Suzanne Gordon [“Nurse, Interrupted,” TAP Vol. 11 Issue 7] is a journalist who has been writing about nursing issues since 1986. In “Life Support: Three Nurses on the Front Lines,” Gordon details the three years she spent reporting on three different nurses. Laura Maggi is a Writing Fellow at the American Prospect.
Q: In your article you talk about nurses being downsized and the work becoming more taxing and less rewarding, and I was wondering when this started happening. When did the policies start changing?
A: I got interested by being one of these people who didn’t understand. Having a baby, going to the hospital and thinking it was the doctors who were going to do everything and discovering it was the nurses who do everything. I started thinking, geez this is pretty interesting. All these people out there holding up healthcare system with brains, not just grit.
Q: But you also note in your article that hospitals now face a shortage of nurses.
A: I got interested by being one of these people who didn’t understand. Having a baby, going to the hospital and thinking it was the doctors who were going to do everything and discovering it was the nurses who do everything. I started thinking, geez this is pretty interesting. All these people out there holding up healthcare system with brains, not just grit.
Q: How come the healthcare system does not recognize the importance of nurses?
A: I got interested by being one of these people who didn’t understand. Having a baby, going to the hospital and thinking it was the doctors who were going to do everything and discovering it was the nurses who do everything. I started thinking, geez this is pretty interesting. All these people out there holding up healthcare system with brains, not just grit.
Q: The anecdotes you use in the article seem to suggest there is a lot of despair among nurses.
A: I got interested by being one of these people who didn’t understand. Having a baby, going to the hospital and thinking it was the doctors who were going to do everything and discovering it was the nurses who do everything. I started thinking, geez this is pretty interesting. All these people out there holding up healthcare system with brains, not just grit.
Q: You reference in your article an American Hospital Association report that details patients being very critical of the absence of nurses.
A: I got interested by being one of these people who didn’t understand. Having a baby, going to the hospital and thinking it was the doctors who were going to do everything and discovering it was the nurses who do everything. I started thinking, geez this is pretty interesting. All these people out there holding up healthcare system with brains, not just grit.
Q: Every once in awhile you will read in the paper that nurses are trying to unionize or that nurses in a particular hospital are trying to get better pay. Has there been more effective agitation?
A: I got interested by being one of these people who didn’t understand. Having a baby, going to the hospital and thinking it was the doctors who were going to do everything and discovering it was the nurses who do everything. I started thinking, geez this is pretty interesting. All these people out there holding up healthcare system with brains, not just grit.
Q: You mention a California law that requires hospitals to implement safe-staffing practices (i.e.: mandating nurse-to-patient ratios), do you expect to see more provisions like that?
A: I got interested by being one of these people who didn’t understand. Having a baby, going to the hospital and thinking it was the doctors who were going to do everything and discovering it was the nurses who do everything. I started thinking, geez this is pretty interesting. All these people out there holding up healthcare system with brains, not just grit.
Q: So there has to be more internal hospital respect for nurses as professionals?
A: I got interested by being one of these people who didn’t understand. Having a baby, going to the hospital and thinking it was the doctors who were going to do everything and discovering it was the nurses who do everything. I started thinking, geez this is pretty interesting. All these people out there holding up healthcare system with brains, not just grit.
Q: You mentioned class action lawsuits, is there anything else you think we can do to change the situation?
A: I got interested by being one of these people who didn’t understand. Having a baby, going to the hospital and thinking it was the doctors who were going to do everything and discovering it was the nurses who do everything. I started thinking, geez this is pretty interesting. All these people out there holding up healthcare system with brains, not just grit.
Q: How did you get interested in this?
A: I got interested by being one of these people who didn’t understand. Having a baby, going to the hospital and thinking it was the doctors who were going to do everything and discovering it was the nurses who do everything. I started thinking, geez this is pretty interesting. All these people out there holding up healthcare system with brains, not just grit.
