what2be

Julia’s Nursing School Journal

By Julia Judge

For the past four years, I was told by my professors, clinical instructors, mentors, peers, family and friends that I would have no trouble finding a job.

The phrase spoken by many, “Nursing is a recession-proof field,” rings in my head as I remain unemployed. Five years ago, when I was a senior in high school, one of the recruitment spiels at nursing schools was that it would be OK to pay a lot for school because of the opportunities for nurses, such as debt repayment, signing bonuses, relocation and education reimbursement. It sounded so promising.

I remember when I was a freshman, the senior nursing students would complain about having to choose between five different offers, each one more enticing than the next. One student in particular struggled with the decision of staying in Cleveland and accepting a hefty bonus, or moving to North Carolina and receiving relocation expenses, an even larger bonus and 100 percent tuition assistance at one of the most prestigious graduate nursing schools. Tough choices indeed.

When I graduated in May, my nursing class seemed to be on par with the national average of new graduate employment — and the outlook was not good.

New graduate nurses are at the bottom of the totem pole when competing with nurses who have experience, including those who had previously left the profession and made the decision to go back to work.

Many hospitals have issued hiring freezes, and I recently spoke to a nurse who believes his hospital will start losing employees because everyone is burned out from working overtime and taking on large patient loads due to understaffing.

A nurse must always have the best interest the patient in mind, even if that means staying to work a 16-hour shift. Yet, in the long run, longer hours will lead to decreased patient safety and employee dissatisfaction. My wish for the nursing profession, and for those who so desperately need good nursing care, is that help is on its way — soon.

My search continues for employment in Chicago, where my fiancé is attending law school at Northwestern. Now, it’s even harder for me to hear the words from my neighbors and friends, “Oh, you’ll easily find a job in Chicago. Nursing is recession-proof. You were the outstanding student at Case Western. How could they not want you?” How do I reply?

Should I tell them that Chicagoans have never heard of Case Western — or Ohio for that matter? How do I explain driving to Chicago at my own expense, three-hour interviews that include several different people, job shadowing on the floor, three sealed letters of recommendation and transcripts, all the while knowing that many others are vying for ONE job to work the night shift?

I am very grateful to those who have tried and tried again to help me find a job.

Although I am now licensed in Illinois, I question at what point I should apply for licensure in Ohio and look for jobs in Dayton until I am married next August.

It will be a tough decision because I want to make more than a nine-month commitment to a hospital. Looking back, I question why I didn’t stay in Cleveland where my dream job was practically handed to me or why I didn’t apply to work at Miami Valley Hospital where I had such a wonderful experience as a student.

But, I will always be one to think with my heart … and the other half of my heart is in Chicago.

Good luck to all of the other recent graduates out there who are struggling to find employment. Let’s keep our chins up and remember it is not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when.

Julia Judge is a 2005 graduate of Oakwood High School and is a student at the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University.

The Emergency Room

RNs reminisce about early heart 
surgeries

By Carole A. Judge, for What2Be

Procedures compared to today’s technology might appear to be primitive but they were effective. Improvisation and common sense were the orders of the day.

“They asked me if I would like to learn how to operate the heart-lung machine and I jumped at the chance,” Weinert said. Weinert was sent to Dallas to spend a week with legendary cardiac surgeon Dr. Michael DeBakey and surgical team. She then went to the Cleveland Clinic for a week where the heart-lung machine was created.

“It started off as a piece of sheet metal and it took five days to put it together,” Weinert said.

She added that the pump that operated the heart-lung machine had 344 pieces — all of which had to be sterilized and reassembled after each surgery.

The heart-lung machine was cutting edge for its time but some other OR items were rather mundane.

“We had maintenance bring in a rubber tub that fit on a gurney,” Bradfield recalled.

“After the patient was anesthetized, we actually put wet towels on them and iced them down to lower their temperatures.”

The only way to stop the heart then was by hypothermia. Then, as now, when the surgery was completed the heart was shocked into beating again.

“We literally packed them in ice,” Schreck said.

“We didn’t pump the blood back into the machine — we used gravity,” Weinert said. “So the patient was as high as the operating table would go and I had to be as low as I could go so the blood would drain into the pump and we could pump it back into the patient.

“I spent four years on my knees on the terrazzo floor,” she said.

The team relied on fresh blood — drawn that morning from at least 50 donors.

“We had our own blood bank,” Bradfield said.

Bradfield was the “go-fer” on the team that day, and one of her responsibilities was orange juice and lemon drops.

“There were no breaks. We had orange juice with bent straws and we would slip it behind their masks so they could have a little liquid. Then I would give them sour lemon drops for a little bit of energy.”

Surgeries usually lasted 12 to 13 hours.

Monitoring equipment was almost nonexistent in those days and there was no intensive care unit. Patients were sent to Recovery where they would stay for a week or more.

“We had a dog lab,” Cartwright said. “The doctors learned a lot of the procedures in the dog lab before they ever touched a patient.”

“It was a new feeling for us. We knew it had to be perfect,” Bradfield said.

“We have come a long way,” Schreck said.