One of the good things about being an editor is that people share information with me. Recently, Helen Osborne shared an email she'd received in response to her December column on using the Newest Vital Sign (NVS) to screen for health literacy. It was from Mary Flossmann, PHN, MSN/Ed, RN, a nurse in Lodi, California, who had attended a presentation a little over a year ago that Helen had made. At the time, she was working in home health and also working on her master's in nursing education. After hearing Helen talk about the importance of health literacy, she decided to use the NVS to conduct a survey of her patients. Of the patients she surveyed, 62% scored 4 or less, indicating a strong likelihood that the majority of her patients were either borderline or had inadequate literacy to effectively understand the instructions they received on discharge or when given new medication. The group of patients who scored the lowest were the elderly.
After Ms Flossmann shared her results with the other nurses with whom she worked, she says the resulting awareness that so many patients were at a limited literacy level prompted many of them to focus more attention on clarifying their language during home instruction. "And, I am told," she says, "with positive results." The reason she wrote to Helen was to let her know that Helen's December column had rekindled an interest in creating an in-patient version of her original study in the hospital where she now works as a nurse manager.
Even though, as I said last month, I like my job, I don't always relish doing it. Sometimes, it takes all the will power I have just to place myself at my desk, let alone turn on the computer. But then notes like Ms Flossmann's let me know that what we do helps others do what needs to be done. In other words, we are doing something that is good, and that makes me feel positive. Feeling positive about my job is not just one of the perks, it's a prerequisite for actually turning the computer on.
I know I'm not alone feeling that way. With this month's feature about the Ethics Rounds at Emerson hospital, Janet Cromer completes her series on the role of medical ethics in healthcare in the Greater Boston Area. Toward the end of the article she cites Regina Burzynski, RN, BSN, MBA, in observing that for staff to provide care for an extremely ill patient it's important they feel positive about what they are doing, and without examining the ethics, that's sometimes impossible. Even the hardest job gets a bit easier when you know you're doing something that's good.
Joseph Saling
