One option

The other day I got an email of desperation from a real good recovery room nurse.  I want to share it with you.

I know you have heard this over and over again but it has to be dealt with.  I left work yesterday crying and on the verge of quitting.  We had one call out and even without a call out we are in crisis mode.  We can't even go pee. The most recent saying from our clinical coordinator is I know your not ready but another one is coming out for you. (from the OR)  This is unacceptable.  We have two people hired to start in December but not enough staff to train them appropriately.  I know she, Judy, is going to expect us to take Pt's and train someone.  This is unacceptable.  We need travelers to help get us through and the OR gets them but we don't.  Everyone is aware of our situation but nothing gets done.  We have one traveler but its not enough and he is done late Nov.  I need some push on this issue.  Please help.

I responded by forwarding the email and the following to the hospital CEO, two vice presidents and the director of Quality for Hartford Healthcare.

Can someone please tell me how our continued, daily, beating to the pulp of nurses, not only in PACU, but throughout the hospital, is in the best interest of the organization, the employees, the patients or the community? 

It is a patient safety, patient satisfaction, and quality issue and it is an employee moral and retention issue.

Thank you for your consideration,

John

The next day PACU was better staffed.

Maybe it is because I have been patient for so, so, long.

Maybe it is because my nature is to cooperate, not confront.

Maybe it is because I cannot stand to see our nurses continuously disrespected.

Or maybe, I am just maturing as a Union President.

I will no longer stand bye and watch good nurses be bullied or harassed by management. 

I will  not watch them be short staffed.

I will not watch them be placed in a position to be injured.

There are two ways to receive respect.

It can be granted voluntarily by the other party, or it can be demanded and faught for.  

I have waited patiently for the respect to be granted to our nurses, it has not come.

That leaves one option.

John Olsen

John Olsen served as president of the Connecticut AFL-CIO for 25 years.
25 years!

Imagine all the changes in that time.
Imagine the struggles, the victories, the defeats, the disappointments, the sleepless nights, the extreme highs.

Now he retires.
Not to sit in the sun, but to serve his fellow man some more, working with the John J Driscoll United Labor Agency and the Elderly Housing Development and Operations Corporation.
You see, John is tough and gruff on the outside, but his heart beats true with the desire to help those who others beat down, the homeless, the hungry, the immigrant, the disenfranchised.

Last Friday night, John was in a packed room of like minded people.  People to whom he is an example of how to live.  Care for your fellow man and don't be afraid to fight for them.

The Governor, both U S Senators, all 5 U S Representatives, Ted Kennedy jr, Rich Trumka, President of the AFL-CIO, and a house full of union presidents and leaders, gathered to honor John and celebrate what he stands for.

Many gave speeches, many cheers went up. but no cheer was louder than the cheer for the union hotel workers who were serving us diner.  It was fitting because that's what John Olsen stands for, what he has dedicated his life to, what he has shown to us time and time again.
It can be summed up as this:

All work has meaning.
All people deserve respect.

Thanks John.

Boston Strong!

It's a good week to be in New England.
Our boys have done it, they are baseball's World Champions!

For someone who grew up with year after year of disappointment, year after year of good springs and summer fades, of 86 years of "the curse"..........
and then.......
2004!
We could all die happy.

But wait, the baseball gods were not done.
Having lifted the curse, they would reward us again in 2007!
Surely we did not deserve this, we celebrated, but wondered, what price would the gods demand for this second gift?

The past few years have been tough in New England, indeed, for the entire northeast.
An October snowstorm left us without power for weeks, Hurricane Sandy, flooding in Vermont, Sandy Hook Elementary School, and this spring, the Boston bombings.
The rest of the country has not been spared.  Hurricanes, oil spills, shootings, wildfires, and on and on.
With September 11 still fresh in our memories, no one could blame us if we felt a bit beaten down.
We had stood together after September 11, we had risen out of the ashes, we had new life.

The question became, could we do it again?

Maybe it took a city, a region, who had lived 86 years under "the curse" or maybe it was just time, but after the marathon, a new cry began.
It started slowly, quietly.  It started as they all do, not with voice, but with action. As the firefighters and police had rushed in on September 11, so did they on April 15.
Boston Strong
Boston Strong
Boston Strong
Boston Strong
Boston Strong
Soon it was a cry heard across the country, a cry that said, "You may knock us down, but we WILL get up!"
It became a cry of hope, not only for Boston, not only for New England or the northeast, but for all.
Boston Strong applied just as much to those fighting fire fires in the west, as bombings in the east.  It applied as much to the children of Newtown as the runners and spectators of Boston.
In one of the greatest displays of solidarity, the great New York Yankees declared that they too, were "Boston Strong!"

The gods could not ignore us any longer.  We had been tested. We had stood together and stood strong, Boston strong.

So, for the third time in my life, the Red Sox are World Champs, and this time, for the first time since 1918, the gods smiled on us and let us celebrate at Fenway.

Stop the world, I want to get off!

They say that idle hands are the tools of the devil.....

But......

Maybe busyness is too?

I have never been this busy in my life. Emails, texts, and phone calls flood my smart phone. I keep a notebook in my pocket because if I don't write something down I will forget it, or 2 or 3 different issues will blend together in my mind. 

Organization is not my strong point, but without at least some organization, I am lost. 

Just when I think I'm caught up, the phone rings and the quite evening I had planned is gone. 

I struggle to find balance, but don't we all?

Aren't we all, to one extent or another, struggling with the pace of 24/7, instant contact, living. With trying to squeeze more and more into the same amount of hours?

Evolution has not prepared us for this. We need down time. We need a "sabbath", for our physical well being, our emotional health, and our spirtitual life. 

Carol Adams RN

The year was 1985, when an LPN came to work at Backus Hospital.
Five years latter she would become an RN.
For 28 years she has served the people of the Norwich area at the bedside, healing them, comforting them.

She has mentored more young nurses than we can recall, she has gained the admiration and respect of her colleagues, the medical staff, and employees across the hospital.
Last week she called it a "shift" when she retired.

But Carol will never truly retire, there is no such thing as a "former nurse."

I came to know Carol in a special way a few years ago.  She has become a teacher, a trusted adviser, and a close friend.
In Washington, she took me to the Smithsonian Museum of Fine Arts and as we went room to room, she patiently explained paintings, giving the history of the artist and the history of when and where the paintings were created.
At social and political gathering, she gracefully moves from person to person, equally at ease having conversations with senators, congresspeople, governors, and waitstaff. When she catches the eye of a legislator, a smile comes to their face.

When I reached out to her to serve as Local 5149's Political Liaison, she graciously accepted.
It is truly a gift having her in the role.
Time and again I turn to her for advise, or help, and she never lets me down.

Carol will no longer be at the bedside, for the first time in nearly 30 years, but she will continue to to serve her colleagues, her profession, the people of the Norwich area, and the labor movement as a retired member of Local 5149, our Political Liaison, and delegate to the AFL-CIO and our State and National Federations.