Skip to main content

Posts

Why Nurses Shouldn't Eat Their Own...or Anyone Else's

As a former faculty member, I often heard students who were nurses comment about the "nurses eat their own" philosophy.  They found it to be disheartening and upsetting, and some stated this treatment caused them to depart from floor nursing.  As a non-nurse, I wondered about this phenomena. How and why do nurses eat their own? At the very foundation of this behavior is the idea that new nurses must be somehow "schooled" or "trained" by those with experience.  Nurses don't simply restrict this behavior to nurses, but also extend their "training" to those outside of the nursing profession who work in health care.  The training may include the usual routines of nursing, charting, patient care, passing medications, and the ins and outs of the health care system.  Beyond that, new nurses may be given instruction on the not so obvious aspects of health care.  They may intentionally be given difficult shifts, patients who require more care or be

Public Health and Hospitals Go Hand in Hand

Throughout my career, I have been questioned about how public health and hospitals are related. The answer is, public health and hospitals are very closely related.  Although it may not seem apparent to the average onlooker, many facets of a hospital contain public health components and address public health issues. First, many hospitals are the cornerstone of the community.  The hospital provides the basis for health care and health information in many towns and cities throughout America.  An entire group of hospitals exist called public hospitals and most are members of America's Essential Hospitals (formerly the National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems). These hospitals meet the needs of the under-served and under-insured throughout the country. In addition to public hospitals, community hospitals provide many public health services that otherwise may not be present. Several smaller communities cannot support a public health department.  As a result

Understanding EMR

Photo courtesy of Unsplash.com There is a lot of discussion in healthcare right now regarding, EMR.  EMR stands for Electronic Medical Record.  EMR may also be referred to as EHR (Electronic Health Record).  It is essentially the same thing.  The EMR is comprised of any form of electronic medical record, and it has been around for a long time.  Examples of electronic medical records include lab reports, clinic visits, billing data, radiology reports, nursing notes, admission summaries and much more. The electronic medical record is essentially an electronic version of what was formerly placed in paper charts. However, many healthcare organizations still maintain paper charts in conjunction with the electronic records.   The records are stored in individual health organization system networks. Each time a patient visits a long term care facility, a hospital, or a clinic, the data is stored for review by nurses, doctors, and other staff. Because of HIPAA, only certain individuals

Healthcare Is A Business

At the beginning of my health care management classes, I would remind my students of a simple fact. Health care is a business. In fact, I would say this, "Health care is a Business.  It's a Business.  It's a Business. It's a Business."  I believe a lot of times people want to forget that health care is a business. For some people, it's this idealistic, pie in the sky entity that takes care of people and is always compassionate and caring and has to reach some level of near godliness. Here is the truth. Health care is an exchange of goods and services (aka a business).  It is not simply taking care of patients and hoping for them to get better. Health care makes up close to 18% of the Gross Domestic Product in the United States. Gross Domestic Product is the sum of all the goods and services consumed within our country during the year. Therefore, nearly $1 out of every $5 is spent on health care goods and services. Photo courtesy of Pixabay.com The good

Volunteers Serve Important Need

The Volunteer Services department is an important part of many health care organizations. From the minute patients and visitors walk in the door, they may see someone from volunteer services. Most of these individuals are donating their time and talents to meet the hospital’s needs. Volunteering provides a win-win relationship for the hospital, the individual, and the community. Volunteers can be found throughout a hospital beginning at the information desk. The person guiding patients to their rooms, answering, and serving as the first point of contact to patients generally are not employees. They are volunteers. Hospitals may not be able to afford a transporter, so the volunteer takes patients to their rooms in wheelchairs or provides wayfinding assistance. Once in the room, a patient may encounter volunteers when they receive mail, flowers, or other amenities.  Picture courtesy of Pixabay.com When waiting for an appointment, the person at the desk may or may not be

Communicating in Crisis

In health care communication, many crisis communication revolves around some serious event, disaster, or another unfortunate incident. As administrators, crises are typically identified as events that occur on a broader, larger scale that could have a direct and long term impact on the health care organization. These events may include the closing of a nursing home, a water main break flooding the hospital, being forced to evacuate patients during a fire, or a medical mishap. However, to patients and their families, the event that brought them to the hospital or health care organization that day is a crisis. For a patient, their family and friends, the crisis occurred at the onset of illness. An issue that may seem routine to nursing and other hospital staff may be a crisis for a family. For example, a 65-year-old woman is scheduled for a total knee replacement. At the hospital, there is a designated floor for total knee replacements, and even possibly a well-designed program su

Health Policy and Politics

The past few years, we have all heard a great deal about Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act. Where ever you stand on this particular issue, the Affordable Care Act, is a great example of health care policy and politics at work. Health care is one of the most regulated industries in the country. Each of these regulations were created as a result of something referred to as health policy. According to the World Health Organization, health policy helps to define goals and set goals for the short and long term. Health policy also builds consensus. Sometimes, though, politics and negotiations in health policy are forgotten. Multiple factors may have come into play in order for a health care law to exist. Before the Affordable Care Act came into existence, many other proposals and laws were introduced and failed. In fact, the Affordable Care Act took a long time to create. Many players, special interest groups, politicians, and citizens all played a role. Several health policy iss