Nurse Mentor

Remember your first code?  That time when you see that first patient under your care go into respiratory or cardiac arrest?  Haven't had one yet?  It will come, soon enough. Responding to a code takes some training.  Simulation has gone a long way in helping new healthcare providers respond better to that first emergency.  It doesn't mean that first time doesn't make you freeze up; make you cold with fear that whatever you do will not be enough; of having to talk to the family, comfort them if things do not go well. Any emergency response requires training.  Anyone who thinks that in the face of danger, they will respond heroically and with a clear head has never actually been in that kind of situation.  Ask any soldier who has gone through battle and many will tell you the first time in the face of real danger did not necessarily go as they had been told in training.  They did not necessarily respond as they thought they would, as they would ...

From the 2012 Gallup Poll:

The International Council of Nurses is the international representative body for nurses worldwide.  They work with professional nursing organizations and countries to help create supportive policies for nurses and their clinical practice. Their most recent addition to the policy world is their revised code of ethics .  " The 2012 revised edition includes the nurse’s role in developing and sustaining a core of professional values, creating a positive practice environment, maintaining safe, equitable social and economic working conditions, sustaining and protecting the natural environment and contributing to an ethical organizational environment."   You can access the Code here for free in PDF format:  http://www.icn.ch/about-icn/code-of-ethics-for-nurses/ And while you're there, take a look around to see what ICN has to offer.  Get to know your global representative!

The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) published their most recent report about employment rates for new graduate nurses at the bachelor's and masters levels. The good news: Employers prefer BSN graduates these days and those preferences are reflected in hiring numbers. Job offers at the time of graduation for BSN nurses doubled between 2011 and 2012 to 57%. There is no variation between public or private nursing schools in terms of job offer rates. Four to six months after graduation, 88% of new graduate BSNs had jobs. MSN graduate were the most likely group to have jobs at graduation and within four months of graduation. The bad news: Geography matters for job placement. There are more jobs in the Midwest and South.  The West has the fewest. New associate degree and diploma program graduates are facing more barriers to hiring in hospital settings.  Slowly, their job options are becoming limited to long term care facilities and other non-acute ...

"Unhelpful" is about as nice as I can phrase it.  In the US state of Georgia, a state dominated by Republicans who extol the virtues of small government and less regulation, the party voted in legislation that has made the licensure renewal process for healthcare professionals extra burdensome and requiring additional paperwork.  Of course, since government spending also had to be cut, they reduced the staff that processes licenses. What's going on?   Georgia now requires healthcare professionals to submit proof of legal residence, legal work permit, or citizenship to get their license renewed.   That is ALL healthcare professionals, even those born in the US.   The initiative is supposed to "weed out" anyone who might not actually be qualified to practice and got a "false" license. NPR reports on the consequences to healthcare professionals, especially those who received their education outside the US or who were international students when they...

Sometimes it's nice to see research that confirms a hunch you've had for a few years.  A recent study in Health Affairs , one of the most influential health policy journals in the United States, looked at the effects of 12 hour shifts on patient satisfaction and nurse burnout rates. Turns out, results are not good.  The longer nurses worked in a day, the less satisfied patients were with the quality of care.  In addition, nurses working 12 hour shifts were more likely to become burnt out than those working fewer hours. On the overtime policy front, that's good news for nurses.  The study adds just one more reason why mandatory overtime is bad policy.  It should create incentive for staffing units appropriately and closer to the California standards. From another perspective, we know why nurses like 12 hour shifts.  Let's face it, 3 days a week of work and then a bunch of days off in a row, so many sometimes that you don't have to use vacation day...

The UK's Guardian provides a useful infographic for understanding global critical health worker shortages.  You can get a nice visualization of how severe health worker shortages are and the consequences to infant and maternal mortality.   The countries listed in the infographic are places where recruiters should not actively recruit healthcare professionals because of the devastating consequences those practices have on low and middle income country health systems.  You can read more about fair and ethical recruitment practices here . If you're a Nurse Executive and your facility is considering hiring internationally educated nurses to fill staffing shortages, check this list in the infographic first before entering into agreements with recruitment companies domestically or abroad.  Sustainable recruitment is only possible if it is done ethically. For more information about fair and ethical international recruitment practices, check out the Alliance for ...