wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

Comments

• [1] hjs from 11211 July 03, 2008 - 12:27PM

  i've seen caribbean and filipino nurses. i wonder if mexican nurses can serve in the usa?

  
  
• [2] Bill from NYC July 03, 2008 - 01:34PM

  I bailed out of the hospital system 14 years ago and went into private industry for a lot more money , and a lot less abuse. Ironically I miss the patient contact but I needed to preserve my health and sanity

  
  
• [3] Craig Moncho from NYC July 03, 2008 - 01:38PM

  Nurses have been historically undervalued (unless you need one) by society, as have been social workers. It is institutionally understood that both professions can be paid less than they deserve, simply because the big hearts of those who work in those professions will not allow them to just walk away from someone in need.

  
  
• [4] Mike July 03, 2008 - 01:39PM

  My wife is a nurse and the Ratio issue is her #1 concern. She has had a tough time staying at any hospital in NYC because of the stress cuused by the ratios. She states to me that she has up to 11 patients on the floor (days). We are considering relocating to California due to the laws that protect nurses there. Does anyone know if NY or NJ will be passing any nurse to patient laws anytime soon?

  
  
• [5] Anthony G from ny July 03, 2008 - 01:44PM

  Leonard,

  One way to try to fight the nursing shortage is to educate people that it is not a woman's profession. You, yourself asked why "women" were not enrolling in nursing programs. Maybe men should be more actively recruited.

  Anthony G. RN

  
  
• [6] Angela from Manhattan July 03, 2008 - 01:53PM

  I am an emergency physician who is absoutely in favor of establishing appropriate nursing ratios. Unfortunately, limiting patients on the floors results in patients waiting for hours or days in EDs, where, in my experience, established ratios do not exist, as we are required to "take all comers". Can your guests comment on the effect on emergency departments?

  
  
• [7] Kyle Harrow July 03, 2008 - 01:59PM

  I'd like to make 2 comments

  First regarding salaries: because nursing like teaching is a female dominated profession it has been undervalued by society

  Second, those who make up where nurses are not available are increasingly the family members of the patients.

  
  
• [8] Simone from NYC July 03, 2008 - 02:26PM

  The nurse to patient ration in NYC is hell to me and my friends. All my friends including myself left the hospital because of the nurse to patient ratio. This is not nursing that we are doing in NYC. Its not about the patients its about the hospital making money. I am so sick of the hell you face in NYC that I am relocating to California. If that does not work I will be change my career.

  
  
• [9] Simone from NYC July 03, 2008 - 02:33PM

  I would like to talk to Suzanne Gordon and John Buchanan. Do you have a way to contact them?

  
  
• [10] Martina Clark from Brooklyn July 03, 2008 - 03:04PM

  Hi - great show but just one comment about nurses from Africa and making reference to finding ones who were "healthy" and not living with HIV... not relevant! The reason nurses with HIV can't come work here is not because they are not healthy - many nurses are living with HIV regardless of where they are from. They can't come because the US government won't issue visas to people living with HIV. The rest of the show was great but I had to comment on this issue because comments like this fuel confusion and stigma and the perception that people living with HIV somehow can't function like others! The UK, on the other hand, recruits nurses from Africa who are very well trained to the point that there is a brain drain IN Africa. Okay - I'll get off my soap box - thanks! Martina

  
  
• [11] Anonymous from NY July 04, 2008 - 12:20AM

  Thank you so very much for your report. We might as well say it. Nursing has become synonymous with abuse. We don't tolerate it domestically, we certainly don't tolerate it verbally, but professionally it seems we make an exception. We are the sweatshop workers of this brave new world.

  It is important to note that as our population ages, acuity and needs increase. The people coming into hospitals today are much less capable of self care than ever before. They need to be fed, changed, and bathed. Many need manual turning every two hours to prevent bed sores (which is no longer covered by Medicare/Medicaid so management is putting on the pressure to keep up). Hospitals not only skimp on nursing staff, but support staff as well and so nurses not only handle medical issues (looking at labs, administering medications, highlighting possible issues for inexperienced interns, loads of documentation) but also keeping up with each and every possible human need of up to 12 individuals at a time. Imagine taking care of 7 healthy children, alone. Even when available, support staff also are being utilized more and more as "sitters" for patents, rather than patient care. Patients who are risk for elopement, patients at high risk for falls, demented patients, etc.

  
  
• [12] phudorji Sherpa, RN from NYC July 30, 2008 - 05:52PM

  Not only are there serious problems with American Health Care System, but also with the American Immigration System. I am a new registered nurse in NY State. I am a magna cum laude from New York University (NYU) and got my nursing training in some of the best hospitals in New York and probably in the world. I am from Nepal and came to this country in student visa, and nursing is my second Bachelors degree. Having finished nursing school and receiving my license, I find that thousands of international nursing students like me, who studied and trained here in this country, investing our money and energy, cannot work because the Immigration Department is not accepting any new application in Skilled Professionals Category. And add to that frustration, registered nursing is still considered that low-profession by the US Immigration and Labor Departments that we are not even eligible to apply for working visa.

  
  
• [13] Anon. from NYC August 12, 2008 - 11:56PM

  Take into consideration also the fact that immigrant RNs and LPNs face enormous prejudice in the workplace. It seems easy for our Americanized doctors to put down workers with foreign backgrounds. Imagine the stress that places on such nurses. I know. I see it in my hardworking mother's eyes every night after a 15 hour shift at her dialysis clinic.

  
  
• [14] Josue from New York August 21, 2008 - 11:56PM

  Patient-ratio is an ISSUE that needs to be addressed immediately for the sake of our sick population and the Nursing Profession. I am a foreign nurse and I moved to United States because I thought The Nursing Profession was more valued and nurses were having a fair amount of patients. But the reality is that nobody seems to care and they still demand perfection and QUALITY CARE. HOW ??? How are we going to provide the quality care that a patient deserve when there is no enough Nursing Staff. And if you complain, Management's answer is...Establish your Priorities. I just want them to explain what do they mean by that??? DEal with the ones with trouble breathing and forget about the ones in PAIN, WET...etc. Because every single one of MY PATIENTS ARE MY PRIORITY, that is why I AM A NURSE !!!

  
  
• [15] lisa from tennessee March 06, 2009 - 02:46PM

  Looks like I'm behind on the comments, I am currently enrolled at a local college, I was going to change from an LPN status to a BSN status, but have changed my major to accounting, can't stand the nurse to patient ratio, though once I got my RN it would change by going from nursing homes where the LPN cares for 35-40 patients, but if the RN has to take care of too many acute patients what is the difference, I will be paying for education to burn out anyway.

  
  
• [16] a morley from ogdensburg, new york March 18, 2009 - 05:59PM

  Well this is late for the show (understated)

  Right now in the new york state assembly is bill #A02264 that will address the issue of nurse to patient ratios. The bill puts a floor (not a ceiling)on the # of RN's to patients that will provide for the safety of the citizens of new york who are unlucky enough to be hospitalized. It will also create an atmosphere that will FINALLY give nurses the time they need to perform their profession in the manner we were trained. Please write your assembly person or e-mail them and tell them to vote YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!ON A02264.

  
  
• [17] Patricia Jankowski from Michigan October 19, 2009 - 05:36PM

  God Bless Suzanne Gordon and all of those who have spoken here. I have been a registered nurse for 35 years and I have lived and worked through the crisis that has developed in our health care system. So I have seen much.

  I believe that the attempts made by insurance companies and "consulting" firms to corporatize health care is at the root of all that troubles us. Health care is a basic human need. We are all born, we all get sick, and we will all die. In our health care system, we need cooperation, not competition, which is so very wasteful in terms of dollars spent on advertising, in terms of wasting money playing on the fears and emotions of consumers (ex. "Do you have a Beaumont doctor?" etc), in terms of redecorating lobbies and putting 60 inch TVs in waiting areas (most of us can hopefully still read), and the like. We need to straighten out our priorities.

  Nursing is not just some other kind of job. It is like a battlefield much of the time...it is intense, and every day, we watch people suffer and die. We're the ones who point the physicians, who are most often not there, in the right direction and who call them when things are needed for their patients.

  We are invaluable.

  Hospitals have shown amazing callousness and ignorance in their treatment of us. At this point, I've lost much of my trust for nearly all hospital managements, but I am trying to overcome this feeling, hoping that the tide will turn.

  There are times when I feel that the only way we can repair our profession is to become totally independent and form a national organization of our own. Like an agency. Hospitals can hire us from that organization, and if we can't give our patients good care, and take care of ourselves, in the environments they offer us, we leave and go elsewhere.