Meat: The New Cigarette (eBook)

1.
The Role of
the Nurse

This book is mainly addressed to nurses working in hospitals because most start there before moving on to other settings. The vast majority of nurses share a similar experience of working in a hospital at some point in their careers. As you probably know, the role of the nurse in the acute setting is caregiving. Nurses manage patient needs, prevent disease, and attend to health disorders. We detect, track, and document information to assist in treatment decisions. Nurses administer medications and other therapeutic remedies. Nurses are also patient advocates. We are to support and act on behalf of the patient’s best interest. Nurses also have a duty to inform the patient about their health, especially upon discharge when the patient will be responsible for their own care (Smith, 2019). Beyond the acute setting, nurses also work in various facilities, such as long-term care, outpatient, case management, insurance, legal, and many others. This book is primarily addressed to nurses in the acute setting because I am voicing my concern and imploring The Joint Commission to ban animal products in hospitals. I hope that by focusing on the hospital setting, other settings will also take notice and similarly stigmatize animal products.

The Nursing Profession

Did you ever notice how families tend to have a common profession? Some families tend to be lawyers, doctors, or teachers. In my family, we tend to be nurses. I am a nurse and my mom, cousin, and even my wife are all nurses. My parents were also photographers when I was growing up, and family and friends would often ask if I would take over their family business. It was always an emphatic “no” because I never found any of their career stories very compelling, engaging, or exciting. My mom went back to school to be a nurse in her 40s after photography transitioned to digital in the late ‘90s and early 2000s, and everyone was gaining access and the know-how to operate a camera. My mom had a growing vocabulary of medical terms and fascinating concepts that intrigued me when she was in school. When I was in high school, during our nightly dinners, her stories about patients that suffered from chronic conditions caught my interest. Nursing attracted me because I was inspired by the thought of helping others and relieving the world of problems. However, I was naïve and disappointed to find that American healthcare does not focus on preventing disease as much as it does treating disease when it inevitably arises. I feel that this method is flawed and shortsighted.

The Problem

American healthcare could prevent many chronic illnesses by focusing on diet. The Standard American Diet (SAD) is appropriately named and is synonymous with the Western Pattern Diet (WPD). This diet is characterized by heavy intake of red meat, high-fat dairy, sugar, and processed and pre-packaged foods. This way of eating has an increased risk of chronic disease (Betsaida B. Laguipo, 2020). Ironically, healthcare and the general public have an almost blind and perhaps general disregard for how food influences our health.

In many states, nurses have to attend educational courses to obtain continuing education units (CEUs). I obtain these CEUs online now because it is much easier and faster than traveling and sitting in a classroom or symposium. I can do it from the comfort of my own home. However, when I worked in the hospital, I would go to the occasional class. Even then, the cognitive dissonance was concerning. I would go to seminars about chronic diseases, such as diabetes, coronary artery disease, and obesity and then, ironically, be served macaroni and cheese and deli meats. Sometimes there would be a salad. But once I got close, I discovered that the salad was smothered in cheese. My mom once went to a stroke symposium and later told me she experienced something similar. The details about diet-related causes were discussed, and then she was subsequently served a meat and cheese-laden meal. I once saw a meme on Facebook of a group raising money for a prominent nonprofit that focuses on heart disease research. On the menu were hamburgers, hot dogs, and slices of pizza, all for less than $5. I am not saying that the group has to serve only salads, but something with fruits and vegetables would be far more appropriate. The disconnect healthcare and healthcare workers have between the diseases they are treating and the root cause of the disease-causing diet is perplexing. Treating diseases arising from the SAD while avoiding the role that the diet plays is myopic and misguided.

This unwillingness to address diet may be cultural. For example, some Americans have a particular problem with heeding medical advice. This thinking still exists today, and it may exist worldwide, but I have noticed that Americans are often the most difficult people to have a conversation with that is both sensible and logical. There is a culture of arrogance in the United States, where some think receiving advice is a threat to the ego. Americans often believe that we have all the answers, and we are above reproach in adjusting our habits. That might help explain why the United States leads the world in obesity (Kollmeyer, 2017).

The Solution

When I was in nursing school, a professor of mine joked about how decades ago, nurses would light up a cigarette right at the nurse’s station and not think anything of it. Due to The Joint Commission’s standards, most inpatient facilities around the country have since banned smoking tobacco products. In my experience, not only are patients not allowed to have these products, but staff must also leave the premises in order to light up. I applaud the decision as it reflects an attitude of healthcare consistency. If healthcare facilities are to stand for improving health, there is no possible way to justify having tobacco smoke on the premises. This same line of thinking should also apply to animal products. Here we are, in hospitals, serving the substances that cause disease, then admitting patients for illnesses caused by those same substances. At the heart of what I am trying to accomplish is logical consistency and concern for patient outcomes and safety. Nurses should be cognizant of possible improvements and seek to implement them. The profession has always been known for sparking creative solutions.

Historically, nursing has been at the forefront of social movements, although nurses’ contributions often go entirely understated. Linda Richards (1841–1930) created the foundation for medical records and bolstered U.S. nursing education. Elizabeth Grace Neill (1846–1926) was influential in helping create the Nurse’s Registration Act in New Zealand and assisted in founding the first New Zealand state maternity facility, the St. Helen’s Hospital. Lilian Wald (1867–1940) founded the Visiting Nurse Service. She also helped create the Children’s Bureau and the National Organization for Public Health Nursing. Mary Breckinridge (1881–1965) brought nurse-midwifery to the United States after working with English and French nurse-midwives. She also established the Frontier Nursing Service (FNS), which helped bring health services to the pregnant and ill living in the east Kentucky Appalachian mountains. Florence Guinness Blake (1907–1983) created the University of Chicago’s Advanced Pediatric Nursing Graduate Program and helped to formalize nursing education within universities and colleges. Anna Caroline Maxwell (1851–1929) is celebrated as the “American Florence Nightingale,” as she helped form the first Army Nurse Corps. She also advanced and improved nurse training in several hospitals.

The most famous of all, Florence Nightingale (1820–1910), is considered the founder of modern nursing. She provided care during the Crimean War and later established the eponymous Nightingale School of Nursing in England (NurseBuff, 2016). All of these nurses share a universal relation in improving the field of nursing and the world around them. Nurses continue to play a crucial role in shaping public health and perception. For instance, Tobacco Free Nurses equips the profession to assist tobacco-dependent patients by providing resources and education on cessation (Tobacco Free Nurses, n.d.). Similarly, the American Cannabis Nurses Association (ACNA) works to expand nursing knowledge of endo-cannabinoid therapies (American Cannabis Nurses Association, n.d.). What we also need today is a change of philosophy in several areas, most notably, nutrition and preventative medicine. Nurses have the potential to approach the problem of modern diets in a similar fashion as nurses did throughout history, which can lead to better patient outcomes. Nurses can improve patient outcomes through the method of evidence-based practice.

Evidence-Based Practice

Nursing is generally taken seriously by the public because of evidence-based practice (EBP). If there is good evidence, then there is good reason to implement or change policy. Florence Nightingale used an early form of EBP, notably gathering patient data in hospitals. In 1972, Archie Cochrane brought randomized controlled trials (RTC) into nursing. Before this, care was based on unsubstantiated speculation that wholly lacked unique patient considerations. He further advised that healthcare has limited supplies and thus should only use treatments with confirmed efficacy. The term evidence-based medicine was introduced by David Sackett in 1996. He emphasized research while integrating clinical experience, evidence, and the values of the patient. Evidence-based medicine eventually became EBP as the concept stretched to other health occupations. EBP provides nurses with information to make well-informed...