September • 2017
Page 2
Nursingmatters
What if ...
More than $1 million can be saved Brenda Zarth
My girlfriend was reporting that her hospital is looking at budget planning for the next year. Because there is a nursing shortage they are pulling back on registered-nurse Care Coordinators to work as staff nurses. I was dismayed by this but in a roundabout way it reminded me why I love nurses. When threatened Brenda Zarth with losing something you love, you hold on tighter. I see nurses as the best resource for the future of our health-care system. The training that Care Coordinators receive prepares them to make a real difference in the lives of complex patients. They can save a tremendous amount of money by keeping patients out of hospitals and improving their overall health. I would love to see all triage nurses receive the additional education and tools that Care Coordinators are receiving. Triage nurses are in the front line of health care; the information we gather can help direct the care of our patients. If our patients are calling the clinic in stress, it makes sense to me to have a good triage nurse listen to the stories and help decipher how serious their concerns are. They can help patients decide what they want to do. I like to give patients options, listen to their feedback and help them decide next steps. They are usually scared, stressed and having decreased ability to cope. Often it’s their fear and stress that causes them to call and worry they have cancer or some other horrible disease. They read something on the internet. Or a friend of a friend was recently diagnosed with a cancer and she feels pain in the same spot. As they are talking I am listening for trends and patterns. I try to see if there is a story behind their words. A few years ago I had a patient call in asking for a refill of her anxiety and pain medication. She was having migraines again. I asked her the questions I ask of all my patients. When did this start? How severe are the headaches? Are you having any other symptoms? As she was answering my questions, I was checking when she had last taken the medication. I noticed she had not had pain or anxiety medication for about five years. When I ran out of routine questions and she finished her answers, I said, “Please excuse me for asking, but did something happen that you needed these medications in the past and now you need them again? How did you get rid of the migraines and
CONTRIBUTED
A patient asking for a refill of anxiety and pain medication might actually need counseling instead.
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CONTRIBUTED
Unresolved emotional and psychological trauma can come out as pain. Unless we deal with the true cause of suffering it keeps resurfacing.
anxiety five years ago?” She said seven years earlier when her family was fishing, her husband reached over the side for the bait bucket. He was drunk; he fell overboard and drowned. He left her alone with two small children. I said, “I’m sorry. That must have been awful.” She said it was okay. It had been a long time ago and he wasn’t a good husband. She said five years ago she met a wonderful new man and was able to pull her life back
together. At that point she didn’t need the medication anymore. But now her headaches and anxiety were back. She admitted that she was having some issues with the new relationship, plus her children were creating some stress. I asked if she had ever gone through any counseling after losing her husband; she said no. She said she hated to admit it but losing him was a relief because he was abusive and
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