If you're a nurse or an allied health care professional, I don't need to tell you that it's a jungle out there in the workplace.
"There's an increasing demand for health care services and a limited number of providers," said Kim Sharkey, RN, MBA, CNAA, division director for inpatient nursing at St. Joseph's Hospital of Atlanta.
The mission to heal is challenged by sicker patients, higher turnover, quickly-changing technology, nursing and staff shortages, long hours, workplace violence and a growing demand for documentation. "It's definitely a tougher environment," Sharkey said. Fortunately, improvements are coming.
Believing that workplace safety warrants special attention, the Georgia Nurses Association has made workplace advocacy a top agenda item this year. It is supporting programs that promote a safer and healthier working environment in terms of ergonomics, infection control, overtime issues, safe levels of staffing, no-fault error reporting and appropriate access to substance-abuse treatment for impaired nurses.
Alice Vautier, RN, Ed.D, associate administrator for patient services and chief nursing officer at Emory Hospitals, notes a surge of hospitals working toward achieving magnet designation.
This status was developed by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (a subsidiary of the ANA) to recognize health care organizations that provide the best in nursing care. The designation recognizes the quality of nursing programs and demonstrates the importance of nurses to the success of a health care organization.
A "nursing shared governance model" of leadership which empowers nurses to create the programs that will improve their practice and working environment - and which fosters autonomy, responsibility, accountability and commitment to the profession and individual institutions - is being adopted by more hospitals, according to Debbie Hatfield, Ph.D., RN, SANEA, chief programs officer, GNA and president of the Center for American Nurses.
The Center for American Nurses is a new tool to improve health care work environments. Established in 2003, it grew out of the ANA's Commission on Workplace Advocacy to address the needs of individual nurses in the workplace not represented by collective bargaining. CAN offers a wealth of services, products and programs that support the personal and professional development of nurses, including issues of appropriate staffing, health, safety, workplace violence, rights and liability.
There's still work to do, but as Susan Howell, Ed.D., RN, AOCN, director of professional practice at St. Joseph's/ Candler, reminds us, workplace advocacy is not a destination, but a steady journey toward nursing excellence.
For a more personal advocacy plan and some helpful time-management tips, be sure to read Pam Keene's For Your Benefit column this month. If you're a parent, you may find Andrea Freeman's new babysitting Web site a lifesaver. And if you're a nursing mom, you'll be grateful to Ellen Lundy for her invention of a quiet, effective hands-free breast pump.
Last, but not least, I wish you all a joyful and healthy new year and look forward to hearing about your careers, lives and accomplishments in 2005.
- Do you have any story ideas for Pulse? We'd love to hear more stories about your careers and what you do after hours. E-mail me at pulseeditor@ajc.com or call 404-526- 2078.