Nurses need our support to keep oath, do no harm
Last week presented one of those fleeting golden moments that a father lives for: I got to stand behind my oldest daughter on the stage of a downtown Spokane theater while she was pinned as a registered nurse.
A short time later, my wife and I sat with hundreds of other proud parents and watched our children stand and recite an oath as freshly minted graduates of the Washington State University nursing program.
The nurse’s oath is a lengthy affirmation of caregiver principles, based largely on the Nightingale Pledge written 125 years ago in honor of the world’s most famous nurse (but refreshed with some contemporary language).
As this new class of high-spirited RNs read the oath aloud, one line struck me hard and has stayed with me ever since.
“I will not take or knowingly administer any harmful drug.”
Ten simple words, as plainly relevant today as they were in Florence Nightingale’s era. They echo the familiar “do no harm” ethos that all new doctors swear to uphold in their Hippocratic Oath.
But hearing my daughter and her friends make that vow carried extra resonance because of the news that was unfolding in the South Sound medical community last week – news that grows more baffling and heart-breaking every day.
An RN at Good Samaritan Hospital was arrested by Puyallup Police May 4, alleged to have knowingly infected two patients in the emergency department with hepatitis C as well as stealing injectable drugs from the hospital.
The ensuing local hepatitis scare is serious stuff. It’s especially scary for the roughly 2,600 patients who may have had contact with nurse Cora Weberg from Aug. 4, 2017 through March 23 and were notified they should be tested for the virus.
On Wednesday, public health officials said they’d found seven “probable” new hepatitis C cases connected to the hospital, with 12 more under further investigation.
Amid the apprehension, we shouldn’t lose sight of the excellent detective work done by Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department specialists who found the viral link between the two patients. If they hadn’t connected the dots, the silent pathogen would have gone undiscovered and untreated.
But we also shouldn’t forget what a murky story this is. Nor should we let society’s impatience to identify a villain take precedence over due process and a full gathering of complicated facts.
Although Weberg treated the two infected patients and was found to have hepatitis C herself, the health department didn’t pinpoint a conclusive genetic link between her virus and theirs. Consequently, Pierce County prosecutors haven’t charged her and she was released from jail.
Meantime, Weberg and her supporters, including her mother, also a nurse, have vehemently denied that she stuck her patients with a dirty needle. “Please wait before making your decision about me,” Weberg said while speaking tearfully to reporters Tuesday. “I did not do this.”
Her denial, whether you believe it or not, relates directly to the second part of that all-important line from the nurse’s oath: “I shall not … administer any harmful drug.”
What Weberg did not deny is violating the first half of that line: “I will not take...” In fact, she admitted taking hospital supplies with intent to harm herself. She told investigators that she gave patients their ordered dosage, then brought the dregs home in a syringe; over time, she built up enough of a cocktail to attempt suicide, which she said she tried twice.
Depression apparently led a 31-year-old nurse, less than 10 years removed from her own graduation and pinning, to the brink of self-destruction. And now she’s lost her state nursing license.
What cries for help were raised, and missed? What gaps in the safety net for health care providers must be patched so that overstressed, under-rested nurses don’t hurt themselves and potentially their patients?
Who cares for the caregivers?
An investigation by the Spokesman-Review newspaper early this year found at least 33 Washington health care professionals died from overdoses between 2010 to 2015. Most were nurses, pharmacy technicians and chemical dependency counselors. Most died not from illegal drugs, but from painkillers that were easily accessible because of their jobs.
All apparently went under the radar, as none had been disciplined by the state for suspected substance abuse before their deaths.
This week, the U.S. observes National Nurses Week, a time to remember and thank these health care champions, including the 2,600 members of the Pierce County Nurses Association.
Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards read a proclamation at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, in which she urged residents to “celebrate registered nurses’ accomplishments, their efforts to improve our health care system and to show our appreciation for the nation’s registered nurses not just this week, but every opportunity throughout the year.”
It was a nice gesture, followed by a round of applause.
But true appreciation comes by supporting nurses through the exhaustion of 12-hour shifts, by ensuring they have sufficient rest and meal breaks and by staffing hospital wards adequately. It comes by mentoring and monitoring them through grief, burnout and inevitable mental health stressors – even depression.
Every step we take toward those goals will light the path of today’s newly pinned nurses, who are brimming with hope, compassion and a determination to fulfill their oaths.
Matt Misterek is editorial page editor of The News Tribune. Reach him by email at matt.misterek@thenewstribune.com.
This story was originally published May 10, 2018 at 5:10 PM with the headline "Nurses need our support to keep oath, do no harm."