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Sunday, Feb 15, 2015 PULSE 1
AN ADVERTISING PUBLICATION | MARCH 2015 | VOL. 23, NO. 2
Pulse
For the health care professional
Emergency nursing:
Is it for you?
‘I fell in love with it . . . the challenge
of being ready, calm and having
your critical thinking on constantly.
Page 10
10 Questions to
ask yourself Page 15
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Apps available for
healthy cooking Page 16
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Go see
advertisement
on Page 3
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WHAT’S INSIDE
HOW TO REACH US
ON THE COVER
Copyright © 2014, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
223 Perimeter Center Parkway, Atlanta, GA 30346-1301
NEWS STAFF
Lane Holman, special sections editor
ajc.editor.pulse@gmail.com
ADVERTISING
Matt Teli, sales manager
404-526-2526 or mteli@ajc.com
SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION,
ADDRESS CHANGES
Nurse Peggy Griffin prepares a bed in
the Emergency Room at Grady Memorial
Hospital. She was ER nurse of the year
at Grady’s annual nursing awards. Read
more about her on page 10.
Matt Teli
404-526-2526 or pulse@ajc.com
BOARD OF ADVISERS
Chris Bosonetto-Doane,
CEO, Advanced Rehabilitation Services Inc.
Myra Carmon, associate professor of nursing,
Georgia State University
Marianne Freeman, vice president of human
resources and professional services,
Rockdale Medical Center
Debra Meadows,
legal nurse consultant, King & Spalding
Merideth Northcutt, director of recruitment,
Gwinnett Hospital System
8
Victoria Schwartz is the Director of Catechesis of the Good Shepherd at St.
Patrick’s Episcopal Church in Dunwoody, often called upon to offer pastoral
care to church members. “(People) think that to be compassionate they must
feel the other’s suffering. However, to be truly effective as a caregiver means
to develop an emotional detachment which acknowledges a person’s pain
without being overwhelmed by it themselves.”
Ghanaian
kids benefit
from local
nurse’s
work to
reduce
mother
and infant
mortality
rate. Read
more about
her work on
page 6.
Richard L. Sowell, dean, College of Health
and Human Services, Kennesaw State University
ABOUT US
Pulse, a monthy publication produced by The
Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Marketing special
sections department, is mailed free to more than
62,000 licensed registered nurses and allied health
care professionals in Georgia. The views expressed
in Pulse are not necessarily those of the AJC.
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See Pulse online at ajc.com/jobs/pulse.
To nominate a nurse
for the awards,
go to ajc.com/
celebratingnurses.
Like us on Facebook by
searching Celebrating
Nurses ajcjobs.
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NEWS
CEU opportunity, possible
new health system
Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2015: Attorney
Danielle Cefalu Humphrey discusses
“Choosing a Surrogate Healthcare Decision-Maker: An Ethical Discussion” at
Cameron Hall of Canton; free dinner for
participants; CEUs available.
Healthcare professionals recognize
that selecting a surrogate decision-maker is an important process for all adults.
Most social workers encourage their patients to complete an advance directive
for healthcare. During the presentation
Hurley Elder Care Law will present information identifying the different documents that are often used to appoint
a healthcare agent such as a living will,
durable power of attorney for healthcare and the Georgia Advance Directive for Healthcare. The presenters will
review the responsibilities of a healthcare agent and discuss factors to consider when selecting a healthcare agent.
The discussion will feature a review of
ethical dilemmas that healthcare agents
face and examine guidelines for mak-
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ing decisions on behalf of someone else.
Through a series of case studies, the
presenters will discuss how likely the
healthcare agent makes decisions that
match the wishes of the person they represent. This event, hosted by Hurley Elder Care Law and Cameron Hall of Canton, is open to social workers, case managers and registered nurses. Registration, cocktails and dinner are from 6 to
6:30 p.m.; CEU is from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.
Location: Cameron Hall Assisted Living Center, 240 Marietta Highway, Canton, GA 30114. CEUs available: One ethic
or core hour for social workers (NASWGA); one contact hour for case managers (CCMC) and one clock hour for registered nurses (TNA). Please register at:
http://cameronhallcantonceu.eventbri
te.com.
Emory, Wellstar may join
to create new health system
Two of Georgia’s largest health care
networks may combine to create a new
system to serve metro Atlanta and beyond.
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Emory University and WellStar Health
System are in talks about a potential
merged system, they announced this
morning. The new system would take
about a year to create, the announcement said.
“Our shared vision is to design one
of the best health systems in the nation
to serve local communities, the state of
Georgia, and beyond,” said Reynold J.
Jennings, CEO of WellStar Health System. “The new system will be one of the
most innovative and transformational
healthcare systems in the industry.”
By combining, the goal is to create a
healthcare environment that would offer the best of community-based care
and the best of academic medicine, the
announcement said.
WellStar Health System said it is Georgia’s largest not-for-profit health system.
WellStar includes WellStar Kennestone
Regional Medical Center; WellStar Cobb,
Douglas, Paulding and Windy Hill hospitals; WellStar Medical Group, Urgent
Care Centers, Health Parks, Pediatric
Center; Health Place; Homecare; Hospice; Atherton Place; Paulding Nursing
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and Rehabilitation Center; and the WellStar Foundation.
Emory University encompasses nine
academic divisions as well as Emory
Healthcare, Georgia’s largest and most
comprehensive health care system and
the only one with Georgia with two hospitals that have earned Magnet Designation, signifying nursing excellence.
Formal discussions over the proposal
will continue over the next 45 days.
The U.S. has been seeing a surge of
hospital consolidations in recent years,
as hospitals combine with other hospitals and with clinics and other facilities.
In 2013, hospitals and health systems announced 98 new combinations, a 51 percent increase from 2010, according to
an analysis by Kaufman Hall, a management consultant firm.
As more hospitals have merged, the
Federal Trade Commisson has stepped
up reviews to make sure that markets
remain competitive. The agency challenged a proposed merger of rival hospitals in Albany, Georgia, contending
it would raise prices for hospital services.
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GIVING BACK
Northside nurse flies on wings of service
Ghanaian-born Atlantan
inspired by her own
experiences.
By Jon Waterhouse
For the AJC
Hanan Waite, a neonatal nurse at
Northside Hospital, knows firsthand
the challenges at hospitals in third
world countries and the often tragic results of those challenges.
Born and raised in Ghana, West Africa, Waite lost both of her parents at an
early age due to the country’s lack of
basic health care. After being adopted
by an aunt and uncle, she relocated to
America in 1997.
In 2011, Waite gave birth to her son,
Ramzi, two-and-a-half months prematurely at Northside. A 10-week stint in
the neonatal intensive care found the
fragile infant’s good days flip-flopping
with bad. Preeclampsia threatened the
lives of both Waite and her baby.
Although the pair eventually thrived
and survived, a recurring thought
haunted Waite for the next year.
What would I have done if I were in
Ghana?
“If I had been there,” she said, “neither of us would have made it.”
The negative reputation of Ghana’s
hospitals looms large with minimal
staff, rampant corruption, and lack of
funds, supplies and equipment. According to the CIA World Factbook, an
estimated 38.52 deaths per 1,000 live
births took place in Ghana last year.
And Waite wants to help decrease that
number.
A year after her son’s birth, Waite
says she decided to stop thinking and
start doing. The concept of Earth’s Angels came out of her concern for mothers and babies in her homeland. Waite
envisioned a nonprofit that would improve “mother and infant mortality
one mother and baby at a time.”
Lacking the funds to hire a lawyer,
Waite dove in herself doing the appropriate research and filling out mounds
of paperwork. In 2013, Earth’s Angels
became a 501(c)(3) organization, allowing Waite to take off and fly.
Her initial mission saw Waite focus-
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Hanan Waite goes through clothing collected in the garage of her Lawrenceville home for her nonprofit Earth’s Angels. PHIL SKINNER / AJC
ing Earth’s Angels’ efforts on Ridge
Hospital in Accra, Ghanna, and its neonatal, obstetric and pediatric units.
She chose Ridge due to its thin staff.
Fundraising gave Earth’s Angels the
ability to send medical supplies, diapers, clothing, infant food, formula
and a host of other items. When time
came to send the third shipment last
September, Waite delivered the goods
herself.
“Part of my promise is to make sure
these items are delivered and put in
the hands of those who need them
most,” Waite explained. “And being from Ghana, I am able to do that.
I speak the local vernacular. I’m able
to get it in the hands of those who actually need it, despite the corruption,
which is part of the problem.”
Waite and her team of volunteers not
only brought the supplies to the hos-
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FIND OUT MORE
Mother and infant mortality remains a
critical issue across the globe
For more information on this topic,
read the World Health Organization’s
publication Africa’s newborns —
counting them and making them count.
http://www.who.int/pmnch/media/
publications/aonsection_I.pdf
pital, but jumped in and did handson work. They worked alongside the
doctors and nurses Waite had been
communicating with long distance
throughout the previous two years.
The work, Waite says, gave her and
her team a strong sense of accomplishment, no doubt due to the horror sto-
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ries she’s heard regarding Ghanaian
hospitals.
When she founded Earth’s Angels,
Waite recalls hearing firsthand accounts from a medical student about
hospital conditions in Ghana. Tales of
as many as three babies sharing a single incubator and sleeping in their own
feces, because there wasn’t enough
staff to regularly change diapers,
shocked Waite.
Although Ridge Hospital remains on
the road to improvement with more
funding and a better equipped staff,
other hospitals in Ghana aren’t. Horrendous reports keep coming. While in
Ghana in September, Waite captured
reports from Ghanaian citizens for a
video documentary currently available
on the Earth’s Angels website. A man
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With programs like Earth’s Angels, more babies will grow up to live full and healthy lives
like these Ghanaian students. ISTOCK / GETTY
Giving
continued from 6
told her how he lost his hospital bed to
another person who paid more money for the accommodations than he
did. She heard stories of women delivering their babies on the hospital floor,
and others getting beaten during labor
and delivery, because they were crying
while they were pushing.
Stories like these continue to inspire Waite’s mission. Earth’s Angels
plans to raise funds at its second annual gala event and silent auction this
summer. Money will support a return
trip to Ghana later this year. This time
Waite and her crew plan on venturing into the outskirts of Ghana and visiting villages where mothers and babies typically have no medical care at
all. Earth’s Angels will provide supplies
and teaching tools to lay midwives in
the area.
Earth’s Angels, however, doesn’t
strictly confine its work out of the
country. According to Waite, simultaneously working with mothers and
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babies on the local level in the Atlanta area remains “crucial.” Last year,
Earth’s Angels began working with
the Gwinnett Children’s Shelter in Buford, which provides a residence for
mothers and children in need. In 2014,
Earth’s Angels made a financial contribution as well as a gift donation of infant diapers and clothing.
Watching her vision become a reality encourages Waite to push Earth’s
Angels further with hopes of expanding into other regions and countries.
She does this while juggling a marriage, two children and her career at
Northside.
“I guess I can sound cliche and say
that it’s my passion,” Waite said. “It
makes me happy to know that even
though I’m one woman and this is [a
small organization] that even if I can
save 12 babies, that’s huge. ... I work on
Earth’s Angels every single day when
I have time once I put my children to
bed. The happiness and passion are
the fuel, and it has been for the past
three years now.”
For more information visit
earthsangelsgive.org.
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SELF-CARE FOR THE CAREGIVER
Being emotionally present
without being overwhelmed
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Caregivers face issues of
helping without overstepping,
and a need for own support.
By Cindy Foster
For the AJC
Spiritual care is an integral part of
the healing process.
In hospitals and clinics, the focus of
pastoral staff and outside clergy is on
the patient, as it should be. However,
where does this leave the healthcare
provider who may also feel emotionally burdened by the suffering of a patient?
Medicine is a profession where practitioners grapple with life and death on
a daily basis. In such an environment,
spiritual self-care becomes critical.
The Dalai Lama says, “In dealing
with those who are undergoing great
suffering, if you feel burnout setting in,
if you feel demoralized and exhausted, it is best, for the sake of everyone,
to withdraw and restore yourself. The
point is to have a long-term perspective.”
This withdrawal and restoration is
spiritual self-care. The essential practice of restoring the spirit and communing with a Higher Power spans millennia, cultures and religious traditions.
Victoria Schwartz is the Director
of Catechesis of the Good Shepherd
at St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church in
Dunwoody. As a church staff member,
she is often called upon to offer pastoral care to church members. Her experience gives her a comprehensive perspective on how spiritual self-care is
handled in the context of Christianity.
Schwartz says, “The Christian faith’s
understanding of suffering is that we
all suffer and we are all called to bear
one another’s burdens in the sufferings
of life. So in one sense all Christians are
called to be caregivers.”
“(People) think that to be
Self-restoration can take many forms. ISTOCK / GETTY
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compassionate they
must feel the other’s suffering. However, to be truly effective as a caregiver means to develop an emotional detachment which acknowledges a perVictoria Schwartz son’s pain without
being overwhelmed
by it themselves. I can pray for them
and even feel sad for them, but if I get
anxious or over-involved in their pain,
I lose perspective and am not able to
help them. I must stay outside of their
suffering.”
Being emotionally useful while keeping a healthy attitude is not an easy
task. Since 1975, Stephen Ministries has
had unprecedented success in empowering laypeople to effectively provide
spiritual care to people who are hurting. Across the U.S. and Canada, this
program is used by over 12,000 congregations and organizations that span
170 different denominations.
Schwartz adds that Stephen Ministries is an excellent place for the caregiver to find the spiritual support they
need in a confidential and comfortable
environment.
There are also other support groups
with specific purposes, many of which
cater to caregivers. They include AlAnon and Alateen, adults caring for aging parents, Alzheimer’s respite groups
and persons caring for family members
with disabilities or mental illness. Medical professionals and laypersons alike
can find support and spiritual encouragement in these groups.
Another means for spiritual restoration, prominent in many faiths, is the
act of sequestering oneself away from
the chaos of daily life. Judaism, Christianity and Buddhism are among the major religions that embrace asceticism to
some extent.
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Victoria Schwartz says it is just as important for the caregiver to have spiritual restoration, while also being there for those who are in need of their help.
PHIL SKINNER / AJC
Caregiver
continued from 8
Schwartz says, “When my children
were young, and I needed a day of quiet, I would go to the Monastery of the
Holy Spirit in Conyers and just spend
time on the grounds or in the chapel.
The monks there were very good about
being available if I needed them and
leaving me alone if I didn’t.”
She adds, “When I can’t take a lot
of time away, I find a chapel and sit in
the quiet. Many churches have public
chapels which are left open for private
prayer and meditation. And some have
prayer gardens which offer quiet in the
midst of nature.”
Another solitary but very effective technique for spiritual centering
is meditation. Again, this is a practice
that is intrinsic to a number of religions
and it takes many different forms.
For example, there is mandala meditation. Sanskrit for circle, mandalas
are a spiritual and ritual symbol in Hinduism and Buddhism. The creation of
the mandala, often with colored sand,
is done in a meditative state and focuses on certain themes. The contemplation of the complete mandala is a way
to focus inward. The dismantling of the
completed mandala is a reminder of
the transient nature of the world.
Walking a labyrinth is another meditative spiritual tool. It is often symbolic
of the journey to the center of oneself
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and is used by many as a way to learn
about the spiritual path.
Schwartz says that many churches
offer other meditative services such as
Taizé. Taizé is a style of Christian worship that often incorporates simple
harmonies sung in different languages.
Singing is interspersed with reading, silence and prayer. “I find music, such
as Taizé, very healing when I am under
stress,” says Schwartz.
Prayer is another spiritual discipline
that can be performed collectively or
individually on behalf of oneself or on
behalf of others.
Schwartz says, “We can pray for
strength and guidance, and we commend those we care for to the comfort
and care of God also. Our faith gives us
hope and the confidence that God is
with us, which helps us be at peace in
the middle of a stressful situation.”
In addition to prayer, Schwartz says
touch is vitally important. “Touching
the hand of a patient or holding both
their hands in yours makes a connection between the caregiver and patient
and can be very calming to both.”
When you find yourself in need of
spiritual restoration, the techniques
are simple and can be tailored to suit
individual beliefs and faith traditions.
Create or seek out a space where you
feel safe to encounter your Higher
Power. Seek the support of others with
similar concerns and carve out some
alone time for focusing inward through
meditation or prayer.
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COVER STORY
Nurses stay tactical amid trauma
High-pressure environment,
constantly changing
conditions are part of routine.
By Jon Waterhouse
For the AJC
A day in the life of a trauma center nurse has that Forrest Gump boxof-chocolates quality. Cue the Tom
Hanks drawl: You never know what
you’re going to get.
Some find themselves hopping from
bedside to bedside, facing the spinning wheel of injuries up close and
personal; a motor vehicle crash victim
one moment, a severe gunshot wound
the next. The rapid-fire succession
of patients and life threatening situations require juggling tasks, high-pressure critical thinking and a strong constitution. And a pair of running shoes
wouldn’t hurt.
Nurses looking to begin the life-saving race of working in a trauma center
must typically have at least two years
as an ER nurse, have an emergency
nursing certificate and complete the
Trauma Nursing Core Course. The latter arms nurses with a standardized
wealth of knowledge to be used on the
job. According to Dan Cunningham, a
trauma nurse at Atlanta Medical Center, most emergency rooms require
Advanced Cardiac Life Support and
Pediatric Advanced Life Support certifications. Depending on where you
work, a certified trauma nurse usually
must get re-certified every few years.
Yet many professionals in the field
agree that more comes into play than
just an educational background. Some
argue that ace trauma nurses prove to
be born, not made.
“You have to be able to multitask,”
said Cunningham. “It’s constant.
You’re never going to be doing just
one thing. You may have four different
patients with four different emergencies, and you have to know every aspect of that.”
Cunningham equates it to being a
waiter at a life-or-death cafe serving
multiple tables each with special orders. And you have to wait those tables with a poker face and a thick skin.
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Nurse Peggy Griffin (left) discharges patient Johnita Hodoin the Emergency Room at Grady Memorial Hospital. Griffin earned ER
Nurse of the Year from Grady Health System in 2014. PHIL SKINNER / AJC
When working with patients on their
worst day, they don’t need to know
you’re having a difficult one yourself.
Don’t be surprised, he adds, if they
take it out on you.
Peggy Griffin, a trauma center
charge nurse who took home the ER
Nurse of the Year award from Grady
Health System in 2014, agrees you
have to be ready for anything and multiple things at one time.
“There’s so much going on at
once,” she explained. “You’re just trying to prioritize what you need to do
next. You have to have good assess-
Date/Time created: Feb 13 2015 10:12:24:543PM
ment skills, too. When it’s busy like
that, you have to know if something’s
changing about a patient. If others are
busy or out of the room, you have to
be mindful of what’s going on.”
As a bedside trauma nurse for instance, the duties continually vary like
the pieces to a medical puzzle. You’re
putting in IVs, drawing blood, giving
medications and maybe even shocking
a patient who’s in arrest. And the list
continues.
Griffin goes on to explain collaboration remains key in the trauma center. Lone wolves won’t get too far.
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Teamwork, she says, stays vital.
While managing the trauma program at Gwinnett Medical Center in
Lawrenceville, Gina Solomon, a registered nurse, has a clear vantage point
of the importance of synergy. Add to
it the better part of two decades of onthe-floor experience, and she has a
clear perspective.
“At the end of the day, I think it’s really about being part of the team,” Solomon said. “To have the best outcome
possible, everybody has to be doing
Cover Story continued on 12
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Nurse Peggy Griffin says quick critical thinking is a key component of her work being a
nurse in a trauma center . See what else she has to say in a Q and A on page 13.
PHIL SKINNER / AJC
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Cover Story
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ajcjobs.com • Pulse •
their job, whether it’s the paramedics
out in the field, the ED physicians and
nurses, or the trauma surgeons. Everybody needs to be on the same page and
working together.”
Solomon pauses for a beat before letting out a chuckle. “And the faster the
better,” she said.
The Need For Speed
Just before returning home from a
U.S. Army deployment in Iraq, Cunningham knew he wanted to move into a meaningful profession with larger stakes. A friend in nursing school explained the field to him, and he realized it might be a good fit.
So while attending nursing school
himself, he began working in a trauma
center as an ER tech. He developed a
passion for trauma nursing, and upon
graduation he headed in that direction.
“I wanted something that had higher consequences and a certain stress
level to meet my needs,” he explained.
“There is a level of accomplishment
when you can look back at the chaos
that you were involved in and you kept
it under control.”
Adrenaline junkies? Solomon says
many certainly find their way into the
trauma center. Although she admits
that’s part of her own personal appeal,
she also appreciates the wide range of
work experiences. To her, variety continues to be the trauma center spice.
“That’s what really drew me to it,”
Solomon said. “It wasn’t a one specialty kind of thing. You were looking at a broad spectrum with a patient.
They could have a head injury, an abdominal injury and a broken bone as
well. So you got to work with a lot of
different (specialists) on those types of
patients.”
Level Up
Trauma nurses have the opportunity to go to work in different environments. Level 1 trauma centers denote
those at the highest level. Only a pair
of Level 1 trauma centers, the Marcus
Trauma Center at Grady and Atlanta
Medical Center, exists in Atlanta. This
means they offer the greatest amount
of comprehensive trauma care, including access to operating rooms, trauma
surgeons and other specialists.
Having garnered a strong reputation, the Marcus Trauma Center bustles with activity with its 15 beds, seven resuscitation bays and eight criti-
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cal care rooms. More than 3,000 trauma admissions take place annually,
and the renovated and expanded center went full throttle in late 2011. Griffin, a Grady veteran, says she’s seen a
tremendous change with “state-of-theeverything” now in place.
Changes
Technological changes and advancements continue to transform
trauma centers across the board. “It
wasn’t too long ago when we were doing our charting on paper,” Cunningham said. “Now with computers you
can easily look back at things and find
data, look for weak points and what
you’re doing wrong.”
Although she says the systematic
assessment of patients stays basically constant, Solomon sees technology changing the game. “We learn a
lot from the military,” she explained.
“Most of the new things that come into
trauma care we learn from battle medicine, because they’re on the front
lines, literally, of research.”
While advancements come into
play, Solomon sometimes sees what
was once old becoming new again.
Contemporary versions of tourniquets, she says, have found themselves back into trauma centers. These
older methods seem to be joining older trauma patients, she says. Since the
elderly tend to be more active these
days — continuing to drive and doing
strenuous tasks such as cleaning the
gutters — it puts them at risk of being
involved in a motor vehicle crash or a
traumatic injury.
“We’re having to learn more about
geriatric medicine, because our trauma population is getting older,” Solomon said. “They bring their illnesses and morbidities with them, be it diabetes or high blood pressure, and
sometimes it makes them a little more
difficult to manage.”
As new crops of trauma center nurses attempt to manage their careers,
Solomon suggests they remember it’s
a continuing process of learning. Seek
out a good role model in the field,
strive for additional certifications and
read voraciously. Become a member
of a professional organization that
deals with trauma nursing, such as the
Society of Trauma Nurses.
“Learn the ropes, and then go above
and beyond,” she said. “It takes some
extra knowledge, and it’s not one of
the things they necessarily teach in
nursing school. You have to be willing
to go out there and get the knowledge
on your own.”
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Q&A WITH PEGGY GRIFFIN, RN
Nurse Peggy Griffin (left) works on patient charts with Dr. Jeremy Ackerman. Griffin
says she enjoys the trauma center environment because she’s a “fast paced kind of
person” and enjoys the daily challenges. PHIL SKINNER PHOTOS / AJC
Peggy Griffin, an award-winning charge nurse at Grady’s Marcus
Trauma Center, never imagined a career in the ER. It wasn’t until she graduated nursing school in 1995 and got a taste that she
knew she had found her niche.
On being best-suited for the trauma
center environment:
“I’m a fast paced kind of person. I’ve always been somebody who likes a challenge. It comes from sports, I guess.
Once I got there and saw what it was
like, I fell in love with it. … I think it just
suits my personality. I love the challenge of being ready, calm and having
your critical thinking on constantly.”
On being a charge nurse in the
trauma center:
“As a charge nurse you have to keep
the flow of the zone going. We have 15
rooms, and you have to work collaboratively with the physicians to know
who you can pull out of the rooms to
put a new patient in and still take care
of that person you pulled out. That’s
a very challenging thing to do. I’m always having to run in and help them at
the bedside.”
On the importance of communicating
with patients:
“I just love our patients, and taking care of them and their family
members. I don’t know what it is,
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Nurse Peggy Griffin prepares a bed in
the Emergency Room at Grady Memorial
Hospital. She says, with so much going
on at once, being able to prioritize what
you need to do next throughout the day
becomes critical.
but I’m one of those people that people love to talk to. If you listen to people enough, I think all they want is to
be kept informed. A lot of what I do is
going around and talking with the patients and family, and keeping the families aware of what’s going on.”
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HEALTH PROVIDER AS PATIENT
Nurse’s illness gives her different outlook
Being a patient for a month,
she says, showed her what it
is like to be the one in the bed.
By Cindy Grace
For the AJC
Beth Wilson has been a nurse for 33
years. She received her degree from
the University of North Carolina and
worked for six years at the University
Hospital in Chapel Hill before moving
to Atlanta in 1987.
She has worked at Northside Hospital for the past 28 years. During her career, she’s worked in med-surg, open
heart step-down, ICU, post anesthesia care and for the past 18 years she’s
worked in the Pain and Spine Treatment Center.
A few years ago, Wilson exchanged
her hospital scrubs for a patient’s gown
when she became so ill, she spent almost a month in the hospital.
Wilson recalls: “[I] developed severe
pain and a fever over a week’s time. I
was transferred to Northside Hospital by ambulance to the ER. I was then
transferred to ICU.
“So began my almost one month
stay which included 14 surgeries, tube
feedings through my nose and my PICU line, three wound vacs, two blood
transfusions, emergent intubations,
and isolation precautions.”
Wilson was diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis from MRSA and despite her
nurse’s precise recall of procedures,
she says that she has very little memory of her first 10 days in the hospital.
One thing Wilson does remember ...
it is not easy to be a patient when you
are a nurse.
She says: “It is very humbling to be a
patient when you are a nurse. It is not
in a nurse’s personality to lose control
of a situation. When you are a patient,
you have NO control, especially when
you are desperately ill and relying on
others to help you make it through to
the next day.”
Wilson found herself doing things
like hesitating to push the call button,
because as a nurse, she was aware of
how busy the nurses were. In fact, she
says that when she was transferred
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from ICU to sub-ICU, it was surreal because she had personally worked that
unit for seven years. Suddenly she was
the patient. A very sick patient.
On the other hand, Wilson found
that it was also helpful to have a
nurse’s background. She says: “You
have an understanding of the process
of things. When you work in the same
hospital for as long as I have, you get to
know a lot of people. It is very comforting to have a familiar face come into
the room to do PT or start an IV. I was
blessed to have two outstanding doctors who saved my life, Dr. Sam Webster, my infectious disease doctor and
Dr. Jarrett Moss with whom I worked
daily in the pain clinic. He worked with
the acute pain nurses to try to control my excruciating pain. I always felt
safe when they would walk through the
door.”
Being a patient also gave Wilson a
clearer understanding of what it is like
to be the one in the hospital bed. She
says, “I have always considered myself to be a very compassionate nurse,
but after you have experienced what
patients go through, that compassion
doubles.”
Wilson more readily relates to her
patients in pain because she has experienced debilitating pain. She feels she
understands what it is like on a deeper level and she wants to show her patients that there is life after pain.
She also had some insights into caring for the patient’s family as well. She
says: “The night of my first surgery, my
family was told that I only had a 50-50
chance of survival. It was a very casual
comment, but it really devastated my
family. I am more careful about what I
say and how it might be perceived by
my patient and their family members.”
Despite the severity of her illness
and the fact that life was indeed tenuous for Wilson at the time, she has
come out on the other side with an
amazing attitude.
She says: “I always believe that when
we walk through the dark days of our
life, once we finally come into the light
again, we can look back and see where
our blessings were. I know without a
shadow of a doubt that I am a better
nurse for having been a patient.”
Date/Time created: Feb 13 2015 10:12:31:030PM
Nurse Beth Wilson came down with a debilitating illness and while she was bed-ridden
she viewed health care from a different perspective. PHIL SKINNER / AJC
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10 QUESTIONS
Is trauma nursing for you?
By Jon Waterhouse | For the AJC
Considering a career in
trauma nursing? Check out
the following questions, a few
vital signs gathered from
several experts in the field.
1
What do you expect from
a career in trauma nursing?
According to the folks at
DiscoverNursing.com, expect long and
odd hours. Patient injuries often prove
to be severe and not for the weak of
stomach. Past studies revealed that
more than one quarter of the trauma
patients at Grady had penetrating injuries.
Are you interested in total care?
Trauma nurses need to be wellrounded and have the ability to provide total care for each patient. Versatility is a must.
Do you prefer a fast-paced
workday?
While some opt for a profession that
remains routine each day or has a particular focus, trauma nurses get variety
at a non-stop pace. According to trauma nurse Dan Cunningham, “things
are constantly moving and changing.”
Trauma professionals must keep on
their toes and on the go.
Can you multi-task?
A sharp memory and the ability
to manage multiple responsibilities at
once remains vital in trauma nursing.
Working on several patients at once
will be a daily occurrence in the trauma center.
Do you enjoy
continuing to learn?
The industry encourages trauma nurses to acquire additional certifications
and continue their education while on
the job. “If you want to be a functioning nurse, and you want to take your
career seriously,” Cunningham said,
“you’re going to seek out more education.” Be willing to read up on the
field, including publications such as
“The Journal of Trauma Nursing,” published six times annually by the Society
of Trauma Nursing.
Do you have the ability to think
critically and remain calm in
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stressful situations?
Cunningham says trauma nurses basically need a certain disposition or personality to thrive in the environment.
“You can’t teach the critical thinking
that comes from nursing, especially
emergency nursing. Some people are
able to think critically and stay calm.
I’ve seen nurses that didn’t make it and
kind of washed out. It just wasn’t for
them. Other people come into this and
they shine, they enjoy it.”
Can you work well with others?
Working in a trauma center finds
nurses rubbing elbows with a variety
of specialists, from neurosurgeons to
orthopedists. Those who function as
team players rise to the top. Gina Solomon of Gwinnett Medical Center says
she strives to know what a respective
surgeon needs before he or she asks
for it.
Is it worth the pay?
According to SimplyHired.com,
the average salary for a registered
nurse in a level 1 trauma center in
America is $58,000. Although it varies depending on hospital, location
and experience, trauma nurses usually earn on the higher end of the RN
scale. According to some reports, trauma nurse salaries have been known to
reach heights of more than $120,000.
Do you have a good
bedside manner?
A trauma center patient goes through,
well, a highly traumatic experience.
You need to be able to communicate
well with patients who are alert. “Most
people don’t go out and say, ‘Hey, I’m
going to get into a motor vehicle crash
today.,’” said Solomon. “So there’s the
element of psychosocial issues that go
with it, too, that I like helping the patients and their families with.”
Can you assess things
properly and know
when to move along?
Cunningham says the most challenging
part of the job is working with people
who are convinced they’re severely ill,
but in reality they’re not. Often, he explains, this can lead to a lengthy argument or discussion. “It takes you away
from what you need to be doing and
need to be addressing,” he said. “You
know you need to be moving other
things faster. It’s very frustrating when
you get hung up with that.”
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Organizing recipes online? There’s an app for that
By Noelle Carter
Los Angeles Times
Online recipe organization. Maybe,
like me, you’re new to it. Even though
I work with recipes professionally, I’ve
been hesitant to go completely digital.
I’m used to working from books. Paper
is comforting to me.
So the other day, when I found I
couldn’t reach my desk at home — I’ve
collected a lot of cookbooks over the
years, along with files of family recipes
and clippings, storing everything in the
office — I had my “come to Jesus” moment. It was time to evolve.
A basic search of recipe apps and
programs will turn up a ton of options.
I spent the last week or so checking
with colleagues and friends, and researching a number of the more popular and highly rated apps and programs
on the market now.
The results were amazing. While
most options will allow you to “clip”
and save recipes found online, there
are a number that allow you to add
your own notes and photos, generate
grocery lists and even compile mealplanning calendars. At least one will
help you re-create your physical cookbook library online, and still others offer scanning and transcribing services
to help you save all those handwritten
recipes in the recipe box you inherited.
Below you’ll find several favorite apps and programs, including highlights
and special features. Remember that
these apps are constantly evolving and
may offer different features and prices.
Paprika
■ What it does: Intuitive and easyto-follow app for meal planning, recipe browsing, collection, creation and
management. Download recipes from
anywhere on the Web, and store them
on Paprika. In the kitchen, the app
helps you track your progress, allowing you to cross off ingredients and
highlight current steps; it also helps to
automatically scale ingredients and insert timers in steps. Paprika also includes a smart grocery list function to
pull ingredients from a chosen recipe
into a simple shopping list, along with
meal plans and calendar functions.
For holiday cooking, use the toolbar at
the bottom to check among multiple
recipes at once. Cloud Sync seamless-
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Big oven is a great beginner website when transitioning recipes to online. The library contains more than 250,000 recipes, and you
can also import your own. MCT
While most options will allow you to “clip”
and save recipes found online, there are a
number that allow you to add your own notes
and photos, generate grocery lists and even
compile meal-planning calendars.
ly synchronizes recipes, lists and meal
plans between devices.
■ In a nutshell: A great all-around
app, whether you’re new to this or not.
■ Platforms and price: iPhone,
iPad, Mac, Android, Kindle Fire, Nook
Color; $4.99.
Date/Time created: Feb 13 2015 10:12:44:006PM
Big oven
■ What it does: Another great beginner website when transitioning to
online. The library contains more than
250,000 recipes, and you can also import your own. Pro membership allows
for scanning, in which you photograph
Username: SPEEDDRIVER02
your recipes and they are transcribed
through OCR (optical character recognition) scanning and human deciphering; you can also enter recipes manually. Pro membership also includes Web
clipping, note adding and nutrition information.
■ In a nutshell: Don’t have the
time (or desire) to manually input your
mother’s handwritten recipes? Use the
transcription service.
■ Platforms and prices: Website,
iPhone, iPad, Android, Kindle Fire,
Nook, Windows Phone, Windows; free
for basic, $2.49 a month or $19.99 a
Recipes continued on 17
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Recipes
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year for Pro membership.
Eat your books
■ What it does: It’s your
personal online cookbook library. Use the website’s indexing tools to locate the cookbooks and magazines you already own, along with blogs
you follow to create an online
bookshelf, then use the website to quickly search for recipes — by name, ingredients,
occasion, food type, ethnicity, book title or author — when
you need them. Use the Bookmarklet to add any online recipe to your collection, and tag
books and recipes to organize
them. The website also includes a shopping list function
and a forum where you can
chat with other members and
see their ratings on books and
recipes.
■ In a nutshell: All my
cookbooks on my phone? I’ll
take it!
■ Platforms and prices: Website; free for up to five
books (and/or magazines and
blogs), $2.50 a month unlimited, $25 a year unlimited.
Pinterest
■ What it does: Intuitive
and easy-to-use visual tool for
collecting and storing various
interests, not limited to food.
The idea is to “pin” — or bookmark — these ideas (recipes,
foods, ingredients, etc.) to various “boards.” Boards can be
organized in any way, such
as generic “recipes,” holidayspecific courses and seasonal dishes and dietary needs.
Pin recipes from anywhere on
the Web to your boards, which
can either be private or publicly shared with other pinners.
■ In a nutshell: Pretty pictures galore. I’ve spent hours
at a time on Pinterest. I can
share with anyone, and it’s so
easy to “pin” new recipes and
ideas.
■ Platforms and price:
Website, iPhone, iPad, Windows, Android, Kindle, Nook;
free.
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Evernote food
■ What it does: A great
app for Evernote users that
lets you organize and document both recipe and restaurant information and experiences. The app links to a
number of recipe sites, and it
is easy to “clip” and save recipes, then record your meals
start to finish through photographs and notes. You can also save restaurants — whether
places you’ve been to or ones
you’d like to try — and use
your location to find restaurants nearby. For the “foodie”
who likes to document everything, it’s a great way to record all your food-related adventures.
■ In a nutshell: Recipe
organization and restaurant
guide all rolled into one.
■ Platforms and prices:
iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Android; free for the basic app,
premium is $5 a month or $45
a year.
MacGourmet,
MacGourmet Deluxe
■ What it does: Use it to
create, organize, edit and
share recipes. MacGourmet
also includes shopping lists
and note functions. Create
your own categories, and add
images and notes to customize recipes. Use the Potluck
feature to find recipes based
on ingredients you have on
hand. You can import or clip
recipes from other sites, and
you can scale servings as you
like. MacGourmet Deluxe includes a nutrition database.
The Mealplan feature generates shopping lists, menus
and related plans for any
meal. The Cookbook Builder allows you to create your
own look, including text, image and divider pages; a table of contents template; and
PDF options.
■ In a nutshell: I love the
idea of the cookbook option,
so I can create my own collections as gifts or for friends.
■ Platforms and prices:
Apple only; $24.99 (MacGourmet software), $49.95 (MacGourmet Deluxe software),
$3.99 for Gourmet (for iOS)
app for iPhone or iPad.
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HEALTHY COOKING
Apps can make meal
planning, cooking a snap
By Cindy Grace
For the AJC
When it comes to getting
a hot meal on the table, you
might be surprised to find that
the most useful tool in your
kitchen is your smart phone.
No, we’re not talking about
ordering take-out. We’re talking about apps for smart
phones and tablets that make
putting together wholesome
meals a breeze. Here are a few
of our top suggestions:
Cooking Planit
This app offers more than
800 chef tested recipes. The
recipe database is set up so
you can search it based on
type of cuisine, the main ingredient or the amount of time
the dish takes to prepare. You
can save your favorites with
the My Cookbook feature.
Cooking Planit also gives
meal pairings and many featured menus include seasonal
produce.
Once you’ve selected your
recipes, you can generate a
grocery list, set up a schedule
for advance meal planning or
tweak a meal to suit your personal tastes.
Finally, when it’s time to
start cooking, the cook mode
function takes you step-bystep through the recipe from
prep to final product.
Feel like bragging a little
bit? You can share your masterpieces through email, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.
You can find out more at
www.cookingplanit.com and
at the App Store and Google
Play.
Chef Tap
Love to collect recipes?
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Shopping for healthier foods gets easier with apps. CONTRIBUTED
Then this is the app for you.
Chef Tap allows you to easily grab recipes from favorite recipe websites like Epicurious and allrecipes.com
or from your favorite cooking blogs. You can also import
your own recipes.
Sync your app with the Chef
Tap website so you can manage recipes from your desktop
as well.
This app also allows you to
tweak and edit recipes and the
display options allow you to
adjust font size and view ingredients and cooking steps
side-by-side.
You can access your recipes
even without an internet connection and you can export to
a text or HTML file so you can
share when someone raves
about your cooking.
Find out more at
cheftap.com. An iOS version
is being planned but currently you can download the An-
droid App from Amazon and
Google Play.
EatingWell —
Healthy In A Hurry
This app can be used in conjunction with EatingWell Magazine and the EatingWell website.
The app contains 200 preloaded, easy-to-prepare recipes with full-color photos from the EatingWell Test
Kitchen.
You can search the recipe
database by course category,
individual ingredient, main ingredient and prep time.
The EatingWell website offers many more perks including meal plans with calorie
levels, videos, a blog and additional articles on diet and
health.
Find out more at
eatingwell.com The app is
available for iPhone, iPad and
Android.
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Get ready to know more about counting calories
By Kathleen Purvis
The Charlotte Observer
If you eat out a lot, get ready to
brush up on your math skills.
Calories are back. And you’re about
to see a lot more about them.
Under new regulations from the
Food & Drug Administration, restaurant chains and food services across
the country have to add calorie counts
to their menus by Nov. 1. That means
you’ll soon start to see calorie counts
on everything from your drive-through
sandwich to your popcorn at the movies.
Nutritionists and dietitians are hailing the news as the biggest step forward in healthful-eating information
since nutrition labels were added to
food packages in the early 1990s.
Dr. Beth Racine, an associate professor of public health services at UNC
Charlotte, calls it earth-shaking. “For
the food-information transparency
movement, it’s big.”
It’s also a huge amount of work that
has some companies scrambling to
comply. Under the FDA’s rules, restaurants with more than 20 locations will
have to add the information to their
menus, including drive-through displays.
That includes quick-service and sitdown restaurants, food delivery companies (yes, including pizza), entertainment venues such as movie theaters and bowling alleys, cafeterias,
convenience stores and many supermarket delis. Even prepared-food
vending machines may be included, if
the company that operates them has
more than 20 machines.
Joy Dubost, director of nutrition
for the National Restaurant Association, said they’re still evaluating what
the new rules, released in November
2014, will mean. But the group expects
that more than 1,600 chains and up to
300,000 restaurant locations nationwide will be affected.
“There’s a lot that has to be done,”
she says, from redesigning menus to
training staff in how they follow recipes. Even small changes can change
the number of calories.
And while single-location restaurants and small food businesses don’t
have to add the information, they may
find themselves under pressure to do
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QUIZ: GUESS WHICH ONE
IS HIGHER IN CALORIES?
1
Just Fresh Raspberry Fields Salad
(mixed greens, blue cheese crumbles,
walnuts, carrots, raisins and fat-free
raspberry vinaigrette): 544 calories.
Wendy’s Apple Pecan Chicken Salad
(lettuce, grilled chicken, blue cheese
crumbles, pecans and pomegranate
vinaigrette): 590 calories.
Olive Garden bread stick with garlicbutter spread: 140 calories.
Red Lobster Cheddar Bay biscuit: 160
calories.
Burger King Whopper With Cheese
(with mayonnaise): 730 calories.
Jack in the Box Jumbo Jack With Cheese:
570 calories.
2
3
DIEDRA LAIRD / CHARLOTTE OBSERVER
4
Dunkin’Donuts Plain Glazed
Doughnut (not cake): 260 calories.
Krispy Kreme Original Glazed: 190
calories.
Chipotle Sofritas (tofu) Burrito
(with white rice, black beans,
roasted corn salsa, lettuce and cheese):
935 calories.
Subway 6-inch Chicken and Bacon
Ranch Melt (on nine-grain wheat
bread with lettuce, tomatoes, onions,
green peppers and cucumbers): 570
calories.
5
6
Sources: Company nutrition information,
My Fitness Pal and www.nutritionix.com
it as customers start expecting to see
more.
Displaying calories also may put
pressure on big companies to offer
Date/Time created: Feb 13 2015 10:12:49:770PM
HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW A CALORIE?
What is a calorie?
It’s the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 kilogram of water by
1 degree Celsius. The word“calor”is Latin for heat. Nicolas Clement defined a calorie as a
unit of heat in 1824.
What does that mean?
Calories come from plants or from animals that have eaten plants. Chlorophyll in plants
absorbs energy from the sun and converts it to chemical energy. A calorie represents the
amount of energy available to your muscle cells when you eat carbohydrates created by
plants from carbon dioxide and water by capturing the energy of the sun.
What’s the trick?
Our bodies aren’t that efficient. We don’t consume or use all the calories we take in. Some
are eliminated as waste and some are stored. If a lot are stored, they get converted into
fat.
Are all calories alike?
While they are the same in theory, calories from foods that are higher in nutrients and
fiber are used differently by your body than calories from foods that are higher in fat and
sugar. A food that is higher in calories but provides more vitamins, nutrients and dietary
fiber is better for you than a food that is lower in calories but has more sodium, fat or
sugar or less fiber.
How are calories measured? Two ways:
With a calorimeter: Food is placed under a sealed container of water and set on fire,
usually with an electric charge. After the food is burned up, the water temperature is
measured to see how many degrees it was raised and calculate how much energy was
released by the burning food.
Atwater Values: After nutrition labels were added to products in 1990, a USDA scientist
named Wilbur Atwater came up with a simpler formula to calculate calories. Proteins and
carbohydrates each have 4 calories per gram and fats have 9 calories per gram.
How many calories do you need?
Nutrition labels are based on 2,000 calories a day. But that’s the number needed by an
active male. Women, children, smaller men and sedentary people need fewer. A 35-yearold woman who is 5-foot-6 and weighs 130 pounds and is lightly active 2 or 3 times a
week needs 1,789 calories a day. Here’s a calculator that can help you check your needs:
www.calculator.net.
more food that is lower in calories,
says Racine.
“If Starbucks puts something in
the window and it has 500 calories,
they might be embarrassed, so maybe they’ll change it. They’re motivated
to make improvements, which I think
would be the best outcome. Even if (a
consumer) doesn’t care, they’re still
benefiting.”
While the restaurant business figures it all out, how do you use this new
information? That’s where your math
skills come in, says Marion Nestle, a
professor at New York University who
writes frequently about nutrition news.
Seeing numbers is only the first step,
she says.
“Customers have to view the information, understand it and act on it before it will do any good,” she says.
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To use the calorie information well,
you have to know how that number
fits into your daily diet. While 2,000
calories a day is a ballpark figure,
that’s based on the needs of an average-size, active man. Your own calorie
needs vary based on your age, gender,
weight, height and physical activity.
A medium-height, middle-aged
woman who’s trying to lose weight, for
instance, may only need 1,600 calories
a day. So she’ll want something that
has less than 500 calories for lunch if
she expects to have a snack later.
“Menu labeling has a big effect on
my choices,” Nestle said by email. “If
people pay attention to the labeling, it
could help them realize the one thing
about calories that I wish everyone understood: Larger portions have more
calories.”
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