Vital Votes

 

Living and working in the State of New Hampshire gives me a special privilege when it comes to politics. If you have been living under a rock…NH is the first primary in the nation to elect the delegate for the presidential ballot of the United States of America. Many of us granite staters take this responsibility seriously, and if you don’t vote that’s your right too. Yet, my thoughts on not voting are that you can’t complain unless you try to be part of the solution.

I was having a conversation with another nurse the other day, and she told me her vote doesn’t matter, so of course I am going to write a blog about why it does….

One of the most difficult cases of patients that I take care of are the abuse cases. It breaks my heart over and over again. When this happens, so many caregivers ask why? There is obviously absolutely NO excuse for child abuse. Yet, I can’t help but think of the socio-economic or mental health hardships that surrounds the children that come in.

 

My mind wanders into thinking about if the family struggling with finances, who had to put their child in the hands of an unknown caregiver so that they can work, had better financial support…could this abuse have been prevented?

 

To the cases where mental illness was part of the recipe leading up to the horror of abuse, what would have happened had our government provided adequate and comprehensive mental health care and counseling…could this have been prevented?

To the cases where the child was already under the watch of DCYF (Division of Children, Youth and Families), yet the case-worker had such a heavy case load that they weren’t able to provide a house visit this week…could the abuse have been prevented?

 

To the cases where the budget cuts prevent ample school counselors or nurses in our schools, whom are trained to see signs of abuse, and whom have open doors for the children to talk…if they were present, could this abuse have been prevented?

 

One of the most prevalent issues in the state of NH especially, but also nationwide is drug abuse, specifically opioid/heroin. It is out of control. In fact, the media, and our Governor are calling it an epidemic. We see nationwide babies born with neonatal abstinence syndrome. The babies are born with dependency to the drugs the mother was taking, and it varies case to case, but sometimes they need to be treated with similar medication, usually morphine, for the babies to safely wean off medication.

We have an overwhelming number of overdose related deaths in our state. We also sometimes have abuse or neglect cases when the parents use these drugs. Heroin and Opioids are doing horrible things to our babies, children, teens, and parents, and it needs to stop.

Now I am not an expert on drug abuse, but I do know a few key things. Yes, it is a poor choice to start using drugs. Absolutely. Yet, once someone starts, it can be extremely difficult to stop. It’s an addiction. We need to treat this as a mental health issue, and provide treatment, and resources to prevent further use. Criminalizing drug users, is no longer working.  If you think about the nature of an epidemic…you can’t take all the infected people and lock them away and expect the disease to go away…it’s an epidemic (watch any zombie movie you can’t eliminate it by containing those infected) it’s an epidemic needing widespread monitoring, treatment, and prevention.

 

We need to stop over-prescribing unnecessary pain medications because of patient satisfaction scores on pain control. There is good news for this front – our state recently passed legislation to restrict overprescribing of opioids. How did this happen? Our ELECTED officials passed this legislation to make a positive change to an important issue.

Anytime I’ve ever thought that we are “short-staffed”, or anytime I have thought about the impending nursing shortage because the baby boomer generation of nurses are going to retire soon, I can’t help but think about how legislation for safe staffing, or funding for nursing education could help.

 

Anytime that a patient with a chronic healthcare condition is re-admitted over and over again, I can’t help but thinking how a care coordinator or home visiting nurse could prevent some of these readmissions. Currently, NH is also experiencing a nursing shortage of trained pediatric home care nurses. It is not because lack of nurses who want to help, but with pay lower than any other average nursing job, there is not enough interest to apply. These are some of our most vulnerable citizens….and it is absurd if you think about the cost of a hospitalization especially a PICU (pediatric intensive care unit) stay in comparison to at home nursing care. Legislation and funding can help with this.

 

I’m less concerned about economics than health…but it matters. When a child with a chronic condition comes in because their parents couldn’t afford the co-pay for medication, it matters. When a 2-year-old has to stay in the hospital by their self with nursing staff taking care of them, because the parent has to work in order to not loose their house/car/money for medication, it matters. When older nurses are physically hurting, but need to make it to retirement, it matters. When younger nurses have to put off raising a family, buying a house, or pursuing happiness because their student loans with federal interest are more than they can handle, it matters.

 

I’m not sorry for the rant. I will keep ranting. Politics matter. They sure do. There are so many issues that I haven’t touched, yet as a healthcare provider those are some of them that resonate with me. Although it sometimes seems to the contrary – your representatives work for your best interests…from your town legislature all the way to your president. So it matters who you choose to fight for your issues, to come up with effective solutions, to make this town/state/country/world a better place. It is your right to vote, or not, but please remember that you have less influence arguing about the problem than you do if you are part of the solution.

 

~ Keep on Caring ♥

Finding Your Inner Rocky

In middle school, I had a basketball coach that was obsessed with Rocky Balboa. You know the boxer, who overcame incredible odds and won some matches that were deemed impossible? In the duration of my 3 years on the team, as a team he had us watch all of the movies. As I hated running, every time we had plans to watch the movie, I was shouting “yes” in my head. In retrospect, it was a brilliant coaching technique, and as I am friends with him on Facebook, it is no surprise that I have watched his teams and players win championships and awards throughout the years. Were his techniques of basketball, and experience what made him a great coach? Somewhat, but what I truly think it boiled down to was that he gave us courage. He believed in us, and even when no one else thought we could win a game, he told us that we absolutely could – and not the way every coach tells their team, but he meant it.

 

In perspective, when there are two athletes with identical ability, experience, and skill, what makes a champion is courage, confidence, and belief in the possible. Yeah yeah yeah we always hear, “defense wins championships”, but I beg to differ. I think this sense of confidence/courage/and intent wins championships.

When I went to college, I stopped being an athlete. As any nursing student can relate, there was barely anytime to breathe amongst clinical, classes, papers, projects, and volunteer work. Those that continue to play, I commend you. My athletic focus turned to academic and at times in college, when I didn’t want to do a paper or project….I used my favorite coping method PROCRASTINATION!!!

 

That magical procrastination technique would push me to the deadline, and it would always increase my stress and worry and probably my blood pressure. But BAM it worked. I made it through nursing school, and grad school, and landed a dream job at a Children’s Hospital, and I lived happily ever after…

 

Well, if everything at my job was sunshine and butterflies, and life was easy as pie, and there were never problems, then I wouldn’t have a blog. So let’s talk about when things go crazy at work. When you have a lump in your throat because you just are so overwhelmed. When you are tasked with something you really don’t want to do. When you feel like Alice in Wonderland, dropped down the rabbit hole.

Let’s talk about what you can’t do. You can’t run. Well, I guess you could, and trust me I’ve thought about it a few times, and even joked to a co-worker as I briefly leave the unit to get lunch or water and say, “Bye, I’m not coming back”. Ha. You can’t hide. No matter how many “snacks” you try to take to get away from the chaos, it will still be there after your seventh cheese stick. You can’t turf it. Meaning – you can’t beg your co-worker/ LNA/ charge nurse to do ALL of your work. I haven’t tried that yet, and it hasn’t gone so well for those that have tried this method either. You can’t procrastinate. Well, you can but then you will regret it. and think about how much this has increased your anxiety and stress in college. If you keep putting off something you don’t want to do, by the time you do it you will be rushed, you will be tired, and in the end you still need to get it done.

 

That’s the bottom dollar: it just needs to get done.

 

A new thought I have tried to adopt is: don’t complain about it unless you are going to provide a solution. So, when things are tough, what do I do to make it through? My students laughed at me when we were discussing stress relief, and I told them I listen to Hip Hop on my way to work. Laugh it up, but it pumps me up. Also, I put my hair up. This is not sexist either, there’s a new thing called a man-bun, my male nurse colleagues. Putting your hair up means business. You can’t garden, take out the trash, clean up your dog’s poo with your long hair in your face. So if you have to get your hands dirty figuratively or literally, if there’s something that needs to be done, play some hip-hop in your brain sound-track, put your hair in a bun and do it.

 

The sooner you get it done, the sooner it’s over with. The less you have to ponder about all the things that could go wrong. The quicker you can move on to other things. All the quicker to dust your shoulder off (Jay-Z reference). So the next time you feel yourself procrastinating a task, put some Eye of the Tiger, Hip-Hop, or 80s Rock band on, put your hair up and get it done, because you rock, you can do it, and no matter what you think the odds are against you, great triumphs happen every day, and they happen because you are awesome.

Just the same, if you see a baby Balboa nurse trembling in their Danskos – give them the Nike complex…”Just Do It”. At the same time help them understand the policy, procedure, or task. Answer their questions. Then, be that coach that I once had. Tell them that they are awesome. Give them the confidence to overcome fear, and the knowledge that you will be sitting in their corner of the ring, ready with the water, ice, and hip-hop music, never ceasing to inspire them to be the best they can be, because they just might have to do the same to you some day.

~ Keep on Caring ♥