Insights in Nursing

This episode of Insights in Nursing includes Lorry Schoenly and a look at the world of the correctional nurse. Lorry is the author of a book on correctional nursing and has used her expertise to educate about correctional nursing on her CorrectionalNurse.net website. Featured Nursing Interview Every week here on Insights in Nursing we hear the opinions of the top online nurse leaders. What else do they have to offer us? Occasionally here on Insights in Nursing, we will stray from our standard panel discussion on nursing topics in the news and we’ll take a moment to visit with some of our regular panelists one on one and find out about what drew them into a career as a nurse. We’ll also trace the educational and career path they took to reach the nursing specialty they have found themselves in. This week’s show features Lorry Schoenly, the correctional nurse author and podcaster from CorrectionalNurse.net. Lorry shares with Jamie her path into nursing and how she landed in the job of a correctional nurse and nursing care consultant. Lorry has become one of the premier authorities on correctional nursing care and has many insights into serving this at risk population. Host Jamie Davis asks Lorry questions about personal safety, claustrophobia and common challenges faced by correctional nurses. Our Panel this week: Special guest Lorry Schoenly from www.correctionalnurse.net and @LorrySchoenly on Twitter. As always, your host on Insights in Nursing is Jamie Davis, the Podmedic, RN, NREMTP, BA, AAS managing director of the ProMed Network and host of the Nursing Show and MedicCast weekly programs. Join us as we delve in to our week’s topics. ——– Links from the Show: CorrectionalNurse.net —- Subscribe to the Podcast – Free! iTunes | Zune | Podcast Contact Insights in Nursing Do you have a question or a comment for our nurse panelists for this or any other episode of Insights in Nursing? Email us at InsightsInNursing@GMail.comwith your comments on this episode, suggestions for the show or future episodes or just to tell about what you think is important right now for you as a nurse!

This episode of Insights in Nursing kicks off with research on nurses and implementation of evidence based practices in patient care. This episode’s panel of nurses includes host Jamie Davis (of the Nursing Show) along with Rick Russotti from MitigationJournal.org and Victoria Powell from VP-Medical.com. Featured Nursing Stories This week’s show kicks off with a look at research examining roadblocks facing nurses trying to implement evidence based practices in patient care. Survey respondents noted that they lacked support from administrators and nurse leaders in their facilities and that older nurses were less likely to accept evidence based practice for patient care. Financial Waste in Healthcare In a follow on to the challenges standing in the way of implementing evidence based medical and nursing practice, the panel explored an IOM report on waste in health care. The report says $750 billion was wasted by the healthcare system in 2009 and gave an example of what banks would be like if they ran in a similar fashion. The waste included unnecessary services, inefficiently delivered services, excessive administrative costs, and more. How can health care continue to run like this? Forced to Get Flu Shots Finally, Rick Russotti brought an article supporting healthcare professionals being required to get flu shots for the upcoming flu season. The group could not arrive at a consensus, believing that flu shots were a good idea and in support of them for themselves. They could not, however, uniformly support requiring flu shots by employers. On the panel this week: Rick Russotti from the Mitigation Journal podcast and @RickRussotti on Twitter. Victoria Powell from VP Medical and @vpmedical on Twitter. and host Jamie Davis, the Podmedic, RN, NREMTP, BA, AAS managing director of the ProMed Network and host of the Nursing Showand MedicCast weekly programs. Join us as we delve in to our week’s topics. ——– Links from the Topics: Implementing Evidence Based Practice Primary Care Physicians Infographic Health Wasted $750 Billion Forced To Get Flu Shots —- Subscribe to the Podcast – Free! iTunes | Zune | Podcast Contact Insights in Nursing Do you have a question or a comment for our nurse panelists for this or any other episode of Insights in Nursing? Email us at InsightsInNursing@GMail.comwith your comments on this episode, suggestions for the show or future episodes or just to tell about what you think is important right now for you as a nurse!

This episode of Insights in Nursing kicks off with a report on job satisfaction and nurses, we look at an unfortunate incident involving a lost kidney, plus we examine the special role parish nurses have in their communities. We are joined in this episode by a special two person panel including host Jamie Davis (of the Nursing Show) along with Terri Schmitt from NurseStory.com. Featured Nursing Stories This week’s show kicks of with a look at an article that puts nurses near the top of the “Unhappiest Jobs in America.” Nurses are number two on the list and I guess we should be glad we’re not security guards, who ranked number one in job dissatisfaction. Reasons cited include compensation, opportunities for advancement, and workplace culture. A blog article over at AdvanceWeb.com agreed wholeheartedly and wondered why nurses weren’t leaving the profession in droves. Nurses, Medical Errors, and Lost Kidneys In last week’s episode of Insights in Nursing, Error Creep and Just Culture, we discussed how nurses get stuck with the brunt of the medical error opportunities. This week Jamie and Terri discussed a sad story about an Ohio nurse who inadvertently threw away a donor kidney following the first half of a transplant operation. There, but for the grace of God, go I! Luckily, the hospital appears to be handling this with a “Just Culture” approach to medical errors citing their looking for ways to improve their processes and move forward after this tragic mistake. Parish Nurses on Healthcare’s Front Lines Finally, Jamie and Terri wrapped up the show with a look at a program that supports parish nurses as a way to improve public health nursing outreach. Jamie cited his own work with his church’s parish nurse to educate and support the health of that community. Terri loved that there was grant money to pay for parish nursing positions and to offer this health improving nursing service to others. On the panel this week: Terri Schmitt of NurseStory.com and @onlineNursing on Twitter. and host Jamie Davis, the Podmedic, RN, NREMTP, BA, AAS managing director of the ProMed Network and host of the Nursing Showand MedicCast weekly programs. Join us as we delve in to our week’s topics. ——– Links from the Topic: Unhappiest Jobs in America AdvanceWeb.com Blog Post on Unhappy Nurses Nurse Disposes of Kidney by Accident Parish Nurse as Health Advocate —- Subscribe to the Podcast – Free! iTunes | Zune | Podcast Contact Insights in Nursing Do you have a question or a comment for our nurse panelists for this or any other episode of Insights in Nursing? Email us at InsightsInNursing@GMail.comwith your comments on this episode, suggestions for the show or future episodes or just to tell about what you think is important right now for you as a nurse!

This episode of Insights in Nursing first looks at an article on reporting of medical errors and presence of just culture in health care facilities. We are joined in this episode by host Jamie Davis (of the Nursing Show) along with Teresa Heithaus (from @NuresEducator at Twitter.com), Cora Vizcarra (from InfusionNurse.org), and Rick Russotti (from MitigationJournal.org). All in all, a fantastic panel sharing their insights in nursing. Featured Nursing Stories This week’s stories started off with an article titled “Dismantling Nursing’s Catch-22,” looking at reporting of medical errors by nurses. The article points to many variables that influence rate of reporting including a facilities history of dealing with medical errors, length of a nurse’s career in a facility, and presence of just culture regarding medical errors. All our panelists believed that while things are better regarding handling of medical errors by staff but also thought that errors are still under-reported. Nurses and Medical Errors Teresa Heithaus brought up the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services site that compares hospital patient satisfaction scores. Cora Vizcarra thought there needed to be more information reported on that comparison site but host Jamie Davis pointed out that the site did a very good job of describing what each of the comparison points meant to patients in layman’s terms. What Nurses Know? An article entitled “What Nurses Know” seemed like a good idea at first to all of the panelists but Rick Russotti pointed out that it was very negative about physicians and their communication with patients. The article purported to teach a patient how to “read between the lines” when a nurse told you something regarding your doctor’s instructions. It said that doing this could tell you if your doctor was incompetent or not. All the panel thought this was counter productive to a team based care approach and would not be correct in the situations they could recall themselves. All in all, this article seeking to empower patients gave nothing but bad advice. Nurses on Healthcare’s Front Lines The final article looked at an Arizona state sponsored program that sought to hook low-income, first time mothers with a nurse to provide not just medical assistance with the newborn but also parenting advice, social program assistance, and more. This type of program is on the leading edge of improving the health care system in the U. S. by employing nurses in preventative care and outreach to at-risk populations nationwide. On the panel this week: Cora Vizcarra from InfusionNurse.org and @InfusionNurse on Twitter. Teresa Heithaus from Nursing Staff Development: Behind the Firewall, NursingLogic.com and @NurseEducator on Twitter. Rick Russotti from MitigationJournal.org and @RickRussotti on Twitter. and host Jamie Davis, the Podmedic, RN, NREMTP, BA, AAS managing director of the ProMed Network and host of the Nursing Showand MedicCast weekly programs. Join us as we delve in to our week’s topics. ——– Links from the Topic: Dismantling Nursing’s Catch-22 HHS Site Comparing Hospitals What nurses know Nurse assistance for first-time mothers —- Subscribe to the Podcast – Free! iTunes | Zune | Podcast Contact Insights in Nursing Do you have a question or a comment for our nurse panelists for this or any other episode of Insights in Nursing? Email us at InsightsInNursing@GMail.comwith your comments on this episode, suggestions for the show or future episodes or just to tell about what you think is important right now for you as a nurse! —–

This episode of Insights in Nursing starts off with nurses and ethical discipline along with a look at a very special help wanted ad from the U.K. We are joined in this episode by host Jamie Davis (of the Nursing Show) along with Teresa Heithaus (from @NuresEducator at Twitter.com) and Lorry Schoenly (from CorrectionalNurse.net). This is another great panel all were excited to join the show and continue the new season here at Insights in Nursing. Featured Nursing Stories We kicked off this week’s stories talking about the Arizona nurse who had been fired after she posted comments regarding a motorcycle accident victim online at a local news site. Her comments appeared quite callous and Teresa felt compelled to read them aloud again for the audience, they were so shocking to her. The entire panel of nurses agreed that this was over the top for conduct, especially when the nurse involved was from the hospital where the patients were treated. Nursing and Ethical Conduct We followed up the Arizona nurse story with a story about a California nurse whose license was put on probation by the Nursing Board there after a drunk driving conviction. The state courts upheld the probation citing the public trust and the position held by nurses in society. It is within the Nursing Board’s right to place a nurse on probation for such things. Both Lorry and Teresa pointed out that their states had ethical rules similar to California’s (Pennsylvania and New York, respectively). Teresa also read the national nursing code of ethics from the ANA (American Nurses Association). Kinesio Tape and Public View of Medical Devices Next, the panel discussed the very visible physical therapy tape used by athletes in the recent Olympic games. You couldn’t have watched the Olympics without seeing the “Kinesio Tape” virtually everywhere. A recent article about the tape pointed out that a review of the research shows no significant benefit (or harm) from using this tape. Lorry wondered what the public will think about using such aids as Kinesio Tape when seen in use by high profile athletes? Will they seek to use the tape even though there is no clinical research that supports the claims of the athletic community? The Queen Needs a Nurse We closed out the show with a look at a recent want ad placed by the Royal Family of England for a new part time nurse at Windsor Castle. They ask specifically for  a “Holistic” nurse even though the entire panel thought that this showed the author had no idea what this meant when coupled with nursing. Aren’t all nurses supposed to be “holistic” in their approach to patient care and planning? Regardless, this high profile position is surprisingly low-paid making Lorry wonder if all nurses in the U.K. are as low paid as this. On the panel this week: Lorry Schoenly from www.correctionalnurse.net and @LorrySchoenly on Twitter. Teresa Heithaus from Nursing Staff Development: Behind the Firewall, NursingLogic.com and @NurseEducator on Twitter. and host Jamie Davis, the Podmedic, RN, NREMTP, BA, AAS managing director of the ProMed Network and host of the Nursing Showand MedicCast weekly programs. Join us as we delve in to our week’s topics. ——– Links from the Topic: Yuma Nurse Fired After Online Comments California Nurse Probation Following DUI ANA Nurse Code of Ethics at NursingWorld.org Kinesio Tape – Help or Hype? Kinesio Tape Photo From Olympics Queen Needs a Nurse —- Subscribe to the Podcast – Free! iTunes | Zune | Podcast Contact Insights in Nursing Do you have a question or a comment for our nurse panelists for this or any other episode of Insights in Nursing? Email us at InsightsInNursing@GMail.comwith your comments on this episode, suggestions for the show or future episodes or just to tell about what you think is important right now for you as a nurse! —–

This episode of Insights in Nursing focusing on smartphone apps and devices for nurses kicks off with host Jamie Davis (of the Nursing Show) joined by Terri Schmitt (from NurseStory.com), Kelly Arashin (from the Barefoot Nurse blog) and Victoria Powell (from VP-Medical.com). The group was excited to get together again and continue the new season here at Insights in Nursing.  Look for more episodes released in the coming weeks. Featured Nursing Stories We began this week’s show talking about some fascinating articles Victoria found having to do with new medical devices and smartphone apps that were changing how we assess and manage our patients. The articles linked below do require a sign up for a FREE medscape login to access them. First was an article by Dr. Topol talking about 5 medical devices he thought all doctors should know about. We agree and would like to add all nurses in to that group as well. These devices help patients manage blood sugar, physicians interact with remote ecg and 12-lead devices, and home monitoring equipments for patients and providers. There’s an App for That Adding to those 5 devices are 15 smartphone apps mentioned in another medscape article (free login required). These apps help busy medical and nursing professionals manage their time and schedules, review and check medications and procedures, stay up to date on research journals on the go, and much, much more. The panel wonders how this field will continue to grow and develop in the future.  We also asked how comfortable an aging nurse population will be accessing all this new technology. All of this revolved around the recent University of Pennsylvania study that directly tied nurse burnout to two common hospital acquired infections. One Philadelphia hospital is in the process of removing almost all its nursing assistants (CNA) to replace with RNs in order to provide for better patient outcomes, less money lost on non-reimbursable hospital “errors,” and happier patients. As Kelly Arashin put it, “A Happy Nurse Equals a Happy Patient.” On the panel this week: Terri Schmitt from NurseStory.com and on Twitter @onlinenursing. Kelly Arashin from Barefoot Nurse blog and on Twitter @KelRN24 and Facebook.com/barefootnurseblog. Victoria Powell from VP-Medical.com and on Twitter @vpmedical. and host Jamie Davis, the Podmedic, RN, NREMTP, BA, AAS managing director of the ProMed Network and host of the Nursing Showand MedicCast weekly programs. Join us as we delve in to our week’s topic. ——– Links from the Topic: Philly Hospital Hires RNs to Replace CNAs Penn Study on Nurse Burnout and Infection Rates Medscape articles below require sign up for FREE login Top 5 Devices Clinical Pros Need to Know About 15 Smart Phone Apps for Nurses and Doctors —- Contact Insights in Nursing Do you have a question or a comment for our nurse panelists for this or any other episode of Insights in Nursing? Email us at InsightsInNursing@GMail.comwith your comments on this episode, suggestions for the show or future episodes or just to tell about what you think is important right now for you as a nurse! —–

This season of Insights in Nursing kicks off with host Jamie Davis (of the Nursing Show) joined by Terri Schmitt (from NurseStory.com) and Kelly Arashin (from the Barefoot Nurse blog). The group was excited to get together after a long hiatus for the show.  Look for more episodes released in the coming weeks. Featured Nursing Stories This episode featured three stories in the world of nurses and health care. First off the bat is the recent article in the New York Times blog about nurses being better at taking care of others, often at their own expense. The author paints a picture with a scenario where a nurse with chronic back pain becomes more and more depressed as she is no longer able to do as much for her patients or herself without pain. Kelly pointed out that for this aspect of nursing culture to change, it must be supported by administrators in facilities but with ideas and implementation coming from the floors and nurses themselves. Second up on the list was a report that predicts a 94% growth in Nurse Practitioners by 2025. Along with this prediction, they also make the statement that the report worries that “a growing ratio of NPs to physicians could influence care quality. . .” This got the panel fired up but they also pointed out how nurses in many advanced practice roles have been changing the face of health care through patient satisfaction scores and numerous study results. Finally, a look at a new piece of technology that creates a “drive-thru” atmosphere to basic health care needs. TheCare4 Station allows a patient to enter a kiosk enclosure in a drug store or other retail location and be connected by video link to a physician. Inside are basic assessment devices automated and transmitting data to the MD on the other end of the line. How long will it be before Nurse Practitioners invade this space as well. However, it is certainly a useful tool in certain situations including a potential for deployment to disaster areas with health care facilities offline. On the panel this week: Terri Schmitt from NurseStory.com and on Twitter @onlinenursing. Kelly Arashin from Barefoot Nurse blog and on Twitter @KelRN24 and Facebook.com/barefootnurseblog. and host Jamie Davis, the Podmedic, RN, NREMTP, BA, AAS managing director of the ProMed Network and host of the Nursing Showand MedicCast weekly programs. Join us as we delve in to our week’s topic. ——– Links from the Topic: Nurses and Job Related Injuries Nurse Practitioner Jobs Projected to Increase Medical Kiosk for On-The-Go Diagnosis and Treatment Contact Insights in Nursing Do you have a question or a comment for our nurse panelists for this or any other episode of Insights in Nursing? Email us at InsightsInNursing@GMail.comwith your comments on this episode, suggestions for the show or future episodes or just to tell about what you think is important right now for you as a nurse!

Recorded Live at Blogworld 2011 in L.A. The new season of Insights in Nursing kicks off with a live episode recorded from the RawVoice.com booth at Blogworld L.A. at the beginning of November. Joining host Jamie Davis (of the Nursing Show) is Kim McAllister from the Emergiblog, Terri Polick from Nurse Ratched’s Place, and newcomer to the panel, Brittany Wilson (a.k.a. “TheNerdyNurse”). All four panelists were attending the conference primarily to participate in the social health care track where they discussed and presented on a variety of topics including HIPAA and social media, patient access to information online, and setting the agenda for the future of social media interaction with health care, patients, and professionals. They also got the chance to briefly interview with nurse blogger Jana Hartley who blogs with her husband, a doctor of physical therapy, at ADoctorandaNurse.com. It is always exciting to see new nurse bloggers, tweeters and facebook fans branching out into using social media to support high quality health care information to their communities, colleagues and patients. On the panel this week: Brittany Wilson, author of TheNerdyNurse.com blog and on Twitter @thenerdynurse. Terri Polick, author of Nurse Ratched’s Place and on Twitter @MotherJonesRN Kim McAllister, author of the Emergiblog and on Twitter @emergiblog and host Jamie Davis, the Podmedic, RN, NREMTP, BA, AAS managing director of the ProMed Network and host of the Nursing Showand MedicCast weekly programs. Join us as we delve in to our week’s topic. ——– Links from the Topic: New site for Social Healthcare discussion (HealthCareBloggers.com) Blogworld website Robot Nurse from Japan article Contact Insights in Nursing Do you have a question or a comment for our nurse panelists for this or any other episode of Insights in Nursing? Email us at InsightsInNursing@GMail.comwith your comments on this episode, suggestions for the show or future episodes or just to tell about what you think is important right now for you as a nurse!

Nurse Commits Suicide After Medication Error Starting off this week’s episode is an article from an anonymous blogger on a nurse named Kimberly Hiatt, a practicing nurse for 27 years, who made a medication error and unfortunately contributed to the child’s death. She was then fired from her job, sanctioned by the board of nursing and ultimately committed suicide from all the stress she was going through. The discussion went on on the current culture for nurses who make medical errors and reporting errors today, what nurses can do to protect themselves, and how to appropriately deal with these types of situations. Bedbugs Carrying Superbugs Next up is an article that has been cropping up quite frequently recently, bedbugs. This article says that bedbugs taken from patients who live in Vancouver’s gritty Downtown Eastside were carrying two types of drug-resistant bacteria. Though the article continued on saying that though the bedbugs carried the infection, there has been no evidence that the infection had been transmitted to humans. Federal Agency Finding Ways for Medicaid Savings The panel then continued on to talk about the third article which was about federal agencies looking for ways to save in Medicaid and Medicare patients. They found it interesting that 15% of those who have Medicare are accounted for 40% of the cost because they have both Medicare and Medicaid and that the two systems should coordinate when having patients enrolled in both on how they could be provided the best possible care with the resources that they have. Nurse-led colonoscopy program The nurse driven open access colonoscopy article points out that there are way to make significant improvements in savings as much as 10%for various chronic ill patients overall every year. That being said the podmedic’s take on this is that instead of making a large difficult leap to health reform, its better to take little steps to reach that goal by increasing access for other health practitioners in the marketplace to perform procedures that can be done without the supervision of a physician like in this article’s case, colonoscopy. Nurses Againts Zombieism This final article is on an online game from the University of Calgary that was created for the purpose of changing the idea on what nurses do. Unlike all the other zombie games where the player’s goal is to annihilate the zombies, the Nurses Against Zombieism game let’s the player triage the patients coming in and actually heal the zombies and prevent them from turning the normal patients into zombies. Thanks to our Sponsors! Medsyntrix.com (http://medsyntrix.com/) for unique online CE for that continuing education that all nurses need! and Bandwidth sponsor AllNurses.com, the Largest online community for nurses. Contact Insights in Nursing Do you have a question or a comment for our nurse panelists for this or any other episode of Insights in Nursing? Email us at InsightsInNursing@GMail.comwith your comments on this episode, suggestions for the show or future episodes or just to tell about what you think is important right now for you as a nurse!

In this episode, host Jamie Davis travels to Chicago to attend the NTI 2011 conference (National Teaching Institute) put on by the AACN (American Association of Critical-care Nurses). They have put together two groundbreaking initiatives to combat preventable medical errors through their Healthy Workplace initiative and the recently released silent treatment study. Joining Jamie on the panel are Anne Robinson RN, BSN, Anna Dermenchyan, RN, BSN, CCRN-CSC, and Dorrie Fontaine, RN, MSN, DNSc, FAAN. You’ll find links to these resources and more at the Insights in Nursing Website, www.InsightsinNursing.com. Watch the special video version of this episode courtesy of our conference sponsors Physio-Control who brought us in to cover the AACN conference. ——- Contact Insights in Nursing Do you have a question or a comment for our nurse panelists for this or any other episode of Insights in Nursing? Email us at InsightsInNursing@GMail.comwith your comments on this episode, suggestions for the show or future episodes or just to tell about what you think is important right now for you as a nurse!

Welcome to Insights in Nursing Episode 34 1 in 3 People to Encounter A Mistake During Hospital Stays The discussion starts off with a research about how mistakes are common in US hospitals. The panel questions whether the data has actually been better collected or if health professionals are just making more errors now as compared to the past. It was brought up some in some points in the article where MRSA was called a medical error which is not usually the case. Being a nurse researcher herself, Terri says that medical errors have been looked at for the past 10 years and says that we have gotten better and lived though medical errors ourselves. Host Jamie Davis also thought that the reports may seem to have stretched the term medical errors since some of those mentioned are more like adverse events where an unintended complication arises which may or may not be a result of an error. Better Work Conditions and Staffing Improves Patient Care… Well, Duh? The next article was a report on the study that revealed better work conditions and better staffing result to improved patient care and tougher work schedules deteriorated patient outcomes. Jamie pointed out that though the cause of some of the problems has been identified, it still comes down to staffing problems. Terri was pleased with the fact that this article not only looked at staffing as a problem but the psychological stress that nurses go through. It’s not just about how many nurses are on the floor but how they’re running the floor and what are asked of the nurses to be done. Anne pointed out that long shifts or long hours of work also contributes to stress especially when the emergency cases come in the last hour of the nurse’s shift where the nurse is already beat. Terri agreed to this and added that the fact that nurses are not given the time to stay away from their jobs for long because of under staffing and in the end costs hospitals more because of poor patient outcomes. NLN Nursing School Survey Released This article talks about the annual survey conducted by the NLN in nursing schools in the US and looks at a variety of things like the availability of educational resources, demographics of students, and looks at the potential future nursing workforce. The podmedic connected this with the previous article where if hospitals are understaffed, schools are too and the availability of nurse educators may be lacking. In the previous episodes of Insights in Nursing, some of Terri’s students came in as panelists and talked about some of the key points in the IOM report. The panelists move on to talk about how the curriculum of nursing education and lab training  has changed from the time when they were the ones in nursing school and more. Thanks to our Sponsors Medsyntrix.com for unique online CE for that continuing education that all nurses need! and Bandwidth sponsor AllNurses.com Contact Insights in Nursing Do you have a question or a comment for our nurse panelists for this or any other episode of Insights in Nursing? Email us at InsightsInNursing@GMail.comwith your comments on this episode, suggestions for the show or future episodes or just to tell about what you think is important right now for you as a nurse!

Welcome to Insights in Nursing Episode 33 The show starts off with a brief introduction of the panelists on this week’s show. First on the panel is Terri Schmitt from nursestory.com who brought on some of her students to as panelists in this discussion. Next up was Teresa Herrin, a nurse who started off as a microbiologist then continued into a nursing career in 1994 with an ADN. Since 1996, Teresa has worked as an RN up until 2 years ago when her position required a higher degree of nursing education. Now at 56, she is currently pursuing to get her BSN degree. Finally, Kurt Harter, also one of Terri’s students, has been working at a single health care institution for 25 years. He started to take his BSN degree a few years after being an RN as an ADN but stopped after having children. He then went back to continue his BSN and says that the education then and now had a lot of changes and it had been a different learning curve for him. Online vs. Seated Nursing Classes Right after the brief introduction, the panel moved on to talking about the difference of studying nursing then and now as Kurt mentioned that a lot has changed in the mode of instruction from traditional seated classes to studying online over the internet. Terri, being their instructor mentioned three advantages of online classes as opposed to traditional seated classes which was the ability to pull in students that normally wouldn’t have been able to come back to school, the online students being able to learn how to navigate technology better and finally,communicating and working with each other in networks that would unlikely happen in a seated class. Nursing and Technology Host, Jamie Davis then brought up his concern about most of the population of the nursing profession being not as savvy on online resources as opposed to other health care professions. Nurses being too tired from work when they got home, different institutions with different technologies,  and the average age of nurses and the age group of those comfortable with technology not being on the same level were some of the comments that came up. Terri added that the nursing education has been slow to catch up with the use of technology with seated classes still being held. The ILN reports have been trying to change this but with the average age of nurse educators being higher compared to nurses on floor, they should also adapt to the technology. As to the application of an IT course to nursing practice, the two students share their take from computerized documentation to patient needs communicated via technology. BSN in 10 The discussion moves on into the paper that came out about ADN graduates having to get a BSN degree within 10 years after being RNs. A question that came up was if RN wouldn’t get a BSN in 10 years, does that mean they are not allowed to be bedside nurses anymore?  Issues such as the financial resources, the time that would be taken and the difficulty of convincing someone or a good reason why a nurse should pursue a BSN also were talked about. Terri mentioned a paper on a research that was done in a post-op unit which shows that part of the increased survival rates was related to the education level of the nurse caring for the patient. It also shows that nurses with a higher degree of education tend to stay at the bedside longer. Though the reason has not thoroughly been established, studies are still going on with different variables being considered. Contact Insights in Nursing Do you have a question or a comment for our nurse panelists for this or any other episode of Insights in Nursing? Email us at InsightsInNursing@GMail.comwith your comments on this episode, suggestions for the show or future episodes or just to tell about what you think is important right now for you as a nurse!  

How it came about Susan Sullivan, secretary of the National Nursing Network Organization, started off by providing a brief history as to how the idea of having a national nurse came about as well as the movements that have been done to push it forward into implementation. Moving on, the panelists discussed on the importance of having a public figure in the form of a national nurse to provide visibility of nurse leadership on a national level, get nurses be more involved in public health issues, and putting preventive nursing care in the highlight. National Nurse and the ANA Another thing that also came about in the discussion is the ANA’s seeming lack of support for this movement. As Kim McAllister had mentioned, she previously sent an open letter to the ANA basically asking them what they are afraid about in pursuing this movement since the position of national nurse would not in any way be threatening but an efficient and cost effective position and it is not about who is on top but the massive action at the community level that can come out of this. International Nurse Representative Susan Sullivan mentioned that there is already an existing representative for the US in international conventions for nurses which is the chief nurse of the public health service. Most nurses and the public is unaware of such and the position is still needed to be formally designated as national nurse where it goes back again to the reluctance of moving on into that direction. Giving Nursing Students the Vision For nursing students to better understand the meaning of having a national nurse and encouraging them to support this movement, Susan advised that they be informed of the resources available to educate them about it as well as the social media community to spread the word. Also communicating with congressional leaders on the matter is a very good way to get started. On a final note, host Jamie Davis said that this is not only an investment in the future of the profession but an investment in the future of the country. — Thanks to bandwidth sponsor AllNurses.com, the Largest online community for nurses. Continue the discussions there! ———- Join us! On the panel this week: Lorry Schoenley of Correctional Nurse.net and on twitter @LorrySchoenly Kim McAllister of Emergiblog.com and on Twitter @emergiblog. Susan Sullivan of National Nurse for Public Health and host Jamie Davis, the Podmedic, RN, NREMTP, BA, AAS managing director of the ProMed Network and host of the Nursing Show and MedicCast weekly programs. Join us as we delve in to our week’s topic. ——– Contact Insights in Nursing Do you have a question or a comment for our nurse panelists for this or any other episode of Insights in Nursing? Email us at InsightsInNursing@GMail.comwith your comments on this episode, suggestions for the show or future episodes or just to tell about what you think is important right now for you as a nurse!

Nurses’ Role in Ethical Issues Host Jamie Davis was joined on this week’s show by Paul Kapsar and Lori Shaunley In the first article, the panelists share their opinions on the new study that came out which looked at the critical role of nurses in helping patients and their families deal with ethical issues involving care. Paul mentioned that nurses being involved in this side of health care is not a new topic and that patients have the right to make decisions regarding their care and be patient advocates for them. Lori points out that although nurses have a code of ethics, when nurses are in that situation where there is an ethical dilemma oftentimes they are not able to apply that code into decision making and critical thinking skills. they also both share some of their experiences on being caught in the middle of an ethical dilemma. Policy Revisions Considered After Nurse Medication Error In this next story, a school reconsiders it’s policies after the school nurse administers a wrong medication to a child. Jamie and Lori discuss on how nurses can have a system on how safety can be increased especially in non traditional settings such as the community or a school. They also talk about the stresses for a school nurse handling multiple schools and districts which would make it difficult for a single school nurse to get their jobs done effectively. New Zealand Physicians Moonlight in Australia In the final article is a news story about physicians flying all the way from New Zealand to cover the shortage in Australia. What Jamie found interesting here is that physicians are not that into the idea of having nurse practitioners aid in primary care when in fact there are not enough doctors to go around. Paul also talked about the barriers that has been put on for the situation to take this turn. — Thanks to bandwidth sponsor AllNurses.com, the Largest online community for nurses. Continue the discussions there! ———- Join us! On the panel this week: Lorry Schoenley of Correctional Nurse.net and on twitter @LorrySchoenly Paul Kapsar of Silver Arc APN.com and host Jamie Davis, the Podmedic, RN, NREMTP, BA, AAS managing director of the ProMed Network and host of the Nursing Show and MedicCast weekly programs. Join us as we delve in to our week’s topic. ——— Links from the show: New Study Reveals Critical Role Nurses can Play in Helping Patients and Families Confront Ethical Issues School officials consider policy revisions after nurse gives student wrong meds Aussies cough up for Kiwi doctors ——– Contact Insights in Nursing Do you have a question or a comment for our nurse panelists for this or any other episode of Insights in Nursing? Email us at InsightsInNursing@GMail.comwith your comments on this episode, suggestions for the show or future episodes or just to tell about what you think is important right now for you as a nurse!

Practice Fusion: Free EHR Community Host Jamie Davis was joined on this week’s show by Terri Pollick from Nurse Ratched’s Place and Nurse Practitioner from Nevada, Paul Kaspar . In the first article, Paul Kaspar responds to last episode’s discussion on electronic health records including the cost and ease of use associated with it. He introduced Practice Fusion, a site that provides free electronic health recording that can be customized according to the user’s needs. A patient can fill in a form in the site and this would serve as the electronic record. It costs a minimal amount to maintain and also time-saving. They also talk about the hurdles to the success of the implementation such as availability of internet access especially in rural areas, security issues regarding submitted personal information, and what happens to the records if a service provider goes down. Resources for Primary Care NPs Two articles, one about a new nurse practitioner starting to set-up her own primary care office and another about a nurse practitioner managing a Walmart clinic providing primary care for minor health needs, led the podmedic to inquire about resources for nurse practitioners looking into starting their own primary care facilities. Paul responds that upon joining a nurse practitioner page on Facebook, he learned that there is no formalized program for setting up one’s own practice. The cost of equipment could also be a problem since banks also do not provide loans for such purposes. Medicare payments has also been a problem for health care providers. Credits for Veterans Going Into Nursing In this article where legislation is working on giving individuals with military experience credits when they decide to come into the health care field instead of starting from scratch, it mentioned a certain person who worked as a nurse in Iraq but was only allowed to change bedpans as a civilian. This indicated the lack of information of the public on the prerequisites needed to be called a nurse including the education and the license that comes with it. As Terri said, there’s more to being a nurse than knowing how to give shots and doing CPR, just because you know certain skill sets doesn’t mean you are running at the same level of an RN. For the people who worked as care providers in the military and want to be RNs as civilians should be given credit in that transition but not necessarily give a shortcut into nursing itself. Shank Williams Jr., RN This final article is a bout a 40- year old nurse who spend her spare time in roller skating derby by the name Shank Williams Jr. The panelists take on it was anything that a nurse can do to be able to take out her frustration from all the stresses at the hospital and being able to channel it into a more productive or enjoying activity is a good way of keeping an individual mentally healthy. — Thanks to bandwidth sponsor AllNurses.com, the Largest online community for nurses. Continue the discussions there! ———- Join us! On the panel this week: Paul Kaspar for Practice Fusion. Terri Polick of Nurse Ratched’s Place and on Twitter @motherjonesRN. and host Jamie Davis, the Podmedic, RN, NREMTP, BA, AAS managing director of the ProMed Network and host of the Nursing Show and MedicCast weekly programs. Join us as we delve in to our week’s topic. ——— Links from the show: NP Prepares New Office NP Run Walmart Clinic Provides Patient Focused Care Legislation Help Nursing Shortage Roller Derby Nurse —– Contact Insights in Nursing Do you have a question or a comment for our nurse panelists for this or any other episode of Insights in Nursing? Email us at InsightsInNursing@GMail.comwith your comments on this episode, suggestions for the show or future episodes or just to tell about what you think is important right now for you as a nurse!

Nurse Practitioners and Primary Care Host Jamie Davis was joined on this week’s show by Terri Pollick from Nurse Ratched’s Place and Terri Schmitt from NurseStory.com. In the first article, they talk about nurse practitioners and where they stand in the primary care setting. When an insurance company recognized nurse practitioners as primary care providers, it opened new roles and advanced the nursing profession in the field of primary care. They also talk about how nurse practitioners make a difference in the shortage of primary care physicians in the course of health reform. Also, the quality of care provided along with the cost of care through nurse managed clinics makes nurse practitioners an ideal resource for primary care services especially for the under served population. They also talk about the different areas where NP’s can apply their practice like in mental health care and community based care. Virtual Patient Beds? This article from the UK opened the idea of virtual beds. The concept is about installing virtual beds for dementia, stroke, and aged patients to receive care in the comfort of their own homes. This is aimed at reducing prolonged hospital stays in acute care facilities and admissions to long term care. Apart from being cost-effective, our guests think that this is another situation where technology is taken another step further for the benefit of patient care and better patient satisfaction. This concept also reduces the risk of health care acquired infections, patients are happier because they are better rested and do what they want without sacrificing the accessibility of care providers. Nursing Program Approval Yanked In the third article for this week, a nursing program in Ohio lost its approval from the Ohio Board of Nursing due to “recurring deficiencies related to a disregard for the students”. This led to the discussion on online nursing programs, how it affects the nursing profession, is it advisable to get into it, and its impact on the quality and safety of patient care. They were also thankful for the presence of nursing board and accrediting bodies that look out for students and hear their complaints regarding the quality of education that they receive from the nursing program that they enrolled in. In the topic of nursing and nursing programs, they also discussed the present population of individuals getting into the nursing career and the qualities they should possess to become an effective health provider. Health Care Fraud Crackdown Nets $4B A report last week stated that the government recovered 4 billion dollars from health care fraud preventions. Where do nurses come to play in the vigilance to proper use of health care resources? One suggestion that came up is getting knowledgeable on the billing process and patient education on what their health care needs are and not ending up getting something that isn’t necessary for their care. Drug makers’ marketing strategies were also discussed since almost half of the 4 billion came from drug makers which led to educating health providers to prescribe medications according to the practicality of use and not according to how well it was marketed to them by medical representatives. For nurse practitioners, responsible prescribing by using the cheapest, most effective medication available is also a way to reduce costs. — Thanks to bandwidth sponsor AllNurses.com, the Largest online community for nurses. Continue the discussions there! ———- Join us! On the panel this week: Terri Schmitt from NurseStory.com and on Twitter @onlinenursing. Terri Polick of Nurse Ratched’s Place and on Twitter @motherjonesRN. and host Jamie Davis, the Podmedic, RN, NREMTP, BA, AAS managing director of the ProMed Network and host of the Nursing Show and MedicCast weekly programs. Join us as we delve in to our week’s topic. ——— Links from the show: Expanding Role for Nurse Practitioners Virtual Beds Fill the Gap Nursing Program Approval Withdrawn $4B Recovered Through Health Care Fraud Prevention —– Contact Insights in Nursing Do you have a question or a comment for our nurse panelists for this or any other episode of Insights in Nursing? Email us at InsightsInNursing@GMail.com with your comments on this episode, suggestions for the show or future episodes or just to tell about what you think is important right now for you as a nurse!

Digital Health Care Income Divide Host Jamie Davis was joined on this week’s show by Terri Pollick from Nurse Ratched’s Place and Kim McAllister of the Emergiblog. The gang kicks off this week’s show with a story on the push for digital e-health records and how this is dividing the large financially sound facilities from other smaller practices and clinics. As these smaller organizations are pushed to implement costly computer solutions for their under-served poor populations, the fear is that they will not be able to provide needed services in the face of the cost associated with purchasing and maintaining the necessary computer equipment for the e-health initiative. Terri points out that there is a lot of money in the medical software business market and why is it that cheaper solutions aren’t tried first. Nurses Manage Chronic Patients Better! The team moved on to looking at another way to manage costs – allow for nursing follow up and management of patients with multiple, chronic conditions.  One study cited showed a ten fold savings over the course of a year when nurses and not physicians and traditional facilities like hospitals were used to manage these patients. Jamie discussed the numerous studies on the effectiveness of telehealth nursing and follow-up with post surgical patients and he wondered why, after so many studies that showed similar results, did the system still insist on multiple patient admissions and re-admissions to treat these patients. It seems simple to Jamie, Terri, and Kim – when a year of nursing care and management can be had for just $1,200 per patient versus over $10,000 in health care costs the old way, we need to throw out the old way of doing things and start up nurse-led clinics and care to save the system (and all of us) money. What Are the Top 10 Patient Care Quality Issues in 2011? Lastly, the three nurses on today’s show took a look at a list of the top 10 quality issues affecting patient care in the coming year. Some of them were not surprising and had been discussed before on the show including: Overuse of imaging and scanning radiation exposure Central line infections (and all health care acquired infections) Collaborative care approaches with patients Electronic health record adoption by the system Increased role for nurses Data and security breaches What do you think the biggest issues of the coming year are going to be? What will affect your patients and your ability to care for them the most? Let us know for a future episode and maybe we’ll invite you on the show to share your thoughts with the panel. — Thanks to bandwidth sponsor AllNurses.com, the Largest online community for nurses. Continue the discussions there! ———- Join us! On the panel this week: Kim McAllister of Emergiblog.com and on Twitter @emergiblog. Terri Polick of Nurse Ratched’s Place and on Twitter @motherjonesRN. and host Jamie Davis, the Podmedic, RN, NREMTP, BA, AAS managing director of the ProMed Network and host of the Nursing Show and MedicCast weekly programs. Join us as we delve in to our week’s topic. ——— Links from the show: Digital Health Care Divide Nursing Management of Multi-illness patients 2011 Top 10 Patient Care Quality Hazards —– Contact Insights in Nursing Do you have a question or a comment for our nurse panelists for this or any other episode of Insights in Nursing? Email us at InsightsInNursing@GMail.com with your comments on this episode, suggestions for the show or future episodes or just to tell about what you think is important right now for you as a nurse!

Psych Nurse Stabbed to Death The panel this week included host Jamie Davis and he was joined by Victoria Powell, snowed in deep inside Arkansas, from VP-Medical.com. Also returning to the show, Terri Pollick from Nurse Ratched’s Place, Kim McAllister of the Emergiblog and Cora Vizcarra from InfusionNurse.org. This week’s show starts off on a somber note as the panel discusses the death of an Australian nurse after an attack by a patient in a psychiatric facility. Attacks on health care professionals seem to be happening more frequently but there is no standard for reporting these acts of violence unless they end in death or serious injury. Terri Polick related that on several occasions she resorted to filing charges in court on her own after administrators and even police officers refused to take her statement. The policeman told Terri, this is part of your job. You’re a psych nurse! Jamie said it sounded like something he’d also say to a prostitute about getting beat up by her pimp which said a lot about what this cop thought of nurses! How to Post Placenta Pics! The panel had a lot of fun with the discussion on the recent story of nursing student who were expelled from their nursing school after posting pics taken of themselves with a placenta during a clinical rotation. While this might be considered bad taste, all thought the hospital and nursing school involved over-reacted to the who thing and created a privacy issue where there was none.  How do you identify a patient by looking at their placenta anyway? Victoria pointed out that there were first amendment rights in play here and Jamie agreed. Recent court proceedings against a paramedic who was fired after posting unkind things about his boss and workplace on Facebook seem to bear out this argument. The Federal Department of Labor found that Facebook was a protected form of free speech and the employers could not censure their employees for statements made there. The Courts agreed in the case of these nursing students and they were reinstated after an order from a court mandated it. Contaminated Swabs and Cleansing Pads? Finally, the team closed with a look at a bizarre story about a company recalling alcohol prep pads, swabs, and swabsticks because of a suspected bacterial contamination. Wouldn’t the mere use of these items in patient care by a nurse destroy the bacterial cultures? Cora Vizcarra used the opportunity to talk about proper site cleansing and the common practice of reusing these wipes “until dry” when prepping an IV site. She send in a link to her article about it on her blog at InfusionNurse.org. — Thanks to bandwidth sponsor AllNurses.com, the Largest online community for nurses. Continue the discussions there! ———- Join us! On the panel this week: Cora Vizcarra from the Infusion Nurse blog and on Twitter@InfusionNurse. Kim McAllister of Emergiblog.com and on Twitter @emergiblog. Terri Polick of Nurse Ratched’s Place and on Twitter @motherjonesRN. Victoria Powell of VP-Medical.com and on Twitter @vpmedical. and host Jamie Davis, the Podmedic, RN, NREMTP, BA, AAS managing director of the ProMed Network and host of the Nursing Show and MedicCast weekly programs. Join us as we delve in to our week’s topic. ——— Links from the show: Psych Nurse Stabbed to Death Student Nurse Placental Pic Posting Contaminated Alcohol Prep Pad Recall Infusion Nurse Article on Proper Site Prep —– Contact Insights in Nursing Do you have a question or a comment for our nurse panelists for this or any other episode of Insights in Nursing? Email us at InsightsInNursing@GMail.com with your comments on this episode, suggestions for the show or future episodes or just to tell about what you think is important right now for you as a nurse!

NEJM In Favor of Expanded Nursing Practice The panel this week included host Jamie Davis and he was joined by Terri Schmitt, a Missouri nurse practitioner and educator and author of the popular NurseStory.com blog. Also returning to the show, Rob Fraser, Canadian nurse and author of NurseRob.com. The tide seems to be turning with respect to barriers to full scope of practice for nurses at all levels. The New England Journal of Medicine wrote an article in favor of removing restrictions to nursing practice within the extent of their training. Terri agreed that this was a big step but that there was still a great deal of work to do revising nurse practice acts in many states in the U.S. She also proposed that she has the model for the perfect nurse clinic. Listen to the show to check out her ideas. All Parents Lie That was the headline of the second article we covered where a nurse in New Zealand who deals with child abuse cases is catching some heat for this statement about how much patients and their caregivers really tell us. Host Jamie Davis points out, don’t ALL PATIENTS lie to us at some point simply to hide things they don’t think we need to know? Rob and Terri both share their thoughts about how to build rapport with patients in order to create a care environment that encourages sharing and honesty. Nurse/Patient Communication Matters The panel wrapped up this week’s nursing care discussion with a look at a recent study showing how many quality benchmarks in the hospital setting can be influenced by improving opportunities for Nurse/Patient communication. Will this provide more impetus to improve nurse staffing levels and give us more time to communicate with patients? We’re not sure, but to many of us in the nursing field, the opportunities to take more time to communicate with our patients is encouraging.  What do you think? — Thanks to bandwidth sponsor AllNurses.com, the Largest online community for nurses. Continue the discussions there! ———- Join us! On the panel this week: Terri Schmitt from NurseStory.com and on Twitter @onlinenursing. Rob Fraser from NurseRob.com and on Twitter @rdjfraser.com. and host Jamie Davis, the Podmedic, RN, NREMTP, BA, AAS managing director of the ProMed Network and host of the Nursing Show and MedicCast weekly programs. Join us as we delve in to our week’s topic. ——— Links from the show: New England Journal of Medicine on Nurse Practice All Parents Lie Nurse Patient Communication Improves Scores —– Contact Insights in Nursing Do you have a question or a comment for our nurse panelists for this or any other episode of Insights in Nursing? Email us at InsightsInNursing@GMail.com with your comments on this episode, suggestions for the show or future episodes or just to tell about what you think is important right now for you as a nurse!