ANA Capitol Beat – Page 13

American Nurses Association Stands Behind Assaulted Utah Nurse

The video is disturbing, and underscores the need for federal officials in OSHA to take steps to protect healthcare workers from violence. In it, Utah nurse Alex Wubbels calmly tells a detective that she cannot draw blood from an unconscious patient without a warrant, an arrest, or some form of consent (e.g. from the patient or a medical power of attorney). A hospital administrator can be heard on her speakerphone, backing up nurse Wubbels and asking the detective to not get angry at the messenger.

The detective snaps, pushes nurse Wubbels outside, and arrests her as she screams for help.

Perhaps the most disturbing part about this story is that Wubbels did everything right. “Alex Wubbels did everything correct,” said Aimee McLean, President of the Utah Nurses Association. “She stepped away from her patient’s unit, she deescalated, she followed hospital policy and procedure. This never should have happened.”

Indeed, touching a patient, performing a procedure, or drawing blood from a patient without their consent is assault and battery and is contrary to a patient’s right to privacy. Wubbels followed her hospital policy, her obligations under her nurse practice act to advocate for her patient, and her ethical duty under provision 3.1 of the Code of Ethics for Nurses to protect the privacy and confidentiality of her patient.

She did so calmly and professionally, and with the backing of her administration. And she was arrested for it.

So what’s the lesson to be learned here? For one, that Alex Wubbels is a hero to her patient, to her hospital and to nurses across the country. Two, even when nurses do everything right, we oftentimes still face repercussions. Rightfully refusing an unsafe assignment sometimes leads to discipline. Rightfully speaking out about unsafe patient care conditions sometimes leads to termination. And, taken to an extreme, doing everything exactly right in advocating for the rights of your patient apparently sometimes leads to arrest.

But, make no mistake about it: nurses will do what’s right in the interests of advocating for our patients, regardless of the situation.

The upshot here? Nurses are closing their ranks around Alex Wubbels. Across the country, we are speaking up online, in the media, and as professional organizations to decry what happened to nurse Wubbels and to call for accountability and changes to ensure this never happens again. We hope the public and the federal government will join us.

Alex Wubbels, ANA has your back. #Nursesunite

Nurses Answer the Call for Help in Wake of Hurricane Harvey

In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, there has been an outpouring of support, especially from our nation’s nurses. Stepping up during tragedies like this is one of the main reasons nurses are considered our nation’s most trusted profession. Please consider supporting those affected by Harvey by donating your time and professional skills, clothing, financial aid, or other resources to the charitable organizations below.

It is an honor to represent and advocate for those on the front line who invariably respond to the call for service in times such as these.

(Photo Credit: Instagram @AllieJPillow; “Please share so the nurses in Houston hospitals know, relief is on the way!!”)

Texas Nurses Association
https://texasnurses.site-ym.com/donations/default.asp

Resources for Nurses Affected by Hurricane Harvey
https://texasnurses.site-ym.com/news/news.asp?id=361587

Health and Mental Health Volunteers Needed
http://www.redcross.org/take-a-class/lp/hurricane-harvey-health-professionals

Opportunities for Nurses and Nursing Students
http://www.redcross.org/volunteer/volunteer-opportunities

Texas Disaster Volunteer Registry
https://www.texasdisastervolunteerregistry.org/index.php

ANA: A Nurse’s Duty to Respond in a Disaster
http://nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/WorkplaceSafety/Healthy-Work-Environment/DPR/Disaster-Preparedness.pdf

On Lobby Waterfalls and Safe Staffing

Limousine service, upgraded television sets, nurse-to-patient “scripts,” gourmet food service, nurse uniform requirements. Hospitals all over the U.S. are offering more “customer-centric” patient care in order to increase patient satisfaction scores, which are becoming ever more important to raise and maintain Medicare reimbursement amounts.

These efforts, however, often have unintended consequences.

In the first place, customer-centric interventions rarely (if ever) improve the quality of care patients receive. Rather, they merely improve patients’ perceptions of care.

Perhaps the biggest issue with this approach is that nurses have little control over the factors that research shows improve patient satisfaction scores the most. Quality of food service, wait times, physician attentiveness, even staff uniform colors are all factors in patient satisfaction scores—none of which nurses have control over.

Crucially, nurses also have little control over nurse staffing, which research demonstrates is a significant factor in patient satisfaction scores. Short staffing is inherently unsafe and puts patients at risk.

Contrary to gourmet food service, however, improving nurse staffing actually improves the quality of care patients receive, not just their perception of it. The literature shows that improving nurse staffing while controlling for variables (including physicians, LPNs, and nursing assistants) significantly reduces the risk of mortality, lowers the incidence of medication errors and other adverse events, lowers patient readmission rates, reduces nursing-sensitive negative outcomes, and even saves hospitals and insurance companies money—and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

In an effort to mitigate the unintended consequences of patient satisfaction scores and improve nurse staffing, the American Nurses Association has long advocated for Medicare to include nurse staffing measures next to patient satisfaction scores on its Hospital Compare website.

By doing so, public reporting of nurse staffing on a 1-5 scale will push hospitals to staff more safely and shift patient care interventions from those that improve perceptions of care to those that actually improve care itself. Think about it: nurse staffing is perhaps the single greatest indicator of patient quality of care. Would you rather go to a facility with a five star rating on nurse staffing, or one with a three star rating on nurse staffing, two lobby waterfalls, great patient scripting, and state of the art flat screen tvs?

Give me the better nurse staffing every time.

Unfortunately, Medicare recently declined to include nurse staffing measures on Hospital Compare for Fiscal Year 2018. But the fight is not over. While ANA is proud that we were able to help generate 1,363 comments in support of these staffing measures, and is thankful for the 26 advocacy groups who co-signed our comment letter to the Center for Medicare Services, we are already gearing up for an even bigger grassroots movement next year.

But we’re going to need your help. Stay tuned for more: #nursesunite.