Last week I had the opportunity to see a PBS re-run of
a new show entitled Wired Science. It was a very
interesting and informative show. It was an hour long
program that presented a variety of scientific topics
in an easily understandable way. I studied science
when I was an undergraduate student and really enjoyed
the physics classes I took-way back when there was
less physics to know than today-so I did not feel
completely uninformed on the topics they were
presenting. But the program had recent updates on
scientific discoveries-that had occurred in the last
couple of months-plus they had awesome graphics to
demonstrate what they were trying to convey.
The program I saw included a portion on asteroids,
spacecraft and rockets. If you’re interested in this
topic or any other scientific topic I encourage you to
click the links and read or watch a video portion of
the show.
wiredscience-story space and flight
http://www.pbs.org/kcet/wiredscience/story/cat-11-space++and++flight.html
Wired Science . Homepage-PBS
http://www.pbs.org/kcet/wiredscience/
www.PBS.org/
Monday, December 17, 2007
Showing posts with label pbs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pbs. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Monday, October 27, 2008
PBS Program-NOW on the US Nursing Shortage [Oct 2008]
Nova's program NOW recently broadcast an interesting program on the current nursing shortage. It presented the numbers both current and future of how many nurses this country will be short, but it cannot possibly convey how a nurse feels, and worries at times about their patients and their health and safety.
Shortly after I started working on my current unit we down staffed one nurse on our shift. This meant that half our staff of 8 nurses went from 4 patients to 5. Now this may not sound like a big increase to you, but bear in mind our patients are very sick and typically in and out of the ICU.
Nurses are the eyes and ears for your physician and by increasing our patients you increase the time it takes us to respond to your needs and decreases the likelihood we will pick up on that small change that may mean life and death-your life and death.
We're short nurses and if you think that we will get more just because it's a job opening and there are so many people out there that need a job I heartedly disagree. For two big reasons; first-there are not more nursing school openings than there was a few years ago because despite the need for nurses you cannot train them faster than what we've been getting them trained. An associate degree in nursing takes 3 to 4 years depending on whether you go full or part time, and you do need to take pre-requisite science classes as well as the two straight years of nursing classes. A BSN nurse typically takes 5 years because of the extra classes required. All these things can't be changed or shortened-unless you want to have less qualified nurses. Also, you need faculty to train these students and we'd need more faculty to train more students.
My second point is more to the retention and recruitment of nurses. Once you're done with school, have passed your boards, gotten your license and finished your training so that you're working on your own, then you get to experience life as a real nurse. You get to realize that your entire shift will be to prioritize your night. You'll need to learn not simply how to prioritize but what to prioritize. What can be done by someone else-another nurse or an aid-and what needs to be done by you. You'll learn how to eat your dinner in 2 minutes or less and how to chart while you eat. You'll learn how to hold your urine for 6 or more hours past when you felt like you had to go to the bathroom. You’ll learn how to deal with patients, families, doctors and other nurses who are in bad moods and give you the brunt of their frustration.
You'll find out quickly whether you mind dealing with people's poop, puke, pus and pee-and yes at times that will be all at the same time!
You'll also experience good days, where your patients are stable and seem healthier and you've had a good night. And you'll have nights where you feel like you mad a difference in you patient's life because they thanked you for being there for them.
Nursing is not for everyone. It's not a simple job where all you do is pass meds and write stuff down and then sit. You have to be an intelligent and personable person who likes people and wants to be able to help them as well as someone who has a thicker skin-and yet is sensitive at the same time. Nursing will never pay what it should, as I'll never get paid what my work is worth, but if I was only in it for the money, then I'd have left in the first month.
PBS-NOW on the Nursing shortage [Oct 2008]
http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/442/index.html
Sunday 26th October 2008
Shortly after I started working on my current unit we down staffed one nurse on our shift. This meant that half our staff of 8 nurses went from 4 patients to 5. Now this may not sound like a big increase to you, but bear in mind our patients are very sick and typically in and out of the ICU.
Nurses are the eyes and ears for your physician and by increasing our patients you increase the time it takes us to respond to your needs and decreases the likelihood we will pick up on that small change that may mean life and death-your life and death.
We're short nurses and if you think that we will get more just because it's a job opening and there are so many people out there that need a job I heartedly disagree. For two big reasons; first-there are not more nursing school openings than there was a few years ago because despite the need for nurses you cannot train them faster than what we've been getting them trained. An associate degree in nursing takes 3 to 4 years depending on whether you go full or part time, and you do need to take pre-requisite science classes as well as the two straight years of nursing classes. A BSN nurse typically takes 5 years because of the extra classes required. All these things can't be changed or shortened-unless you want to have less qualified nurses. Also, you need faculty to train these students and we'd need more faculty to train more students.
My second point is more to the retention and recruitment of nurses. Once you're done with school, have passed your boards, gotten your license and finished your training so that you're working on your own, then you get to experience life as a real nurse. You get to realize that your entire shift will be to prioritize your night. You'll need to learn not simply how to prioritize but what to prioritize. What can be done by someone else-another nurse or an aid-and what needs to be done by you. You'll learn how to eat your dinner in 2 minutes or less and how to chart while you eat. You'll learn how to hold your urine for 6 or more hours past when you felt like you had to go to the bathroom. You’ll learn how to deal with patients, families, doctors and other nurses who are in bad moods and give you the brunt of their frustration.
You'll find out quickly whether you mind dealing with people's poop, puke, pus and pee-and yes at times that will be all at the same time!
You'll also experience good days, where your patients are stable and seem healthier and you've had a good night. And you'll have nights where you feel like you mad a difference in you patient's life because they thanked you for being there for them.
Nursing is not for everyone. It's not a simple job where all you do is pass meds and write stuff down and then sit. You have to be an intelligent and personable person who likes people and wants to be able to help them as well as someone who has a thicker skin-and yet is sensitive at the same time. Nursing will never pay what it should, as I'll never get paid what my work is worth, but if I was only in it for the money, then I'd have left in the first month.
PBS-NOW on the Nursing shortage [Oct 2008]
http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/442/index.html
Sunday 26th October 2008
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