Nurses: How Do You Feel About Your Patients Being Nurses?

[All4NursingRN]

Or worse yet when their family members are nurses at the same hospital.

Well I recently went per-diem at my ER job and worked my first shift back in a month and a half. (Thank God I wasn't as rusty as I thought I would be)

So of course, crazy busy ER, new patient from triage like every 15 minutes. Plus we were short a nurse and a ward clerk, and the ED tech is on break. So we're answering phones, processing our own blood, etcc.!

In comes a patient, uncomfortable looking? yes, he is shivering and bundled up, basically here for flu-like symptoms.

By his side are two women both with our hospital badges on, right away I see they're both RN's

By this time we're in the middle of the usual storm, the waiting room is bursting at the seams, triage is backed up, we're all running around like chickens with our heads cut off docs included!

He isn't even in my area 15 minutes (according to the computer he has been in the ER from door to my area only 22 minutes, obviously he got in quick, he's with two RN's!) when one of the ladies he's with chases me down and asks abruptly are you his nurse?, are you his nurse?

I stop dead in my tracks and nod eagerly Yes maam, I'll be right with you (I had blood specimens in my hand that needed to be sent to lab, I couldnt just drop it!)

5 minutes didn't even go by and the other ladies he's with also one of our RN's goes, hey he has a 102 fever and his HR is 140, this time I look her dead in the eye and through my teeth say, YES just please give me a minute I'll be right there. I understand I'm his nurse, but he hasn't even been seen by the doc yet. I get the whole you work here thing. Heck I brought my brother to ER (which is my own dept) but I waited like everyone else but I certainly didn't pressure my fellow nurses to get on it!

Then as I place the blood tubes down to draw his blood she decides it would be cute to pick up each blood tube and name them all and what they're for, like really? please stop showing off, I'm sure your sick husband doesn't appreciate this right now, we all get it your a nurse, I'm a nurse, the other ladies a nurse, you work here, grow up!

So I take care of him, thankfully he's not seriously sick. It's the flu!

A few hours later another patient comes in with severe pain. Docs are at a trauma, I go ahead get him lined and labbed and promise him the ER doc will be back soon.

Unfortunately ER doc is with trauma patient for a while, so I grab another doc and beg him to order some pain med for my guy, which I then give.

patient then asks for more pain medication about an hour or two later, we give him a stronger dose, he was thankful and said he knows how busy it can be his wife is one of the nurse managers upstairs.

Few hours later his wife shows up!

I let her know I'm his nurse tell him which nurse would be covering me while I was on break.

I come back from break and lets just say the nurse who was supposed to be relieving me left more work for me plus it hadn't slowed down, I had two new patients who weren't even seen!

Now I dont' know if I was so busy cleaning up the nurse who was supposed to be relieving me for my breaks mess or if it was never relayed to me that he was once again in pain.

Then his wife comes over to me (with a very typical nurse manager's tone as if I was one of her nurses) and says a bit sarcastically, ''hey, he's been in pain for 45 minutes now''

I say yes, yes I'm on it, at the same time ER doc interupts me looking for a patients urine specimen and again I get caught up with that and getting pain meds for yet another patient who was in excruciating pain!

Now it's time for shift change, me and oncoming nurse are rounding and when I get to him he yells with frustation, HEY I've been lying in pain for 45 minutes here, what's going on!

I felt horrible, like his wife is a NM now I look bad, is she going to tell my manager? Then it reminded me of the two nurses who came in with the patient earlier that night who were absolutely pressuring me to get to their family member right away.

Ugh I'm so used to having bad nights that they don't faze me (unless a patient was harmed) but for some reason this bothered me a bit as if I looked incompetent. Not to mention both nurses and the nurse manager were all from different units they must think our ER is a zoo, so disorderly and poorly run. *Sigh*

Do you ever feel weird when your patient or patient's family member is in the medical field? worse yet fellow nurses?

[BlueDevil,DNP, DNP, RN]

I saw a nurse in clinic the other day who thought she understood more than she did about blood pressure. She takes her BP daily and worried about an asymptomatic variation of her SBP of about 10 points. I tried to be very reassuring while I told her this was not clinically significant and not something to be overly anxious about, but she kept telling me she knew how serious BP changes could be and that the DOCTOR (as opposed to me, the mere NP, lol) she works for told her she needs to see her PCP about it, yada yada yada.

I can read between the lines and I realize that she was probably asking him a dozen questions about this (non) issue inappropriately in their workplace and he told her, "see your PCP (i.e. stop asking me) about this."

She just could not accept that she was OK, so I told her to go seek a 2nd opinion someplace else.

It was one of the few times having a nurse as a patient was a pain. Having someone who did not know what the devil she was talking about, but thought that she did merely because she happened to be a nurse was a pain. That she was also an obnoxious person did not help, lol.

[Overland1, RN]

...just figured out what "Smh" meant; thought it was "slopping my hogs", but that's another story.

When my father was in the hospital (his final hospitalization), the rule in our family was that nobody - not even his doc - was to know what I did for a living, nor that my wife and I were both Critical Care EMT/Instructors. Everything went as it should... no complaints, and the staff did not need to know that the patient's son was some "hot-shot ER nurse from out of town".

The same rule applied to my mother until she met with the excellent discharge planning peepz who would help refer her to acute medical rehab. There was nothing available in her city, so she suggested, "how about where my son works?" She ended up in Medical Rehab "where I work" and all worked out really well.

As for being at the "nurse" end of caring for a patient in the health professions, I do not let that get in my way, treating them the best I am able, just like any other patient. They put their skivvies, pants, and shoes on one leg at a time, just like the rest of us.

[determined2banurse]

Because they are fellow nurses and are very much aware of what you are going through they should be more understanding. My own husband who had Pancreatic CA was a patient in the hospital several times before he died and I never told anyone that I was an RN or a nurse manager at another facility. I tried to be patient and do as much as I could to lighten their load. I took every opportunity that presented to compliment them on the fine job that they did!

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

Hola, quisiera poner esto en espanol por que quisiera que una persona hispana me de un consejo. Soy enfermera peruana, con 5 anos de estudio en la universidad, licenciada y colegiada. Me case y vine a USA, miami hace 5 anos atras. Durante ese tiempo estudie ingles y postule al NCLEX exam por 2 anos, el motivo es que me negaban dar ese examen ano tras ano, aduciendo que mi educacion en peru no era equivalente a la usa. Esto fue falso, porque me enrole a 2 cursos que decian que no eran iguales, y luego me lleve la sorpresa de que eran menos las horas de esos cursos que los que lleve en Peru. En fin, cuando acabe esos cursos envie mis calificaciones al board y recien ell ano pasado me dejaron dar el Nclex exam, que era super facil y pase al primer intento. El problema es que hasta ahora no encuentro empleo y que solo tengo mi licencia de enfermera pero cuando ven mis estudios de otro pais no me aceptan. En algunos lugares me dicen que entre sus requisitos esta ser egresada de una escuela autorizada de nefermeria en USA. Eso me deprime, y mas por que debo renovar una licencia que no he usado... he gastado tanto dinero en Silny y en mis tramites para ser enfermera aca en miami y para nada. No se que hacer, realmente necesito un consejo de alguien que pase o este pasando lo mismo que yo.

Pense en estudiar nuevamente toda la carrera de enfermeria, pero ya no me es posible x q tengo ya una licencia de Registered nurse. Una advisor de una unievrsidad dijo que me correspondia hacer el masters, pero con que dinero?? si no puedo trabajar de nurse...

estoy muy preocupada, y mas por el hecho que al tener un bachelors degree en el extranjero ya no puedo ser elegible para estudiar con Financial Aid.... Siento todos los caminos cortados a mi paso... y tambien me siento fracasada por invertir anos y mi vida y mucho dinero en la enfermeria que aun no he podido recuperar. No se que hacer. Estuve tratando de unirme a las fuerzas armadas army navy rotc, x el hecho q soy ciudadana pero no puedo por que supero el limite de edad, (ya hable con recruiter), bueno y tambien quisiera postular a la beca UM de BSN en un ano pero tengo un nino pequeno y no creo que pueda haber un semestre con 3 GPA osea B, haciendo 18 creditos en un semestre y 22 en otro,.. no quisiera fracasar en eso y tener que devolver el dinero de la beca, porque ya lei que si no me mantengo co B o que si me despiden dentro de los 36 meses de trabajo despues del estudio tendre que devolver el dinero de la beca. pienso qeu seria mucha tension para mi estudiar ese ano con el temor de pagar para atras los 40 mil de tuition.

Alguien termino ese BSN acelerado con beca y le fue bien??? leo de gente que dice ser admitida pero no veo reviews de gente que haya compleatdo bien el programa..

En fin, cualquier sugerencia es bienvenida. No tengo mas dinero para invertir en educacion.. he postulado a varios tipos de trabajo que no tienen que ver con la salud y nada. Fue CNA teniendo mi licencia de RN porque me decian que para ser RN debia tener experiencia de RN no de CNA, y ademas me corrieron al obtener mi licencia de RN. He postulado a New graduate internships pero ninguno me admite. Siempre piden egresados de una escuela acreditada en estados unidos. Que hago?????

Favor de escribir solo buenos consejos, ya mi vida es un calvario como para escuchar mas burlas,

Gilda

You may want to start your own thread instead of posting off-topic in this thread (at least, I'm assuming it's off-topic as my Spanish is far from fluent). Also, per TOS, posts are to be in English.

[08RNGrad]

I've never had a problem caring for another healthcare provider, and infact, I once took care of a husband of a nurse who worked at my hospital, and they were nice as can be. The WORST was when I took care of a woman whose 2 daughters were nurses but no longer practiced, they were in pharma sales. They grilled me for 12 straight hours and demanded to see the MDs constantly. They were furious when they had to wait more than an hour for a consult. That was one horrible shift. The patient was getting great care, but these daughters were just extremely anxious and tried to act like they knew a lot, which was funny b/c they knew nothing and had obviously been out of patient care for awhile, UGH!!!!

I make a point of not mentioning I'm a nurse when going to the doctor and as well as when I visit family in the hospital. I like to quietly observe, I would never make a point to tell the nurses I was an RN unless I questioned their competence. Luckily, this has never happened.

[jennilynn]

I have no problem taking care of other nurses. I have had issues with taking care of ancillary staff that think they know more than nurses (pharm tech, X-ray tech, OR transporter) but I get through it.

I find that most nurses do not walk in to visit or as a pt, waving their license around. I sit and quietly observe.

[SaoirseRN]

I have no problem taking care of other nurses. I have had issues with taking care of ancillary staff that think they know more than nurses (pharm tech, X-ray tech, OR transporter) but I get through it.

I find that most nurses do not walk in to visit or as a pt, waving their license around. I sit and quietly observe.

I tend to agree with this ... Not to say that every nurse is the perfect, understanding patient/family, or that every member of the above groups are horrid, however I can honestly say I have had more problems with ex-nurses (long retired, or those long removed from acute care), nursing students, and people who just work in a hospital or clinic.

No disrespect intended to the above mentioned groups. This has just been my experience.

[Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN]

Personally, I don't mind at all if my patient is a nurse...if anything, I can talk in "nurse" to them. However, most of my patients are not comfortable bringing up the fact that they are nurses, so unless they tell me they are a RN/LVN, I don't address it.

As for myself as a patient, I don't go out of my way to bring it up, but I don't deny it either. Though I'm sure that just from talking to me, the nurses whose patient I am have probably figured out that I know a little more about what's going on than their average patient

[Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN]

For the most part, they have been great. Its the nurse family member that makes me want to jump head first off our helipad.

Same here: Nurse patients are great. But while most mean well, the nurse family members can drive one crazy.