Springtime humor for nurses with disabilities:The Peeps made it through surgery!

Do you celebrate spring, Passover or Easter?

Do you have any special celebrations around this time of year?

Let's celebrate all of the "Peeps" who have undergone surgery and the miracle of separation.  

Take a look at these brave "Peep" volunteers. 

Please share your thoughts about the surgical technique, pre-op and post-op care, Code Purple and reconstruction.

Visit the "Peep" home page for additional information about the subjects, informed consent, review of the literature, and other studies.

Appreciate reading your thoughts,

Donna

 

http://www.peepresearch.org/surgery.html

So hard for pilots and nurses..... to put their name on mental illness

After a Germanwings pilot tragically crashed an airplane into the French Alps, along with 149 passengers, the conversation ignited about mental illness and disclosure in the workplace.

Clearly, we need new ideas and platforms of expression to address these issues. Could a literary arts anthology help? A new venue to share our struggles?

At Stanford University, students created 129 pages of raw, intimate and powerful expressions of the experience of both mental and physical illness in "Release.Restart.Review," a literary arts anthology created by and for Stanford University students that focuses on emotional well-being.

"There are two emotions that everyone talks about, which is being happy and being stressed," said senior Abby Belani, who led the student government team that created the anthology. "Everything else falls by the wayside. And if you're feeling anything else at any particular moment, you're encouraged to keep it quiet or to disguise it as one of those two things. So we wanted to get people talking about the sort of emotions that actually encourage them to create art, which is very rarely stressed."

The goal was to promote the idea that well-being is a spectrum, that it's daily, that there's a whole range of human emotion and it's not necessarily negative and it's not necessarily positive and you should feel free to express the entire range that we're capable of," said senior Caitlin Karasik, a well-being team member who edited the anthology.

 "Seeking professional help is OK and it's fine and you should do it and you should take care of yourself, but also that there's mental health outside of the context of illness and outside of disease and that you should pay attention to it and it should be important every day, not just the days when you really need it or you're diagnosed," she added.

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While reading about this wonderful anthology, I couldn't help thinking about nursing students and nurses with mental health challenges....so many are scared silent.....

Is it time for nurses to develop well being teams and a similar anthology? 

http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2015/03/24/through-art-stanford-students-open-conversation-about-mental-health

Should nurses with two legs skip more?

"The hosts of NPR's new show about human behavior bring you some new research from Nevada State

University. They've discovered the most efficient way to travel on two legs."

Take a look at this video clip.

Would skipping work well for nurses? 

What would patients think?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1YIuP2epp0

Lawmaker Introduces the Keith Nolan Air Force Deaf Demonstration Act. Good news for nurses?

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- On March 31, 2015, "Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) introduced the Keith Nolan Air Force Deaf Demonstration Act, which would allow deaf and hard of hearing individuals to serve in the United States Air Force in a demonstration program. Original co-sponsors include Rep. Niki Tsongas, Rep.John Delaney, Rep. Ted Lieu, and Rep. Chris Van Hollen.

 

Currently, the Department of Defense sets medical standards for enlistment. Within the "hearing" section, there are requirements for hearing levels that would exclude an individual who is deaf. The section also excludes individuals who currently or historically use a hearing aid, or who have a cochlear implant.

 

The Keith Nolan Air Force Deaf Demonstration Act would create a demonstration program in the Air Force for 15-20 Deaf and Hard of Hearing individuals who would otherwise qualify to serve in the Air Force."

 

Is this good news for nurses and other healthcare professionals who are d/Deaf and eager to serve in the Air Force?

 

http://www.military.com/daily-news/2015/03/31/lawmaker-introduces-the-keith-nolan-air-force-deaf-demonstration.html

 

 

Life is like a parade...guest blog post from Dr. Rachel Silva NP

What a privilege it is to share this guest blog post from Dr. Rachel Silva, NP!

Life is like a parade

I've often wondered about nurses who left full-time work due to a disability. Working as a hospital nurse, I've questioned how supportive colleagues would be of another co-worker with a disability that impaired their speed on a busy hospital floor. As with any profession, I think it's important to differentiate between our profession and our purpose in life. Our profession, or particular place of employment, may change. But, our purpose in life is the constant force in pursuing our passions.

Life is like a parade. Unless it's a huge float in the Macy's Day Parade on TV, we have no idea what's coming around the corner. Around the corner could be an achievement or celebration, or a trial of some sort. One of the things about overcoming trials or tribulations in life, is the light you give others encountering similar circumstances. I believe most of the time we can be unaware of the casual influence we can have on others, including a disability.

Many years ago I had a patient that became disabled and was hospitalized due to her injuries. Naturally, the grief and acceptance of her disability was overwhelming. However, the deeper pain for her was questioning how she would be able to support her family financially. Her physician's nurse called the unit to say she would be coming by to check on the patient, and called to inquire what room number the patient was in. I had spoken to her many times on the phone. She was always joyful and truly enjoyed her job as a RN in the office. I looked forward to meeting her for the first time.

Shortly thereafter, a lady in an electronic wheelchair appeared at the nursing station desk. She politely gave her name to the receptionist and stated she was there to visit a patient. I stood there paralyzed as she wheeled down to the patient's room, realizing the lady in the wheelchair was the joyful nurse I had always spoken to over the phone from the physician's office. Later that evening, the patient's sense of purpose and passion in life seemed to appear from nowhere. As she spoke, she shared how much it meant to her that the (disabled) nurse from the office came to visit her and gave her hope. Hope for her future, and hope for her family.

The nurse/lady in the wheelchair not only touched the patient's heart, but my heart, as well. This was nearly 15 years ago. I still remember the physician smiling and telling me "yeah, she had a really hard time when she realized she would never be able to walk again. But, fortunately, that didn't stop her from enjoying life. And, she loves sharing her life with others."

Learn more from Dr. Rachel Silva, NP

https://whatisannp.com/np-photo-gallery/dr-rachel-silva-dnp-fnp/

Department of Justice Unveils New On-line Americans with Disabilities Act Complaint Form - ID Action

Department of Justice Unveils New On-line Americans with Disabilities Act Complaint Form - ID Action

Sunlight project nurses needed!

This was originally posted on Greg Mercer's "Bid Red Carpet Blog".


“Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.”

– U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis

As many of you kind readers already know from recent posts, I’m building a network to help nurses safely report abuses against them. I intend to level the playing field in health care, and help nurses gather the power we need to stand up for ourselves and our patients, confidently and successfully.

But there are so many details to consider! I could think about them all for the rest of my life and never reach certainty, but experience shows me a far better way: try out promising tactics, learn and adapt from experience. More efficient, more effective: better. Basic nursing process, really, on a large scale.

Today I present one such detail, crucially important in my estimation. I want to protect nurses from retaliation, and I want to enhance the credibility of the information they offer. Anonymous reporting lends itself to abuses, clearly: lies, fake reports, bullying: poor credibility. Yet identified nurse reporters remain unacceptably vulnerable to retaliatory abuse. Why else would I bother with this project? It’s a conundrum: how to have the best of both worlds, without the baggage?

I have two goals in this post. One: recruit any clever solutions anyone out there might have to offer. Nurses are such a clever crowd! Two: offer my tentative solution, for your consideration. I hope to learn from your opinions.

Nurses are excellent judges of clinical reports. We do it all the time. We know crap when we hear it. My thought is this: if we can recruit nurses to vet anonymous nurse reports, perhaps we can protect both sources and credibility. If we steer reports from a given specialty to expert nurses in that specialty for assessment, we take an important step forward. We gather information ‘certified’ by a trusted judge. Unlike Yik Yak anonymous gossip and the like, we can offer high quality information. And we can offer sources whatever level of anonymity they want.

Next, on we go of course to other steps in the process, other details, like where/how to store and offer such information. Another day… When is anything in nursing simple or easy?

Here’s our need for now: who out there would be willing to offer a few minutes here and there to vet reports? There’s no liability involved as far I can tell: no one need decide a report is true, simply check it for credibility, nothing more. Then you can pass it on to the next step: done! The whole point of this project is to spread the light of day widely, WITH ABSOLUTELY THE LEAST RISK POSSIBLE TO ALL INVOLVED.

Nurses get the job done. I’m a nurse. You’re a nurse. See?

P.S.: What do you good folks think of the name?

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***Please consider getting involved! Comment here and on Greg's blog. Click on this link.


http://bigredcarpetnursing.com/2015/03/25/sunlight-project-nurses-needed/