BETHANY LUTHERAN HOME Rehabilitation & Nursing Facility 7 Elliott Street • 712-328-9500 BETHANY HEIGHTS Senior Living Community 11 Elliott Street • 712-328-8228 Providing a caring and secure environment for your loved one Thank to our Staff You UNDER PRESSURE Stress, change part of the job for emergency room nurses MIKE BROWNLEE [email protected]E very day is different in the emergency room. Nurses never know what’s going to roll through the door, be it patients who have had heart attacks or strokes, suffered broken bones or encountered any variety of both imaginable and unimaginable ailments. “There’s a lot of stress,” said Katie Morse, an eight-year veteran of the Alegent Creighton Health Mercy Hospital emergency department. “But one of the ways you handle that is relying on your co-worker. We’re a team. We lift each other up.” Morse and Tracie Kerns, who works in the emergency room at Methodist Jennie Edmundson Hospital, focused on the importance of their fellow nurses in handling the crazi- ness of the job. “Working in an E.R., you’re never alone,” Kerns said. “I don’t get too worked up about most things.” There’s no “normal” day in the emergency room, though both described what their work entails. “You’re on your feet, going the whole day,” Morse said. NURSES/See Page 6A Above, Tracie Kerns is an emergency room nurse at Meth- odist Jennie Edmundson Hospital. At left, emergency room nurse Katie Morse checks a patient’s blood pressue at Alegent Creighton Health Mercy Hospital. Morse and fel- low E.R. nurses treat patients with a variety of ailments throughout their stressful shifts. Staff photo/Joe Shearer Staff photo/Mike Brownlee Residents like family to Bethany nurses McIntosh: Health care a ‘wonderful field’ Walk-in clinic nurses used to fast pace The Healing Touch: School nurses a constant in students’ lives 9A 8A 7A 6A
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BETHANY LUTHERAN HOMERehabilitation & Nursing Facility7 Elliott Street • 712-328-9500
BETHANY HEIGHTSSenior Living Community
11 Elliott Street • 712-328-8228
Providing a caring and secure environment for your loved one
Thankto our StaffYou
UNDER PRESSUREStress, change part of the job for emergency room nurses
Nurses never know what’s going to roll through the door, be it patients who have had heart attacks or strokes, suffered broken bones or encountered any variety of both imaginable
and unimaginable ailments.“There’s a lot of stress,” said Katie Morse, an eight-year
veteran of the Alegent Creighton Health Mercy Hospital emergency department. “But one of the ways you handle that is relying on your co-worker. We’re a team. We lift each other up.”
Morse and Tracie Kerns, who works in the emergency room at Methodist Jennie Edmundson Hospital, focused on the importance of their fellow nurses in handling the crazi-ness of the job.
“Working in an E.R., you’re never alone,” Kerns said. “I don’t get too worked up about most things.”
There’s no “normal” day in the emergency room, though both described what their work entails.
“You’re on your feet, going the whole day,” Morse said.
NURSES/See Page 6A
Above, Tracie Kerns is an emergency room nurse at Meth-odist Jennie Edmundson Hospital. At left, emergency room nurse Katie Morse checks a patient’s blood pressue at Alegent Creighton Health Mercy Hospital. Morse and fel-low E.R. nurses treat patients with a variety of ailments throughout their stressful shifts.
Staff photo/Joe Shearer
Staff photo/Mike Brownlee
Residents like family to Bethany nurses
McIntosh: Health care a ‘wonderful field’
Walk-in clinic nurses used to fast pace
The Healing Touch: School nurses a constant in students’ lives
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Emergency room nurses remain calm under pressure“Our typical day here is very busy.”
The Glenwood resident said she generally cares for three to four patients at a time, all with varying maladies, bouncing back and forth among hospital rooms. Mercy sees a lot of cardiac patients, she said, add-ing she’s seen a lot of severed fingers and crushed bones.
“You have to have a vast range of training,” she said. “From pediatrics to helping the elderly to pregnancy emergencies. And more.”
Part of her time is spent as a tri-age nurse, which as the name implies entails deciding which patients are
the highest priority for care – think broken toe versus severe heart attack.
“You never know who’ll walk through the door,” she said.
Morse graduated from the Iowa Western Community College nurs-ing program more than 12 years ago and worked at Grape Community Hospital in Hamburg for four years before coming to Mercy. She went into the profession in part because of the example set by her mother, Tracy Vanatta, who’s a nurse in the Mercy critical care unit.
“And I like making a difference for people. It could be the worst day of their life and you can have a positive impact, you’re there for them, helping
out,” Morse said.One incident that sticks out in her
head, that she can discuss, given pri-vacy laws, was caring for a 3-week-old baby with sleep apnea.
“I had to sit and stimulate the baby every few seconds to make sure it kept breathing,” Morse said. “I spent a long time with that baby. That one sticks out.”
Helping people, being there for them, is part of the allure of the career for Kerns as well. Also a Glen-wood resident, Kerns worked for the Sprint phone company down in Aus-tin, Texas, before moving home to follow her dreams.
She got a job as a unity secretary
with Methodist Jennie Edmundson Hospital and started her schooling, working as a certified nursing assis-tant and licensed practical nurse before become a nurse in 2009.
Her goal was always to work in the E.R.
“Every day is different. In nursing school they focus on critical thinking, which is a must here,” she said. “You don’t know what you’re getting when a patient arrives, we get about a 30-second report from the ambulance before they come in the door.”
As for that stress, both noted they stay calm because of the team and because, well, they’ve seen a lot of this before.
“If a kid’s in here with a cold, the parents might be real worried,” Morse said. “We don’t get worked up, we pro-vide reassurance.”
Being an emergency room nurse means becoming part of a person’s life, if just for a few hours.
“You meet people from all different backgrounds, all walks of life,” Morse said. “They all have their stories and you become part of that story.”
Both women said they enjoy their jobs, all of it – the stress and pain and smiles and bliss.
“I love that you take care of patients and their families,” Kerns said. “It’s so nice to wake up and go to a job you love. I’ve found my calling.”
NURSES/From Page 5A
Residents like family to Bethany nursestim johnson
Shelly Otten, director of nursing for Bethany Heights Assisted Living, 11 Elliott St., worked as an occupational health nurse and a floater in a hospital before start-ing at Beth-any Lutheran Home in 2004. She moved to Bethany Heights in N o v e m b e r 2007 and helped establish the facility’s assisted living unit, which opened in May 2008. There are now about 72 tenants in the assisted living area.
Otten enjoys her job.“I like it a lot,” she said.
“I didn’t know I would get as close to the people I work with, but you get a lot more time with tenants in this set-ting even than long-term care; and in the hospital, you get a very short time with your patients. In the hospital, you were just trying to help them get through that event. Now,
you’re trying to help them with quality of life. You feel like you can see your care making a dif-ference in people’s lives.”
Otten supervises four LPNs and about a dozen CNAs and medication aides.
“It’s rewarding to be men-toring them as well – and help-ing them grow in their jobs,” she said. “Some of them are going on to nursing school, too. They’re a really great group of people. They work really hard to take care of the people in their charge.”
Nurses are on site at all times to oversee care and determine what steps to take if a resident has a problem, Otten said.
“I never have less than two nursing staff in the building at a time and most of the time it’s three or more,” she said. “If
you don’t have LPNs or RNs to make that assessment, that person has to go to the ER. An emergency assessment here would cost them nothing, ver-sus going to the ER and paying the doctor, nurses, etc.”
Nurses in an assisted living facility have more responsibil-ity for evaluating patients than they do in a hospital, where physicians are present to take care of that, Otten said.
“Your assessment skills almost have to be better, because you’re looking for sub-tle signs of change in a chronic condition or a sign of an acute illness,” she said. At a hospital, “By the time they get to the (hospital) floor, you know what they have.”
With the opportunity to make daily observations, nurses at a residential facil-
ity become a valuable link between residents and physi-cians, Otten said.
“I think you become the advocate for the tenant,” she said. “The tenants look to you to tell the doctor what’s going on with them.”
As assisted living itself evolves, she sees more chronic health problems in residents, she said.
Otten grew up in Blackwa-ter, Mo., and moved to Council Bluffs her senior year in high school.
“My mom was – is – an LPN,” she said. “She went to nursing school while I was growing up, so I think that interested me.”
Otten completed the Jennie Edmundson Hospital School of Nursing diploma program in nursing and a three-year RN program, she said. She became certified in gerontology six or seven years ago through a course at Nebraska Methodist College and additional testing. She finished an assisted living management course last year.
She and her husband, Jerry, have a blended family that includes seven girls and one boy ranging in age from 13 to 23 and one grandson, who lives in Council Bluffs.
Otten
Submitted photo
Bethany Lutheran Heights, 11 Elliott St., is located behind Bethany Lutheran Home.
National Nurses Week: RNs as Leaders
During National Nurses Week 2013, the American Nurses Association is calling attention to registered nurses and their contributions to the health care system, both in the role they play as expert clinicians in diverse care settings and as lead-ers who can dramatically influence the quality of care and overall performance of the system into the future.
Now more than ever, RNs are positioned to assume lead-ership roles in health care, provide primary care services to meet increased demand, implement strategies to improve the quality of care, and play a key role in innovative, patient-centered care delivery models. The nursing profession plays an essential role in improving patient outcomes, increasing access, coordinating care, and reducing health care costs. That is why both the Affordable Care Act and the Institute of Medicine’s Future of Nursing report place nurses at the center of health care transformation in the United States.
The public wants leaders they can trust – and nurses consistently rank at the top of a respected annual poll as the most trusted profession.
– The American Nurses Association
Saturday, May 4, 2013 7A The Daily Nonpareil
“When you’re a nurse, you knowthat every day
you will touch alife or a life will touch yours.”
- Anonymous
Thank youfrom
1701 W. Broadway • Council Bluffs, IA 51501
www.westbroadwayclinic.com712-256-5600
BETTER STAFF, BETTER CARE!
2452 N. Broadway • Council Bluffs, IAPhone: 712-323-7135 • Fax: 712-325-0289 • www.midlandslivingcenter.com
“If circumstances or a changing health condition requires rehabilitation or recuperation following an illness or injury, please consider Midlands Living Center.We are a locally owned 100 bed Skilled Nursing facility,specializing in rehabilitation and restorative services.”
Our residents and families wish to extend their thanks and appreciationto the Midlands Living Center nurses as well as to our local hospitaland clinic nurses for the professional services they provide!
THANK YOU TO OUR NURSES!
McIntosh: Health care a ‘wonderful field’tim johnson
“I think it’s a wonderful field for someone who is inter-ested in caring for someone and helping someone.”
That’s one of the reasons Jeannie McIntosh likes her job as a nurse at Midlands Living Center, 2452 N. Broadway.
She has been at the skilled nursing facility for about six years. Before that, she worked at Methodist Physicians Clinic for a couple years.
“I just really enjoy it,” she said. “It’s always something interesting every day.”
McIntosh likes the fact that she now has an opportunity to get to know her patients/resi-dents better.
“You get a lot more one-on-one contact with them, so you get acquainted better,” she said. “In an office setting, it’s just kind of in and out.”
The disadvantage is, the loss of a resident you have been caring for has a bigger impact, she said.
In a long-term care set-ting, nurses do daily dress-ing changes, wound care, skin checks, help with exercises for residents recovering from joint-replacement surgery, perform IV therapy, head-to-toe assess-ments, cognitive assessments, etc., McIntosh said. They learn what to expect from each resi-dent.
“Being acquainted with peo-ple, you know what people are usually like,” she said.
That’s why physicians depend on nurses for noticing changes in residents’ condi-tions.
McIntosh grew up in Coun-cil Bluffs and trained for her nursing career at Hamilton College.
“My mother was very sick,” she said. “She had a surgery and went into multiple-system failure. Just seeing the nurses taking care of her and the things they did just made me want to be a nurse and help people that need help.”
It was later when she got
interested in long-term care, she said.
“When you’re in school, you get to do a little bit of every-thing,” McIntosh said. “When I was in clinicals, I liked geri-atrics.”
McIntosh works 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.
“I used to float shifts here,” she said. “I just worked my way to days. It works better for my family.”
Her son, a sophomore at Thomas Jefferson High School, likes outdoor activities, and her daughter, a sixth-grader at Wilson Middle School, plays soccer and just made the Honor Roll, she said.
“I enjoy cooking and bak-ing,” McIntosh said. “I also enjoy reading. This year, I’m starting a garden for the first time.”
She had some simple advice for young people interested in health care careers.
“Work hard and be ready to learn,” she said. “You never
stop learning when you’re in health care. There are so many options. I think it’s a wonderful
field for someone who is inter-ested in caring for someone and helping someone.”
Staff photos/Joe Shearer
Above, Midlands Living Center Registered Nurse Jeannie McIntosh, top left, poses for a portrait with residents, from left to right, Norma Hose, Helen Smothers, Raymond Kanger, Susan Palmer and Bevarly Conner in the center’s activities room Tuesday afternoon. Below, McIntosh performs a lung check to hear for any wheezing or fluids in a resident Tuesday afternoon. McIntosh has been with the living center for six years.
Nursing: The most trusted profession
In 2012, Americans again voted nurses the most trusted profession in America for the 13th time in 14 years in the annual Gallup poll that ranks professions for their honesty and ethical standards. Nurses’ honesty and ethics were rated “very high” or “high” by 85 percent of poll respondents. Nursing is the largest of the health care professions, and continues to grow. More job growth is projected in nursing than in any other occupation between 2008 and 2018.
– The American Nurses Association
8A Saturday, May 4, 2013 The Daily Nonpareil
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New two-year old programbegins September 3, 2013
Thank
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She is simply the best and we are fortunate to have her!
Nurses who work at medical walk-in clinics perform many of the same functions as those who work in large hospitals.
And, they like being where they are at, two local walk-in nurses said.
“I enjoy it,” said Hannah Simmons. “It’s a great way to take care of patients.”
“I like the fast pace and variety,” said Bunny Waugh. “And, you get to know your patients.”
Waugh is a LPN, Licensed Practical Nurse, and has been working for a year or so at the West Broadway Clinic at 1701 W. Broadway.
The list of duties that she and other walk-in nurses per-form is long.
For example, a walk-in nurse takes vitals like blood pressure, temperature, pulse and respiratory readings.
“We draw blood and give shots,” Waugh said. “We do EKGs, electrocardiograms, visual tests, we collect urine and stool specimens.”
Other duties include test-ing for strep throat and flu symptoms.
“We see more volume dur-ing the flu season.”
Issues with the ears can be treated at a walk-in clinic.
“We do what is called ear irrigation, which is cleaning out that extra wax in the ear,” Waugh said.
There is more, much more.Pulmonary testing can be
done at a clinic, as well as blad-der scans and treatments for
breathing problems.“We schedule appointments
and assist doctors with exams and procedures,” Waugh said. “We answer a lot of messages.”
Simmons is a CMA, Cer-tified Medical Assistant, at the Alegent Creighton West Broadway Clinic at 2201 W. Broadway.
“I’ve been at this clinic for about four years.” Previously, Simmons was a nursing aide at a area nursing home.
Her duties are quite similar to Waugh.
“We check in the patients, draw blood, give the shots, take vital signs. We check for strep throat, flu, check the urine.”
Coughs and runny noses are treated, Simmons said. They assist with stitches and cut fingers.
CMA’s don’t start IV proce-dures like RNs do, she said.
“That is one of the biggest differences.”
Walk-in nurses also do some teaching to patients like proper dietary measures, she said.
During the day, most of the patients at these clinics have appointments, both said. It’s in the evenings and on Saturday mornings that most walk-ins occur.
“You never know what you are going to see,” Simmons said. “It’s different and it can be a very busy time.”
Thank you to our nurses for their amazing
compassion, expertiseand dedication toour patients and
families.
You Make Us Proud!
411 East BroadwayCouncil Bluffs, IA712-325-1751 • 800-591-2273www.aseracare.com
Nurse shortage and safe nurse staffing
Studies have shown that patients fare worse when there is inadequate nurse staffing on a care unit – problems include poorer health outcomes, more complications, less satisfaction, and greater chance of death. A current study on nurse staff-ing, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, links inadequate staffing with increased patient mortality.
Nurse shortages contribute to higher error rates, dimin-ish time for bedside care and patient education, and lead to fatigue and burnout that decrease nurse job satisfaction and prompt nurses to leave the profession.
To help ensure patient safety, ANA helped craft and sup-ported a bill in Congress (S. 58/H.R. 876) that was intended to require hospitals to establish flexible staffing plans for each nursing unit and shift, based on varying unit conditions and with direct-care nurse input.
– The American Nurses Association
Saturday, May 4, 2013 9A The Daily Nonpareil
Thank Youfor your service to
SAINT ALBERT CATHOLIC SCHOOLS
KATHLEEN ZAJIC1980 St. Albert Alumni
St. AlbertSchool Nurse
Architectural Specialty Products for General Contractors
Steve & JoAnn Epperson1159 Pierce Street • Council Bluffs, IA 51503
Decades ago, school nurses served a much different role compared to those
today.“It’s a huge difference today,
compared to what nurses did before,” said Maureen Bell-ing, a registered nurse within the Council Bluffs Community School District. “The needs and requirements are vastly different now. I think the old mentality of just putting Band-Aids on is all gone.”
Not only do school nurses put Band-Aids on students and send home students with fevers, they distribute medica-tion for behavioral or physical conditions on a daily basis. They see diabetic students needing sugar checks and insulin injections, and care for students with invasive treat-ments such as tube feedings, tracheotomies and catheteriza-tion.
“We have a lot of kids with high health care needs in our buildings. They’re more medi-cally fragile,” Belling said. “Many times we are the first line of health care from pre-school all the way up through high school.”
Ron Diimig, the Council Bluffs Community School Dis-trict’s executive director of stu-dent and family services who also oversees health services at the school district, said what-ever is a hospital issue, is a school issue.
“The breadth and depth of what these ladies do is abso-lutely incredible,” he said.
But school nurses still deal with minor illnesses and inju-ries, too.
Jennifer McGee, a school nurse at the Tri-Center Com-munity School District in Neola, said the most common types of cases she sees today are injuries from Physical Education classes and recess, including broken bones and scraped knees.
“I’ve had five broken bones this year,” McGee said. “But I just think kids in general are a lot busier in a school setting and there’s a lot more going on with kids today.”
In addition to tending cuts and bruises and administering medication, school nurses are also in charge of health plans for “anyone in the district that needs one,” McGee said.
“I collaborate with counsel-ors and administrations for
some higher risk kids to help assess goals on their student pathways,” she said.
Diimig said there are about 150 kids on individual health plans within the Council Bluffs school district.
“About 15 percent of our kids have health issues com-plex enough that it takes an individually developed health plan with input from their doc-tor as to what the student’s school day may look like,” he said. “It may include when to clean a tracheotomy, what they can or can’t eat, or how to help them if they go into shock. I’ve seen the number of health plans grow over the years.”
School nurses also serve as link to several community resources, said Amy Cook, a registered school nurse within the Lewis Central Community School District. Today’s nurses are also increasingly involved with health promotion activi-ties for all age groups.
“At Lewis Central, we coordinate health screenings, immunization compliance, teach CPR, make home vis-its and work with the health department to manage com-municable diseases,” Cook said.
Even though the role of a school nurse has changed, as well as children they serve, the
reason for becoming a school nurse is still the same – and that’s to serve and care for children.
“The object of this busi-ness is to educate children and we’re here to support and sup-plement that to make it a posi-tive experience for the child in their learning process,” Belling said.
Cook agreed. “Overall, it’s a
very rewarding job filled with working with my favorite age group – kids. Healthy students do learn better.”
McGee, who is a Tri-Cen-ter graduate, said becoming a school nurse was a way to use her nursing degree and be close to her children, who are currently in the school district.
“I really enjoy it,” she said. “I really love the kids I see.”
We Salute OurLewis CentralSchool District
NURSES
Deb Blodgett Amy Cook
Staff photo/Kyle Bruggeman
Kreft Primary school nurse Deb Blodgett helps Geoffery Staton, 6, receive a meter dose inhaler prior to exercise in Council Bluffs on April 30.
Thank You to ourCouncil Bluffs Community School District
Health Services Staff!
From left, Jerri Mitchell, Jennifer Campbell, Mindi Miles, Maureen Belling, RN; Lisa Kaufman, RN; Kelly Keller, Heather Olson, Kristine Campbell, RN; Michelle Smith, Julie Larsen, BSN; Shawna Dunn, RN;
Emily Hummel, Wendy Klopenstine, Pam Hunt.
A Brief History of National Nurses Week
1953: Dorothy Sutherland of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare sent a proposal to President Eisenhower to proclaim a “Nurse Day” in October of the fol-lowing year. The proclamation was never made.
1954: National Nurse Week was observed from Oct. 11-16. The year of the observance marked the 100th anniver-sary of Florence Nightingale’s mission to Crimea. Represen-tative Frances P. Bolton sponsored the bill for a nurse week. Apparently, a bill for a National Nurse Week was introduced in the 1955 Congress, but no action was taken. Congress dis-continued its practice of joint resolutions for national weeks of various kinds.
1972: Again, a resolution was presented by the House of Representatives for the President to proclaim “National Reg-istered Nurse Day.” It did not occur.
1974: In January, the International Council of Nurses proclaimed that May 12 would be “International Nurse Day.”
1974: In February of that year, a week was designated by the White House as National Nurse Week, and President Nixon issued a proclamation.
1978: New Jersey Gov. Brendon Byrne declared May 6 as “Nurses Day.” Edward Scanlan, of Red Bank, N.J., took up the cause to perpetuate the recognition of nurses in his state. Scanlan had this date listed in Chase’s Calendar of Annual Events. He promoted the celebration on his own.
1981: The American Nurses Association, along with vari-ous nursing organizations, rallied to support a resolution ini-tiated by nurses in New Mexico, through their Congressman, Manuel Lujan, to have May 6, 1982, established as “National Recognition Day for Nurses.”
1982: In February, the ANA Board of Directors formally acknowledged May 6, 1982, as “National Nurses Day.” The action affirmed a joint resolution of the United States Con-gress designating May 6 as “National Recognition Day for Nurses.”
1982: President Ronald Reagan signed a proclamation on March 25, proclaiming “National Recognition Day for Nurses” to be May 6, 1982.
1990: The ANA Board of Directors expanded the recogni-tion of nurses to a week-long celebration, declaring May 6-12, 1991, as National Nurses Week.
