Re: Nurse vs. Not Originally Posted by truern 
Andi, I believe I specifically mentioned threads that get railroaded that can only be appreciated by experienced nurses. I certainly didn't mean to imply that students can't "chat" with the nurses. Stick around...you'll see the kind of threads I'm talking about soon enough. Then imagine your non-nursing school friends trying to tell you how you should feel, act, think and BE when THEY don't have a clue.
well said, T.
like i said before, i was welcomed here before i became a nurse.. but i would never have judged a nurse as a student--because i didn't walk in their shoes, the patients weren't MINE yet. there are alot of threads on here, especially vent threads, where we get made out to be like these rotten people because we were ready to throw in the towel and said something "mean" or "uncompassionate".
there was a 2nd or 3rd semester student on my unit yesterday. she said to me "how many patients do you have?". i said 7. she's like "oh that's not that bad!"... and then proceeds to get her 1 hour lunch break (after they took their breakfast break, and mid day conference break). right. 7 patients on tele is way too many... here was my assignment yesterday. unless you have worked the floor as a nurse with the pts as your responsibility, you cannot even imagine how horrible it was. i about left in tears yesterday, and the nurse i gave report to coming on was about to be in tears before she hit the floor. too many patient, too high acuity. i started with these 7 yesterday. 2 went to ICU, and i got 2 more. so i charted on 9 patients.
patient 1: 45 y/o 500 lb female admitted for CP, r/o MI, PPM failure to capture, sustaining in the 30's and 40's, diaphoretic and pale, cardiology not returning phone calls, and refusing an IV site.
patient 2: 18 y/o female admitted post arrest after status epilepticus, had not taken her dilantin in 3 months, around the clock ativan, q 2 neuro checks, massive tongue lac from biting it.
patient 3: 60 y/o male admitted for chronic renal failure and CHF, +4 edema bilateral upper and lower extrems, vasculitis and venous stasis ulcers covering both legs requiring extensive dressing changes, brittle diabetes--got 3 amps of D50 yesterday in dialysis, unable to eat and wife refusing both hospice and peg tube--but has bilat infiltrates on CXR because she keeps feeding him, stage 4 on sacrum tunnelled almost to the spine.
patient 4: 90 y/o female post massive ischemic stroke, hemiparesis, to OR for peg placement, uncontrollable BP even with IV lopressor, family refuses to sign DNR and doesnt understand why shes paralyzed and lethargic, even anesthesia cannot place an IV due massive dehydration, converting to rapid afib and had to cardiovert.
patient 5: 80 y/o male admitted with COPD, on bipap 18/8 @ 40%, sat in the 80%, pH 7.1, PC02 98, no urine output on dopamine drip, pulmonary does not want to give orders for intubation... man goes into respiratory arrest. so i called a code. pt to ICU.
patient 6: 45 y/o female admitted for headaches r/o aneurysm to the brain. LP done at bedside in the middle of the day, patient taken down for MRI, coils inserted in OR. increased confusion and lethargy, sluggish pupils. called rapid response team. ICP increased. pt to ICU.
patient 7: 30 y/o female admitted with GI bleed. s/p gastric bypass. sutures did not hold. dumping syndrome and projecile vomiting. possible ileus, but profuse rectal bleeding. dilaudid PCA. taken to the OR for cautery by trauma surgeon.
i did not pee, eat, or sit down yesterday. i had the charge nurse and the director of the floor helping me because not ONE of these people was stable and it was almost impossible to prioritize who was the worst out of all of them... there were only 5 other nurses and 2 techs on the floor--who had just as equally bad patients... not enough staff at all... so they were stretched pretty thin. they were all so bad and i can only be in one room at a time. i got there at 0630 and left at 2100, and i wasn't the only person from days still there.
all compassion went out the window for me. i was beyond my point of no return yesterday and if someone had made the comment "it's not so bad" at 2100 when i was leaving, i probably would have hit them in the face. my eye was seriously twitching.
you cannot as a student or non-nurse possibly understand what that day was like. that's what eriks meant.
Re: Nurse vs. Not
I like it that we can't swear. I'm a member of my local newspaper and the forums there are simply awful - meanspirited - ugly - calling each other terrible names. That is not conducive to conversation. I rarely go there anymore. 
I think it was Eriksoln who said something about the website should be for those whose highest priority is nursing, and when I have to take time away from my son whos 2 1/2yo, busting my butt as a CNA all night and then going to school for 6 or more hours to become a nurse, it torques me off when someone suggests that I don't even deserve to "chat" with the nurses, it's not like I'm asking for an honorary "RN" badge by wanting to converse with higher level professionals than myself. 
Nursing News