Quote:
Originally Posted by Jerseygirl08
Thank you, 2BNTV, for starting this thread. I have been a certified Psychiatric/Mental Health Nurse for a long time. I have some specific med/surg background also. I love to teach patients, help guide them and educate them about their options. But my main enjoyment in nursing is being a patient advocate.
I so love what many of you said. Notably:
"Never leave a family member alone in the hospital. RN's save lives but they are exhausted (know that firsthand). Patients in pain or experiencing stress are not able to use their best judgment".
"Keep an ongoing health care/medical notebook. Write everything in it".
"Staff are nice but they don't have as much at stake". You ARE a good guy, Bizdoc!! JUST KEEP SWIMMING! Love it.
"If you decide not to have . . . you have to live without the knowledge of your innards". Great one, Graciegirl.
Wandatime: Good thing Sheldon had you to advocate and watch over him. "Nurses and doctors make mistakes, they are tired and overworked".
And the best one: JoMar said, "When things go south - you don't get a DO-OVER!"
I have always wanted to be a nurse consultant and have searched my soul for a few years over what kind of consulting would please me the most. And this thread validates my thoughts and hunches.
I'd like to know if y'all think there is a market in TV for a nurse advocate/consultant? A professional advocate to be at the bedside, monitor medications for interactions, research and educate her patient, step in and advocate as a son/daughter would if they could only be there.
We Americans spend lots of time and energy - and money - buying a big screen TV or new car or building a house. We need to devote as much or more of our energies to our health, or lack of it, and only then will we be proactive health care consumers.
What do you think? I'd love some feedback!
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I think the answer to your question is yes. It certainly would be a noble calling. But also, you would need to be paid and to be aware of and prepared for issues that could/would most certainly arise.
For a long time, I have thought this would be an excellent thing for retired nurses to do. Highly experienced nurses can get to the point where the physical demands of patient care become impossible or ridiculous. (NPR recently did a series on back problems resulting from lifting patients because hospitals will not spring for that thing -- can't remember what it is called -- that will assist in the lifting.)
Also, good nurses can get pretty fed up with the demands of understaffed hospitals. They can feel like it is not possible to do the job they want to do because they are required to do things that they should not be doing.
And also, let's admit it. Women born early in the baby boom and called to the medical profession mostly became nurses. Born later in that big boom, they might have become doctors. There is a lot of knowledge out there in that ageing boomer population. (I bet there are some lovely, hard-earned, nurses' caps sitting up high on closet shelves right here in The Villages.)
Well, it looks like I got up on my soapbox again when all I intended to do was pass along some information which I think might give you a good starting point in finding out what it would take to do the kind of work you are thinking about now.
This is a link to an organization,
The Alliance of Professional Health Advocates. You will see that there is membership information, but there is also a lot of information you can get to without being a member. There are bloggers connected to the site and bibliographies that will take you to books that might help. -- Lots of paths to more knowledge about what you are thinking of doing.
Here's the link that can get you started maybe.
Homepage - The Alliance of Professional Health Advocates
I wish you the best.
Reference Desk Laurie