Did you know -- nuggets from the internet

I had what seemed to be a very easy discharge yesterday complicated by a family member with a healthcare power of attorney. Said family member was at odds with her relative over a number of things, including the date of discharge. It can get crazy to get in the middle of family strife, so here are a few things (along with the help of your case management staff and your hospital's specific policy) of interest from the internet.

I am not a lawyer, so these links come from http://www.findlaw.com/, http://www.nolo.com/ and the ABA, American Bar Association.

Healthcare Power of Attorney
What you can cover in a your health care directives
Duty of healthcare providers to honor your healthcare directives.

UPDATE: (because I forgot these this morning...)
If you want to read some interesting nurse attorney blogs, check out these two:
A Nurse Attorney's Thoughts by Taralynn Mackay of Texas
My 2 cents by LaTonia Denise Wright of Ohio

Heard on the unit...

"You are now part of the Saintarama service line." (corporate letter)
What does this mean? Mostly corporate mumbo jumbo that's integrating the rehab staff into the "service line" of the hospital to get better CMS funding from Medicare. Translation: none of us really know what this will mean now, but as an escaped corporate monkey, it's probably not the gift we thought Santa would bring us.

I am always suspect of nefarious things when the attached Q&A is not attached and no one can find it.

"We are under orders to keep census low due to holiday staffing issues." (administrative staff quote)
Translation: no one wants to work New Year's Eve, so can you come in for a few (maybe double shift) hours? Yes, Voldemort Staffing just keeps calling. I suspect that's what I'm going to get for Christmas...a few more calls. I'm already working too many days that week. I need a break!

BTW we would have had four admissions yesterday if we wouldn't have had an administrative issue. Think too many men and not enough shared rooms with women. We only got three assigned and only two patients had arrived by the time I left)

"Okay, I have the leg, now where's the patient?" (PT)
One of my patients needed to have his prosthesis adjusted. I got it up to the therapist and he was supposed to go up with his brother. They decided to detour to the gift shop on the way to therapy.

Nuggets for December 12

Here are a few of the lastest things I've been reading about from the 'net.

Horizontal violence
Don't know what it is? Think hazing of new nurses. Think less people working with you and taking your place when you retire. Read this interesting article from AdvanceWeb.

MRSA information
See the latest, including podcasts, from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta.

Influenza
Another helpful page from our friends at the CDC.

And finally, in the spirit of the season, something completely different...

Christmas Games
Coffee break time! All those crazy Flash-animated silly games for you to wile away your time at your PC. Pick one that looks interesting and go for it.