North Carolina Now; North Carolina Now Episode from 06/19/1997

The It's Thursday June 19th. Tonight the challenge of keeping pace with the changing medical profession in North Carolina. Now the. Hello I'm reading the tri Thanks for tuning into tonight's edition of North Carolina now on this Thursday evening we'll examine the challenges facing the nursing profession as the medical industry is in the midst of rapid changes. One thing that doesn't seem to be changing our state's booming economy. Tonight we'll hear from an economic forecaster who paints nothing but a rosy picture for our state at least for the foreseeable future. And showcasing the

treasures of our past is the purpose of our state's many museums. Tonight Maria Lomberg takes us on a journey from the mountains to the coast spotlighting our state's wealth of museums. But up first tonight the rigors of the nursing profession cost cutting measures are leading some hospitals to hire lower paid workers to do the duties traditionally assigned to nurses and turn nurses are becoming managers of those new workers. What do these changes mean for current and future nurses as well of those of us under their care. Kelly McCann Marie has the details. The future of nursing starts here this summer. If you're at home and you're in classrooms like this one at the Watts School of Nursing in Durham I wanted to become a nurse because I wanted to help people on the field like I was doing something that was important and I really liked the type of care that nurses give one that centered on the person and not just what's wrong with that same desire is

inspired nursing students for decades. But these classmates can count on a different kind of career than their predecessors. Students today are learning to be not only traditional caregivers but managers of health care. They have to have critical thinking skills they have to be able to make decisions. Problem solved. I work with a variety of people in the interdisciplinary team to bring healthcare together for patients. The changes undergoing nursing are being driven in part by simple economics. Hospitals are under tremendous pressure to contain a rising medical costs. One solution they've come up with here Durham Regional is to hire workers to do some of the routine patient care that was once performed by nurses. Thank you. Health care technicians like Jenna 7s are now more likely to be the first to greet a patient in the morning we assist the nurses with their daily assessments of patients we have divided. We do acrobatics Babs

pass ice water. We pretty much you know do the care of the patient. There have always been nursing assistants but organizers say the practice is now more intense in organized healthcare technician's record the patients daily vital signs into a computer. But nurses are the ones trained to spot problems and nurses are ultimately responsible for the work their technicians are doing. So here Durham Regional the team sits down to twice daily meetings and talk on the warning. While we're on record. After we talked with them a few of them still with us first. I think they would like for them to come back and tell us what all of them make sure thing and make sure that they do what they're supposed to do. It is this management role that is being expanded for nurses in their system a person who assesses what the patient's needs are and works with the team members. Any discipline and establishing what a health

care technician can and cannot do because of the work of healthcare technicians nurses can visit more patients. But generally have less time to spend with each one. Some nurses tell me they miss that extended personal touch. The very reason many enter the profession. And what about the patients will their care be shortchanged health care officials say no one really knows the answer to that. But the nurses must learn to be flexible in these ever changing times. We want to make sure that the patient care is our main focus. We need to be creative. We need to use a lot of variety of resources to be bold to deliver that care and a cost effective manner that we can manage our time and resources. We don't have the answers right now but I think we're working towards the eyes and it may be very different tomorrow than it is today. In fact experts say many nurses will spend less time in the hospital as health care moves to the home a lower cost trend that requires nurses to work independently and make

decisions for future nurses. All these changes mean no responsibilities but added opportunities as well. I'm really working towards a more and dependent Rowen are saying and I would like to see those changes made for the future nurses more independence more involved in the patient outcomes a larger voice in the policy making time to change and we will change with us. It will be ready and we accept the challenges and we think that it's an exciting time to be a nursing as a profession. Another sign of the times nurses are also going on to get their MBA is and professional degrees moving even higher up the management ladder. Still ahead just how good is our state's economy. We'll speak with an economic forecaster. But first let's get a statewide news summary from China Vic Ray who's sitting in for Michel Louis tonight. Welcome Shannon. Thanks Merida. Good evening everyone. The clean water bill passed through the Senate today with

strong support. The measure is aimed at cleaning up North Carolina's troubled waterways and could cost hundreds of millions of dollars and increase water and sewer bills. The regulations go beyond cracking down on hog farms to target cities waste water treatment plant developers and golf courses. The original House bill focused on swine farms. The measure now heads back to the house and will likely end up in committee to the negotiate the differences. The state House Committee's investigation into the Department of Motor Vehicles has wrapped up for the week. State transportation secretary Garland Garrett told the committee he went along with the recommendation by Governor Jim Hunt attorney to pay a $100000 settlement to former DMV worker Algy tumor. Garrett says he knew there was no justification for the settlement but that he trusted the recommendation of Hunt's former legal counsel Bill Pittman. That man has already testified in the matter. But lawmakers say he'll be recalled. A recommendation to double the military construction budget for Fort Bragg and Pope Air Force Base could bring 16

million dollars to the installations I House U.S. House appropriations panel favors adding 30 million dollars to the original 30 million requested by President Clinton. The recommended increase for 1998 is earmarked for the building of an urban warfare training complex at Bragg a Family Services Center at Pope along with their exam family housing construction at both facilities. The state utilities commission is considering new rules to head off the telephone marketing abuse known as slamming. That's when customers find their telephone service provider has been changed without their permission. The rules would require local and long distance carriers to obtain written electronic or oral authorization for changes. The commission received six hundred fifty seven complaints about slamming in 1996 a 44 percent increase from 1995. Backers of a major league baseball stadium in the Triad are making another pitch to raise local support. A new proposal scraps of the former 12 County Alliance in favor of just two. Under the new

proposal Forsyth and Guilford County taxpayers would generate the lion's share of the stadiums two hundred twenty million dollar price tag. Voters in the Triad two most populous counties would have to agree to tax increases on restaurant meals canned and bottled beer and a surcharge on baseball game tickets. Well looking ahead to tomorrow's weather high temperatures in the upper 80s and lower 90s are forecast for most of the state partly to mostly sunny skies are expected across North Carolina on Friday and in business news Duke Power Company is now officially Duke Energy Corporation. The name change comes with the completion of due power's merger with panick Energy Corporation the new company provides electric service to about two million customers mostly in North and South Carolina. It also operates pipelines that carry 12 percent of the natural gas consumed in the country. Duke Energy has assets of 20 billion dollars and. Two thousand employees worldwide. A labor union is renewing efforts to organize workers at Henderson county's largest industrial

employer General Electric. The National Labor Relations Board in Wiston Salem received a petition from a representative of the union of electronic informants for workers. The petition must be supported by at least 30 percent of 12 hundred plant workers before it's processed by the Labor Relations Board. The board is currently reviewing the petition to determine if it's valid. Now for a look at what happened on Wall Street today. Total personal income in North Carolina has set a new record. It was six point two

percent last year. Unemployment in this state is it three point five percent well below the national average. Our state ranks first among the most populous states in terms of payroll employment growth. Will this economic prosperity last will here to answer that question is Dr. James Smith a professor of finance at the Kenan-Flagler school of business that you can see Chapel Hill. Dr. Smith has been named by Wall Street Journal as the best economic forecaster in the country Dr. Smith welcome. Thank you. Welcome back. Then here I'm going to look Asian I seem to have a gun. Put our state's economic prosperity into perspective how well are we doing. If you want to write a prescription for economic health you'd probably use North Carolina as your role model we've got a higher proportion of our population employed than any other state. It's very easy to get a job here in the triangle as you know an employment rate is below 2 percent statewide as you just well below 4 percent. So well much lower than the national average and certain national surveys

over the last three or four months four or five of them have all come out and so probably were the easiest place to get a job in America. For the next decade or next 20 years or whatever however you want to look at it so looks like the 21st century is going to be pretty darn good for North Carolina as well. The record that we set as far as the personal income continuing to grow we are growing rapidly but have we reached the point of other states yet or to the national average I don't know where. Per capita income last year was twenty two thousand and ten dollars which is 91 percent of the national average rank thirty first among all states the range was from a low of 17000 and Mississippi to a little over thirty three thousand dollars here in Connecticut which is our highest per capita income state and in North Carolina we only have a few counties that are above the national average. And the only metropolitan

area above the national average is this one. Raleigh Durham Chapel Hill. So at least for that factor then we have to put that growth into perspective that we're still trying to reach up to the rest of the country. But in other areas we're doing very well. Yes. And it always seems that that in economics if there's a good side there's a downside to it. So what's the problem here. Are we doing so well that this is going to cause us problems. Well I don't think it's going to cause problems there were some people concerned that we might run out of vailable people to take jobs. The good news is that eight people keep moving here. We're now over seven million. Three hundred thousand people in the state and in the 1990 census we were only a little over six and a half million. So our population is growing at more than double the national average which is good news except when you're in a traffic jam. We also are producing a lot of new high school community college and college and university graduates every year and a

lot of them like to stay in North Carolina and that means more job opportunities for well-trained young people and that attracts outside employers so that's kind of a win win situation. All these economic factors really bode well for the state budget and the act. Yes. It's a great time to be a politician and we have we run a very healthy budget surplus. We're the only state east of the Mississippi River with a triple A credit rating the best you can have and only five other states that have one that means we get the lowest interest rates and we do have to borrow for programs like our highway program and some other ones that we have in the past. But the legislature is looking at a several hundred million dollar surplus for this fiscal year which ends the end of this month and will probably do much better next year. Because the economy has done so well and throw an awful lot of tax revenue not to be a pessimist but what's the bottom going to fall.

Well I don't know. I was yes. Sooner or later they'll be another recession. I think it will be in 2002. If you really want to push me May 15th 9:00 in the morning when recessions have to start in the middle of the month for technical reasons there is so much controversy surrounding a lot of North Carolina's key industries the hog industry the concerns about the water quality the tobacco industry has suffered its share of problems even Tourism one of the biggest industries in the state has suffered a little bit of problems with concern over water quality in the hurricanes. When this all this controversy that affects some of our key industries really start to have an impact on the state yeah. Well we've been fortunate that we've had controversy probably since the state was founded well over 200 years ago. And every time one industry runs into a problem and begins to decline new ones jump up to take their place. I mean I like to tell people yes we're huge in the chemical industry today but think about where the name Tar

Heels came from the people out in the woods gathering the turpentine. We've been in the chemical industry for over 300 years in the States. That's not really new but we've lost several hundred thousand textile jobs in the last 40 years. And the good news is that most of those people have gotten jobs in new industries that didn't exist in the past. And we keep reinventing ourselves. People come from all over the world to find out what is it about North Carolina. People from all over the world open businesses here. And when you ask them why in North Carolina they always say it's because people in North Carolina will give me a full day's work for a day's pay and I don't have to worry about the quality of what they're doing to me I can't think of a better reputation that the people who work in the state could have. While you're here in the short time that we have left a quick prediction about the stock market. Well the stock market's about to hit 8000. It's it's pretty high.

Now that it hit five Yeah I know what you're saying. I id. I think if you. I saw an interview with with a good North Carolina expert John Wright earlier today. And I know it's been on your show two days and you know don't invest more money in stocks than you're comfortable losing if something goes really wrong. And then he fessed up that he had 60 percent of. Of his money and stocks although what we teach in finance is you're probably better off with all your money in the stock market all the time because it always comes back as long as the economy grows. In the long run the stock market will grow. But that doesn't mean there won't be a screeching halt. You know in 1987 We'll come back and stay in it for the long stay in it for the long haul. Dr. Smith thank you so much for your time here this evening. Thanks for having me. Summer

is a great time of the year for the entire family to take in some of the fantastic museums here in our state. Tonight Maria Lundberg takes us on a statewide journey to showcase that the versity of our museums. We start in the North Carolina mountains nestled in the Smoky Mountains. Is the Museum of the Cherokee Indian. Many theaters in the museum trace Cherokee history from the prehistoric period to the present exhibits featured traditional clothing woven Cherokee baskets ceramic pottery and colorful beadwork sacred myths and legends tell about the Cherokee view of living in harmony with nature. This museum gives visitors and understanding of the Cherokee spirit and way of life.

The southern mountains of North Carolina have an abundance of natural beauty but this area is also rich in history and culture. Preserving them is one of the goals of the mountain Heritage Center in Cali one of the museum's most interesting exhibits illustrates the migration of the Scotch-Irish people to this region. The permanent display includes a mural a replica of a 19th century cottage and photos of some of the area's early settlers items like this wagon tell the story of tourism in western North Carolina dating back to the 1800s. The 10000 artifacts in the center's collection are heirlooms from area families who donated them to the museum for preservation traveling east to Charlotte. You'll find the Mint Museum with more than 20000 works of art from pre-Colombian to contemporary The collection includes an impressive group of American and European

paintings. The Mint is one of the few museums in the country to feature Spanish colonial art from Central and South America is where you discover discover life and we were very very hands on experience with a smile. These things all live on the beach when you're alive. Charlotte is also home to Discovery Place the largest Science and Technology Museum in the state. Although adults will enjoy it. Kids love discovery place with its hands on approach where they explore science by experiencing it whether it's learning about the rainforest discovering how an elevator works or taking in a puppet show about dinosaurs. There's something here for kids of all ages heading northeast on I-85 takes you to the North Carolina Transportation Museum at historic Spencer shops. The museum is located in the former Southern Railway steam locomotive repair facility. Exhibits include train artifacts and other forms of

transportation. You can also see the 100 foot turntable which was used to move locomotives in and out of the round house. But the main attraction is a 15 minute train ride which draws thousands of visitors each year. In the triangle there are numerous museums to visit including the North Carolina Museum of History the past and progress exhibit showcases historical artifacts including a twenty seven hundred year old canoe carriages from the 1900s a printing press made in 1828 and the control panel for a nuclear reactor. The exhibit features traditional pottery African-American wood carvings and several religious altars. This museum is also home to the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame where Meadowlark Lemon's basketball uniform and other sports memorabilia are on display also

located in Raleigh the North Carolina Museum of Art contains works from around the world. In addition to permanent collections traveling exhibitions range from classical works of Dutch and Flemish artists to contemporary pieces by North Carolina artists and the nontraditional perspective of Southern self-taught artists a.. And if you're a fan of movie star Ava Gardner a trip to Smithfield is a must. Here in Eva's hometown a small museum pays tribute to her successful movie career magazine covers movie posters costumes from her film roles and other personal items give a fascinating glimpse into the life of this North Carolina superstar the coastal city of Wilmington is home to the oldest history museum in the state and the Cape Fear museum is a great starting point for a visit to the

area. We deal with the history the culture the natural history of the region and all of our exhibits are oriented in that direction in waves and currents We've got two wonderful diorama is one of a waterfront model showing Wilmington 863. We also have a wonderful model of the battle of Fort Fisher which we say actually shows you more of Fort Fisher than exists today. The Michael Jordan discovery gallery examines the natural history of the region with educational hands on activities that kids will love. Nearby is a display case with memorabilia from basketball superstar and Wilmington native Michael Jordan. And a trip up the coast to the charming town of Beaufort presents the perfect opportunity to learn about our state's coastal history at the North Carolina Maritime Museum. There's an impressive collection of ship models North Carolina work boats a salt water aquarium and 5000 sea shells from around the world.

Like many museums in our state an important emphasis is on education and preservation an approach that allows visitors to learn about the importance of the past and how it affects the present and our future. If you'd like to visit any of the museums and Maria's story it's recommended that you call each museum directly for the hours of operation and admission fees. One resource to learn about the many museums in our state is the guide to North Carolina museums. The directory cost 16 25 and may be ordered from the North Carolina museum's Council. Post Office Box 26 0 3 Raleigh 2 7 6 0 2. Well that brings to an end tonight's edition of North Carolina now please make plans to be with us tomorrow when we'll get the latest on the state budget battle for a legislative correspondent Sonja Williams. Also tomorrow an exciting form of basketball is hitting the state we'll take you to Charlotte to showcase the women's NBA. Have a great night everyone will see you back here tomorrow. Good night.