NurseCrisis.com

Well, I am truly and fully retired this time…..unless you count the six cases I’m working as a legal consultant, and an occasional MDS assignment, and then of course there’s the three days a week spent with our new grand daughter while her engineer/Mother does what she can to keep her career on track.

Time for some serious coulda, shoulda, woulda reflection.

I am only too aware of the opportunities I passed up in my nursing career by never taking advantage of the travel packages that were offered to me during my thirty “active” years.

As much as I truly love travelling,  I might have seen a large part of our world…..very early,  before I married and started my family;  or much later after the kids were grown and gone.

The Travel Nurse experience is even better now than it was thirty years ago;  and it wasn’t at all bad even then.

I hope you will spend some time on this section of our web site.  Learn what opportunities may be best suited to your situation.  AND THEN SEE THE WORLD.

Here’s a good place to start: http://www.medicalrag.com/get-out-of-the-rut-with-travel-nursing-jobs/

Just in case you missed it…..

Forbes recently released their latest employment findings.  While the rest of the world may be looking for work, the health care industry continues to grow at a rather astounding rate, adding more new jobs during the latest recession than any other sector.  And leading the pack?  Again and Still?  The most in-demand career choice is Registered Nursing.

Congratulations to those of you already licensed in the field……and yet another boost to all of you who may be considering nursing as your career of choice.

The future for nurses is bright;  and getting brighter every day.

Just thought you’d want to know.

Till next time,

Gayle

Just in case you haven’t yet realized that we are indeed all in this together,  take a look at the last few days.  Last week Haiti was for most of us just another poor country somewhere in the Caribbean.  It does seem to suffer with each new hurricane that passes through the area;  but,  somehow it managed to rebound from each.

Now, however it is the focus of a massive relief effort involving the entire world.

And,  as nurses,  we have the unique opportunity to make a serious contribution to the situation.

Do a Google for “nurse to Haiti”.  You’ll find numerous openings for: (1) your nursing skills and/or (2) whatever financial aid you may provide.

Get involved.  Please.  At whatever level you find best.

I won’t be travelling personally (rejected for health reasons);  but we have made our contribution here on line.

America has always been known for it’s open hearted generosity.  As nurses, we have always responded “over and above” when called.

Your chance to really matter has never mattered more than it does in Haiti, today and throughout this recovery.

Thanks,

Gayle

Ok, I’ll admit it.  With a new grandbaby to spoil, Christmas to prepare for, and this ongoing adjustment to retirement, I totally missed the recent article/press release from the UAB Hospital and the Cerner Corporation.

The entire article should still be available in the Google section at the bottom of the pages on our sister website:  NurseCrisis.com.

Thanks to a reader in Mobile, Alabama for bringing it to my attention.  This same reader wanted to know what had happened to this blog.

Just a quick note to let you know that we’re back. Maybe not on a daily basis; but certainly several times a week.

The website grows based on the questions that come in.  The same will be true of the blog.  Please send your comments and questions to either:   info@nursecrisis.com

Back to the Cerner Corporation’s solution to the nurse shortage.  They make the point that by having a patient’s monitors hooked up to a centralized EMR (electronic medical record) we nurses will be relieved of hours and hours of paperwork.  Errors will be minimized,  the patients will be safer…..everybody wins.

So what is the reality?

As of Dec. 2nd, 2009,   the UAB Hospital System Reclaimed More Than 93,000 Nursing Hours by Connecting Medical Devices to Its Electronic Medical Record.

Does anyone believe that those 93,000 hours will be used to enable the same number of nurses to provide more personalized care to the same number of patients?

Or is more realistic to expect the corporate bean counters to figure out a way to reduce their nursing expense (fewer nurses);  or will they simply increase the nurse/patient ratio?

Many of you are already working under this “new and improved” system. Won’t you please share with us the effects most noticeable to you in your career?

I accept my status as a “cyber-dinosaur”,  and now even a retired “dinosaur”.

My objectivity went out the window over twenty-five years ago when the corporations stepped in and changed our health care system forever.

It’s difficult to recall any change that occurred during that time that offered more to the staff than to the corporate “bottom line”.

Till next time,

Gayle