It is always a good idea to stay alert and informed concerning the medical care we receive.  Restricted resources can make obtaining safe and competent health care even more of a challenge.   A recently published article appearing in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Tribune addressed a shocking new survey of acute care nurses.  Over 230,000 hospital employees were involved in the survey.  Nurses disclosed the fact that they believe that problems and medical errors are prevalent in the hospitals where they work.  Nearly half of the nurses surveyed reported feeling unhappy, disengaged and disempowered in their jobs.  These attitudes affected the standard of care patients receive and many reported that they could not recommend their hospital as a care center.  The medical errors the nurses reporting seeing with the most frequency were medication errors, pressure sores, allergic reactions, missed dressing changes.  The general consensus was that hospital administrators either are unaware or choose to ignore this growing problem.  Cutting financial corners in an effort to increase profits was cited as a main source of the turmoil brewing between employees of the hospitals and those that run it.