No scrubs
A nursing shortage prompts Martha Jeff to pass the hat
In a direct-mail fundraising letter dated April 2003, Martha Jefferson Hospital asked the good people of Charlottesville and Albemarle to make a donation to its Nursing Care Fund, one among dozens of charitable funds at the Downtown hospital. Following the request it stated, “There is a nationwide shortage of nurses. Please give as generously as you can and help Martha Jefferson Hospital continue to offer outstanding nurses services and excellent, patient-centered medical care.”
Missing from the letter was a clear explanation of why Martha Jeff, grossing $210 million in revenues annually, wants the community to foot the bill.
“We like to think of it more as inviting the public to support this particular fund,” Ray Mishler, vice president of Martha Jefferson’s Hospital Foundation, told C-VILLE. “People wouldn’t respond so well to us just asking for, say, a new boiler.”
Indeed, the fund (not the boiler), just one in a long menu of pressing priorities at the local non-profit hospital, wasn’t randomly chosen to move local philanthropists to action. The Nursing Care Fund, established in 1999, is a necessary proactive measure to develop the profession before time runs out, say hospital administrators. It seems likely too that nurses, whom these days have more contact with patients than doctors do, would be a relatively sympathetic cause.
But the nursing profession is in trouble nationwide and Charlottesville is no exception. Recent studies have estimated that by the year 2010, there will be a half-million vacant nursing positions across the country. Thanks to the physical and emotional demands of the job, along with stressful hours (many nurses work XX-hour shifts), the average nurse leaves the profession at 50. Factor in the aging Baby Boomer population, and nothing short of a crisis is soon to follow. By helping nurses to develop additional expertise and opening the door for some nurses to less hands-on work, the hospital rather optimistically hopes to stem that trend of attrition.
“You have to remember, we are also bleeding our own nurses away,” says Susan Winslow, Martha Jefferson’s director of nursing education and community services. “They are highly adaptive to stress and therefore quite adaptive to other professions.”
The Nursing Care Fund, which has already amassed $1.5 million in donations, will support projects such as consolidating nursing educators into a comprehensive education department within the hospital and creating the region’s first skills/simulation lab. In the lab, nurses-in-training could work extensively with mannequins and equipment before they get involved in direct patient care. Some of the fund will also be used to recruit retired nurses back into the field.
“Nursing is back-breaking work, sometimes literally,” says Winslow. “We can bring inactive nurses back for less direct patient care with part-time positions in admissions, discharge and teaching.”
Given that at Martha Jefferson, a hospital that boasts of its continuous-learning culture and reimburses its nurses for continuing ed classes, only 15 percent of 350 practicing RNs and LPNs currently are enrolled in some form of continuing professional education, it’s unclear if more money and equipment will drive nurses into the classroom. The campaign’s goal is to raise $3.5 million and hoist to 40 percent the share of Martha Jeff nurses undertaking additional training. —Kathryn E. Goodson
New ACC structure means ’Hoos could suck even worse
Recently, Boston College, University of Miami and Syracuse University accepted the NCAA’s invitation to join the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), of which UVA is also a member. The NCAA had considered extending an invitation to Virginia Tech, but decided against it.
The three new schools boast strong sports programs, and the TV networks that already fawn over the ACC will undoubtedly give the conference even more coverage. For publicity-hungry UVA, this news could be really good—or really bad. So this week we examine UVA’s conference record in various men’s sports during 2002-03 to see how the Cavaliers might stand up to the new competition.
Baseball
UVA: 28 wins, 23 losses (6th of 9 teams in ACC)
Boston: 33-21
Miami: 37-13
Syracuse: no team
Verdict: Maybe UVA and Syracuse can enjoy a fun game of Wiffle ball.
Football
UVA: 9-5 (2nd in ACC)
Boston: 9-4
Miami: 12-1 (2nd in the nation)
Syracuse: 4-8
Verdict: If Miami doesn’t kill UVA, the competition will make the Cavs’ strong team even stronger. It’s too bad the Athletic Department canned the Pep Band, since Miami’s thugs and Syracuse’s ineptitude would make for some great jokes.
Basketball
UVA: 16-16 (6th in ACC)
Boston: 19-12
Miami: 11-16
Syracuse: 30-5 (national champions)
Verdict: Despite its record, Miami has a better team than UVA. Looks like the Cavs’ butt will get three new bruises.
Soccer
UVA: 15-7 (4th in ACC)
Boston: 18-5
Miami: no team
Syracuse: 8-8-2
Verdict: The Cavs could give The University an ego boost by beating up on them d’urn Yankees.
Conclusion: Perhaps it’s a good thing Virginia Tech won’t be in the ACC. As UVA pours ever more dollars into sports instead of academics, the Cavaliers seem poised to stand alone as the school with a great football team, mediocre sports program and the butt of redneck jokes.
Research by the C-VILLE staff
Chemical reactions
Council gets gaseous in water discussion
Perhaps inspired by the evening’s main topics––gas and water––City Council turned their regular meeting on Monday, May 19, into a lesson on scientific principles.
First, Council proved the law that says a gas (or a meeting) will always expand to the shape of its container. There were only four items on Monday’s agenda and the Councilors seemed to expect the meeting would move quickly. Yet Council managed to draw the evening out to its usual length, comparable to a leisurely Major League Baseball game.
Most of the expansive dialogue covered the subject of the City’s utility rates. The agenda included a public hearing on rate hikes for gas, water and wastewater, proposed by City Finance Director Rita Scott.
Gas prices, she says, increased sharply throughout the nation last winter, and the higher gas rates in the City reflected that trend. The City purchases gas from private suppliers.
Charlottesville and Albemarle buy clean water from the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority (RWSA), which also handles wastewater treatment. As Council discussed whether to approve the proposed rate hikes, it illustrated a second scientific principle––objects (or politicians) at rest tend to stay at rest, until acted on by some kind of force.
In this case, Councilors Kevin Lynch, Meredith Richards and Rob Schilling displayed a severe resistance to new fees. Each questioned how the rates were structured or exactly how the RWSA planned to spend the new money. Schilling, in particular, read a list of queries that ran on so long Mayor Maurice Cox had to bust out Council’s official guidelines and read “Please note, Councilors can make up to three points in discussion. Otherwise, have questions answered before the meeting.” (For those keeping score at home, that would be the mayoral version of “Shut up now.”)
RWSA Director Larry Tropea said that during last summer’s drought he heard from numerous citizens––especially those with business and real-estate interests––demanding the Authority increase the regional water supply. During the 1980s the Authority tried to build a new reservoir at Buck Mountain Creek, but Federal regulations and the endangered James River spineymussel consipired to thwart those efforts.
So the RWSA now plans several other projects to increase supply. These include expanding the South Fork Rivanna reservoir by raising the dam and dredging sediment off the bottom. The Authority also will rebuild an old station on the Mechums River to pump water in case of emergency. The Authority also needs to repair dilapidated infrastructure, some of which is 100 years old, Tropea says.
To pay for the projects, the RWSA is borrowing more than $24 million from the State, and on May 19 Scott said that more than half of the RWSA’s 2004 budget would be devoted to paying down that debt. The RWSA’s only source of revenue is the City and County, so this isn’t likely to be the last proposed rate hike, said Scott.
But when Councilor Blake Caravati made a motion to approve the rate hikes, no one offered a second. Cox said he would not second the motion because he wanted to see if fellow Councilors really had the willpower to vote down the ordinance. Scott told Council that money would automatically come out of the City’s general fund to pay its water bill.
Cox nearly pressured Richards to support the fees if the City agreed to study her question, but Schilling moved to revisit the matter on June 2 (which is destined to be another marathon meeting). Council agreed.
“People were playing games, and now we’re in a pickle,” Caravati said. “Rivanna could turn off the taps if we don’t pay our bill.” ––John Borgmeyer
Return of the red glare
Local businesses return the spark to July 4
One week after finding out that Charlottesville’s July 4 fireworks were in jeopardy—again—the show is definitely back on. On Wednesday, May 21, nearly 30 people attended the inaugural meeting of the new Save the Fireworks committee, formed to ensure that the area still has stuff exploding in the sky come Independence Day.
The move was needed after the Charlottesville Downtown Foundation, party poopers du jour, backed out of handling the festivities, which it had done during the previous two years. But Save the Fireworks member organizers assured meeting attendees that “no one’s mad” at CDF, as it already has “enough events set up to lose money.” In fact, he thanked the group and specifically Director Gail Weakley, who offered CDF’s contacts and expertise (but not, it should be noted, financial acumen) to the cause.
Save the Fireworks will need the help. While the group has made impressive strides on the fundraising front—from local businesses (including C-VILLE Weekly) they’ve already netted enough to devote $15,000 solely to fireworks, and that was before a May 23 WINA radio pledge drive—their biggest task will be to organize a self-sustaining event that had been passed from group to group for years.
But they’re determined to make this “the biggest show Charlottesville’s ever had, by a lot,” Caddell said. Contracts have been signed with Zambelli Fireworks International, one of the biggest pyrotechnics companies in the world and the people responsible for last year’s show. Those disappointed by the 2002 display needn’t worry, though. Caddell said Zambelli was displeased with its own performance (apparently, the fireworks were launched at the wrong time) and have pledged an extra 10 percent worth of product for this year.
“So that’s an additional $1,500 worth of firecrackers right there,” said Caddell.
Save the Fireworks is also working with City Manager Gary O’Connell and others to hash out the various permit, parking and clean-up issues. CDF cited the high costs of shuttle buses and security as one of the reasons it dropped the event. But Save the Fireworks is considering corporate sponsorships to provide transportation alternatives to the McIntire Park/Charlottesville High School car crunch.
As to whether Save the Fireworks had considered making money for the event by taking a cue from CDF’s new Fridays After 5 admission charge, Caddell answered with an emphatic no.
“My position is that mom and dad and kids shouldn’t have to pay to see this. It should be a taxpayer-funded event,” as it is in many municipalities, he said. “The County and City should participate equally and the surrounding localities ought to have some little thing they throw in, too.”
For those looking to add their help to Save the Fireworks, another meeting will be held Wednesday, May 28, and there are still plenty of big jobs for any comers, said Caddell: “We’ll find a committee for them to be on. We still need people to handle the Port-a-Potties.” —Eric Rezsnyak