I am a registered nurse at the Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, a major university medical and Level I trauma center in the Chicago suburbs. I’ve been with Loyola for 15 years, the past 13 in a surgical/trauma-intensive-care unit.
I work with a group of dedicated men and women who are excellent nurses. The acuity of our patients may change hourly. We meet their needs by pulling together, prioritizing and giving care as it needs to be given. Yes, we sometimes miss a lunch. A patient’s turn for the worse or a trauma patient’s admission can’t be scheduled.
The nursing shortage may be universal, but at our institution staffing needs are met. Those who care to work extra shifts. We have a hospital float pool of very competent registered nurses, in house, who fill in where needed. If we still find our numbers short, we utilize outside agencies. They provide RNs who have excellent credentials and who have attended an orientation to our hospital. An agency nurse who doesn’t meet our standards is not invited back.
Our ancillary staff, patient-care technicians, secretaries and others also rise to the occasion. They relieve the RNs of some simpler tasks, allowing us to monitor and treat our critically ill patients. From attending physicians to interns, we have the greatest bunch of doctors around. Our residents are available to us at a moment’s notice, 24 hours a day. We know that we can count on not only their medical skills but also their compassion, cooperation and respect.
Nursing is a wonderful profession. Recent articles make it sound positively hellish. You need only speak to some of the veterans of my surgical/trauma-intensive-care unit–nurses, patients and their family members–to find that to be far from true.
