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 witnessed similarly awful behavior from a dialysis patient 2 days ago.
She is in a rehab facility after breaking her hip, but has many medical problems mostly from neglecting her health and making poor lifestyle choices. She told me her home was destroyed in the hurricane and her husband was working with FEMA to get help. She also mentioned that she might be going home that night or the next day.
Later he husband showed up and she asked him about a hotel. He said "they're all booked". She started screaming at him "YOU BETTER GET US A HOTEL TONIGHT. I AIN'T STAYIN' HERE ANOTHER DAY! I REFUSE. YOU BETTER DO SOMETHIN' RIGHT NOW."
Oh, she was horrible! Here was her poor, distraught husband, exhausted from spending every waking hour trying to deal with this situation. Meanwhile she's lying around except for when she goes to physical therapy, oblivious to how difficult this situation is for everyone. Most of the staff still don't have power in their homes. Many of them are stressed out from dealing with getting an insurance adjuster over to their homes to asses the damage.
I said "Ma'am, every hotel from here to Austin, from here to Dallas and San Antonio is full. At least if you stay here you have a safe place to stay, air conditioning and three meals a day."
Of course, she was having none of it. She was just a spoiled, self-centered person who wanted what she wanted all the time and could care less about the problems anyone else was having.
It is yet another example of what has surprised me most about becoming a nurse - how awful people can be.
nan, i have seen this entitlement behavior in many, many people..spouses and families are in a rough spot but these people get that way because they can, they have a hissy fit and everyone eventually gives in to them
nan, i have seen this entitlement behavior in many, many people..spouses and families are in a rough spot but these people get that way because they can, they have a hissy fit and everyone eventually gives in to them
Yes, that's what I have noticed too. This woman has a fit and her family scrambles. I see it in so many people and it makes me sad for their families. Not to hijack the thread, but many dialysis patients act like this. They take the victim role for their "fatal medical condition" and milk it for all it's worth.
I have not worked in the shelters, but I have taken care of evacuees at local nursing homes from Rita and Ike. It wasn't a pleasant experience either time, however we were over crowded and understaffed. The evacuee nursing homes only brought minimal staff, not all staff was able to come with them. It was an awful situation. People being fed on folding tables in lobbies, foryers, courtyards. Not having enough supplies, and so on. Not to mention the condition these people were in after being on the bus for 10-12 hours with out adequate pericare, etc. After Rita we had evacuees for over a month, with Ike I just had to go one day and see pts at a facility the hospice I work for admitted. It was chaotic to say the least. With Katrina the staff and their immedieate family were put up in motel rooms at no charge for them, provided 3 meals a day, and complained because diapers were not furnished. What the heck? I was working 16 hour days 7 days a week (112 hours a week), no one was paying for my Breakfast, Lunch, or Dinner. My family was doing without, not seeing me for extended periods of time, I went home and slept and came back, an 8 hour turn around every day for over a month. after taxes I actually wasn't even bringing home much more money than before the overtime. I did it for the patients. Meanwhile, what staff they brought alternated the 8 hour night shifts, 2 days on 2 days off. What's fair? They had doubled our occupancy when they arrived. Our facility was also having to pay for travel nurses and CNA's. This had to come out of our company's pocket. When they left they took a lot of our equipment and supplies with them. Maybe we were in a bad situation. Maybe it isn't always like that, but it didn't seem that much different this last time either. And the patients were in very very poor condition. Bad nail care, bed sores, dirt and grime on their w/c. Hopefully I just got bad situations and they are not all like that.
Girlfriend welcome to real people in the real world!!!!!! When people are in a dreadful situation sometimes they react with disgusting attitudes or maybe that is how she acts on a daily basis like a real (excuse the word) *****!!!!!:heartbeat:argue:
After reading all these post, easy to see where there is a lot of anger, along with a sense of loss. I see that as all being misplaced. Hurricanes and other natural disasters occur. What I see is an abysmal effort by one of the strongest governments in the world to satisfactorily handle relief efforts. That is truly tragic. I still have a family from Ike at my place.
The government can not even keep the gas moving. We know there is a lot of gas in government....
After reading all these post, easy to see where there is a lot of anger, along with a sense of loss. I see that as all being misplaced. Hurricanes and other natural disasters occur. What I see is an abysmal effort by one of the strongest governments in the world to satisfactorily handle relief efforts. That is truly tragic. I still have a family from Ike at my place.
The government can not even keep the gas moving. We know there is a lot of gas in government....
I think there is a certain amount of blame to be placed on the disaster. OTOH I see this kind of behavior from people every day who aren't involved in disasters. They're just awful, hateful people with a sense of entitlement and no regard for others. I know as nurses we are in a position to protect people who are vulnerable, but some people milk it for all its worth.
Specializes in Peds, Med-Surg, Disaster Nsg, Parish Nsg.
I was a Red Cross volunteer nurse in one of the largest shelters between New Orleans and Baton Rouge for several weeks after Katrina. It was a very humbling and tiring experience. I was one of more than 100 volunteers who staffed this shelter which housed thousands of evacuees, most from St. Barnard Parish, the lower ninth ward, and other parts of the New Orleans area.
This shelter was patrolled by armed guards.......police, national guard, etc. Remember, the prisons were also evacuated, so we had no idea what and who we were dealing with. It was a scary position to be in hundreds of miles from the comforts of my home and family.
Many of the people I dealt with were very grateful for the care they were receiving. However, there were many others whose behavior was less desirable. One of the problems is that many of the residents had depended on "the system" to help them their entire lives, and now they were expected to learn how to be independent, as they were uprooted from their homes and families. It was a challenge to teach them some basic skills that would enable them to function more independently.
It was sad to see familes with all the possessions they had left in the world stuffed under their cots. I also witnessed the joy as people were united with family members.......mothers holding a lost child, husbands and wives reunited......
One of the things that really surprised me was the attitude of a very few of the volunteers.........nurses to be more specific. We had a few who thought it beneath them to do such mundane things as assisting with flu shots. They thought their expertise should be put to better use. Granted, it was just a few who had this attitude, but it really took me by surprise. It is hard, but quite possible to "fire" such volunteers.
This was one of the toughest experiences I have ever faced. I worked long hours in the heat, ate whenever I had time, slept among hundreds on an army cot. I was so glad to go home.....but felt guitly that I had a home to go to while these evacuees were left behind with a very uncertain future.
Disasters bring out the best and the worst in people. As nurses and volunteers, we can only strive to bring our best to these terrible situations........knowing that in such times it's not about us but about bringing compassionate care.
This letter is crap. So we are to believe that every evacuee is an alcoholic, drug abusing, ungrateful, disrespectful neglectful parent. There was no one that was a normal citizen down on their luck due to their homes and belongings being destroyed? This is really sad and just highlights how much racism and classist thinking exists in this country. I have a coworker in the US Health Corps that spent 2 weeks there helping out and had alot of encouraging and positive stories about the teamwork and the lovely ppl there.
I was fortunate to volunteer at the PMAC in Baton Rouge after Katrina. The evacuees there were truly grateful for everything that was being done. We treated about 5000 people while I was there. There was only one violent incident as far as I know.
Fast forward to 2008. I live and work in NW Louisiana and while I didn't volunteer at the shelter being written about, my little town did have some evacuees. The only news we received about the shelters was the bad stuff that the evacuees were mad about. There wasn't anything about the behavior of these people. Maybe this nurse was attempting to tell the story from the other side of the fence and how some people can not be made content.
Yes, there was a problem with showers, but in the face of disaster, is a shower tops your priority list of things to need? I would think that most people would be happy with a roof over their head and food on the table.
They weren't happy because the kids didn't have something to keep them occupied. I wasn't aware that the job of the volunteers to keep your kids occupied.
Lots of people I know have volunteered at shelters and the consensus among them is that there are a lot of good people at these places who are grateful for what is being done. But as with anything, there are those who make a lot of noise cause things aren't like "home". A shelter isn't meant to be like home, its meant to be a temporary place to stay until you can get back home.
So, I guess what I am saying is that unless you have walked a mile in these volunteers shoes, you have no right to open your mouth and judge them. If you weren't there, you don't know.
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FireStarterRN, BSN, RN
3,824 Posts
Wow, that sounds totally discouraging! Unfortunately, I can imagine the scene very well.
I always thought it would be a great thing to volunteer at a disaster, but this letter is a big eye opener to that reality!
There are a lot of social ills in this world, and you would definitely be in the thick of it.