Arbitrator: Safety concerns justified Westerly RNs objections to ICU admission

The UNAP has won a very significant arbitration award which reversed the disciplinary suspension of four ICU nurses at Westerly Hospital. The arbitrator ruled that the nurses had a "reasonable belief that accepting the patient into the ICU could pose an unacceptable risk to their health and safety, and possibly that of the other patients in the ICU."

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No time for grieving

"It’s hard to have a job where people die, to show up on Monday after a weekend off and find out that three patients, all well known and dear, are dead."

Oncology RN Theresa Brown writes about the importance of maintaining hope amid the grief and finding ways to leave work at work in The New York Times/Well Blog. Read more...

Honoring Nurses? -- Let's get real!

"Many people still believe that nurses are subordinate, scut-work saints, rather than professionals with critical-thinking skills honed by years of college-level education.... Yet today, 3 million registered nurses play a central role in U.S. health care, saving lives and improving outcomes countless times every day. They assess patients' conditions and autonomously intervene, coordinate work by the health care team, use cutting-edge technology to protect patients, and teach patients how to manage their conditions....Now is the time to change attitudes about nursing. For nursing to attain the resources it needs to get and keep nurses at the bedside, the public must learn what nurses really do." Read more...

Sandy Summers
Baltimore Sun
May 12, 2009