<p>Beth Israel was an international benchmark hospital which many saw as setting the nursing standards to be achieved elsewhere. This account of its recent history carries important messages about the domination of economics over the need for nursing care, the fragility of even the best nursing leadership during amalgamations, and the ease with which a reputation can be lost.</p>

- Tom Keighley, Nursing Management

<p>Hospital restructuring has fundamentally changed nurses' work and the very meaning of nursing. It has overlooked the therapeutic value of the nurse-patient relationship and the importance of 'knowing the patient.' Is it any wonder, then, that so many nurses are leaving the profession because of frustration and disillusionment? In the end, this hurts nurses as well as patients, physicians, and hospitals. Weinberg concludes that when designers draw up cost-effective plans for hospital restructuring, they must thoughtfully include nurses in their planning. The author is to be congratulated on bringing this important topic into view.</p>

- Barbara Mann Wall, Health Affairs

<p>Hospitals frequently devise a system of color codes to convey a message to their personnel succinctly and exclusively. Weinberg chooses 'code green' to refer to the financial crisis that hospitals are facing today, the ensuing trend to merge hospitals, and its implications for the nursing profession.... This thought-provoking book gives a uniquely personal perspective. It is suitable for specialized healthcare collections in academic, larger public, and medical libraries.</p>

Library Journal

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<p>In this thorough investigation into how the nursing profession has changed radically over the last decade, Weinberg cites hospital consolidation and 1997's Balanced Budget Act, which brought cuts to Medicare payments and severely affected hospitals' bottom line, as keys to the problem. The Brandeis University research associate uses the merger of Boston's prestigious Beth Israel Hospital with New England Deaconess as an example of how fiscal problems and consolidation are responsible for the growing shortage of nurses and rampant dissatisfaction in the field.... Weinberg's analysis will be important to medical professionals and hospital administrators.</p>

Publishers Weekly

<p>The author scrutinizes how and why hospitals, in the era of profit-driven health care, routinely exploit qualities such as empathy, dedication, and professionalism in nurses. Using human science research, she illustrates how nurses really are 'ripe for exploitation,' in part because we internalize responsibility for patient care, patient safety and the caring-healing process.</p>

- Virginia Gillispie, Denver's Nursing Star

<p>Weinberg provides an incredible account of her observations of the state of nursing at the newly merged Beth Israel-Deaconess Medical Center. Her goal was 'to find out why the nurses are crying.' Each chapter thoroughly examines current issues faced by the professional nursing staff as seen through their eyes. These issues are similar to those faced by nurses nationally as financial goals take precedence to quality patient care.... An excellent account of challenges faced by nurses today. <b>Summing Up</b>: Essential.</p>

Choice

<p>Weinberg's book is a powerful description of the issues facing both nurses and hospitals at a time when the entire health care industry is concerned with a growing shortage of nurses. Her portrayal of the impediments faced by nurses in their efforts to continue to provide quality patient care are well-documented, and, in many instances, frightening. The book makes clear nurses' contributions to patient safety and quality-even if the nurses themselves were unable to do so.</p>

- Barbara A. Mark, Ph.D., RN, A, Journal of the American Medical Association

We are on the verge of the nation's worst nursing shortage in history. Dedicated nurses are leaving hospitals in droves, and there are not enough new recruits to the profession to meet demand. Even hospitals that were once very highly regarded for the quality of their nursing care, such as Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, now struggle to fill vacant positions. What happened? Dana Beth Weinberg argues that hospital restructuring in the 1990s is to blame. In their attempts to retain profit margins or even just to stay afloat, hospitals adopted a common set of practices to cut costs and increase revenues. Many strategies squeezed greater productivity out of nurses and other hospital workers. Nurses' workloads increased to the point that even the most skilled nurses questioned whether they could provide minimal, safe care to patients. As hospitals hemorrhaged money, it seemed that no one—not hospital administrators, not doctors—felt they could afford to listen to nurses. Through a careful look at the effects of the restructuring strategies chosen and implemented by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, the author examines management's efforts to balance service and survival. By showing the effects of hospital restructuring on nurses' ability to plan, evaluate, and deliver excellent care, Weinberg provides a stinging indictment of standard industry practices that underestimate the contribution nurses make both to hospitals and to patient care.
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We are on the verge of the nation's worst nursing shortage in history. Dedicated nurses are leaving hospitals in droves, and there are not enough new recruits to the profession to meet demand. Even hospitals that were once very highly regarded for the...
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Dana Beth Weinberg provides a compelling account of the dismantling of one of the few hospitals in America that specialized in care. This is a 'must read' for all who seek to understand the nurse shortage.
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A series edited by Suzanne Gordon and Sioban Nelson
The Culture and Politics of Health Care Work explores the historical, social, political, and economic forces that shape health care work and organizations. Focusing on the work of professional and nonprofessional staff as well as family caregivers, the series illuminates how the culture of health care work affects the structuring of health policy and practice. In an increasingly global marketplace, the series also seeks to better understand the international context within which all health systems function. Looking at health policy and the health professions from a variety of perspectives, including first-person accounts, the series is aimed at a wide audience including those who work in health care, academics, policy makers, and professional organizations, as well as general readers. Proposals and inquiries about the series should be sent to Suzanne Gordon (lsupport@comcast.net) or Sioban Nelson (dean.nursing@utoronto.ca) Series Editors Suzanne Gordon is an award-winning journalist whose work focuses on the health care work force, political culture, and women's issues. She is author of Life Support:Three Nurses on the Front Lines and Nursing against the Odds: How Health Care Cost Cutting, Media Stereotypes, and Medical Hubris Undermine Nurses and Patient Care, coauthor of Safety in Numbers:Nurse-to-Patient Ratios and the Future of Health Care and From Silence to Voice: What Nurses Know and Must Communicate to the Public, editor of When Chicken Soup Isn't Enough: Stories of Nurses Standing Up for Themselves, Their Patients, and Their Profession, and coeditor (with Sioban Nelson) of The Complexities of Care: Nursing Reconsidered. Sioban Nelson is Dean and Professor at the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing at the University of Toronto. Her books include, as coeditor, The Complexities of Care: Nursing Reconsidered and Notes on Nightingale: The Influence and Legacy of a Nursing Icon.
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Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9780801489198
Publisert
2003
Utgiver
Vendor
ILR Press
Vekt
454 gr
Høyde
216 mm
Bredde
140 mm
Dybde
18 mm
Aldersnivå
01, G, 01
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet

Forfatter
Foreword by

Biographical note

Dana Beth Weinberg is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Queens College. Suzanne Gordon is an award-winning journalist, author of Life Support: Three Nurses on the Front Lines, and coauthor of From Silence to Voice, also from Cornell.