It took me almost 30 years to figure out what I want to be. When I was little I wanted to be a fireman or a dinosaur. Neither one of those worked out. Now that I am grown up, I can say that I am proud to be a nurse. Nursing school was a very demanding and emotional rollercoaster, so much so that the mere thought of going back for my NP anytime soon makes me really want to look into a career as a dinosaur. Trying to juggle personal life responsibilities, financial well-being, self-care, social connections, clinicals, and late-night studying is physically and emotionally draining. But I would do it again in a heartbeat to get to where I am today.

In nursing school, you often hear that you learn 1% of the job in school and the other 99% when you start working. I’m not sure why school costs so much…. There are days when I feel like I know nothing at all, but then there are little moments, whether it’s with a patient or another team member, that show me I am exactly where I am meant to be. The transition from student to professional nurse is a reality shock. Once you put your scrubs on and step onto the unit, you are expected to be a professional. Your patients expect to be able to rely on and trust you. It doesn't matter if it’s day one or year 10, you are expected to have the capacity and knowledge to treat the patient with the utmost respect, dignity, care, and empathy. 

I understood what it meant to be a nurse when I was working at a Boston hospital on a med-surg floor. One of my patients had been there for months and was clearly depressed. She was neglecting her mental and physical health and it was obvious she had given up. She refused showers or bed baths, wouldn’t get up to use the bathroom, never brushed her hair, and barely ate any food. Her hair particularly was a stressor for her. She had been laying in this bed with the back of her head pressed against the pillow for months, so she was losing a lot of it. On top of that, it was the most tangled head of hair I had ever seen in my entire life. She told me she just wanted to shave it off and was very adamant about it, but she was clearly upset that it had come to that.

I spent three hours sitting in her room detangling her hair. When I was done, I french braided it and you should have seen the glowing smile on her face. I hadn’t seen her smile in months, which was one of the best moments in my nursing career so far. It may seem silly and hair detangling is definitely not something I am required to do, but my job as a nurse is to make sure my patients feel seen, heard, cared for, and comfortable. I learned that being a nurse isn’t just taking vital signs, performing head-to-toe assessments, administering medications, etc. It is my duty to nurture each and every one of my patients, helping them find new ways to grow, heal and lead a happier life.

One of my biggest takeaways from this experience is how amazing and rewarding it is to be a part of this respected profession. I have quickly realized that while yes, this is a job, it also becomes a part of your identity. Nursing will never simply be a job for me, it is a passion. It is a constant process of learning and growing in my personal and professional life.

Author: Sam Dorman

The global healthcare system we experience today is the consequence of an extremely efficient, yet fragile, supply chain. This efficiency, therefore, comes at the expense of resilience, meaning it is vulnerable to “black swan” events like Covid-19.

Healthcare facilities work with one another in a group purchasing organization. They contract with two or three large distributors, which either purchase from wholesalers or contract directly with manufacturers. 

As the Covid-19 pandemic ravaged the world, we can all remember the shortages the healthcare system suffered. As the caseload kept increasing, the need for PPEs soared, filling the news with images of healthcare workers improvising hospital gowns and face shields. The same thing happened with some critical medical supplies. By April 2020, prices for N95 masks were up 6,136%, while those of isolation gowns had spiked by 2,000%. U.S. health care leaders had to resort to protocols for rationing testing and ventilators as the shortages continued.  

This supply chain failure led to a paradigm shift from a centralized supply chain in the US into thousands of domestic manufacturers stepping up and producing PPEs as well as other critical medical supplies. An example of this included Austin-based Tito’s, which transitioned from producing vodka to hand sanitizer. Cumbersome vendor-approval processes and inflexible funding rules did not help.

In a world where large-scale disruptions such as climate change and natural disasters, shifting global economic or geopolitical conditions as well as cyberattacks are likely to become more common, the Covid-19 pandemic has opened our eyes to the dangers of a supply chain that focuses exclusively on efficiency.

https://hbr.org/2021/02/one-way-to-build-more-resilient-medical-supply-chains-in-the-u-s

About the Author

Dr. Patrizia Scali is an Italian ECFMG certified medical doctor. 

Dr. Scali graduated medical school from Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca in Milan, Italy and has completed all 3 USMLE Step exams. She has also completed an Accelerated Certificate Program in Business Administration at University of California, Irvine (UCI).

Dr. Scali  has conducted pediatric hematology research in Italy, as well as hepatology lab research at Yale School of Medicine in the US. She has worked as a primary care physician in Italy, her home country, where she also had extensive experience as a telemedicine doctor. 

The US demand for physicians has been higher than the number of US medical school graduates. One way to fulfill this is by seeking IMGs. 

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The healthcare industry is very complex, which is one of the many reasons that has held back progressive changes. Many problem-solving innovations are pushed to the side because of external factors that are prevalent in healthcare, even if those changes will improve clinician wellness, patient care, education, increase productivity while decreasing compliance risk. 

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COVID has tremendously impacted the healthcare industry, and telehealth has emerged as an essential component being used on a massive scale.

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