Dear Boss

I know you are stressed. I'm sure you're kind of on autopilot, but I notice things.

I notice that you said, "You learn this in therapy" in way too many places recently. Yes, people learn things in therapy, but when you have a RN in the room and a therapy student with patients in a education class, you have to make sure the patients understand one thing.

They should learn EVERYWHERE at any time. Yes, everywhere. If they don't, they may not survive.

Nurses work 24/7, and frankly, we should be teaching patients that amount of time, too. It's not just during therapy, or by nurses on breaks from therapy, it's whenever they can. I view saying "hi" to someone in the hall as an education opportunity. Like the fellow who wandered into the clinic at Washington while I was talking to my nurse friend T. He learned something, because I took five minutes to teach him (thank goodness for those brochures in my bag!).

Our therapists might be good, but they are not here 24/7. Our nurses are. Please don't discount them. Empower them. Encourage them to do their best, to learn more, to get certified, to be the best they can be.

Sincerely (because I really do care),

RehabRN

Great blog post on nursing

I don't regularly follow NPR, but I came upon this blog post because of a therapist I work with at the Hotel. It speaks volumes.

Don't miss it! BTW see the movie if you get the chance. Kids or no kids, it's a good one.

Happy weekend wherever you are. You deserve it.

Not exactly appropriate

Ah, I LOVE being in charge of the Hotel Rehab (yes, I say that with much, much irony). Thankfully, my last spate of being at the wheel were relatively busy, then boring. Boring is not bad when one is in charge.

So much fun. Got to do a lot of education. One, why does Nurse X disappear with Patient Y, asked one of our newer to us nurses? And the  answer is ...she always does when Patient Y comes in for his annual checkup. Is it appropriate that she leaves her other patients to take care of this one? Not really, but since she's a fave of the nurse manager, it happens.


Mr. D., one of our newest rehabbers is doing really well, now that he realizes that we are in the business of getting you to function to your highest ability. He's going out with the therapists and doing more every day. I'm just crossing my fingers that this continues, because he's getting to the A student status among our patients really fast.

I love it when people realize a) we are not really a hotel,  b) inpatient rehab is merely a stop on the journey, and c) we can really help you help yourself if you listen and do what we ask.

You only get as much out of rehab as you put into it.

More to come....

Nuggets for June 3

After a temporary hiatus, the Nuggets are back!

Multiple Sclerosis links:
Here are a few links I thought I'd share as a result of my conference last week.

National Multiple Sclerosis Society
http://www.nationalmssociety.org/index.aspx

MultipleSclerosisPro.org
http://www.multiplesclerosisprofessional.org/

PVA's page on spinal cord diseases
http://www.pva.org/site/PageServer?pagename=disease_main


From the blogs...
I'll never think of making someone NPO the same again...
http://serenitynowhospital.blogspot.com/2009/05/npo.html

Sadness for a traveling OB nurse
http://rvtravelerrn.blogspot.com/2009/06/can-you-help.html

And a related item: What is anencephaly?
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/anencephaly/anencephaly.htm

Things not to do on Twitter: announce your vacation.
http://casesblog.blogspot.com/2009/06/dangers-of-social-media-twitter-your.html

And for something completely different....
Therapists wired to write
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/fashion/04shrinks.html

The roles of the rehab nurse

This is a series of occasional articles geared toward new nurses entering rehab. If you've been around the nursing world for ages and you have some comments, feel free to throw them out there.

Recently, I attended a conference about multiple sclerosis and one of the presenters talked about how important the roles of a rehab nurse is to patients and the vaunted interdisciplinary team. Here are a few roles you play that may not have been so obvious.

1. Scheduler
Rehab nurses get schedules thrown at them by PT, OT and whomever else can think of something for them to do. We get to coordinate how people get from A to B and sometimes, we even get to say, "No way. You're not taking my people." Knowing how to work the schedule is a very important thing, for your sanity and the sanity of your patients and the rest of the rehab team.

2. Cheerleader
Rehab nurses cheer on patients, to be adherent to medication regimes ("That sounds nicer that 'compliant' "--actual quote by a presenter), to get out of bed and do therapy, and also to look at the sunnier side of life. Yes, some days suck, but you just have to deal with whatever gets in your way and motivate your people. I do not use pompoms, although, I have been known to use Diet Pepsi (or patient's drink of choice) as a motivator. Sometimes, as they say, you gotta fake it 'til you make it.

3. Marketer
Yes, this plays into the previous role of cheerleader. I have to "sell the program" as I always tell people. The program is, you will get out of bed, you will get your life going and you will have a routine. You can be sick and tired, but you have to at least try. Sometimes the best sales pitch is the one where the patient derives it from himself.

4. Therapist
Sometimes, all you may do is to listen therapeutically. You don't get the alphabet soup after your name like those therapists, but you get an earful. Think about how you can use that rant, rave or entreaty to help that patient. If you need help, ask for it, from your charge nurse, manager or your psychology staff. I couldn't live without ours.