Nursing against the Odds: How Health Care Cost Cutting, Media Stereotypes, and Medical Hubris Undermine Nurses and Patient Care (The Culture and Politics of Health Care Work) - Hardcover

Gordon, Suzanne

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0801439760 ISBN 13: 9780801439766

Publisher: ILR Press, 2005

Synopsis

In the United States and throughout the industrialized world, just as the population of older and sicker patients is about to explode, we have a major shortage of nurses. Why are so many RNs dropping out of health care's largest profession? How will the lack of skilled, experienced caregivers affect patients? These are some of the questions addressed by Suzanne Gordon's definitive account of the world's nursing crisis. In Nursing against the Odds, one of North America's leading health care journalists draws on in-depth interviews, research studies, and extensive firsthand reporting to help readers better understand the myriad causes of and possible solutions to the current crisis.

Gordon examines how health care cost cutting and hospital restructuring undermine the working conditions necessary for quality care. She shows how the historically troubled workplace relationships between RNs and physicians become even more dysfunctional in modern hospitals. In Gordon's view, the public image of nurses continues to suffer from negative media stereotyping in medical shows on television and from shoddy press coverage of the important role RNs play in the delivery of health care.

Gordon also identifies the class and status divisions within the profession that hinder a much-needed defense of bedside nursing. She explains why some policy panaceas―hiring more temporary workers, importing RNs from less-developed countries―fail to address the forces that drive nurses out of their workplaces. To promote better care, Gordon calls for a broad agenda that includes safer staffing, improved scheduling, and other policy changes that would give nurses a greater voice at work. She explores how doctors and nurses can collaborate more effectively and what medical and nursing education must do to foster such cooperation. Finally, Gordon outlines ways in which RNs can successfully take their case to the public while campaigning for health care system reform that actually funds necessary nursing care.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

"The nursing profession lacks many things, like decent working conditions, recognition, and respect on the job. But, with Suzanne Gordon, it has something other professions can only envy-a skilled reporter, brilliant analyst, and steadfast advocate."-Barbara Ehrenreich

"Nursing is one of the most honorable professions I know. I'm proud of the service I provided during my nursing days. I learned so much about my beliefs, values, and passions as well as learning about others. Anyone who has spent time in a hospital knows that nurses are the true caregivers, the backbone of our health care system. Most doctors spend only a few minutes with their patients while nurses are there around the clock. This is an important book and needs to be required reading in all our medical schools."—Naomi Judd, RN

About the Author:

Suzanne Gordon is an award-winning journalist. She has written, edited, or co-authored twenty books, including First Do No Harm, Beyond the Checklist, Life Support: Three Nurses on the Front Lines, and Caregiving: Readings in Knowledge, Practice, Ethics, and Politics. She is an adjunct professor in the school of nursing at McGill University. Gordon is a health-care commentator on Public Radio International's Marketplace and a popular lecturer on nursing and health care. Gordon has been published in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, American Prospect, Atlantic Monthly, Harpers Magazine. She has been a radio and TV commentator for CBS Radio and NPR’s Marketplace. She lives in Arlington, Massachusetts.

About this edition

• Publisher: ILR Press
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0801439760
• ISBN 13: 9780801439766
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 504