And now, for another stellar entry into the Annals of Healthcare Horrors. Of course we all know about the nursing shortage (triple yawn) and how facilities are just so desperado to get their hot little hands on some juicy nurses. Well, this is just how desperate they are. Apparently, this particular bimbo, aka director of nursing, thinks that maltreatment will do the trick.

Here is a scenario that was posted by a very angry nurse. I am paraphrasing her words…

We just got a new director of nursing (DON) at the long term care facility (nursing home) where I am employed. She announced that she has instituted a new policy about sick calls. If you call in sick for any reason at all, you have to find another nurse to take your place. This is even with a doctor’s note. And if you can’t find anyone, then you have to come to work sick.

If you don’t find someone to cover for you, or you don’t show up, you get written up. If you get written up three times, you are fired.

The nurse goes on to say that she checked the policy in the employee handbook, and in says that if you are ill, you need to call in 2 hours or more before you are scheduled to work, and that after 2 absences. a doctor’s note is required.

Now, does this sound like a facility that is trying to maintain a positive environment for their staff, one that shows some respect for the nursing staff–as well as for patients? The nurses who are working at this facility are furious, and I am sure many of them will quit. And maybe, there will be one or two brave ones who will complain to the corporate office, the board of nursing, and other regulatory agencies. But bottom line, it they’re not already short staffed, they’re going to be seeing an exodus of bibilical proportion.

First, it is the job of the DON and the supervisors to find replacements when a sick call comes in, not the nurse. That has to be the most idiotic thing I have ever heard of. That is their job! Second, it will certainly do those old folks good to be exposed to germs from a sick nurse. Mmm, influenza. Just what the doctor ordered.

It is really funny about nurses. Once they get into administration, so many of them transform into absolute ass-kissing dorks. This particular DON appears to have her nose so far up the ass of the corporate suits, that it’s probably permanently coated with crap. I suppose she thinks that this is going to whip the staff into shape, cut out absenteeism, cut costs, and maybe get herself a nice little bonus. But instead, I think the bimbo is going to have to do some explaining why everyone is either quitting or getting fired, and why there has been a sharp increase in the death rate of the patients.

But hey, the “experts” think that all you have to do to solve the nursing shortage is train more nurses and run glitzy ads. Notice, the ads never mention the joys of working in a place like this nursing home.

Not so good news for Terri Schiavo. The federal judge rejected a request from the parents to reinsert her feeding tube, but Schiavo’s parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, immediately appealed to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. This is day four. Terri is moving closer to dying of dehydration/starvation.

In a 13-page ruling issued at dawn, U.S. District Judge James Whittemore acknowledged the gravity of the consequences in denying the request for an emergency order to restore the feeding tube. Doctors say Schiavo, 41, would likely remain alive for one to two weeks without it.

But Whittemore said he was obliged to follow the law and issue the order only if the Schindlers could show their overall case was likely to succeed in federal court, which they had not.

Cool, glad to know that our laws protect all citizens. What I can’t understand is the obvious bias in this case. Terri left no written directive, and her husband (who is living with another woman and has two children with her) only “remembered” Terri’s wish not to be kept alive artificially after he received his settlement. And what is the difference really, between being fed with a spoon or a tube? If Terri could be spoon fed, would that make her more viable?

I am also more than amazed at some of the things that people are writing on various boards, people who have no clue about medical care, brain activity, or the dynamics of the Schindler/Schiavo families. One poster ranted about what a narcisistic and overbearing Terri’s mother is (like she has personally met and interacted with the woman) and that she is the reason Terri had an eating disorder. It hasn’t even been conclusively established that Terri even had an eating disorder, as she was at her normal height/weight when she collapsed, but here is a person far removed from the situation, analyzing the mother and declaring how much she hates her. Amazing.

Others keep posting away about how the husband should have the final say, even though he is with another woman and has two kids with her. And appears to have no interest in Terri at this point, other than killing her. Perhaps Michael Schiavo would like to explain why he has refused to have Terri’s wheelchair repaired, and why he refuses to allow dental care for her?

When family members are bitterly in opposition, I really feel that we have to err on the side of caution.

And so we wait. The judge needs time to contemplate and think things over. But at least the case has gone to a federal judge and is out of the hands of that Judge Greer in Florida–the man who refuses to allow attempts to feed Terri by mouth. Why don’t you just order the morphine, and get it over with?

Anyway, she is still alive and I am assuming that there will be a ruling tomorrow. Just another day in the life. It is so easy just to step back and decide from a distance, that “this person would be better off dead,” or that “the quality of life is terrible,” and so on. So easy to make those choices when it’s not your life that’s come under scrutiny.

I am no longer so anxious to make those types of judgements, as I’ve seen that many people who I would assume to be better off dead are, in fact, quite happy. The life that I don’t think worth living is in fact, a valuable one to that person. If we believe that someone in a “persistant vegetative state” like Terri Schiavo, is better off dead, then what about all of the patients with advanced Alzheimer’s or dementia? Their minds are elsewhere, they can no longer care for themselves–so do we stop feeding them? And how different is it to receive your food through a tube vs. someone spooning it into your mouth?

Perhaps most poignant are the people I’ve spoken to who still use the iron lung. How can life be more confining than that? But yet, none of them want to die, and all have managed to get quite a bit out of life.