Senior Clinician in Veterinary Anaesthesia | Dip. ACVAA | Patient Safety and Human Factors Advocate
I’m sorry but stories like this piss me off a lot. 😡 We must balance high standards of patient care with the well-being of our staff. An incident like this underscores the importance of this balance, highlighting the need for SYSTEMIC CHANGES to ensure staff are supported and cared for. We must create a workplace where staff welfare is as important as patient care, recognizing that the health of both is deeply interconnected. #culturalshift #healthcare #veterinarymedicine
The Break Nurse. Creating solutions to prevent burn out, increase engagement and improve patient care. Co-founder of Breakalgo. Drive down missed breaks with Breakalgo.
I have to share a horrific story that a nurse recently told me. She was a traveler nurse in a highly acute and busy unit. She was in the middle of her menstrual cycle and needed to change her tampon. There were back to back cases and she asked her manager for a bathroom break. The manager responded: "I wish I could use the bathroom." No relief was offered and the next trauma rolled in. By the middle of the case she had bled through her scrubs. And her manager gave her a shrug of the shoulders after seeing the blood stain. To understand how selfless, exceptional, and amazing this nurse is--she said: "How do I ever put a child second to me....I had to stop n say, ok I know its all down my legs n my pants...but I just had to keep movin, kept workin...." This is a horrific story--but its not isolated. Why do 18% of nurses not make it past year one--nonsense like this! Why is this accepted in healthcare? Do you think if the CEO heard this story that manager would be punished? Unfortunately, this problem is bigger than just this one crappy manager. We have to do better. Two action items: 1) Leaders--you have a legal duty to assure work conditions do not violate your worker rights to sanitation. If staff cannot be relieved of their duties to use the toilet in a reasonable timeframe--chances are their rights are being violated. Develop protocols, standards and staffing to assure your organization is not breaking laws r/t access to a toilet. 2) Staff--support one another. Encourage each other to take breaks and step off the floor when permissible. No charge nurse should say--"Oh (eyes rolling) you want another break?" We have to change our culture from thinking breaks are a luxury to a necessity. If your not able to use the restroom in reasonable timeframe--document, report and seek legal advice if it does not improve. #thebreaknurse #nursesonlinkedin #nursingleadership Rebecca Love RN, MSN, FIEL Sarah Wells, MSN, RN, CEN, CNL Zach Smith, BSN, RN Jennifer Mensik Kennedy PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN Casey Green BSN, RN, CCRN-CMC, CTRN, CFRN, CEN, TCRN, CPEN, CNRN, NRP Travis E. Nelson Maggie Ortiz, RN, MSN
Vet and Applied Linguist: Talking about Talking: Contextualised Care: neurodivergent. Primary care, Charity Vet & Educationalist Training Consultant VDS Training but views are fully my own.
6moI think what people fail to realise is that it’s not a balance of wellbeing vs patient care. Good patient care is dependent on the team wellbeing. Making sure the clinical and non clinical teams are well rested and feeling valued means the patients will be well cared for and safer.