credit: trumanlo

What are your experiences regarding nurses taking sick leave in winter?

In most places that I’ve worked I’ve noticed a sharp rise in staff off on sick leave – obviously this is in part due to the winter cough/cold/flu blues, but perhaps it may also have something to do with the run on effect from others being off sick.

In other words, constantly working one or two staff down can be pretty tiring and eventually can lead to you also getting run down & taking a day off to recuperate. This is also compounded if your work load goes up during the winter months.

While I’m on the subject of sick leave, I was interested in a recent allnurses thread that discussed different policies for calling in sick.

The hospital where I work in Australia has no time limits for calling in sick, compared with some of the hospital policies mentioned in the above thread. For instance, you could call in 8 hours before your shift or 8 minutes before your shift without any penalty or ramifications.

Common sense however dictates that calling in 8 minutes before your shift will not only infuriate your workplace and colleagues, it is pretty poor form in general and should only be done in dire circumstances. I would say that in general, most people tend to give at least a few hours notice. (Notice I say *most* people!)

I’d love to find out how our graduates are finding things in their first year out.

Likewise, how are seasoned RN’s finding our new graduates?

One of the more common questions that seems to arise with nursing students, particularly in their last year, is whether it’s better to obtain a position in a grad year program or similar transition package, or whether it’s better to just try to find employment as an RN and worry about preferences later on.

Having been on a grad program myself & worked in many different clinical areas, I’m of the opinion that to start with I don’t think it’s particularly necessary to obtain a specialised grad year rotating program, as long as your clinical area has good support for new nurses. That’s not to say that it isn’t nice to land one of these jobs & try out some different areas, just that it doesn’t really matter so much if you don’t.

What’s more important is that you receive good support from your place of employment. Whether this is through debriefing sessions, supernumary time, buddying up with seniors or ongoing education, the important thing is that you feel like you are practising safely and know where to go for answers if you are not sure of something.

Additionally, remember that the transition period is always the hardest – it’s important that you stick things out & don’t take things too personally.

Even though it may not be to the same extent, I’m sure the difficulties in a graduate year are not exclusive to nursing. Similar professions such as physiotherapists, radiographers, students who are studying for medical coding certification, or any number of a whole host of allied health positions come across similar issues in their first year out.

So, what are your thoughts or experiences – if you’re a new nurse, how is your graduate year going so far?

If you have grad nurses in your clinical area, how do you think they are going??

What can be changed or improved, and do you feel like we are practising ‘safely’?

Let me put a question to the readers here:
What are your experiences & feelings on Nurse / Doctor relationships in general?

Given the time & effort it takes to complete a nursing degree plus specialty training, I would suspect at the very least there should be some professional respect on both sides of any Nurse / Doctor relationship. Particularly when it comes to senior or experienced staff.

Not so, says Nurse In Australia reader Nighean, responding to a post on nursing shortages. See if you can identify with anything in this reader’s contribution:

Doctors still believing they are the bastions of all knowledge?

This retention of nurses is an interesting thing. Yes the extra pay would be welcome and an improvement in conditions also.

But for me the reason I moved out of acute nursing as an experienced Grade 2 and later in my career as ANUM was due to being completely done with doctors still believing they are the bastions of all knowledge and therefore completely within their rights to be abusive or rude to you.

I got sick of having phones hung up in my ear when calling about a patient and reporting adverse pathology or a turn in their condition. I got sick of being sneered at when I suggested a course of treatment-often in consultation with the patient. Being the ‘advocate’ of the patient caused no end of sniggers, snide remarks, blatant commentary ‘all nurses are stupid’…etc. Professional status??? I think not. Not while the AMA rules with an iron fist.

Why are NP’s so slow to take their place? Because in the AMA’s eyes we are no more advanced than the sheepish, demure nurses that pandered to doctors over inflated ego’s in the ’50’s. Sure I’ve worked with some great doctors, but regrettably they are the exception not the rule. My education? Far exceeds the time it takes to become a GP but that counts for nothing apparently.

In my opinion there needs to be an investigation into the bullying of nurses from the medical profession. When we are treated with respect we might retain some great nurses, until then they will leave once they realise that another allied health professions or other career paths not only pay better, but allows true quality of life time, respect and professional recognition.

Thoughts, anyone?

I must admit, I’ve never been a major fan of the traditional pain score chart.

You know the ones I’m talking about? We use them mostly on children (actually I’ve never used them on anyone other than children) to try and understand their level of pain.

Now that I think about it, I’m not really quite sure that they’re the best way to determine what a child’s pain is at, either…

“Look over here at the chart, Madeline… MADELINE – LOOK AT THE CHART please…”

but I digress..

This week I stumbled across a brilliant reinterpretation of the pain score chart, as described by Allie of Hyperbole and a Half.

Check out the full story & second half of the New Improved! pain chart by visiting Boyfriend doesn’t have ebola. Probably. You could also click on the picture below if you would rather do that. I’m all about options here…

credit: molly darling

A dramatic but somewhat controversial reform has been passed by parliament last week allowing midwives to provide Medicare funded care in Australia for the first time.

This means that under specific guidelines, women will be eligible to receive Medicare rebates for private midwifery care, and also some Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) rebates for particular tests and medications.

The government is also supporting midwives access to professional indemnity insurance, which has been unavailable to midwives since 2001.

Summary of Reform

• Midwives will be able to provide Medicare-funded care for the first time.
• A national register will be set up, instead of current State bodies.
• Indemnity insurance will be a registration pre-requisite.
• No midwives have been indemnified since 2001.
• New laws fail to provide for midwives offering home births.
• Framework includes a request for midwives to form a collaborative relationship with a doctor.
• Midwives will require doctor to sign-off to access Medicare insurance and pharmaceutical benefits.

- source: The Daily Examiner

These new laws represent a fairly significant step forward for midwives and have the potential to greatly improve women’s access to care by a primary midwife. They have also raised some controversy however, with home birth advocates in particular feeling that they have been left short-changed by the deal.  
(read more…)