleased to announce the new Nursing Stories pages!

If you have something to share, we’d love to hear from you!

Pages will be updated regularly, so check back soon for new additions.

Categories:

Our Christmas Cringeworthy Competition had some fantastic entries, see the winning entries over at Things that make Nurses Cringe!

Thanks also to NurseStuff.com.au for supplying nursing gear (as featured in each prize pack) such as:

• Silicone FOB Watches
• Silicone Watch Bands
• Neurological Torches
• Coloured Scissors
• Retractable ID Reels

The innovative nurseStuff™ brand brings colour, innovation and practicality to Nursing equipment and is backed with a 100% refund or replacement guarantee.

* Competition winners will be announced in early January 2010

We’ve all been through it from time to time – nurses and nursing students alike – situations that just make you cringe!

Check out some of the entries of Nursing situations that made people cringe over at the nursing stories pages.