By Suzie Farthing, RN
I am incredibly frustrated with the state of healthcare in our community. Things have gotten past the point of being ridiculous.
I can speak with confidence regarding this matter, because I am a seasoned registered nurse and long-time Escambia County resident. My admittedly nomadic spirit and perpetual curiosity has led me to work in all three of our county’s hospitals during my near 20 years of nursing service. During this time, I have gained experience in a wide variety of areas to include emergency care (at both Sacred Heart and Baptist Hospital), medical and surgical, oncology, nephrology, cardiac, bariatrics, intensive care, mother/baby, hospital admissions, nurse house supervisor, and case management. I even worked for a short period of time as a home healthcare nurse. Like many of my nursing colleagues, I understand our healthcare system from the front door to the back.
I have also led a faith-based nursing organization (One Love for Nurses) for nearly 10 years, This experience has provided me contact with a wide range of nurses along many faith and community leaders. Additionally, I currently serve on the Board of the Health and Hope Clinic, a free medical/dental clinic serving Escambia County’s share of Florida’s estimated remaining 2.5 million uninsured residents post Affordable Care Act.
I have seen and heard it all from professional and personal perspectives regarding matters of health and care in our community, or should I dare say, in far too many instances, lack of.
Our citizens are dying of cardiac, diabetes, stroke, and chronic lung diseases at rates much higher than our statewide peers (2012 Comprehensive Assessment for Tracking Health). The really awkwardly sad aspect of this is that we have nearly 100 more acute care hospital beds per 100,000 residents than our peer counties. Yes, we do have exorbitant numbers of unnecessary emergency department visits; however tragically, our statistics also show that we have many less hospital discharges for the above mentioned diseases.
Although I do not claim to be a public health expert, it seems to me that the folks who need the care the most are not making it into our abundance of hospital beds. On the flip side, this makes me cringe when I hear about the need to decrease hospital readmissions. Yes, we do indeed need to do this for our hospitals to remain fiscally viable. However, it seems evident that the ones most likely to die in our community are not making it past the emergency departments. Please, anyone correct me if I am wrong.
I wholeheartedly agree with the statement Mark Faulkner, President and CEO of Baptist Healthcare, made recently at a luncheon with our state lawmakers (inweekly, Jan. 21, 2015). He said, “We are not a healthy community†and “ . . . we lag behind peer counties in virtually all health status indicators.â€
I have tremendous respect for Mr. Faulkner and the other healthcare leaders in our community. They have accomplished much good. They have also made great strides in forming award-winning coalitions such as The Partnership for a Healthy Community. Yet despite the positive press and nominal wins, the reality is bittersweet. We are still a very sick community.
I want to exert my professional nursing opinion and say, “STOP! Can’t anyone else see the huge white elephant sitting smacked dab in the middle of our community?â€
Please, I implore our community and healthcare leaders to not let another day go by, board meeting to occur, or another health program to be developed, before the obvious- or maybe not so obvious to some- is done. We must more actively engage the nurses in our community.
Nurses, I am also asking you to volunteer your input and leadership. It is time to step up! We, the nurses, have been the silent majority in our patriarchal medical and social community far too long. Everyone is to blame on all sides. The absence of the nursing profession’s presence in our community’s health system governance is indeed the huge white elephant. Things must change.
Although nurses make up approximately 47 percent of all healthcare occupations, including physicians, we only account for an estimated 2-6 percent of governance leadership. After a cursory review of many of our local healthcare and community leadership boards, I estimate that our community’s statistic rests at the lower end of the scale.
In case you’re wondering who else says this matters, check out the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) landmark 2010 report entitled “The Future of Nursing: Leading Change.” The report asserts that the engagement of our country’s 3 million nurses is integral to successful healthcare reforms. One does not have to dig too deeply into research to back up the IOM’s opinion.
Expert nursing care and leadership positively impacts patient outcomes whether at the bedside or community level.
The public’s vote of confidence for nurses is also evidenced by the Gallup’s December 2014 poll that once again showed that nurses are considered America’s most honest and ethical profession once again for 14 of the past 15 years.
Sadly however, another Gallup poll in 2010, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), found in a survey of 1,500 thought leaders from across various from private, public, and governmental health, insurance, and higher educational sectors that nurses were thought to have the least amount of influence in healthcare reform.
What a paradox! We have a huge disconnect.
Thankfully, in a vote of tremendous confidence for the profession, RWJF, America’s largest healthcare foundation, has teamed with AARP, America’s largest consumer group, to form the multistate coalition, Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action. This campaign is spearheading the training of qualified nurses to serve on boards of healthcare governance. This is in support of the IOM’s recommendation that nurses be solicited for healthcare and policy boards. However, nurses also must step up, pursue these positions, and assume our rightful leadership roles.
If these things don’t happen, then our community might as well plant a communal peanut garden to feed our giant white elephant.
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Suzie Farthing​ is a Pensacola resident, Register Nurse and founder of OneLoveforNurses.com