WCH celebrates National Nurses Week
The field of nursing has come a long way since Florence Nightingale donned her first starched white cap. Nurses in the early 1900s kept busy sterilizing equipment and administering leeches—a far cry from today’s responsibilities. Yet the essence of nursing remains the same: compassionate patient care.
The advancement in nursing is the focus of a display at Wooster Community Hospital (WCH) that was set up in honor of National Nurses Week May 6-12. The hospital, which opened in 1950, currently employs more than 300 nurses. Some have worked there for over 25 years and experienced many changes over the years.
“Certainly nurses are the backbone of health care, providing individualized care at the bedside,” said Lorraine Frank Lightfoot, director of patient services. She said the increasing complexity of health care has provoked changes in the nursing profession. “Nurses have to have so much more knowledge when they graduate now than they used to, and they have to integrate their knowledge of pathophysiology with their knowledge of the patient and family history. It’s a more holistic approach.”
Denise Snyder, clinical practice/specialist, who has been at WCH for 32 years, noted that nursing is much more collaborative than it used to be. When she started at WCH, nurses were required to stand and give up their seats to doctors and get them coffee. Today, their relationship is more of a partnership.
Chargemaster Joan Kiper also has many years of nursing experience under her belt. “Technology has probably been the biggest change,” she said. “It has made everything shorter and quicker.” For instance, laparoscopic surgeries require much less recovery time than previous methods. A hip replacement that used to require a week’s stay in the hospital now takes only a few days. “The length of stay is not just shorter because of insurance regulations—people actually get better quicker,” Kiper said.
Technology has brought advances in both patient care and safety. At WCH, all nurses carry mobile phones so their patients can easily reach them. Safety features such as bed alarms and medication barcodes keep patients safer, while other innovations make them more comfortable. For example, scanners now allow nurses to check how full a patient’s bladder is and pain medication is dispensed by IV rather than by repeated shots in the hip. “One thing that will never change, though, is the ability to look at a patient, talk to them, and figure out in two minutes what’s going on. Nurses should be proud of that,” said Diane Field, Women’s Pavilion manager.
Snyder said technology has also benefited nursing staff, as motorized beds and carts make the job much less physically demanding than in the past.
Every new technology has a downside, and the women noted that computerization has not saved paper as its proponents originally thought. Along with it have come increasing regulations and the need for far more documentation, which also takes away from time spent with patients.
The Internet has changed health care as well. Patients are better educated than ever before, and are partnering in their own health care, Lightfoot said. Technology will soon make it possible to use avatars to teach patients and a Health Information Exchange system, or HIE, will link medical records (with the patient’s permission) so they are accessible to area medical providers.
Health care providers also have instant access via the Internet to current research, allowing them to respond instantly to new recommendations rather than waiting for the next edition of a book or journal to come out.
“There’s so much information and so many opportunities out there for nurses now--it’s a good time to be a nurse,” said Lightfoot. “Patients trust you and tell you things they would never tell anyone else. There’s a reason nursing continues to rank as the most trusted profession almost every year. I feel so blessed to be a nurse.”
The advancement in nursing is the focus of a display at Wooster Community Hospital (WCH) that was set up in honor of National Nurses Week May 6-12. The hospital, which opened in 1950, currently employs more than 300 nurses. Some have worked there for over 25 years and experienced many changes over the years.
“Certainly nurses are the backbone of health care, providing individualized care at the bedside,” said Lorraine Frank Lightfoot, director of patient services. She said the increasing complexity of health care has provoked changes in the nursing profession. “Nurses have to have so much more knowledge when they graduate now than they used to, and they have to integrate their knowledge of pathophysiology with their knowledge of the patient and family history. It’s a more holistic approach.”
Denise Snyder, clinical practice/specialist, who has been at WCH for 32 years, noted that nursing is much more collaborative than it used to be. When she started at WCH, nurses were required to stand and give up their seats to doctors and get them coffee. Today, their relationship is more of a partnership.
Chargemaster Joan Kiper also has many years of nursing experience under her belt. “Technology has probably been the biggest change,” she said. “It has made everything shorter and quicker.” For instance, laparoscopic surgeries require much less recovery time than previous methods. A hip replacement that used to require a week’s stay in the hospital now takes only a few days. “The length of stay is not just shorter because of insurance regulations—people actually get better quicker,” Kiper said.
Technology has brought advances in both patient care and safety. At WCH, all nurses carry mobile phones so their patients can easily reach them. Safety features such as bed alarms and medication barcodes keep patients safer, while other innovations make them more comfortable. For example, scanners now allow nurses to check how full a patient’s bladder is and pain medication is dispensed by IV rather than by repeated shots in the hip. “One thing that will never change, though, is the ability to look at a patient, talk to them, and figure out in two minutes what’s going on. Nurses should be proud of that,” said Diane Field, Women’s Pavilion manager.
Snyder said technology has also benefited nursing staff, as motorized beds and carts make the job much less physically demanding than in the past.
Every new technology has a downside, and the women noted that computerization has not saved paper as its proponents originally thought. Along with it have come increasing regulations and the need for far more documentation, which also takes away from time spent with patients.
The Internet has changed health care as well. Patients are better educated than ever before, and are partnering in their own health care, Lightfoot said. Technology will soon make it possible to use avatars to teach patients and a Health Information Exchange system, or HIE, will link medical records (with the patient’s permission) so they are accessible to area medical providers.
Health care providers also have instant access via the Internet to current research, allowing them to respond instantly to new recommendations rather than waiting for the next edition of a book or journal to come out.
“There’s so much information and so many opportunities out there for nurses now--it’s a good time to be a nurse,” said Lightfoot. “Patients trust you and tell you things they would never tell anyone else. There’s a reason nursing continues to rank as the most trusted profession almost every year. I feel so blessed to be a nurse.”
Published: May 12, 2011
