Halloween Safety for PAs, NPs & Nurses: Protecting Patients and Families

My next holiday article focuses on Thanksgiving. In carving this turkey, I am thinking about authentic gratitude for more than a million healthcare workers, as well as all our collaborating clinicians. I want our readership, as well as the general readership on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook, to recognize why these dedicated healthcare professionals desperately need our appreciation for their involvement in our exams and surgeries, for being the first responders during epidemics, and for risking their lives to serve the US population. In addition, I want these excellent professionals to remember who we need to thank: those who help us fulfill our responsibilities with concern, dedication, empathy, and excellent skill sets. What do we and our patients have to be thankful for?

I think we can thank a higher power for protecting us as we examine, take a history, and get right up close to look at throats, nasal passages, and ears, palpate the neck, and look for enlarged glands or a thyroid problem. In either case, we are six inches from your neck and above, and even if we are wearing a mask, which is far from perfect protection against the viruses that are so prevalent today. This takes courage on our part as medical providers and should impress upon them that, for the 50 patients we may examine today, we are at risk of infection. In addition to divine protection, we need to be thankful or hopeful that our employers have requested the best protective equipment and lots of it.

We need to be thankful that we are lubricated with WD-40: good nutrition, proper rest, time for dinner with our families, and sleep, which is so necessary to recharge our brain cells and escape the reality of the outcomes of some of our patients’ diseases. The stranger on the street has no idea how difficult it is to give a diagnosis that can change this person’s life—and their family’s—forever. I always think of the offspring when I am sharing a message that has these effects on this patient. It would be nice if our employers also thought of these things. I have had to be in a position where I needed more manpower during epidemics, mass casualties, or when one of our professionals was sick. Everyone gets short-changed because there is no quantitative accounting for the difficulties this will cause for dedicated employees. Administration, take notice, we need you to strive to protect your clinicians, nurses, and PAs and NPs. We have an expiration date, and forcing us to work insane hours under poor conditions will cause burnout, sickness, and premature retirement.

Time is precious. Once a minute passes, it can never be reclaimed. We all have the same amount of time in a day; the question is, how will we use that time? Most people today are either too busy or not busy enough. This syndrome is a causative factor in our health, whether we are a patient or a medical professional. Every day has exactly 1,440 minutes; how much time do you require to be with your spouse or significant other, and how much time do you need to be with your children? How much time do you need for yourself and your sanity? We forgot that we need to be involved in this self-examination, because all those patients and families will be the losers if we are unable to perform our function well. Because truth is unpopular does not mean that it should not be proclaimed. To have a wonderful workplace, we need an attitude of thankfulness. I am always thankful for my counterparts, all of the nurses on our team, having a personal liability insurance company that provides me with reassurance that they will help me to discover answers to questions and have my six if the factors concerning my job description are affected by forced additional hours or faulty equipment. Yes, I am thankful for all these things.

We are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses from the past, who have walked our paths and have survived their journey. We continue to need each other, share our suggestions, and remember that we have the awesome responsibility of passing them on to the next generation. I thank every nurse who has given me a suggestion, every physician who taught me clinically and made me more than competent, and every researcher who shares their engaging stories and research with us. I am also aware and grateful that I have had the same malpractice company for more than twenty-five years, and they provide peace, comfort, and security for all their clients. Stay aware, do your research, be knowledgeable concerning your time needs for all those things I mentioned, and be thankful that we are called to heal the sick and broken-hearted.