just a disclaimer: this was not written by me, it was forwarded to me by my husband. it made me think and i thought the people of all nurses would also be interested in reading this - especially those planning to volunteer in shelters (not to say that you shouldn't). this letter is being sent to the ny times as well as bill o'reilly. mods, if this would be better in another forum, my apologies.
i am a nurse who has just completed volunteer working approximately 120 hours as the clinic director in a hurricane gustav evacuation shelter in shreveport, louisiana over the last 7 days. i would love to see someone look at the evacuee situation from a new perspective. local and national news channels have covered the evacuation and "horrible" conditions the evacuees had to endure during hurricane gustav.
true - some things were not optimal for the evacuation and the shelters need some modification. at any point, does anyone address the responsibility (or irresponsibility) of the evacuees?
does it seem wrong that one would remember their cell phone, charger, cigarettes and lighter but forget their child's insulin?
is something amiss when an evacuee gets off the bus, walks immediately to the medical area, and requests immediate free refills on all medicines for which they cannot provide a prescription or current bottle (most of which are narcotics)?
isn't the system flawed when an evacuee says they cannot afford a $3 copay for a refill that will be delivered to them in the shelter yet they can take a city-provided bus to wal-mart, buy 5 bottles of vodka, and return to consume them secretly in the shelter?
is it fair to stop performing luggage checks on incoming evacuees so as not to delay the registration process but endanger the volunteer staff and other persons with the very realistic truth of drugs, alcohol and weapons being brought into the shelter?
am i less than compassionate when it frustrates me to scrub emesis from the floor near a nauseated child while his mother lies nearby, watching me work 26 hours straight, not even raising her head from the pillow to comfort her own son?
why does it insense me to hear a man say "i ain't goin' home 'til i get my fema check" when i would love to just go home and see my daughters who i have only seen 3 times this week?
is the system flawed when the privately insured patient must find a way to get to the pharmacy, fill his prescription and pay his copay while the fema declaration allows the uninsured person to acquire free medications under the disaster rules?
does it seem odd that the nurse volunteering at the shelter is paying for childcare while the evacuee sits on a cot during the day as the shelter provides a "daycare"?
have government entitlements created this mentality and am i facilitating it with my work?
will i be a bad person, merciless nurse or poor christian if i hesitate to work at the next shelter because i have worked for 7 days being called every curse word imaginable, feeling threatened and fearing for my personal safety in the shelter?
I heard stories of people complaining about the conditions at the shelters during Hurricane Gustav. One complaint was that the food was not to the person's standard or that they had to use a Port-a-potty. If that is true then all I have to say is...IT'S A SHELTER TO SAVE YOUR LIFE. IT AIN'T GONNA BE THE HILTON. IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT THEN LEAVE.
it always makes me really sad to read stories like this. i dont know why people believe they are so entitled....
hurricanes frances, jeanne and wilma made landfall in my hometown. i worked in a busy ER for all three of them. the hospital opened its doors to all family members and pets of the hospital's employees and mandated that the A team of the hospital ride out the storm.
during frances, my parents lost their home due to a fallen tree. i spent 2 weeks living in the hospital sleeping on the floor in the linen closet where a group of filipino nurses also bunked because they had also lost the mobile home they were staying in. we spent these two weeks without running water and with power only available to patients on iv medications, vents and oxygen. we ran out of food. the nearby hospital on the water had flooded an all patients transported to us during the storm's eye. it was a true blessing to see the community come together. we didnt have much, but we all shared. there was no hairpulling, shoving or name calling. breakfast, lunch and dinner for 2,000 people became graham crackers, ensure and jello. president bush made his way to our hospital when the roads were cleared. he commented on the comraderie of our community.
during hurricane jeanne, the special needs red cross shelter in town collapsed. we all geared up and crammed all willing staff members on ambulances to rescue these people. a male nurse and i that rode toegther tied ourselves together with rope just to get out the door. we were cleared to ride and made it to the shelter. we crammed 11 people on our ambulance. one was dying of a heart attack and another was going into labor. it was absolutely amazing. the people in the shelter had taken off their sleeping bags to make a little bed more comfortable for the woman in labor. a man had used the last of his ice supply to feed the dying man ice chips. the older children there stayed with the younger children and comforted them, apart from being scared to death of the knee high, ice cold water rushing in.
during hurricane wilma, we had it figured out by then, having had 3 category 4 hurricanes make landfall within a year.
there were a handful of jerks who looted. but most people came together. neighbors opened their doors. the community truly shined. i dont remember this kind of media circus ever making its way to hutchinson island.
i cringe with disgust after watching what people have done to each other during katrina and gustav. i wonder why they think they have the right to act that way, and if all the suffering that happened would have been present if they didnt......
We have all born witness to those few individuals who feel that sense of entitlement. It knows no color , educational bound, nor socioeconomic status or geographical point. We see people at their best and their worst. The best we can do is be grateful for those who pull together for the betterment of all.
flightnurse, the media picked up on the worse of katrina/rita...the people who were the rank and file did come together to make life as good as possible
when the katrina people were being sent to dallas in school buses the people of this community met them with ice and diapers, feminine products and snacks that could be carried on bus
this hurricaine hit in the hottest part of the summer so ice and water were not luxurys but absolute necissity...
pudding cups, small easily open meat cans, crackers, gave the children something to eat on the long bus ride
no one who met the buses were interviewed by media
Specializes in CCU stepdown, PACU, labor and delivery.
I guess the moral of the story is....if you are a nurse don't feel free to attempt to validate any negative feelings. You are to be the quiet, always smiling type or risk being called a martyr, selfish, or....eek..racist! How sad not to be able to lean on the support of fellow nurses when needed. Some of us don't live in the land of rose colored glasses...but feel free to let me know where that is...it sounds nice!
land, don't feel like no one appreciates what is going on..maybe someone will the vents and see themselves in that situation and be a better person down the road
there are good people and bad people and a stressful situation will not not change that...remember the good ones and shake off the bad
I believe people do try and validate other people,s feelings. That does not mean that we walk in their shoes. It does not mean that we perceive things the same way even. Sometimes we have to agree to disagree.
I do not believe in any sort of of put down generalizations of others though. It is not rose colored glasses I wear at all. I have seen the good ,the bad, and the ugly. But they came in all shapes, colors ,sizes,sex, from the illiterate to the doctorates, the poor to the rich.
It is why I try not to make generalizations. It is also why if I make a post I will not refer to what race the person might be, what size the person might be. I do not think that it would add to any feelings I would be try to express regarding an issue I would be having.
I hear you saying you feel there is no support of each other. I agree to disagree with that.
In responce to BBFRN. Dude, really you cant be serious. First off, there is nothing racially implied by that story. The only mention of a race being an issue was made by you. Why does everything that has nothing to do with race have to be transformed into something about race? Secondly, you may have had the wonderful experience of taking care of scared people just trying to survive and find their family members, but I have to tell you truthfully, if you are indeed being honest about this experience you claim to have had then you are most definately this expection and not the rule. I have had quite different exeriences too numerous to mention, and regardelss if I can attest to the truthfullness of the story from the nurse in LA, I can assure you the theme is very very much true. From working in an er for nearly a decade and volunteering at disasters, I can tell you, that a small portion, the advanced elderly and the very young, for the most part fit into the description you provide. The OVERWHEALMING majority of people fit into the description Sherri RN describes. If this is not true, then the things I see on a daily basis are merely figments of my imagination. I have been threatened by people of all races for not complying to their preconceived notion on how they should be taken care of and served. YESTERDAY...just yesterday 9/14/8, I took care of a 1 year old with a scorpion envomation. Mom showed up with family 30 minutes later....WITH FRESH DAIRY QUEEN! Yes, they actually stopped for something to eat before coming to the er to be with the 1 year old girl who was there alone. Please BBFRN, please, provide me if you can with a justification for that which would leave me feeling anything but enraged. I see this everyday, its either that or my corworkers and i are mass hallucinating these events. Its not a race thing, its what happens when entitlement occurs and people become too complacent with government taking care of them, and have no coping skills to take care of themselves. Help? Yes I'm all for it. Adult babysitting? Grow up! Not my job. Most nurses (my coworkers at least) will not do for someone things they can do for themselves. Why? Is it lack of compassion and caring? NO! Its because to do otherwise robs someone of their independence. That is a completely undignified thing to do to the human condition. I dont expect you'll agree with anything I've said, and will most likely label me as uncompassionate, but in my world by my experiences, this is reality as I see it.
Specializes in Trauma,ER,CCU/OHU/Nsg Ed/Nsg Research.
In responce to BBFRN. Dude, really you cant be serious. First off, there is nothing racially implied by that story. The only mention of a race being an issue was made by you. Why does everything that has nothing to do with race have to be transformed into something about race? Secondly, you may have had the wonderful experience of taking care of scared people just trying to survive and find their family members, but I have to tell you truthfully, if you are indeed being honest about this experience you claim to have had then you are most definately this expection and not the rule. I have had quite different exeriences too numerous to mention, and regardelss if I can attest to the truthfullness of the story from the nurse in LA, I can assure you the theme is very very much true. From working in an er for nearly a decade and volunteering at disasters, I can tell you, that a small portion, the advanced elderly and the very young, for the most part fit into the description you provide. The OVERWHEALMING majority of people fit into the description Sherri RN describes. If this is not true, then the things I see on a daily basis are merely figments of my imagination. I have been threatened by people of all races for not complying to their preconceived notion on how they should be taken care of and served. YESTERDAY...just yesterday 9/14/8, I took care of a 1 year old with a scorpion envomation. Mom showed up with family 30 minutes later....WITH FRESH DAIRY QUEEN! Yes, they actually stopped for something to eat before coming to the er to be with the 1 year old girl who was there alone. Please BBFRN, please, provide me if you can with a justification for that which would leave me feeling anything but enraged. I see this everyday, its either that or my corworkers and i are mass hallucinating these events. Its not a race thing, its what happens when entitlement occurs and people become too complacent with government taking care of them, and have no coping skills to take care of themselves. Help? Yes I'm all for it. Adult babysitting? Grow up! Not my job. Most nurses (my coworkers at least) will not do for someone things they can do for themselves. Why? Is it lack of compassion and caring? NO! Its because to do otherwise robs someone of their independence. That is a completely undignified thing to do to the human condition. I dont expect you'll agree with anything I've said, and will most likely label me as uncompassionate, but in my world by my experiences, this is reality as I see it.
DM:banghead:
First, I am sorry for the impassioned response 1 of several of my posts caused. I think if you read the rest of them, then you would realize that you only picked out a small part of my contribution to the thread.
Second, I am not a dude. But I can see why you would think so, if you don't get my avatar.
Third- I never said the nurse who wrote the letter was a racist. I said I personally had received racially charged emails after Katrina, and that caused me to be suspicious of the origin of the letter posted in the OP.
Now, please go through the thread again, and read the rest of my responses. The only 'racial' thing I mention is in regard to emails received in the past. Nothing more. No one called the OP or the letter-writer racist.
And yes, my experiences having volunteered may be different than yours, but it doesn't make them untrue. I don't doubt your experiences. I worked in an inner city level 1 trauma hospital for years, including the ED.
Again, I'm sorry to have caused this reaction in you, but please read the whole thread to avoid misunderstanding. Thanks.
Specializes in peds,ortho,phonetriage, author, insuranc.
thank goodness that there are some great ER and other nurses out there to meet and appreciate/recognize ALL types of people. there are definitely people who have alot of feelings of entitlement as you sid. alot of people do have that sense of entitlement unfortunately. No doubt this causes alot of problems in the health care industry and takes some of the happiness out of those of us working- and takes away appreciation for health care people. oh well. concentrate on the good things and good people!! there are plenty of those people out there too!!! may we see and hear them everyday!!!
WOW! chapookie, thank you for sharing and volunteering in those horrible conditions. Hopefully, at least one person appreciated your hard work, which would make volunteering worth it. Stay strong and God bless.
WOW! chapookie, thank you for sharing and volunteering in those horrible conditions. Hopefully, at least one person appreciated your hard work, which would make volunteering worth it. Stay strong and God bless.
While I thank you, I wasn't the one who did the volunteering, it was simply an email passed on to me that was written by a volunteer nurse in Shreveport, LA. I thought others here would be interested in it.
RN1982
3,362 Posts
I heard stories of people complaining about the conditions at the shelters during Hurricane Gustav. One complaint was that the food was not to the person's standard or that they had to use a Port-a-potty. If that is true then all I have to say is...IT'S A SHELTER TO SAVE YOUR LIFE. IT AIN'T GONNA BE THE HILTON. IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT THEN LEAVE.