Nurses are the most trusted professionals in America. That’s the headline of a Gallup poll released last month that asked Americans to rate members of 20-odd professions for their honesty and integrity.
In Washington, victims of sexual assault continue to be turned away from hospitals that don’t have specially trained nurses who can administer rape kits — a problem contributing to what state officials are calling a “patchwork response to sexual assault.”
Nurse practitioner Surani Hayre-Kwan sees long-time patients and first-timers. She manages chronic illnesses, diagnoses kids with colds and refers people to specialists. She goes it alone or works with another nurse practitioner at the Russian River Health Clinic in Sonoma County. Sometimes a supervising physician is on-site, but often is a telephone call away.
Last week, a union representing nearly 8,000 nurses and other medical service providers went on strike in Seattle. Members had many demands, such as higher pay and more authority over staffing decisions. But it appeared their main gripe was with understaffing and too-flexible nurse-to-patient ratios, citing nurse burnout and low patient satisfaction. The voices behind these cries for help are often driven by the best of intentions, but they should probably rethink their demands.
When victims of sexual assault come to a hospital to be examined, they expect to be seen by a nurse with the proper training and qualifications. But nurses with those skills aren’t readily available across the state.
A collaboration between the current and next generation of nurses aims to improve the quality of health care being offered now and in the future. Penn State Mont Alto and WellSpan Waynesboro Hospital are working together to incorporate evidence-based practices into the care at the hospital and the nursing curriculum at the local university campus.