Epidemic of dumb!

SmilingBluEyes · Jul 21, 2007

Yep, variety is the spice of our business. Sorry you have had a rough time lately. It's time like these I do focus on the patients/families who keep me going and give me hope. There are so many good moms/families out there as well. But I can definately, as an OB nurse, relate to what you are saying above. Right now, we have a patient out there who, at the last minute, is firing her primary MD, and is 6 feet 2, 350 lb and has anger mgt and mental health issues -----this lady has already threatened nurses across town, that if she is not induced for labor (she is not due for 3 weeks), she will sue or who knows what else....... FUN FUN FUN.

Dixielee, BSN, RN · Jul 21, 2007

Stupidity is rampant in the ER. Our motto is, "you gotta be tough if you are gonna be stupid". I have been doing this 34 years and I have yet to see all the stupid things people can do to themselves or others. Just when I think I have seen it all.....some idiot tops it.

It makes me realize what a sedate, boring life my family leads......yes, I like it like that.

I have never lit a cigarette while unloading a tanker truck full of gasoline.

I have never leaped from a moving car down the interstate.

I have never stood up on a moving motorcycle.

I have never put a "scrubbing bubbles" can in my rectum.

I have never tried to perform a c-section on my self.

I have never tried to jump from my hotel balcony into the swimming pool.

I have never tried to give my bonfire a boost with a can of gasoline.

I have never dived head first into a 6 in deep creek.

BUT, I have tried to care for these people. Darwin was right, but we just don't let nature take it's course often enough. We encourage people to keep doing stupid things, and we will fix it and allow the stupid gene to be passed on and on and on. Job security????

allnurses Guide · Jul 21, 2007

Interesting . . . I just bought a book at B&N yesterday called "Pushed" by Jennifer Block. It is "The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care".

So far, lots of talk about interventions (inductions, cesareans, etc.) and she makes a statement that none of the pregnant women she interviewed asked to be induced.

Even in my small rural community, I have had many women want to be induced prior to due date and many women want cesareans instead of lady partsl delivery.

I have only just started the book so I'm not sure about her research . . . . . however, I don't think just complaining about the docs and hospitals is the whole picture. The moms in labor have a role in interventions too.

As to "dumb" . . . one of my relatives did the gasoline on a bonfire thing. :uhoh3:

steph

LydiaNN · Jul 21, 2007

At the developmental follow up clinic, the mom of a child with DiGeorge Syndrome explained that she hadn't followed up on the referral to the ped cardiologist because she could tell her son was healthy by looking at him. I believe a court order was pursued shortly thereafter. Mom seemed totally oblivious to her child's risk, despite the best education efforts of the PHN arranged by the discharge planner.

Jo Dirt · Jul 21, 2007

As to "dumb" . . . one of my relatives did the gasoline on a bonfire thing.
steph

We didn't use gas but we used kerosene.

But this teen mom, was she in her early or late teens? We seem to expect a certain degree of intelligence/common sense out of people but some people literally have to be told everything, even that you don't go to a

hospital because it is prettier.

prmenrs, RN · Jul 21, 2007

DENIAL--it's not just a river in Egypt! If I don't do what the docs said I should, whatever they said was wrong won't be.

2curlygirls · Jul 21, 2007

however, I don't think just complaining about the docs and hospitals is the whole picture. The moms in labor have a role in interventions too.

:yeah:

How true!

Selke · Jul 22, 2007

Interesting . . . I just bought a book at B&N yesterday called "Pushed" by Jennifer Block. It is "The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care".
So far, lots of talk about interventions (inductions, cesareans, etc.) and she makes a statement that none of the pregnant women she interviewed asked to be induced.
Even in my small rural community, I have had many women want to be induced prior to due date and many women want cesareans instead of lady partsl delivery.
I have only just started the book so I'm not sure about her research . . . . . however, I don't think just complaining about the docs and hospitals is the whole picture. The moms in labor have a role in interventions too.
steph

The moms in "Pushed" are from a different place than the ones demanding inductions, c-sections, &c ... I know you know that, though. I wish there were more moms like this out there!

I agree with you. Where is the concept of individual responsibility? The patient's responsibility for her own health, her own pregnancy, for being able to handle things without demanding that others, i.e. the system (in this case, us) DO EVERYTING for her -- start her labor, "take" her baby by c-section just because she wants it, give her the epidural when she walks in the door? They expect their births to be just like what they see on those TV shows and if they're not they're upset. Or they come in and are scared to death that their births WILL be like the ones on those shows.

Some of these patients are the first to threaten to sue if we don't do exactly as they say. It's even worse when their pushy mothers accompany them to triage and glare at you and question every little thing you're doing and why aren't you keeping little miss Molly and inducing her or "taking her baby?" She's 39 weeks for crissakes! She is hurting so much and is so uncomfortable carrying this baby!

/end of vent

allnurses Guide · Jul 22, 2007

The moms in "Pushed" are from a different place than the ones demanding inductions, c-sections, &c ... I know you know that, though. I wish there were more moms like this out there!
I agree with you. Where is the concept of individual responsibility? The patient's responsibility for her own health, her own pregnancy, for being able to handle things without demanding that others, i.e. the system (in this case, us) DO EVERYTING for her -- start her labor, "take" her baby by c-section just because she wants it, give her the epidural when she walks in the door? They expect their births to be just like what they see on those TV shows and if they're not they're upset. Or they come in and are scared to death that their births WILL be like the ones on those shows.
Some of these patients are the first to threaten to sue if we don't do exactly as they say. It's even worse when their pushy mothers accompany them to triage and glare at you and question every little thing you're doing and why aren't you keeping little miss Molly and inducing her or "taking her baby?" She's 39 weeks for crissakes! She is hurting so much and is so uncomfortable carrying this baby!
/end of vent

Ah, you read it too . . . . I'm not very far into it but it is fascinating.

Stripping membranes, PROM, pitocin, etc. Sure feels like home. :rolleyes:

I may leave the book in the docs' dictating lounge.

steph

Selke · Jul 22, 2007

Ah, you read it too . . . . I'm not very far into it but it is fascinating.
Stripping membranes, PROM, pitocin, etc. Sure feels like home.
I may leave the book in the docs' dictating lounge.
steph

There's a couple more in the same vein that's come out recently; couldn't find the names but I think Marsden Wagner has a new one, and then there's "Birth in America" (maybe this is the Wagner one? and a movie is being made of it). I just ordered "Pushed", but can just imagine what it says.

Meanwhile, support your local production, or better yet, start a local production of, BOLD: Birth On Labor Day:

http://www.birthonlaborday.com/bold/whatisbold.html

The docs will roll their eyes and wonder who left the granola hippie midwife cr#* in their lounge.

Stripping membranes isn't so bad ... but hate the AROM, pit, EFM, Friedman's curve, blah blah blah ... I feel like such a wh(*# for the OB Pimp. My days of doing this are SO numbered, I hope ... hoping I won't be pimping for the Man as a CNM.

allnurses Guide · Jul 22, 2007

There's a couple more in the same vein that's come out recently; couldn't find the names but I think Marsden Wagner has a new one, and then there's "Birth in America" (maybe this is the Wagner one? and a movie is being made of it). I just ordered "Pushed", but can just imagine what it says.
Meanwhile, support your local production, or better yet, start a local production of, BOLD: Birth On Labor Day:
http://www.birthonlaborday.com/bold/whatisbold.html
The docs will roll their eyes and wonder who left the granola hippie midwife cr#* in their lounge.
Stripping membranes isn't so bad ... but hate the AROM, pit, EFM, Friedman's curve, blah blah blah ... I feel like such a wh(*# for the OB Pimp. My days of doing this are SO numbered, I hope ... hoping I won't be pimping for the Man as a CNM.

Oh yeah, the history of Friedman's curve is in the book - fascinating.

Love the link. And the granola hippie midwife cr#*:monkeydance:

steph