What a thought-provoking video. I often imagine being a nurse back in Florence Nightingale‘s day where there was little to no documentation. What would nursing look like if we spent 100% of our time with the patient. The importance of notating care proves very useful to other practitioners taking care of the patient but what a novel idea to have a secretary or more secretaries than we currently have to assist nurses with the monotonous paperwork. David hit it on the head when he said that secretaries need not be nurses. There are sufficient helpers that can help with secretarial duties such as nursing students and volunteers. Similarly, how medical providers have scribes why can’t nurses too have scribes of their own?

I enjoyed listening and thinking about the perspectives offered in this video. As a new nurse (1 year of experience), I had quite a shock when I started working and saw just how much responsibility the nurse has for the well being of multiple patients. Most people think that it is the MD’s that do all of the patient care but it could not be any more opposite. The nurse is the one who spends 12 hour shifts at the bedside with the patient actually delivering patient care! With that being said, there have been many instances when time could have and should have been better spent at the bedside with patients instead of completing administrative duties. I think that it would be extremely helpful to have an administrative assistant in order to help ease the burden on nurses and allow them to have more time to spend performing hands on patient care. Due to nurses being so busy and always short staffed, shortcuts are being taken and that is how mistakes happen. Even though I find the idea of assistants to be phenomenal, I sadly do not ever see it happening in the near future. I think it would cost the employer too much money and I think that is unfortunately what has the final word.

I also enjoyed gaining a new perspective on how to eliminate the nursing shortages that COVID-19 has caused. The video offered the idea of bringing retired nurses back to the bedside, accelerating graduation of senior nursing students, and hiring international nurses. The video mentioned that hiring international nurses should be avoided because that means that other countries are losing much needed nurses. I never saw this as an issue when thinking about this solution before but it is true! Nurses are needed in every country. Bringing retired nurses back to the bedside and using senior nursing students might not be the best solutions either. Retired nurses might have forgotten some of their skills or not be aware of up to date practices. Senior nursing students haven’t even begun to start actually practicing their skills in a live workplace and doing so under the stress of a national pandemic might be difficult, especially with the level of patient care that COVID-19 patients require. I feel like these options might actually put patients at risk instead of benefit them. However, these individuals and medical assistants alike can help with administrative duties and allow the nurse to spend more time at the bedside. I also found it interesting that this idea has been implemented before by Lydia Hall in the 1960’s. It shows that nurses have been feeling like they need additional support in order to accurately complete their nursing duties for a while now.

The last issue that sparked my interest in this video was the issue of TV shows stereotyping the work of a nurse. TV shows like Grey’s Anatomy do tend to depict nurses as helpers that only do work in the background. This is quite irritating because nurses are just so amazing and do such amazing work for their patients every shift. The author of the video did mention that there are shows out there that do pay tribute to the work of a nurse such as Call the Midwife. I have personally seen this show and it is amazing. I highly recommend it! Thanks for reading. I enjoyed this forum.

The video provides a great argument for finding solutions to solve the nursing shortage and reduce nursing overwork. The nurse’s role is always changing, and more and more tasks and responsibilities are placed upon the nurses. Throughout the years, a significant amount of administrative, such as audits, reviews, and evaluations, have been given to the nurse to be implemented as part of their daily routine. The COVID 19 pandemic revealed some of the areas for improvement and new practices that can be implemented. The idea of given the nurse a secretary is not far-fetched. However, revising and reevaluating some of the policies, practices, regulations, and requirements can help reduce nursing overwork, reduce turnover, and retain experienced nurses. Documentation was one of the reviewed tasks, and leaders implemented alternatives to manage the surge of patients. Before assigning this task to another healthcare team member, revision of the documentation requirement, revision of workflows, and maximizing the use of technological tools can give the best gift, the gift of time. Unfortunately, many organizations have not maximized the use of technological tools to perform tasks such as audits and tracers.
Some of the alternatives presented in the video to manage the ever-growing nursing shortage, preventing nurse turnover, could effectively decrease the nursing shortage. The incorporation of internship during the academic preparation of the nurse can be beneficial in reducing the post-graduation training, helping the nurses’ growth in their careers as clinicians.
The nurse’s role has evolved and continues to evolve, requiring new solutions to the unique problems of the profession.

There has always been a shortage of nurses, this pandemic definitely made that problem even worse. Yes, we were running out of space and ventilators, but the shortage of nurses is nothing new. But this video was right, we cannot fix that problem with ventilators. I used to work in the medical ICU and I can tell you first hand that a lot goes into taking care of critical patients. I did not work in the ICU during COVID, but I commend the nurses that did. I am definitely open to the idea of using medical assistants as efficiently as possible. I also definitely agree physicians should be more familiar with nursing tasks, most physicians don’t know how to start an IV or even prime and connect a bolus to that IV. No one should be above any type of work, we need to foster a relationship and teamwork with healthcare professionals. These times are hard for everyone in the medical field, I do feel like nurses deserve more recognition for all that they do.