The Handoff - Issue #16

Hello fellow Nurse, this is your weekly handoff. Some quick and dirty nursing news that’s worth sharing. Enjoy!

Something to listen to

I have not listened to this podcast before and LOVED it. If you are a history nerd of any kind it is worth a listen... Or if you just like to listen to Australian accents. They interview Lynne, a retired nurse of 47 years, and pick her brain about what nursing was like when she began. There are so many modern tools that I take for granted. I gripe about how long the hoyer lift takes to raise, but at least I have a lift... and a raising bed. Prior they just used the buddy system and their injured backs. She tells stories about blood transfusions coming directly from a person into a patient and how they would just "hope for the best". She tells tales of boiling pregnant women's urine multiple times a day to check for sinking proteins that would show signs of preeclampsia. She talks about her raw washed hands since disposable gloves were a thing of the future. It really makes you appreciate the modern advancements that we have today that make medicine so much more advanced.

Something from a different perspective

Coming from Forbes, I assumed this would be another discussion on the high paying travel nurse positions, yet surprisingly it doesn't. I was ready for the usual jab at them being paid too much, but instead the article refers to them as a "strategic staffing solution". The article gives a great history of the start of travel nurses and how the numbers of them have changed throughout the pandemic. It's worth a read simply for the fact of it being kind of funny hearing nursing described from a business journalist perspective. I have never heard shit staffing situations referred to as a "delicate healthcare ecosystem".

Something to talk about next shift

While it's easy to complain how horrible the hospital ICUs were during the pandemic, I think it easy to forget how challenging it was in nursing homes. Prior to the pandemic staffing was already an issue. With limited resources and fleeing staff, many nursing homes struggled. Unlike hospitals, filling spots with travel nurses is not an option thanks to money hungry privately own nursing homes and staffing numbers are still struggling to bounce back. This article discusses the power of CNAs and how their dwindling numbers are putting nursing homes in even more of a crisis. According to this article, our senior population is expected to double in the coming decades- we better figure it out soon.

If you liked this newsletter please share with your friends. Which bullet is your favorite? What do you want more or less of? Other suggestions? Email me and let me know.