Patient Safety Warning: A Traveling Nurse's Call To Action

Alisa Baker, RN is a patient advocate from Lawrence, KS. Since the beginning of the pandemic, she's been a traveling nurse and she has a story to tell...

From my perspective as a traveling nurse, independent patient advocacy is more important than ever.

Since Covid, many healthcare providers have taken a step back and evaluated their quality of life. They are deciding what is important to them and what their individual lives mean. Some have concluded that working in healthcare is just not worth the stress anymore. The pay isn't worth the sacrifice.

Our job satisfaction and work environment have destroyed morale and many of us have just turned up their middle finger and walked away. Now, every hospital must hire people like me for much more money than they pay their own staff…up to 6 times greater than permanent employees just to keep the doors open for the company.

I am watching a system that was already fragile, completely crumble because there is not enough staff that understands facilities processes and how to communicate between providers.

Because of the sudden and drastic change in how our healthcare system is operating, it’s now more urgent than ever for patients to aggressively educate themselves or get help from someone who already understands the intricacies of medical care that are routinely dismissed, minimized, or straight up brushed under the rug.

I am watching a system that was already fragile, completely crumble because there is not enough staff that understands facilities processes and how to communicate between providers. Even gathering an accurate history and physical has become a daunting and unfamiliar activity for nursing professionals. It’s as though everyone is working on the fly.

Our communication has become even more compromised because now there are less people that have a grip on the big picture. There is an “every man for himself” mentality that permeates the hospital environment. Nurses are turning over every few weeks and new faces from different states are recruited to fill in. The new nurses handle the basics and put out fires, but inevitably the quality of care we provide to patients is on the decline.

There’s no accountability. It’s becoming a game. Almost like “hot potato” with everyone passing the patient off to different specialists...

Every medical issue is treated as an acute problem, like slapping on a band aid just long enough to cover your ass and pass the buck on to the next nurse, a different provider, or a different specialist, without anyone being involved long enough to get to the core and heal the patient. Many unnecessary complications, and even deaths, occur because stubborn, greedy companies refuse to pay nurses, physical therapists, X-ray technicians, etc. what they are worth. They refuse to acknowledge the importance of nursing, and RN’s are staring to figure out that the hospital needs the nurse more than the nurse needs the hospital.

* IF YOU ARE A MEDICAL PROFESSION INTERESTED IN ADVOCATING FOR PATIENTS, PLEASE VISIT GREATER NATIONAL ADVOCATESAND LEARN HOW EASY AND REWARDING IT CAN BE.

It’s important to understand the reality of staffing within healthcare nationwide. It is almost 50/50 right now. Meaning, roughly half of hospital staff members actually know the process, through training and time on the job. The other half is made up of travelers, who keep the business running, but they don’t know or understand the processes as well as they should. It’s just impossible.

It’s not that the fill-in staff don't care, or aren't trying. It's just that the turnover rate is astronomical and nobody has time to learn the job, let alone their patients.

Nobody can blindly trust the medical professionals right now because it’s really just minimal, emergency care that’s being provided. It’s not that the fill-in staff don't care, or aren't trying. It's just that the turnover rate is astronomical and nobody has time to learn the job, let alone learn about their patients. I see more patients falling through the cracks now than ever before.

A friend recently asked me to translate the labs she received, without explanation, from her primary care physician. Turns out, she is in the end stages of renal disease (now failure), and she should have been referred to a nephrologist months and months ago. However, she had no idea that she had anything more than stage 1 kidney disease. She didn’t know why she was so sick. Neither the doctor, the nurse, or any medical assistant felt this was something they needed to tell her. Had she not asked a friend to share some knowledge as a favor, she would be dead. That is how bad it is.

Patients are being hurt more than helped, and without an advocate around to keep the communication rolling and the care coordinated, any semblance of cohesion and cooperation in the hospital would simply cease to exist.

Until the politics and profit are taken out of this equation, patients will be the ones who continue to suffer. Right now, patients are being hurt more than helped, and without an advocate around to keep the communication rolling and the care coordinated, any semblance of cohesion and cooperation would simply cease to exist. And the patient wouldn’t even know it. That’s the God’s honest truth. It’s the worst I have seen yet.

I am hopeful we are moving toward a breakthrough, because the system is so beyond broken right now. People are not getting the care they should. And nobody even knows it, because we (nurses) are too busy covering our asses instead of using that energy where it belongs.

It’s important to understand the reality of staffing within healthcare nationwide...Roughly half of hospital staff members actually know the process,… The other half is made up of travelers, who keep the business running, but they don’t know or understand the processes as well as they should.

There’s no accountability. It’s becoming a game. Almost like “hot potato” with everyone passing the patient off to different specialists, wasting unnecessary time to see unnecessary people for unnecessary reasons.

I’m not a dramatic radical or a corporate whistleblower, but I'm compelled to warn patients and familie to do their homework or partner with someone who has already done the homework. Advocating for patients can sometimes be risky business because of the need to stand up to those who have historically held the power. But, this is an emergency and nobody should be scared to advocate for patients and loved ones. We simply can't afford not to.

I am intent on reaching individuals who lack resources and education, who are experiencing declining health issues. I have no interest in the monetary aspects of being a patient advocate. I just want to use what I know to help those who have no clue they are being medically neglected and that their lives don’t need to be filled with anxiety, discomfort, and uncertainty.

Let’s remember to never lose our compassion or forget that this is about healing our patients. It’s not about compromising care to cover our asses. We are in the middle of an awakening, and we have to take advantage of this window of opportunity for the sake of humanity.

* IF YOU ARE A MEDICAL PROFESSION INTERESTED IN ADVOCATING FOR PATIENTS, PLEASE VISIT GREATER NATIONAL ADVOCATESAND LEARN HOW EASY AND REWARDING IT CAN BE.

???? Alisa