Welcome to my Nursing Page

I can't remember when I actually decided that I wanted to become a nurse. I think it had something to do with the deaths of two of my brothers. My brother Jackie was burned in a freak accident. His burns did heal but he died from the loss of proteins which plagues so many burn patients. I can vaguely remember that my brother Jackie was one of the first patients treated with a wonderful new antibiotic called Streptomycin. They didn't know that it caused deafness and it was my understanding that had he survived he would have been deaf. My Mother had to sign for permission for him to receive this new and experimental drug. Jackie was only two years old when he died. I was four years old at that time.Then, I was the one who found my brother Dick dead in his crib. I didn't find out until many years later that he had died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Dick was ours for only five months. I was six years old at that time. People didn't understand Sudden Infant Death Syndrome in those days and I remember the police coming to the house and doing a thorough investigation. My Mother was devastated and I can remember a relative asking her one time "How could you have let this happen" and then telling her that she "was very lucky that myFather would even stay married to her".

Here are some links to SIDS related sites.

z SIDS Network home page

z SIDS Resources of Oregon Home Page

z Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) misc.kids FAQ

My Mother, who always liked to be prepared for any emergency, had actually sat down with me and explained how babies were born and if she had the baby at home what I would have to do if I couldn't find a neighbor or if the ambulance didn't make it on time. She told me how to tie the cord in two places and cut it in the middle and to this day I can remember the little basket, where it was kept, and the contents; strong thread, scissors, pads to contain the drainage, a receiving blanket for the baby, and diapers and pins. I can even remember practicing with a doll so I would know how to do it right. I think as we were expecting the birth of Dick is when I made the decision to become a nurse.

Now, after all of this you would think that I might have chosen pediatrics as my field of nursing or at least obstetrics. But, I can't imagine myself in either of these fields of nursing. I have delivered seven babies, though, and I do have the occasional pediatric patient who has need of my special skills.

The road I had to follow wasn't easy. In fact, right now I feel like a dinosaur. I have seen so many changes in our profession; so many good ones and yet some that I feel are hurting nursing. My first challenge came when they gave these Career tests in the eighth grade to determine what courses you would be allowed to take in high school and somebody determined that I was not smart enough to handle the required academic courses to get into nursing school. My Mother, who usually stayed out of my school life, marched to the school and gave them a piece of her mind and made such a stink that they finally agreed to let me try a full academic load in the ninth grade. They said the Career testing they had done showed that i should be taking business classes rather than academic ones. So, every one of the counselors and teachers was quite surprised when I managed to not only pass the required courses but even to excel in some of them, like Latin, Algebra, Biology, and Chemistry. History and English were the difficult courses for me (but that is another story having to do with personality conflicts). I ended up graduating from high school in the upper third of my class,which in my opinion wasn't too shabby,and was accepted at four of the four Nursing Schools to which I had applied.The year was 1960 and I was 17 years old.

I ended up graduating from St. Joseph's Hospital School of Nursing in Phoenix, Arizona. This was a Nursing School run by the Sisters of Mercy and I had just missed the era where Student Nurses were treated as slave labor. Any of the nurses out there who attended a three year diploma program know what I am talking about. Right around my second year at St. Joe's my parents couldn't afford the tuition and I thought I would have to quit for a while and get a job and save up the money and pick up where I had left off. I went to Sister and explained the situation and told her what I had decided to do. She said "give me a couple of days to see what I can do before you make any rash decisions". She then called me into her office and told me that the Ladies Auxilliary at the hospital was going to pay my tuition but that this was a loan and I had to start paying it back in six months after graduating. God Bless the wonderful Ladies Auxilliary of St. Joseph's Hospital! I graduated in 1963 and passed my Boards that year and have been an R.N. ever since. My brother tells people that stands for Registered Nut. (I did eventually pay off the loan and I hope that some other needy student benefitted in the years that followed.)

In 1975, a pilot program opened at the University of West Florida in Pensacola, FL which allowed me to obtain my BSN. I am glad I found the program but I don't think I would ever try a pilot program again. My class consisting of 13 students graduated in 1977.

My years of nursing experience include work in the Emergency Room, Private Duty, Hospice Nursing, Psychiatric Nursing, Medical Surgical Nursing, School Nursing, Public Health, Doctor's Offices,and presently in the field of Home Health.

I feel privileged to have lived through the many changes in the Nursing Profession and in medicine in general. I have seen the advent of new treatments, new medications, and an increase in the responsibility assumed by nurses as they have become patient advocates, and teachers. We didn't have central lines, lithotripsy, mammograms, heart, liver or lung transplants. We didn't even have ICU's or PICU's or trauma centers like we do now. We certainly didn't do laparoscopic surgery, or arthroscopic surgery. We didn't have CAT scans or MRI's either. I remember the huge washtub looking machine that was used for kidney dialysis. Balloon Angioplasties didn't exist. I have seen the advent of the freestanding surgical center, and even have had two surgeries in them and was able to go right home that afternoon. Back in my day I would have been in the hospital at least four days for the knee surgery, and probably for about 24 hours for the D&C.

Almost three years ago an ET (Enterostomal Therapy) Nurse, working at the same agency for which I was working, suggested that she thought I should go away to school and become an ET Nurse. She was so convinced that she actually wrote and obtained the application for me and wrote a letter of recommendation for me. Subsequently, I was accepted at the WOCNEP (Wound Ostomy Continence Nursing Education Program) at Emory University in Atlanta, attended the course, and have been working as an ET ever since. I am still working in Home Health, but now work for a small private agency and this is where I have been happiest.

z Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nurses Society (WOCN)

I love Nursing and I love caring for my patients and teaching them and their families. I enjoy the field of Home Health and I really feel like I am doing what I am supposed to be doing. Following are some of the things I see that worry me about where Nursing will be in the future.

Patients in the hospital seem to be much sicker now. They also seem to have other serious problems which impact their recovery. We all know that they are being sent home too early in many cases because of DRG's (Diagnosis Related Group's) and that Home Health Nurses see this every day. I think I see a steady increase in infection rates among hospitalized patients. This makes my job particularly frustrating because as an ET Nurse I set up the plan of treatment and follow the patient as they recover and regain their independence. This includes surgical wounds and especially pressure ulcers. It is my opinion that most pressure ulcers could be prevented and I see the need to educate hospital staff and family caregivers in this regard.

On those occasions where I am asked to do a hospital referral, this is what I see and hear. I see very little continuity in patient care. The patient rarely has the same nurse two days in a row. One time I spent 5 days in the hospital and never had the same nurse twice. Often, the patient doesn't even have a nurse as the primary deliverer of care. There is a hospital in Atlanta that let go of 30 nurses and replaced them with techs to save money. I think that is very scary. What I do as a nurse is mandated and controlled by the State Board of Nursing. My question is: who is deciding what techs are capable of doing and which State agency regulates them, and are they responsible for their own actions, or am I, or is the hospital, or is the physician. In those hospitals which boast an all RN/LPN staff, the nurses are spread so thin that they have time to only cover the bare essentials. I see burn out and stress among the nurses, and hear them complaining about overtime. Mostly, the overtime involves the ever increasing amounts of paperwork that are required.

Hospitals and hospital corporations are buying up Home Health Agencies because they are profitable and this way the hospital can shift some of its costs. I have been through two such take overs and it wasn't pleasant. Again, continuity of care suffered. This seemed to be the major complaint of both the patients and the nurses and the CNA's. I certainly could tell a big difference in my wound care patients when the same nurse didn't see them everyday. I see the large corporations cutting much needed staff with the bottom line being profits for the stockholders. I see benefits decreased and job security being a thing of the past. I see more and more articles addressing age discrimination and staff cutbacks. It seems that they always cut nursing. We are expected to accomplish more with less of everything.

Healthcare in general cannot and should not be treated as a department store or discount store business. We are dealing with the lives of people and not inanimate objects. There is such a thing as a human factor, and each patient or client that we care for deserves to be treated as an individual. Not every patient or client heals at the same rate or responds to the same treatment. Healthcare is an expensive commodity in today's modern world, and patients deserve the very best. Insurance companies are deciding which Doctor you may see, which tests they will or will not pay for, when you can go to the emergency room, and when your primary physician can refer you to a specialist. In some ways I think this is insane. I hear many sad tales regarding these things. Patients shouldn't have to fight with insurance companies over needed or required care.

Below are some links to some of my favorite sites, and my favorite journals. Take some time to browse through them. Let's put Care back in Healthcare.

z Journal of Nursing Jocularity

z The American Journal of Nursing

z Nursing98

z The Patient Advocate

z The Florence Project

z NURSE NEWS

z Florida Nurses Association

z RN MAGAZINE

z Med CEU's