[TEXOKIE]

re your 284:

Words fail. I can confirm the dismal situation concerning the nursing shortage. Nurses who are working these days LITERALLY barely have time to care for the patients they are assigned. With the HMO's and the federal guidelines outlining the length of hospital stays for particular conditions (as though we were cars and all alike!) has caused the situation to develop whereby the people who are hospitalized are sicker and need more care than previously. And yet there are fewer nurses to do that care. As sad as it may seem, even important things like inserting pic lines can drop through the cracks or get prioritized below someone with an even more pressing need. It is an outrage that Marilyn or anyone has to be subjected to such poor care, but I certainly have empathy for the nurses as well. Please remember that in most circumstances it really isnt the nurse's fault. The nurses I know WANT to baby and care for their patients. They literally just do not have the time. Policies and conditions created by regulations and profit motive health care force our nurses to practice in a very frustrating environment.

Blessed Father of us All

We continue to petition for your Divine Will in the life of our sister Marilyn. Please, Father, clear the way for her to receive the best care that is available in the hospital to which you have brought her.

FAther, clear the way and have mercy on the nurses in that and all hospitals. Father, these magnificent, caring servants are truly overburdened and sometimes find it hard to get all the tasks completed that their shifts require of them. Father, send legions of your healing, mercy, love, and efficiency angels into that and all hospitals and shatter all disorganization, chaos, confusion, frustration, and anxiety which can affect the smooth running of a modern hospital.

Father, heal our health care system in this nation. We ask that you will inspire young people to pursue nursing as their calling. We ask that you will intercede and cause the correct conditions of pay and reasonable hours for this to occur. Father, guide our leaders as to what YOUR answer for our broken health care system should be.

Again, blessed Father, we hold Marilyn up to you and pray for your Will. Heal her perfectly according to thy Will. Let all her pain and suffering be mitigated either by proper medication, or by your direct intercession at a cellular level. Father, we know not your Plan for her, but we affirm that we do trust and have faith in you. We ask and accept that only your Divine Will can and shall take place.

Father, we thank you for working with Marilyn and her loved ones so closely. Thank you for the evidence you give us as to the effectiveness of our partnership with you through our prayers. Let our prayers be multiplied, Father, to bless Marilyn and to cover any and all who may be in a similar situation of need.

Amen

[DLfromthedesert]

I believe health care would be MUCH better if the federal bureaucracies weren't so involved with their stupid requirements that don't benefit patients, but increase paperwork. When the Medicare and Medicaid programs were begun, that was the beginning of our major health care woes, JMO.

[Vets_Husband_and_Wife]

I respect your opinion, but I did have time to care for my patients. I would NEVER have left for the day if a patient needed something like a catheter removed, or an IV removed. There are ONLY so many beds on a floor. I think this is in-excusable. Shortage or not. I totally respect nurses, and I know there is a shortage. We need to address this as a nation. Hospitals need to hire more medical assistants to answer call lights for bedpans and to give baths, etc.

We need to put an END to the sue happy madness that has dis-allowed volunteers to answer call lights!! Candy stripers used to be able to assist nurses!! I did so as a teenager! There are a multitude of answers, if we honestly looked for solutions.

But to NOT give vital care to a patient like Marilyn, then to continue to say "our poor nurses".. "it isn't their fault".. " is inately UNFAIR to patients, and is even cruel when a patient like Marilyn is lying there in PAIN!!

I also think patients could be dying because of neglect like this.

Beach_Babe must continue to insist on the proper care for Marilyn. She should find out the extension of the nursing supervisor and call her if Marilyn isn't getting proper pain control, or if the Picc line isn't put in after all these days. Orders from Marilyns physicians, should be filled in a timely manner.

No offense meant TEX,.. but Marilyn needs her problems fixed, and that won't happen if her doctors orders aren't being filled.

Prayers continue,.. and yours are especially beautiful TEXOKIE.