Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 15, 1995 TAG: 9511150026
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARY WRIGHT
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
I am a registered nurse at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center who didn't get to participate in Professor Griggs' survey. I've been a registered nurse for 23 years, 14 of those in critical care. I'm a graduate of a two-year program, and have now been able to return to school for my bachelor's degree. This decision wasn't based on feelings of incompetence about my performance, but more for my own satisfaction and the credentials needed to be a leader I want to be, not what the hospital wants me to be! Also, through all my years of practice, a majority of my knowledge in nursing developed from every patient and fellow nurse who touched my life. They were the primary teachers for the mental, physical, emotional and spiritual lessons one needs to excel in becoming a skilled nurse and patient advocate.
I feel education is important, but I don't feel Professor Griggs and Marie Morris, director of the nursing department at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, have the right to degrade the competency of all nurses and merely state that getting a B.S.N. or M.S.N. degree is the lone answer when hospitals are now trying to de-skill nurses. This term is also known as ``restructuring.''
Hospitals, under the guidance of management-consulting firms, are concerned with improving their profits and capital accumulation. They aren't concerned with our leadership development, but with replacing nurses with cheaper and less competent technicians! One hospital cross-trained ward secretaries, in six months, to watch heart monitors.
This is what the campaign, ``Every patient deserves a nurse,'' is about. Nurses who support this want to stop the dangerous nurse-patient ratios, stop replacing registered nurses with unlicensed personnel, and stop decreased hospital stays for the critically ill.
Nurses need to support one another if we are to make a difference in what's occurring in the health-care system, and if we are to survive as a profession and as patient advocates. We need to voice our concerns to politicians, and take part in the next Nurses March on Washington on May 10. We can't be silent anymore, for ``silence is consent,'' and the public needs to know ``you need a nurse to save your life.''
I suggest Riggs and Morris expand their next survey to see how many intelligent and empowered nurses reside in Virginia, from all educational backgrounds. If they are truly concerned with nursing education, then head a task force on developing a program all nurses can afford, instead of encouraging something they can't afford. Nurses warrant a salary of a professional, especially since they put their lives on the line with every disease and body fluid they come in contact with every day. Why should a plumber who takes care of pipes be paid more than someone responsible for human life? Asking for more staff isn't unrealistic, as studies have shown patients spend less time in the hospital with a realistic nurse-patient ratio.
What I did find unrealistic was the survey done by Griggs and the failure to address the real issues nurses face today!
Mary Wright of Roanoke is a registered nurse at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salem.
by CNB