Is it too much to ask for a little Respect here?

Not feeling the love from management this week.
No one big thing, just a lot of little ones that add up to a whole lot of lack of respect.

Why is it so hard for some managers to understand.
Certain professions, nursing being one of them, inherently look at their role as more than a job, they see it as a calling.
If managers would only understand this, their lives would be so much easier.
It's not about pay, or benefits. It's about the ability to be able to properly care for our patients and be treated with respect.
If they would just give nurses the time, resources, independence, and respect they desire, the manager's job would be done.
Instead, they often seem intent on creating an punitive atmosphere, where nurses are always listening for footsteps coming up behind them to tell them they are too slow, or their charting isn't perfect, or this or this or this.

I don't get it.
Management isn't rocket science.  You treat people with respect, you support them, you are clear on your expectations, and the majority of people will respond in a positive manner.

One of the reasons I like to get away to union conventions is because when I'm there, I'm treated with so much respect.  It's a refreshing change from working at the hospital.

Last May I wrote a blog about this.
http://backusunited-john.blogspot.com/2014/05/my-story-my-dream.html

In it I wrote:

Candice Owley, an AFT VP,  stopped me in the hall in Baltimore the other day. She wanted to introduce me to the lunchtime speaker. She said the speaker and I were both story tellers and then said some nice things about my blog. When Candice introduced the speaker to the gathering, she dropped my name into the intro, retelling our conversation in the hall.  She didn't have to do that, but she did, and it was a great sign of respect.

It was a week of respect, and that is what drives our movement, the belief that we should live in a world where all workers are respected, where they receive a living wage, not dependent on their gender, free of discrimination, in a safe work environment, without child labor, with quality public education, and with the ability to retire in dignity.

If management could understand this concept, their lives and certainly our lives, would be so much better.

Getting ESEA back on track

Did you ever have a great idea and it started out going well and somewhere it took a wrong turn and ended up somewhere you didn't want to be?

In 1965. Lyndon Johnson signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).

It's idea was to provide every child an education that gave them a fair chance, and every school the resources to be able to provide that.

It was a good idea.

It has been revised and tinkered with since then, sometimes to the good and other times.....

Now it is time to reauthorize the act.  

Pretty much everyone in education is in favor of reauthorization.

This is an opportunity to move it back to it's original goal.

High stake testing has become the norm.

Testing is helpful if it ensures that children say, in Alabama, are getting a quality education, just like children in New York.

It is not helpful, if so much time is spent teaching students how to do well on the test, that valuable time is lost teaching.

It is not helpful if schools in poorer communities, or with a high ratio of English as a Second Language Learners (ESL), or a high number of students with disabilities, do poorly on the standardized tests through no fault of their own.

In some cases these schools may even be closed due to this!

Obviously, this was not the original indent of the act.

My education friends understand all this.

They live this.

It's time for us "non-education" people to help out.  They're our students too.

Below is a short article from AFT and a link.

Would you please take a look and help out by signing the petition?

Let's get back on track.

Getting ESEA back to its promise

This year, all signs point to Congress reauthorizing our keystone education law, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).  When President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the ESEA in 1965, it was a centerpiece of the War on Poverty. The law was designed to ensure that every school got the resources to teach students, particularly in neighborhoods that are not wealthy. But the law’s core principles of equity and opportunity have been overwhelmed since the last major overhaul (known as No Child Left Behind), and it has taken on a devastating obsession with high-stakes testing.

"Over the last 13 years, we've seen the ever-more corrosive effects of high-stakes testing," AFT President Randi Weingarten observed in a recentcolumn . "No Child Left Behind has failed to accomplish its goals, and its only real legacy is a standardized testing regime that’s squeezing the joy of learning from our schools." To craft the next version of ESEA, she adds,"Let's start here: All students deserve a high-quality public education, and teachers need the resources and support that will allow them to teach."

Sign the petition and tell Congress to get ESEA right

Lessons from the Flu

Last Sunday, after taking care of yet another Flu patient, I made the remark that it would be a miracle if I didn't get it too.

I should have kept my mouth shut.  Better yet, I should have covered it with a mask.

By Tuesday morning I knew something was wrong.  I had the kind of aches you should only get when you take up a new sport.  

By Wednesday, I was visiting the doctor, and starting on Tamiflu.

On Wednesday I commented that at least I didn't have a cough.

By Thursday I had that non-productive cough that doesn't do any good, it just wears you out and hurts you head and ribs every time you hack.

Before you ask, yes, I did get the Flu shot, and I still recommend it.

I also recommend the use of masks for staff during the Flu season because the Flu shot is not perfect.

I am the worst patient, but it's not my fault.  Nurses make notoriously poor patients and men are wimps. (We have a definition for a guy who comes in with a cold, who acts like he's on his last leg, with the family doating on him, we call it a "man cold.")

So, put those two factors together and I'm in that sub class of the worst of the worst patients.

It's not entirely my fault, I don't get a lot of practice (thank God)

The last time I was out sick was before Obama was president and we all know that's been a long time because "I won 'em both."

It's ironic that I can stand up to bosses, and administrators, and lawyers and yet it's a little virus so small that you can't see it with the eye, that takes me to my knees.

It's a lesson in humility.

There's also another lesson.

I've been out of commission all week and you know what happened?

Not all that much.

The world kept spinning, the patient 's at work were taken care of, my union duties were handled by others.

You see, it takes a team, and when one member goes down, another steps in.

The Big Nursing question

"John, I'm going to have you do the code in room 7"

"How long?"

"5 minutes."

Many days in the ER are the same old same old, with the addition of being hassled about how long it took to do something and how your charting isn't perfect.

It gets old.

Then, once in a while, it's different.

You help save a life.

You guide a family though death.

You help a fellow nurse though a rough day.

"What do we know?"

"62 year old male from the casino, CPR in progress, shocked twice."

The medic and EMT roll though the door.

"62 year old male, witnessed arrest, V tach, shocked x3, intubated, Amioderone 300mg, got a pulse as we were backing up, down time 20  minutes.

IO right leg, 18 in the left AC, history MI with 3 stents, family on the way."

Short and to the point.

(He died, had no pulse, they got him back with electricity and drugs, he has a breathing tube and IV access, family will be here soon.)

The next 30 minutes are filled with a team of people doing EKGs, chest Xray, and blood work.

Orders are given, repeated back, and medications administered.

We lose the pulse, we get it back, we lose it, we get it back.

We stabilize, 

Life Star arrives, priest and family get 2 minutes, and the patient leaves.  

He'll be at the big city hospital in 12 minutes.

The "code team" was assembled in 5 minutes.

As primary nurse, I had to be the conductor of the orchestra.

The ultimate responsibility fell on the doctor and I, working together.

Driving home, I think of a question I was asked recently.

"Will you miss it if you leave?"

I answered then that I wouldn't miss the BS.

But I'll miss the days when I make a difference.

Stephinie

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

Much will be written about Martin Luther King in the next few days, about how great a man he was, about how he both lived his life and gave his life so that America could be a better place, about his unbelievable speeches and his ability to move others to action.

All true, all important.

Then I think of where we are today.

So much in the news about young black men being gunned down, of prison over crowding and the high percentage of the inmates being people of color. 

It makes you wonder, are we making progress?

A friend of mine and I were talking recently about going somewhere in southeastern Connecticut.  
She made a remark that she couldn't drive in a certain town after dark without being pulled over because she is black.
I was stunned.
There is no way I can understand this.  It falls under the category of "you have to experience some things for yourself to truly understand them." Being a white male, there is no way I can experience this.

I wanted to lash out and fight for my friend, but fight whom?  I was ashamed to be white.
Again, I wondered if we had made progress.

Then I thought about the matter of fact nature of my friend's statement.  She doesn't lay awake thinking about it. 
My reaction was much stronger than her's, I think because it surprised and disappointed me, but also because she is my good friend.
Had she been white, and bullied or discriminated against for another reason, I would have reacted much the same.

I came to know her because she is a respected leader in the labor movement, I grew to love her because she is so genuine, so loving, so honest, so much fun to be with. 
I go to her for advise because I can trust she will tell me the truth, not what I want to hear, and she will do it in an upfront but not unkind way.
She asks nothing for herself, no personal gain.  She has no hidden agenda. She cares about me for being me.
She and her sons have invited my wife and I into their lives. The are special to us.

We still have a long way to go to eliminate bigotry and discrimination.
But Dr King dreamed of a nation where his children would be judged by the content of their character.
My friend and I have come to know the content of each other's character.
That is what matters to us.
That is what is special to us.
That is what Dr King dreamed of.