The funny part of this story are the memes the nurses posted.

A Washington state senator has drawn the ire of nurses after remarks she made suggesting that nurses in smaller hospitals “probably play cards for a considerable amount of the day.”

The Washington State Senate considered a bill Tuesday, SHB 1155, that would provide nurses with uninterrupted meal and rest periods.

“By putting these types of mandates on a critical access hospital that literally serves a handful of individuals, I would submit to you those nurses probably do get breaks. They probably play cards for a considerable amount of the day,” Washington state Senator Maureen Walsh said on Tuesday during a debate on the Washington state Senate floor.

The comments sparked a backlash online.

LINK: https://wgntv.com/2019/04/22/w...e-amount-of-the-day/

Well, that explains all the memes that popped up in my Facebook feed (or whatever they call it).

My wife is a nurse and she is all over this story. It has really pissed off the nurse community. I hope this comes back to Maureen in a big way.

My golfing buddy's wife is an ER nurse. When she comes home she sure does look tired as hell. Probably too many hands of bridge

Nurses are the ones getting most of what needs doing done in hospitals. What a jackass comment to make about the ones providing most of actual caregiving.

Stupid Senator. Everyone knows that nurses spend most of their shift playing Angry Birds !!!

They play pinochle on your snout

Can I play devil's advocate here for a bit? I got in a chat with a few nurses I'm friends with on FB. They are all from Massachusetts.

I pointed out to them that they only saw a short clip. They didn't watch the entire talk from the senator. They didn't know the situation in Washington state. They didn't know what kind of care she was talking about. But...

From the clip I saw it seemed she was basically saying that in a slow hospital, where sometimes there is an emergency, then they need to have mandatory overtime. A big part of the debate I had was her comment about working 8 hour days. But I agreed. If nurses are too tired to work OT , given a 12 hour shift (totally reasonable to be tired then), maybe they should have 8 hour shifts so they can have people capable to work overtime if some emergency brings in more patients than normal. It doesn't make sense to staff 24/7 for the off chance a fire brings in a bunch of extra patients.

All that being said, and noting that in general nurses are very busy, when my ex wife was in the hospital ER overnight a few years back we literally watched nurses play cards all night while we sat on a cot outside a room (no rooms available). The nurses had takeout, were eating constantly, and playing cards. Every hour or so one would get up and walk around to the rooms. We were there for 8 hours.

Frayedends you are EXACTLY CORRECT!
My wife THE NURSE agrees 100%

While what the lady said was poorly worded she explicitly explains she is referring to Hospitals with very few patients. Going off memory here but I believe she notes the hospital she was referring to had 6 patients. These hospitals are what my wife, THE NURSE, who has worked in these small hospitals as well as at the time was a trauma nurse in the only level 1 trauma ER in the state calls band aid stations are non critical patients.
6 patients likely 2 or possibly 3 nurses to do rounds would take them maybe 10 minutes a patient per hour. Leaving nearly 30 minutes a nurse per hour if rounds were done hourly which in non critical patient sceneries is not necessary.

All these nurses have gotten bent over nothing. Though there are some funny memes coming from it most have completely missed the point of what the lady was trying to say, though arguably it could have been worded a million times better.

quote:

Originally posted by wxdave:
My wife is a nurse and she is all over this story. It has really pissed off the nurse community. I hope this comes back to Maureen in a big way.

Ditto here wife and Her friends are shall we say not very happy at all! And she retired 5 yrs ago.

quote:

Originally posted by frayedends:
A big part of the debate I had was her comment about working 8 hour days. But I agreed. If nurses are too tired to work OT , given a 12 hour shift (totally reasonable to be tired then), maybe they should have 8 hour shifts so they can have people capable to work overtime if some emergency brings in more patients than normal. It doesn't make sense to staff 24/7 for the off chance a fire brings in a bunch of extra patients.

12 hour shifts are really 13-13.5 hour shifts. Patient hand-off/report can take up to an hour and a half in lots of hospitals. That is one reason why they typically have 2 shifts a day per patient versus 3. That is just the beginning. Having 2 nurses taking care of a patient makes you less likely to miss or forget something due to less hand-offs... Less turnover means you are more likely to notice differences in patient conditions/acuity, etc... There's a reason almost all hospitals have 12 hour shifts for their staff, and that revolves around better patient outcomes.

Funny meme on a pharmacist page I follow on FB:



Re: the comment about nurses: what a dumbass comment for a female politician to make regarding a profession dominated mostly by women. Like Bugs Bunny said: "What an ingnoranamus, what an ultra-maroon!"

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:
Frayedends you are EXACTLY CORRECT!
My wife THE NURSE agrees 100%

While what the lady said was poorly worded she explicitly explains she is referring to Hospitals with very few patients. Going off memory here but I believe she notes the hospital she was referring to had 6 patients. These hospitals are what my wife, THE NURSE, who has worked in these small hospitals as well as at the time was a trauma nurse in the only level 1 trauma ER in the state calls band aid stations are non critical patients.
6 patients likely 2 or possibly 3 nurses to do rounds would take them maybe 10 minutes a patient per hour. Leaving nearly 30 minutes a nurse per hour if rounds were done hourly which in non critical patient sceneries is not necessary.

All these nurses have gotten bent over nothing. Though there are some funny memes coming from it most have completely missed the point of what the lady was trying to say, though arguably it could have been worded a million times better.

Bingo to frayedends and bingo to you. When things are slow, when there are little to no patients, the staff (nurses, docs, admins,...) will tend to other business of theirs, whatever they might be. That's just fact of life. To pretend that doesn't happen is simply being dishonest.

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:
Frayedends you are EXACTLY CORRECT!
My wife THE NURSE agrees 100%

While what the lady said was poorly worded she explicitly explains she is referring to Hospitals with very few patients. Going off memory here but I believe she notes the hospital she was referring to had 6 patients. These hospitals are what my wife, THE NURSE, who has worked in these small hospitals as well as at the time was a trauma nurse in the only level 1 trauma ER in the state calls band aid stations are non critical patients.
6 patients likely 2 or possibly 3 nurses to do rounds would take them maybe 10 minutes a patient per hour. Leaving nearly 30 minutes a nurse per hour if rounds were done hourly which in non critical patient sceneries is not necessary.

All these nurses have gotten bent over nothing. Though there are some funny memes coming from it most have completely missed the point of what the lady was trying to say, though arguably it could have been worded a million times better.

Bingo to frayedends and bingo to you. When things are slow, when there are little to no patients, the staff (nurses, docs, admins,...) will tend to other business of theirs, whatever they might be. That's just fact of life. To pretend that doesn't happen is simply being dishonest.

Mrs.BurtonRW, RN, routinely works herself half to death picking up the slack for the card-playing nurses. And don’t even get her started on night shift...

Her co-workers were offended.

-Rob

quote:

Originally posted by BurtonRW:

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:
Bingo to frayedends and bingo to you. When things are slow, when there are little to no patients, the staff (nurses, docs, admins,...) will tend to other business of theirs, whatever they might be. That's just fact of life. To pretend that doesn't happen is simply being dishonest.

Mrs.BurtonRW, RN, routinely works herself half to death picking up the slack for the card-playing nurses. And don’t even get her started on night shift...

-Rob

Around these slacker types, also. But, that doesn't change what I said originally.

quote:

Originally posted by BurtonRW:
And don’t even get her started on night shift...

And don't get me started on day shift...

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:
To pretend that doesn't happen is simply being dishonest.

Yup. I see it all the time. Yes, it is more common in critical access hospitals as they tend to be "slower", but it happens in 400 bed trauma centers as well. Been there, done that, seen it all.

The REALLY fun thing is when I'm called into the ER at 0300 to start an IV on a patient because the nurses are supposedly unable to get one, and when I arrive I see both nurses sitting on their asses playing on their cellphones and they haven't even tried. "Well, she's historically a tough stick so we thought we'd just call you." Rage doesn't even begin to explain the emotion.

My wife is a nurse. She retired in Washington. One reason she retired was that nurses were on mandatory 10 hour days. Her knees couldn’t take the concrete floors. Then they started talking 12 hour days. Even then, the shifts got extended. Bathroom breaks were always an issue. Nurses, and female teachers tend to have bladder problems.

“The bill would mandate uninterrupted meal and rest breaks for some healthcare workers. During a debate of the bill last week, Walsh said it would be difficult for small, rural hospitals to stay open. She argued for an amendment to exclude smaller facilities.

What did she say?
"I would submit to you that those (small hospital) nurses probably do get breaks," Walsh said. "They probably play cards for a considerable amount of the day."

Just exactly how giving a nurse a 30 minute lunch or a break to go to the bathroom will close a hospital? I have no idea.

As for “6 patients likely 2 or possibly 3 nurses to do rounds would take them maybe 10 minutes a patient per hour. Leaving nearly 30 minutes a nurse per hour if rounds were done hourly which in non critical patient sceneries is not necessary.”
I read that to my wife. Her reply was “Yes, 6 critical care patients would have 2 or 3 nurses. She added that, were it a regular ward, the hospital administration would reduce staffing, or send nurses home, all to save money.

No critical access hospital is going to have six critical care patients in it. It just won't happen. In fact, if you're lucky, a CAH might have one critical care patient...only until such time they can fly them out.

I'm curious why this is being considered as a state law to begin with? This should be an institutional policy. If you don't like it, work somewhere else.

I'm guessing the nurse's union is behind it.

quote:

Originally posted by WingedMedic:

quote:

Originally posted by frayedends:
A big part of the debate I had was her comment about working 8 hour days. But I agreed. If nurses are too tired to work OT , given a 12 hour shift (totally reasonable to be tired then), maybe they should have 8 hour shifts so they can have people capable to work overtime if some emergency brings in more patients than normal. It doesn't make sense to staff 24/7 for the off chance a fire brings in a bunch of extra patients.

12 hour shifts are really 13-13.5 hour shifts. Patient hand-off/report can take up to an hour and a half in lots of hospitals. That is one reason why they typically have 2 shifts a day per patient versus 3. That is just the beginning. Having 2 nurses taking care of a patient makes you less likely to miss or forget something due to less hand-offs... Less turnover means you are more likely to notice differences in patient conditions/acuity, etc... There's a reason almost all hospitals have 12 hour shifts for their staff, and that revolves around better patient outcomes.

Patient handoffs aside I’d be surprised if patient outcomes are better with 12 hour shifts. I worked a 12 hour shift and my job is certainly stressful but not nearly as complex or stressful as nursing. We were all about spent after 10 hours. I’d expect a lot of mistakes after 11 hours or so.