healthcarejournalbr.com | July / August 2008 Issue |
Healthcare Journal of Baton Rouge
47
job of the rapid response team is not to take over for the floor
nurse. “ICU nurses tend to be a Type-A bunch and want to
take charge,” said Julie Whitaker, “that's not what the MRT is
about. It's about providing support for the floor nurse and
growing our younger floor nurses in their critical thinking.”
Prior to and even after implementation of the rapid response
team, each of the hospitals provided extensive education to its
staff about not hesitating to activate the team and to remind
them that it was an option. “We would send them thank you
notes and Spirit Grams (OLOL's internal recognition program)
to encourage them to use us,” said Summers. “We had to
emphasize that we would rather be called for nothing, than not
be called for something.” Whitaker said there have been times
when the team has been paged for seemingly minor or obvi-
ous issues, but she urges team members not to complain as
she never wants a floor nurse to hesitate to call. And, while the
symptoms may seem obvious to someone fresh to a situation,
she acknowledges that floor nurses have several patients and
work long shifts…sometimes they just need an extra set of
eyes and ears to assess what's going on. “There is no prob-
lem too small,” emphasized Whitaker. EKL Nurse Manager
John Germany acknowledged there is a little learning curve,
but “we are confident the system will improve, the more peo-
ple know about it.”
The old adage, “an ounce of preven-
tion is worth a pound of cure”
describes rapid response teams per-
fectly.
-Prentice Massey, Jr., Ochsner
1909:
National Committee for Mental
Hygiene is founded. Later becomes
National Mental Health Association.
1910:
Ward for mentally ill criminals added
to asylum in Jackson, La. The American
Association for the Study of the Feeble-
Minded coins terms moron, imbecile, and
idiot for categories of impairment.
OLOL MET Members
Donna Smith, RN, House Manager
Corey Summers, RN, House Manager