I’ve read several articles lately about the nursing field, they ranged from “How to Avoid Burnout” to “Treating Ourselves and Our Client’s with Compassion”.  There seems to be an ongoing theme here.  In light of the recent celebration of “National Nurse’s Week”, I thought I’d address these issues with this month’s blog.

Nurses are notorious for “eating” their younger counterparts.  For some reason we forget that the young nurse we are working with were once “us”.  Why are we so hard on new nurses?  Why do we expect them to have the skills and knowledge that we have and be able to perform at that higher standard we have set for ourselves? 

I think part of our jobs is to serve as a mentor to the younger staff members, (Or older, if they are still newbie’s), it’s up to us to set that higher standard and to lead them down the right path.  I’m fully aware that this road runs both directions and sometimes it’s hard to teach someone that knows “everything”, but remember your cockiness when you graduated from Nursing School… you were on top of the world and ready to take on all challenges.  Unfortunately, it sometimes takes an incident to knock you of the proverbial high horse to come back to the earth.  This incident might have been a medication error, or a dressing down from a physician or a senior nurse, but it happens to most of us.  We learn from our mistakes and hopefully it never happens again.  I will never forget getting screamed at by a physician for telling him his “business”, I cried for 2 days and was terrified to call another physician for anything!  It took awhile to get over that and was very humbling. 

There was a great question posted to the forum recently that was asking what to do for a “new nurse” that is making a lot of errors, this nurse was afraid to follow her, because not only was she frightened for her own license; but didn’t want it to appear as if she was out to “get” the new nurse.  The senior nurse was asking how she could protect herself and the clients she was responsible for.  Well, the answer to that solution is to approach the sensitive subject with compassion, use education to assist this new nurse.  If you approach a situation with education, compassion and empathy, even the most bitter pill becomes easier to swallow.

I get to deal with disciplinary type actions way more often than I would prefer, but I can tell you that for the most part, these are not painful issues to initiate.  I analyze the transgression prior to any discipline… then I evaluate what education needs to be provided.  It’s just like the nursing process: identify, assess, implement, and review.  If I provide the teaching and re-assess the situation for improvement and it’s still not better, than something else needs to be tried.  Very rarely do I have to use the most severe punishment to address a disciplinary action.  My co-worker came up with a great analogy for the way one Administrator addressed problem situations, he said it was a “Fox-Hole Mentality”…they hide in their fox-hole, (office) and throw grenades at everyone that doesn’t want to comply… (they fire everyone that doesn’t play by the rule’s.)  I thought this was a very accurate description of this particular situation. 

We don’t want to throw grenades at our co-workers, we want to give them the benefit of our knowledge and our skills.  What we teach that nurse today, is the skills she or he will teach someone else one day.  When you pay it forward your rewards will always return!  Educate, nurture and protect that young co-worker, that nurse might be the one providing care for you or someone you love one day!

If you are considering a new rewarding job in senior living or in senior care nursing, therapy or administration, be sure to search NSLPN.com for the latest senior care jobs available including Home Health Jobs, Hospice Jobs, Nursing Home Jobs, Independent Living Jobs, and Assisted Living Jobs.

“Why should I bother visiting my father any more? Five minutes after I leave he forgets I was even there to see him.” states Rusty.   Skilled nursing home administrators and nurses probably hear that statement repeated a hundred times a day. Now, there is an answer to that question that can make a positive impact on a dementia patient’s day.

Research scientists at the University of Iowa conducted a study to see if “emotions of the event” lingered well after an Alzheimer’s patient’s memory loss during the same period of time. Patients watched both happy and sad movie clips. Later on the patients couldn’t remember they watched a movie but their “mood” (happy or sad) remained.

This is very important initial research for Alzheimer patients. Centers across the nation plan on doing similar studies.  They show that there is part of the brain that has most likely been compromised by the dementia (hippocampus), and why the family member isn’t remembered five minutes after leaving. However, a different part of the brain remembers the emotion during the event and the mood carries over for quite some time. 

This is good news to share with a family member.  To know that they left their loved one in a much better mood for hours after they left is a start.

If you are considering a new rewarding job in senior living or in senior care nursing, therapy or administration, be sure to search NSLPN.com for the latest senior care jobs available including Home Health Jobs, Hospice Jobs, Nursing Home Jobs, Independent Living Jobs, and Assisted Living Jobs.

There is nothing worse than rushing around, trying to get all the work done, and having to stop and restock supplies to finish the task at hand. Keeping supplies stocked can be a quite a chore despite the number of hands you might have working in your facility. There really is no magic fix for the problem, but there are some strategies that I have tried that help. The best thing you can do is to try a few different strategies, and if you find one that works, run with it.

One strategy that proved very successful was as simple as a sheet hanging on the wall. We have the restocking tasks listed on a grid, and as the jobs are completed, the person responsible signs their initials under the corresponding date. Yes, sometimes it gets too busy to remember to sign, but in the long run, management can review the sheets and get a fairly accurate idea of who is doing the lion’s share of the work. Further, encouraging staff to remember to sign the sheet can help to make it as much of a habit as charting. Reminders to use the check sheet can also be placed where people chart to encourage staff to remember to sign. I have also seen restocking checklists placed in resident binders, so that staff see them and remember to sign.

Other reminders can be part of your training of staff. In our “cheatsheets” describing day and night duties, stocking duties are listed along with all of the usual duties. The majority of the restocking occurs during the night shifts, but management is very understanding when unforeseen craziness prevents it from getting done. On the other hand, during those rare occasions when the day shift is not hectic (which is rare, but it happens), stocking can be done by day staff. If you implement the check sheet, you can easily tell who is stocking supplies when time allows.

There really is no one set strategy that fits all facilities. However, the check sheet not only makes staff take responsibility for tasks that are not formally allocated, it also helps management understand the current situation. Supplies will never magically remain fully stocked, but if we can get everyone to contribute, it certainly becomes less of a chore.

If you are considering a new rewarding job in senior living or in senior care nursing, therapy or administration, be sure to search NSLPN.com for the latest senior care jobs available including Home Health Jobs, Hospice Jobs, Nursing Home Jobs, Independent Living Jobs, and Assisted Living Jobs.