[NPInfo]hospital care now

Mon Sep 10 00:06:23 PDT 2007

I had thought of it myself, and did find an advocate when even as an NP I was overwhelmed, suffering from burnout, needed a buddy, and needed someone to be a witness, and support so I could sometimes just be a daughter for my dad.  Well this one advocate was referred to me. I was so relieved.  I called her 4 days before meeting with the assisted living nursing assessment, so she could be there with me. She never returned my call until she missed the meeting a week later. She agreed to be my advocate verbally and said she would send me a contract.  She sent me a contract right around the same time all the crisis were occuring. I was in such shock I called her when my dad fell.  I did not get a call back ever from her or her nursing staff. I called again, when my dad was in hospice, and told her that neither of my  dads doctors had come or called me, and I was so alone and scared, as my dad was dying.She did not return my call. She did not return my call after he died or to
 this day.  It hurt. 

  Here is her link:

  http://www.healthadvocateservices.com/bio.htm

  I really needed her, and even if she had anyone call to say she was too busy for me, at least I would have known. Carla

"Barbara C. Phillips" <bphillips at olderwiserwomen.com> wrote:
  Oh my...all these stories!

I have them myself, dating back to 1971 when my Father died. It was before
anyone in California had heard of Elizabeth Kubler Ross. It could have been
so different.

My Mother has end stage COPD - she smoked 50 years too long. Amazingly
enough, she does not have lung cancer and her breast cancer has not reared
its head for 11 years now. She's in the process of moving from CA to WA and
will be living in an assisted living facility where I see patients. My fear
is that she (or myself or partner) would ever have to visit the ER or
hospital in my local community. Too many horror stories...too many errors
that I've seen personally in my patients who see me after an ER visit. For
Mom, because we have already arrived at DNR's and how she would like to die
(hospice and morphine) - we hope to avoid the hospital all together. I wish
I could find an NP for her to see, but we still can't admit to hospice.

I've said for years...no one should enter a hospital without an advocate. No
one. Health Care Advocate - If you think about it, it would make a great
business if there was funding available!

Barbara C. Phillips, NP
www.NPBusiness.ORG
Take Our Survey!

-----Original Message-----
From: npinfo-bounces at nurse.net [mailto:npinfo-bounces at nurse.net] On Behalf
Of Paula Sumner
Sent: Sunday, September 09, 2007 7:30 PM
To: NP Info
Subject: RE: [NPInfo]hospital care now

Carla, thank you. I am so sad to read all of these stories. I wish the
Medscape group would do a feature on our stories. Mom had diabetes, and
never had chest pain with her MI, just a raging headache. Dad made her go to
the docs and she ended up in the hosp with a temp pacemaker.

I am so sorry to read about your and Dena's experiences. i tell friends and
family that if they ever have to go in to take an advocate with them.. The
family won't call me because they know I make a storm, yet when my brother
had a massive MI @ 10 yrs ago, in cleveland, I used my whiles to connect to
the CCU desk. My niece spoke to me, and asked. how long is an n/g tube?
They were going to pull it and my brother was frightened-he thought it went
all the way to the bottom of his abdomen!! I told her it was much shorter,
yet why did I have to answer this question long distance when he had nurses
all around???. I am glad I could answer, but still.... 
paula

Carla Anderson wrote: oh Paula,

I know it was 1988 but just hearing about your mother, I am so sorry! I am
sure you would have raised hell.. Along with his lung cancer, and
emphysema, my dad had started having left shoulder pain "deep" that was
intermittent, 4 weeks before he died...(we kept calling about it) and the
docs started to order vicodin for it I kept asking what is it? My dad was a
retired doctor, and when he would walk I would say "do you have any chest
pain, and he would say no, but he may not even have known if it was
atypical, the docs just kept writing him off, I had to keep begging for
care.. I wanted a bone scan initially, but no, they ordered a pet scan
finally, which is contraindicated with small cell lung cancer (says so right
on the brochure) so I asked why they were doing that, and the oncologist was
vague... it did not show anything that could be causing his shoulder pain.
It also did not show metastisis which small cell usually goes to other
organs. So I asked the
oncologist, could it be his heart? Maybe he is having atypical angina? And
he said "oh no"... well we had an appt with his pcp two days later, and I
was going to make her evaluate it and do an ekg, because everyone was
"deferring everything to oncology", and he did have other issues. Well he
fell the next day, and died shortly after and each doctor gives a different
story...I think it was his heart, but the stress and witholding pain meds,
and oxygen, etc, made everything worse My mom's mom (my grandmother was
also found dead in the hospital several years ago, after she was admitted
for mild pneumonia. My mom was coming to pick her up with a change of
clothes, and found her that way...But as we are all saying, it is not the
dying, we are all going to die, it is the lack of dignity, and the lack of
care and apathy and judging we are seeing. Carla 

Paula Sumner wrote:
I know what you mean. My sister in law fx her ankle a few mos ago, and
went to a brand new ER in TX. They haven't shared all their horror stories,
but a few-the nurses had no idea where bandages were, there was no bedpan in
the unit, analgesia was poor, and the orthopod did not answer his pages. My
brother transferred her to another hospital the next day,

My mother had a bad ending in a nursing home which I found out about last
weekend at a family wedding. She was practically blind, and had gotten
herself up to the BR and fell. She had rt shoulder pain, they did xrays, no
fx, and found her dead in bed after bkfst was served. She had c/o rt
shoulder pain-I had told several nurses that she had atypical angina-it
shows up in her rt arm!!! noone f/u. If had known all the details then
(1988) hell would have broken out (prob why family did not tell me, lol).
paula

Shelby Havens wrote: One of our charge nurses rushed her 90 year old
grandmother to the ER one 
night recently, and spent 12 hours there with her. She had the symptoms of a

severe UTI. They did not admit her or even do much of a workup. She said the

ER personnel just kind of shrugged and said, your grandmother is really old,

and there is not much we can do. The patient expired in the ER. I was so sad

for her. It makes me terrified of getting old (on American soil).

Best Regards,

Shelby Havens, ARNP

>From: Carla Anderson 
>Reply-To: NP Info 
>To: NP Info 
>Subject: RE: [NPInfo]hospital care now
>Date: Sun, 9 Sep 2007 16:04:51 -0700 (PDT)
>
>Of course, you all know my dads story, and I just got a bill yesterday, 
>from the Care Facility that had him for one night, and was hypoxic and 
>dying as you know in the morning. No care was done, period, no nurses notes

>for 8 hrs,..no meds, no rehab, just lying in bed hypoxic for hours, the 
>bill was for 1400.00! Come to think of it, they were probably charging for 
>his furniture still in his room as he was rushed to the hospital and then 
>hospice.
>
> And prior to this, about 5 months ago, the landscaper that was doing my 
>lawn, told me that his mother, age 62 went to a different hospital here in 
>Oregon for a hip replacement. She was very healthy, and she died. They 
>just told her that she got chest pain and died. That is all he knows. We 
>all know the differentials of course, but this should not be happening.
>
> Another person I know, her relative was hours post op, left alone and 
>pain pump malfunctioned. Happened to be that a friend was visiting and 
>went screaming for a nurse to come to the empty room as the patient (my 
>friends relative) had stopped breathing. Narcan was given, but this would 
>have had a very tragic ending and maybe the family would have been told the

>same story as my landscaper was, if a friend had not been in the room. I 
>can tell far too many stories and I should not have to. It is happening at 
>different places, not just one place. It literally makes me sick. Carla
>
>Shelby Havens wrote:
> Could this have something to do with why healthcare in the United States 
>is
>considered substandard to healthcare in some other countries?
>
>Best Regards,
>
>Shelby Havens, ARNP
>
>
> >From: "Marilyn Dean"
> >Reply-To: NP Info
> >To: "NP Info"
> >Subject: RE: [NPInfo]hospital care now
> >Date: Sun, 9 Sep 2007 14:51:53 -0500
> >
> >Thanks for the note Dena. I was pretty much shocked. She was never out of
> >the bed with assistance of anyone, but PT and sessions were skipped if
> >someone was doing vital signs or she was otherwise engaged in some other
> >activity. It certainly was hard work getting those new post-op patients 
>up,
> >but you darn well knew that was to be done.
> >Oh well, progress????? Really pretty sad. She had much better care a few
> >weeks earlier in a small community hospital. Less patients (maybe less
> >computers too?).
> >Marilyn
> >
> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: npinfo-bounces at nurse.net [mailto:npinfo-bounces at nurse.net]On
> >Behalf Of Dena
> >Sent: Sunday, September 09, 2007 2:10 PM
> >To: 'NP Info'
> >Subject: RE: [NPInfo] My Reply...Back to Sue
> >
> >
> >I worked Ortho for many years in the early 1980-1989 when joint
> >replacements
> >was still "relatively" new and patients were in the hospital 7-10 days
> >before going home (no sending them to rehab-- they rehabbed there). Pts
> >were
> >up in the chair 2-3x a day for meals for 1-2 hours by post-op day 2 (and 
>if
> >they were my patients, they were bathed and up in the chair before
> >breakfast-- after PT they were returned to a beautifully, and 
>wrinkle-free,
> >freshly made bed and fluffed pillow ) and had PT 2x/day. The nursing
> >assistant, ortho tech, or nurse got the patients up to the BR, and walked
> >them in the halls in between therapy sessions once cleared by PT. 
>Actually,
> >these poor patients got very little time to rest and sleep during the day
> > but I don't remember using anything other than TED hose and SCDs (once
> >they were invented) to prevent DVTs. Of course, back in the early '80s 
>was
> >before the whole DRG thing started...
> >
> >In my last job on a new NeuroSurgery unit, the nurses and CNAs NEVER got 
>a
> >patient out of bed in a chair or walked them in the hall-- they were
> >supposedly too busy. PT managed to see the patients once a day although
> >frequently didn't see them at all and actually had little notes in the
> >charts about being "short staffed" (YIKES!).
> >
> >I really fail to see how this is progress.....
> >Dena Galler
> >
> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: npinfo-bounces at nurse.net [mailto:npinfo-bounces at nurse.net] On 
>Behalf
> >Of Marilyn Dean
> >Sent: Sunday, September 09, 2007 11:22 AM
> >To: NP Info
> >Subject: RE: [NPInfo] My Reply...Back to Sue
> >
> >I have to agree. I was very disappointed in the care my Mom-in-Law had
> >recently in a large hospital after an extensive surgery to redo a
> >prosthetic
> >hip which had loosened over time and finally resulted in a femur 
>fracture.
> >At 88 it was a great risk. 5 people were in each day for a care 
>conference,
> >but no one but PT got her up and she went to a care center on Friday AM
> >after having surgery on Tues late afternoon. She had not been sitting in 
>a
> >chair yet. Does it make you wonder why we now have to have all the DVT
> >prophylaxis with meds with hospitalizations. She is completely non-weight
> >bearing on one leg with a congenial hip malformation on the other where 
>she
> >may bear weight.
> >Now in the care center they are doing a great job of getting her up, but 
>I
> >can't quite get anyone to order something for her gerd, although I have
> >talked to them twice and she has lost her "cookies" a couple of times
> >because of it. They have till Tues to get an order or I will personally
> >call
> >her Dr. I think communications are a real problem. Promises don't cut it.
> >Marilyn
> >
> >
> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: npinfo-bounces at nurse.net [mailto:npinfo-bounces at nurse.net]On Behalf
> >Of
> >Priscilla Merrill
> >Sent: Saturday, September 08, 2007 5:37 AM
> >To: 'NP Info'
> >Subject: RE: [NPInfo] My Reply...Back to Sue
> >
> >
> >Amen to that! Couldn't have said it better, Dena. I'm truly heartsick to
> >see this part of nursing go by the wayside. True nursing care for the 
>most
> >part has gone down the toilet as nurses are more and more multitasked and
> >forced to be documentation/computer queens. My friends that have stayed 
>in
> >nursing are few and far between and burnt to a crisp with the new 
>mountains
> >of expectations, shorter than ever staffing and the fluffing has suffered
> >as
> >have the patients. That's been my mantra over and over on these threads- 
>-
> >the patient MUST be our center. It's not all about money, power, 
>prestige,
> >turf, role delineation -- we must put CARE in the center and all would be
> >happy.
> >OK, I salute you my JANGO sister! This obviously made us fluffers from a
> >very early age. When you take care of men and do your hs perineal care,
> >does
> >that make you a Fluffer-Nutter? And as my 2 cents, there's a difference
> >between comfort and fluffing and waking folks for mundane tasks when you
> >don't have to. That's why they call it the ART of nursing. OK< flame suit
> >on, POOF.
> >
> >Priscilla Merrill FNP
> >
> >
> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: npinfo-bounces at nurse.net [mailto:npinfo-bounces at nurse.net] On 
>Behalf
> >Of Dena
> >Sent: Saturday, September 08, 2007 2:39 AM
> >To: 'NP Info'
> >Subject: RE: [NPInfo] My Reply...Back to Sue
> >
> >I remember back in the '80s working 3-11, pushing a cart from patient to
> >patient starting at 9:00p.m., handing out a hot wet washcloth, a towel,
> >changing the drawsheet, putting a new pillow case on the pillow before
> >fluffing it, and offering a back rub to everyone. It was my favorite part
> >of
> >the shift. Did I ever think I was playing the stereotypical handmaiden 
>role
> >while I was doing it? No-- I only knew I was helping my patients relax 
>and
> >feel better. Several years ago while working agency on the floor for 
>extra
> >money, I fell back into the same pattern and the nurses were astonished.
> >None of them had ever heard of p.m. care before. When working the day
> >shift,
> >I was shocked to find out that none of the nurses apparently had ever 
>heard
> >of a.m. care or baths before either.
> >
> >My girlfriend's 20 yr old son was in the ICU a couple of years ago with
> >bilateral spontaneous pneumothorax and was, appropriately, scared to 
>death.
> >He later told his mom (a NP herself) that the best nurse he had was one 
>who
> >gave him a back rub one night and then pulled up a chair and spent 20
> >minutes just talking to him. That was what he needed more than anything
> >else
> >at the time.
> >
> >I have often said that people go into nursing for one of two reasons-- 
>the
> >art of nursing (the nurturing, hand holding, talking) or the science of
> >nursing (the machines, the numbers, the technical aspects). I'm 
>definitely
> >the hand-holding nurturer type, always have been and always will be-- and

>I
> >will never apologize for it.
> >Dena Galler
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >No virus found in this outgoing message.
> >Checked by AVG Free Edition.
> >Version: 7.5.485 / Virus Database: 269.13.9/994 - Release Date: 9/7/2007
> >4:40 PM
> >
> >
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>
>Carla R. Anderson, FNP-C
> Healing Presence Family Practice, PC
> carla_rayne at yahoo.com
> 503 819 9726
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Paula J. Sumner RN, MSN, HTP, CHt
Healing Touch, Hypnotherapy, Emotional Freedom Technique, Reiki-2
3500 Westgate Dr., Suite 504-G
Durham, NC 27707 (now Carborro too.)
919-490-4656, 8#

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carla_rayne at yahoo.com
503 819 9726
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Paula J. Sumner RN, MSN, HTP, CHt
Healing Touch, Hypnotherapy, Emotional Freedom Technique, Reiki-2
3500 Westgate Dr., Suite 504-G
Durham, NC 27707 (now Carborro too.)
919-490-4656, 8#

http://paulajsumner.byregion.net Referral ID#10102918

http://www.justanswer.com/home.asp?r=HolisticNurse&bn=2

http://www.letstalkcounseling.com/sites/paulasumner

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Carla R. Anderson, FNP-C
  Healing Presence Family Practice, PC  
  carla_rayne at yahoo.com
  503 819 9726