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March 31, 2009
March 25, 2009
Pat, Moon, Moo & You--Pat O'Bryan Is On The Show!!
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March 21, 2009
Rural Republican Caucus: Our Testimony Regarding Single Payer, Guaranteed Healthcare For All In Pennsylvania
Healthcare for All Pennsylvania held a public hearing on HB 1660: the Family and
Business Healthcare Security Act on 3/18/09 at the State Capitol Building in
Harrisburg, PA.
Our audience was the Pennsylvania Rural Republican Healthcare Caucus,
per invitation of caucus chair Representative Kerry Benninghoff, Republican of
Centre County, Northern Pennsylvania.
The testifiers were Dr. Bill Davidson, (cardiologist), Alan Jacobs, (business leader),
Janice Horn, (League Of Women Voters), Wes Fisher, (medical student), Chuch Pennacchio
(Executive Director Of Healthcare PA), and me, Kate Loving Shenk, (Nurse Healer).
Everyone gave eloquent testimony and the Caucus was intensely interested,
leaning forward, and listening and nodding.
Dr. Davidson said, "The American people need to send a clear message to our
legislators. In order for people to speak with a clear voice, they must grow wise to the
propaganda that has distracted and divided them in the past.
"For instance, is providing healthcare to everyone a Communist Plot or simply a good
idea that appeals to everyone of good will?
"Do we understand that as in Canada, where most of the care is delivered by private
physician, a single payer system here would give everyone their choice of privately
practicing physicians in hospitals?
"Do we allow the pharmaceutical industry to hold us hostage with exorbitant prices or
do we group negotiate with them like the Veteran's Administration, who get medicines for
40% less?
"Do we accept the mantra that raising taxes is always a negative, or do we look at the
bottom line that shows that after eliminating premiums, co-pays, deductibles etc, most
of us will pay less that we do now?
"Do we accept the lies about waiting lines causing premature deaths in other countries or
examine the facts that show that the medical outcomes in these countries are no worse
than ours while their elderly live longer and their infants are healthier?
"Do we accept that the loss of a job means you lose your medical insurance and go bankrupt,
and that often, we lose a job when we are sick and most in need of health insurance?
Or do we provide a system like the rest of the industrialized world where employment is
not connected to health insurance, and being stuck in a dead end job because of "health benefits"
is not a reality nor was it ever considered a necessity?
"Do we accept the notion that the government can't do anything right including Medicare with a 3%
overhead or stay with Blue Cross and Aetna with their 20% overhead, multimillion CEO's and
pre-existing conditions?"
Dr. Davidson finished by saying that the medical insurance industry is hard at work to control
the dialogue regarding healthcare reform in this country. Any discussion that leaves out
Single Payer will also be leaving out middle America.
The choice is ours but the longer we delay, the more we suffer.
Medical student Wes Fisher is the regional director of AMSA, American Medical Association, which is an
independent association for medical students in this country.
Amsa stands behind Guaranteed Healthcare For All. It has specifically supported a publicly funded,
privately delivered healthcare delivery system.
A large number of medical students commuted to the State Pennsylvania Legislature twice in 2008
to rally and lobby for HB 1660 and SB 400.
Wes said he has accumulated a $300,000 debt. This debt combined with the infamous malpractice suit reputation
in PA makes it easy for many if not most of our medical students to leave PA and take jobs elsewhere.
The retention rate of medical students is quite low, around 7%.
Wes said he would happily stay in Pennsylvania with passage of HB 1660/SB 400, as would many
if not all of his student colleagues, due to real tort reform already spelled out in the bill(s)
and a system which provides healthcare including dental care to all.
My testimony included the many scenarios I have encountered over the years as a practicing RN and
CRNP (Certified Nurse Practitioner).
One night I was working in a Trauma Unit, when a recently retired man came in after suffering
from a major stroke when he stopped taking his blood pressure medicine.
He stopped taking it because his health insurance inexplicably dropped him due to a glitch in the
system right after he retired.
I said to the nurses there, "Is this a rare event, people getting cut off health insurance after they retire?"
And they said, "It happens all the time."
I told this story to the caucus, as well as many other shockers.
I also told the caucus that this is not a political issue.
It is good for business.
It is good for the economy.
And it is the right thing to do.
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Kate Loving Shenk is a writer, healer, musician and the creator
of the e-book called "Transform Your Nursing Career and Discover
Your Calling and Destiny." The book is designed to stimulate
nurses to love their work and to prevent on-the-job-burnout.
Click here to find out how to order the e-book:
http://www.katelovingshenk.com/blog
http://www.katelovingshenk.com/nursingcareertransformation
Check out Kate's Blog: http://nursehealers.typepad.com
And the Lens: http://www.squidoo.com/katelovingshenk
http://www.squidoo.com/thinkriches
http://doganddolphin.ning.com
http://nursehealers.typepad.com/dog_lovers_unite
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Kate Loving Shenk Nursing Career Transformation Sign Up HERE For Your *FREE* Newsletter For Nurses And Healers Your e-mail address is safe with me--see privacy notice on my website!
http://www.katelovingshenk.com/nursingcareertransformation/simplenewslettersignup.html
March 12, 2009
Moon, Moo & You: The Collective Wisdom
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Listen to our Second Show and In-Joy!!
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Listen to our Second Show and In-Joy!!
March 09, 2009
March 05, 2009
March 04, 2009
Unavoidable Workplace Landmines
Our Customer Service Ambassadors!!
Where I work and I imagine where all nurses work, and any other place I have ever worked,
it's like tip toeing through a land mine where people's emotions erupt and detonate at
strange and unpredictable times.
Women aren't easy to work with and women who lack introspection are even worse.
I've been thinking about this! It seems that each department of the hospital has their pet
obsession.
One unit of the hospital is obsessed with bladder emptying.
In another, the nurses are obsessed by paper work, and the Kardex in particular, a sheet of paper
which itemizes a patient's orders and tests. If the Kardex is not filled out, these nurses believe the patient
did not receive good patient care, when in reality, I may be choosing to actually talk with the patient and her family,
or give her a massage or hold her hand in lieu of filling out a worthless piece of paper.
Some nurses on my unit are obsessed by the number of visitors permitted in a patient's room.
One nurse went so far as to come in my patient's room just as she was about to deliver a baby. She
admonished the family for having too many people in the room, who were extra support for her as she actually
went through natural childbirth on up to 20 units of Pitocin.
This woman deserved a metal of honor, not a tongue lashing as she was embarking on such a profound experience!
One woman nurse mid-wife says that every pregnant patient's baby is a stargazer, meaning the baby is
facing up instead of facing down, the preferred position for delivering a baby.
When these women deliver, she always says, "Ah, the baby turned!"
This same mid-wife is obsessed by the amount of stool in a patient's rectum.
One of my patient's was recently admitted to the hospital for acute constipation.
She received so many enemas and laxatives that I am amazed she didn't poop a canon ball into the
next county!
Are Gastroenterologists obsessed by Bowel Movements?
Are Urologists obsessed by the color and amount of urine?
Are Hematologists obsessed by the color of blood?
In any event, one mid-wife is particularly quirky about straight cathing a patient after she delivers her baby
and before we transfer her to the Post Partum unit because if we don't, then the nurses on that unit get quirky about
the amount of urine in that patient's bladder, which is their pet eccentricity.
Another mid-wife is downright strange about giving Ephedrine after every epidural placement.
Another uses so many pillows to support a patient in a side lying position that there is a virtual
pillow shortage at the end of her twelve hour shift.
Recently we did a Customer Service presentation for the entire staff of Labor and Delivery.
Our purpose in doing this presentation was to lift the morale of the staff and to give them Customer Service hours
in the process.
Seems logical to me to teach administrative staff Emotional Intelligence Skills so we don't have to work so hard in making
everyone feel good!
A real control freak across the hallway from where we were giving the presentation gave us attitude during our
Customer Service rehearsals.
She came in where we were rehearsing and told us to turn down our music.
She'd abruptly shut the door where we were working out our skits.
This woman has a way of plummeting vibrational energy fields to the lowest possible ebb.
The night we gave our performance to thirty employees, we were dancing and singing. Suddenly I saw
this woman come bursting through the back door and walk straight towards me.
She got right in my face and for the first time, I really saw her, line for line complete with downturned
mouth and furrowed brow.
"Turn down the music," she hissed.
"No," I said.
She grabbed my name badge which is supported by one of those movable threads.
She glared at it, let it snap back to my chest, turned around and stomped out.
We continued with our performance, but I felt kind of shaken up by her bad vibes!
The audience thought she was part of the skit to demonstrate how not to act with your customers!
The land mine extends to doctors and all of their pet idiosyncrasies.
Suffice to say, learning how to navigate gently through these explosive personalities takes much effort!
This is the #1 leading cause of burnout in my profession, not patient care.
I chalk up all of these obsessive compulsive behaviors to a provincial mindset.
Nothing exists outside of the hospital or the town where we all live for most of these people.
So I wish them well.
They teach me how to free my mind for more enlightened pursuits and aspirations.
Real Customer Service begins with change from within mind, body and spirit.
Several months after our Customer Service presentation, staff morale is back to ground zero.
Now we are preparing another presentation to make everyone feel good,
Maybe Ms. Storm Trooper will make another appearance! This time we can present her with a Customer Service
plaque with her name engraved on it!
And give her a front row seat!
Because if it wasn't for her, I never would have written this article!!
-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Kate Loving Shenk Nursing Career Transformation Sign Up HERE For Your *FREE* Newsletter For Nurses And Healers Your e-mail address is safe with me--see privacy notice on my website! http://www.katelovingshenk.com/nursingcareertransformation/simplenewslettersignup.html
Kate Loving Shenk is a writer, healer, musician and the creator
of the e-book called "Transform Your Nursing Career and Discover
Your Calling and Destiny." The book is designed to stimulate
nurses to love their work and to prevent on-the-job-burnout.
Click here to find out how to order the e-book:
http://www.katelovingshenk.com/blog
http://www.katelovingshenk.com/nursingcareertransformation
Check out Kate's Blog: http://nursehealers.typepad.com
And the Lens: http://www.squidoo.com/katelovingshenk
http://www.squidoo.com/thinkriches
http://doganddolphin.ning.com
http://nursehealers.typepad.com/dog_lovers_unite
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kate loving shenk
I am the author of the upcoming book, " Prayer Prescriptions: Spiritual Remedies For Long Lasting Health."
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