Nurse on the Net
Retired operating room nurse still helps patients – on the World Wide Web
By Lisa Oliver Monroe
Now that she’s retired, Helen French of Waynesboro finds more time and freedom to address important health-care issues she has felt strongly about for years.
She has started her own Web site to advocate patient safety, promotes a medical supply recycling program and has applied to serve with the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Recently turned 65, French retired from the University of Virginia Health System in December 2007 after 33 years as an operating room nurse. A longtime and outspoken advocate for safety in the O.R. at state and national levels, she ironically retired earlier than anticipated because of complications after her own surgery.
Though she misses the daily challenges and rewards of her job, French still possesses the nurse’s desire to help others. She started the Web site Operating Room RN Watching Over You, which addresses concerns about patient safety during surgery, shares some unfortunate outcomes French witnessed over the years and provides practical advice.
The site also has a seven-page “Critical Questions” form you can download, print and use if you need surgery. French says an OR nurse should ideally ask you these questions – such as “Do you have metal plates?” – before you go into surgery. However, once you go under anesthesia, it’s impossible to answer them.
Patients and their families should be proactive in providing the information, French suggests. “If no one else does, volunteer the answers,” she says. “This simple act may save your life or the life of a loved one.”
In addition to devoting time to her Web site, French encourages health-care institutions to start medical supply recycling programs such as U.Va’s
MERCI (Medical Equipment Recovery of Clean Inventory), which she founded in 1991. In the 16 years she ran the free program, more than 1,000 tons of medical supplies – many bound for the incinerator – were shipped all over the world to help save lives.
Jokingly comparing herself to a modern-day Johnny Appleseed, French shares her story of how to create a MERCI-like program with almost anyone who will listen. She’s shared the model with many health-care professionals and hospitals in the United States, most recently in November at the University of Maryland hospital.
Virginia has passed a MERCI Resolution urging all hospitals in the commonwealth to start such a program. “Governor Tim Kaine’s office sent me a letter stating that ‘many’ are emulating my program,” French says. “I have planted many MERCI seeds.”
French would like to see hospitals across the country start similar programs, not only for the environment, to reduce costs or to help others overseas, but also to make every area of our own country better able to handle emergencies.
Most people are not aware that hospitals usually keep only a few days’ worth of supplies on hand, and even medical supply warehouses keep only about a week’s worth, French says. She believes churches are the ideal places for communities to store the stockpiles of recycled medical supplies.
For her dedication to MERCI, French was honored in May with the 2009 Distinguished Nurse Award presented by U.Va.’s Beta Kappa Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing.
To read more about French, visit
http://operatingroomrnwatchingoveryou.com or
www.merci-medicalsupplies.com.
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Lisa Oliver Monroe is a Richmond freelance writer and Boomer Life’s researcher.
