Lebanon nurse's books publish this week

A Lebanon nurse has a brand new three-volume book set out this week, but even she doesn't expect it to hit the best seller list. Deborah Fell-Carlson said her publisher, Del Mar Health Care, is optimistic about how well the books will sell. As for her, she's &#8220hopeful."

The three volumes - called a 'suite' in the trade - are designed for health workers and home health care providers. &#8220Working Safely in Health Care: A Practical Guide" is Fell-Carlson's first, and probably last, venture into the book publishing world.

The largest of the three books features chapters written by nurses and health care safety professionals. The companion pieces are a training manual and a quick reference book. The books arose out of a huge gaping hole in the health care world, Fell-Carlson explained.

Warehouse analogy

It all started when she was in the National Guard in South Dakota, working in a hospital and in industry at the same time. She discovered a vast difference in health safety standards between the medical field and industry. Fell-Carlson found herself having to research all sorts of questions about safety equipment, procedures and resources. That's when she developed what she calls her 'warehouse analogy.'

&#8220If I worked in a factory and had a very precious item to move periodically throughout the day, and if I ever dropped that item it would be damaged, my boss would give me something to move it with," she explained. &#8220They would not want me to drop that item. Yet in health care we're moving our most precious commodities - people - all the time, and doing it by hand in many cases."

As a result, patients suffer, and caregivers definitely suffer, she added.

&#8220If health care providers don't have a safe work environment for themselves, it's difficult to imagine they could provide that for their patients," she said.

Fell-Carlson began developing a list of things she'd like to see in a health care safety book if anyone ever wrote one.

Shortly after that, she was asked to write a chapter for an editor putting together a nursing test book. After submitting the chapter, Fell-Carlson was horrified to see the finished published product.

&#8220They put in a picture next to my chapter of a nurse wearing a respirator wrong, and identified it in the caption as a nurse wearing a surgical mask. I was rabid! That error was one of the reasons I wrote the chapter," she said.

She immediately phoned the editor and vented. Somewhere in that conversation, Fell-Carlson mentioned her list of items to include in a health care safety book. The editor urged her to submit a proposal to the publisher for a book of her own. A year later, Fell-Carlson did just that.

Others wrote chapters

Once the proposal was accepted, she began sending out e-mails to other health care professionals she knew across the country. Her plan was to write a couple of chapters in her book and get other professionals to write chapters in their fields. She wound up with 20 other professionals who submitted chapters on such topics as safe client movement and handling, shopping for a safe employer, prevention of workplace violence in the health care setting, the basis of disease transmission, surviving shift work safely and managing stress in the care environment. There's even a chapter on emergency management and terrorism.

Several chapters were authored by Willamette Valley health care pros that she's met since moving to Lebanon in 1998. She worked at Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital for some time and now is with a workers' compensation insurance carrier.

Local people who have chapters in Fell-Carlson's book are Colleen Fair of Lebanon, Tammera E. Glenn of Albany, and Joe Haralson of Albany. Fair's chapter is on getting involved. She is director of Risk management for SLCH. Haralson, Vice President in charge of ancillary and support services at Lebanon Community Hospital, on emergency management. Lebanon resident Becky Lang created the initial set of Powerpoint slides that accompany the training manual.

Fell-Carlson quickly discovered that editing other writers' work isn't as easy as it sounds. In some cases she was required rewrite an entire chapter. Her publisher demanded that all the chapters have the same 'voice,' the same writing style. That took some doing, particularly with writers from all over the country and Canada.

&#8220The extent of changes was more than I thought it would be. A lot of it was tedious," Fell-Carlson admitted. &#8220It was a huge learning experience for me."

The writing and editing process continued in Fell-Carlson's 'spare time' - in between working full time, attending college and working on her Masters degree through Oregon State University, the death of both her husband's parents, and a fire that burned down their shop.

&#8220Taking this on with a full-time job was a lot," Fell-Carlson said. &#8220It was fun and challenging, but there were times when it was just about more than I could do."

Three years after she began the project and 12 complete revisions later, the books hit the book sellers on July 6.

She said her husband Mike Carlson was 'a saint' through the whole long process, never complaining about her long hours spent working on the book or at school.

Until the different chapter writers actually see the finished product, Fell-Carlson said she'll be nervous about the book.

&#8220I worry that I will have missed something, that it's not good enough, that I somehow lost a message in the editing that they were trying to convey. That's an awkward place to be in, to take somebody else's work and edit it. I don't like that part at all."

Despite all the work and angst, though, Fell-Carlson is confident that the books will make a difference for caregivers.

For more information on the books, go online to www.delmarhealthcare.com.