Nursing: Who Stays, Why You Go

UPDATE 11.29.11:  Whistleblower wrongs change culture -

Whistleblowing Nurses Case Highlights Need for More Open Quality of Care Culture

The article linked above is part of a series.  The core issue is retaliation.  Retaliation is specifically what I endured and it is still on-going as is the extreme effort to maintain the cover up.  There has been NO investigation of my claim for starters.  Why does WA DOH wish to protect people who make false claims and engage in insurance fraud as well as crete an environment that is unsafe for patients? 


UPDATE 9.29.11:  I have recently learned that that an "investigator" with WA DOH, and WA DOH, are defendants in a federal civil rights litigation.  Dwight Correll, an employee of WA DOH, is one of the people who relied on false information about me and moved to carry it forward.  He ignored the fact that I prevailed in two cases involving the people who made the false complaint to him.  He put me in a situation that is equal to reckless endangerment, and was involved in fraud as well. He never investigated.  He relied only on the false statements and never inquired as to the facts. The kangaroo attack he created has now boomeranged back on him. I just wonder how many others have been harmed by this man.


9.28.11


I have been hearing about the shortage in nursing since the 60s when I started in this profession.  I have a college degree with honors in nursing and have completed graduate education as well as specialized education as a nurse practitioner (NP). I have also been an educator, an administrator, and a consultant in this arena.


I basically left nursing after a patient-caused injury in 1993.  I have not, however, left my focus on public health, and especially natural public health.


Why I find nursing a difficult profession would take up many pages, but I'd say for the purpose of the article that it is the nursing profession itself that left me puzzled.


I know the games hospital administrators play with nursing personnel.  They do not have to do this but it never fails that administrators always cut nurses when they have to tighten their belts.


Always, patient care suffers.

Predictors of Registered Nurses' Willingness to Remain in Nursing
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/746222?src=mp&spon=17

My experience with the nursing system basically showed me what kind of underhanded actions take place in the political confines of so called Quality Assurance Boards.


First I have to note that in this experience it was the Washington State DOH/QA office that acted against me based on a false claim by a nurse who was involved in insurance fraud and patient safety violations.  Yes, I was a whistle blower.


The state concocted an amazing pile of paper alleging all kinds of things in their attack against me. They did this to protect the wrongdoer who was a WSNA insider and UW grad.  How politically cozy was this?  Very!


Oddly my documentation was ignored by the state.  The then "executive" in this office, Patti Hayes, was provided with the proof yet she withheld it from  hearing officials.   This was documented through an investigation by my state representative.


Other irregularities were present too.  A member of the first hearing panel, an RN, appeared in the second panel I had to go to as a "Public Lay Member".  


How's this for conflict of interest and bias? It is all in the testimony I gave because the hearing "judge" denied me the right to provide evidence.  That's the same evidence that Patti Hayes received before the hearing.


Before I filed appeals even the AG representing the state stood up to the panel on my behalf.


The panel further retaliated by ignoring him and the factual evidence.


Of course I appealed.  And I pointed out too that I had filed under the WA Whistle blower Act, but was denied this protection.  Yet, as I later found out, the QA panel gave this protection to the person who filed the false complaint.


While there is more to this egregious abuse of process along with obstruction of justice and denial of due process rights, I had other support.


While the WA Medicaid fraud unit refused to take my complaint about this facility it so happened that DOJ was prosecuting them for insurance fraud in 10 other states.


I quickly gathered my evidence and went on a visit to the Region X inspector general for Health and Human Services. 


My evidence was verified not only by the OIG but several other law enforcement professionals, elected officials and an investigative reporter.  One funny thing was the fact that when the reporter contacted the QA office he was told all my records were lost.  I was told they were "archived".


Funny how this goes.


Eventually the state failed to reply to a second appeal I filed for cause, and in a timely manner.  On the advice of a friend who is a highly regarded attorney in Washington state, I filed a motion and order for default along with some additional action required of the state to correct their wrongful action.


Usually when in legal matters a challenged party will fail to reply, or default, when they know they have no grounds and their actions were false from the beginning.


Well, I prevailed but would you guess, the QA crowd failed.


The short of it is that with this level of integrity, if you can even call it that, why would you want to remain in the field?


I'm writing a more in depth story about this adventure, thinking I will call it "Nasty Nurse", but for now something else is on the burner.


An attorney or two, and another legislator, have are supporting my recent petition to the current Attorney General. I have requested he call a halt to the recent harassment I have received from this same crowd.  Added to this is a request that he remind the QA office of their lack of follow through on that default order.


The current AG wants to be governor and is running for this office in the 2012 election.


We'll see how it goes.


Just my words for the wise...  

Help Prevent Colon Cancer: Hope for Whole Health

Natural Health News has at least 20 posts related to vitamins and other help that is protective for colon cancer.

Now another article relives us from the negative hype about vitamin supplements and cancer that you have heard now for at least a decade.

Selenium, Omega-3s May Stave Off Colorectal Cancer

HealthDay Reporter by Jennifer Thomas
TUESDAY, Dec. 8 (HealthDay News) -- Certain dietary supplements appear to affect the development of colorectal cancer or its recurrence, two new studies suggest.

In one study, researchers from the U.S. National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences found that eating a diet high in omega-3 fatty acids cut the risk of developing colorectal cancer by nearly 40 percent. In the other study, from cancer researchers in Italy, consumption of a dietary supplement containing selenium was found to reduce the chances of having polyps recur by a similar amount.

Both studies were to be presented Dec. 7 in Houston at a conference on cancer prevention sponsored by the American Association for Cancer Research.

In the selenium study, 411 people, 25 to 75 years old, who'd had one or more colorectal polyps removed took either a supplement or a placebo. The supplement, described as an antioxidant compound, contained 200 micrograms of selenomethionnine (a combination of selenium and methionnine - Our Note: This is the best form of selenium according to the most currant science), 30 milligrams of zinc, 6,000 international units of vitamin A, 180 milligrams of vitamin C and 30 milligrams of vitamin E.

Participants had a colonoscopy one year, three years and five years after starting the regimen.

Polyps recurred in 4.2 percent of those taking the supplement, compared with 7.2 percent of the placebo group. Overall, the study found, people taking the supplement had about a 40 percent reduction in risk for a return of polyps.

The researchers estimated that, after 15 years, about 48 percent of those taking the supplement would still be free of polyps, versus about 30 percent of those not taking the supplement.

Polyps, or adenoma, are benign growths on the large bowel. Though only a small proportion progress to become cancer, about 70 to 80 percent of colorectal cancer cases begin as polyps, according to the American Association for Cancer Research. About one in four people, most older than 60, will have at least one adenoma.

Selenium is found in soil (Our Note: Western US states bordering Canada are known to be severely low in selenium and as such has a negative impact on thyroid function.), and human consumption comes by eating plants that have absorbed the nutrient or fish or animals that have eaten plants as part of their diet. "The content of selenium in the food depends on the soil content of this trace element, and in the same country there are areas at high, adequate or low content of selenium in the soil," said the study's lead author, Dr. Luigina Bonelli, head of the unit of secondary prevention and screening at the National Institute for Cancer Research in Genoa, Italy.

Earlier research had suggested that selenium can inhibit cell proliferation in the colon and rectum, Bonelli said.

Michele Forman, a professor of epidemiology at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, said that, though the findings are interesting, it's impossible to tell if the benefit was attributable to the selenium or to the other vitamins and minerals included in the supplement.

"You really don't know if it's the selenium or some combination that reduces risk of recurrence," Forman said.

In addition, the daily dosages of vitamins A and E taken by the participants were higher than the recommended daily allowances, Forman added. High levels of such vitamins can be detrimental, she said. (Our note: Not all supplements at high dose levels are harmful.)

In the omega-3 study, U.S. researchers surveyed 1,509 whites and 369 blacks about their dietary habits in the past year. About half of the participants had colorectal cancer.

Among the white participants, those whose diets were in the highest fourth of omega-3 fatty acid consumption were 39 percent less likely to have colorectal cancer than those in the lowest fourth. However, for reasons the authors said they did not know, no association was noted between omega-3s and a reduction of colorectal cancer risk among black participants. The disease occurs at a higher rate among blacks than whites.

"Our finding clearly supports the evidence from previous experimental and clinical studies showing that long-chain omega-3 fatty acids inhibit tumor growth," said the study's lead author, Sangmi Kim, a postdoctoral fellow at the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park, N.C.

Kim said the research supports boosting omega-3 intake through diet or perhaps by taking an omega-3 supplement. Omega-3 fatty acids are found in fish, especially oily fish such as salmon, mackerel, herring, anchovies, sardines and tuna. Plant-based sources include flax and flaxseed oil, Brussels sprouts, soybeans and (soybean oil, canola oil - NOTE: We suggest you avoide both these oils), spinach, walnuts and kiwi.

Previous studies have suggested that omega-3 fatty acids act as anti-inflammatory agents and help prevent cancer. But in the new study, Forman noted, participants were asked about their diets after they had been diagnosed with colorectal cancer so it's possible that their recollections were not fully accurate.

In addition, she said, it's possible that the benefit was not the result of omega-3s. Those who ate more fish might have had a healthier diet overall, she said.

"Were they eating a salmon-and-broccoli diet or a hamburger-and-french-fry diet?" Forman asked. "We don't know enough to say that it's truly the effect of the omega-3s."

Our Note:  We beleive that the dose levels in the supplement mentioned in this areticle is well below therapeutic levels.

While I am not an institutionalized thinker, I am in support of those who have tried to help make more people aware of the role of nursing, probably a truly wholistic profession on its own. I would like to see the same support from the organizationally based groups to the work we do.

I will say however that I support this comment from the AHNA:

The American Holistic Nurses Association (AHNA) has formally requested that US Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) not move to re-name the NIH National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) the "National Center for Integrative Medicine." Harkin brought up the idea of the name change in public comments surrounding the Institute of Medicine Summit in February of this year. In a letter co-signed by 23 other nursing organizations, the AHNA wrote:
"There are so many in this country who enthusiastically support a vision to put integrative health care at the heart of national health reform. However, to facilitate this vision; to reinforce a more inclusive, representative, and collaborative partnering of every health and health-related profession and constituency; and to recognize and maximize the valuable contributions of all, we would like to suggest the renaming of the National Center for Complementary and Alterative Medicine to the National Center for Integrative Health and Healthcare. In transforming the health care paradigm, a shift in language can be a critical influence in supporting and adopting that change. The use of Integrative Health and Healthcare focuses on people’s health and well-being, rather than on a specific profession, and broadens the array of disciplines involved in promoting it."

As of this writing, Harkin had not formally responded to the nurses nor had an Integrator query to Harkin's staff elicited a response.

I do not support the use of the terms "integrative" or "complementary" in regard to health care.  I believe this promotes more separation from what used to be quite common, the "team" approach. And I believe it further sets up barriers to health and limits access both for providers but for patients.

In the classes I taught in the Pueget Sound area for so many years, always, in my discussion of vitamin E, its protective benefit for colon cancer was always noted.
See "Vitamins Enhance Chemotherapy" from leaflady.org