placenta does not belong in your hair

29th March 2009

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If New Graduates Went to the Community First

An excerpt from ‘Ninth Street Notebook’ by Veneta Masson, questioning the ingrained-doctrine of working on a hospital medical-surgical unit after nursing school.

“Have you ever thought what would happen to hospitals if new graduates went to the community first? Perhaps that is the question we should be asking ourselves as a profession. Without doubt, hospital are a world apart. For a nurse whose only experience is in the hospital, the larger world of health care is hard to envision. How can you think in terms of wellness when you see only sick people? How can you look at patients holistically when you do not have a  clear idea where they came from, who they were before they got sick, and what is likely to become of them after they leave the hospital?

I may have been exceptionally naive as a new graduate working in the hospital, but I still remember my surprise when I got into patients’ homes and found that they do not always fill their prescriptions or take the ones they have filled; that most people on special diets do not follow them for very long after discharge; that patients often do not know their physicians prior to hospitalization or understand a fraction of what has been done to them during their hospital stay (including what kind of surgery they had); that discharge plans frequently fall through; that health is not necessarily a priority when weighed against children’s school expenses, auto repairs, convenience foods, or “the way I’ve always done things.” “