Nursing student from Australia here, I wanted to take a moment here to share with you all how jaded some nurses and care staff can become. For me it re-enforces why I want to become a better nurse.
I was at work the other day, and I was on with a variety of members from the peanut gallery who usually appear to have our residents rights at the top of the list and are always on top of everything you know a good steady crew who always get it done.
This day however I was teamed up with two people who I hadnt really worked with before and will have a hard time working with them again for the following two reasons.
We have a patient who smokes and has asthma, now we all know that this is a horrible combination, the girl I was teamed up with before we even got to the patients room was already bagging him out talking about how disgraceful it was and so forth.
So I piped up and asked her if he had ever done anything to her to deserve this type of judgemental attitude. To which she replied " I have to waste my time looking after him, because he didnt do it his whole life" She then went on to suggest that we have to suffer with him.
The other scenario was similar only it was an obese lady who had diabetes, to which there were very rude comments some of which I think she heard and I care not to repeat.
I was appalled to witness such behavour in a place where I thought we were trained to care and support our residents, not begrudge them and let our own value's influence and determine what level of care we will give based on the situation.
I am not trying to preach and say I am better than anyone else, I have done my fair share of nasty things in my life, but the lessons have been learned, I just think that whether we are nurses or care aids we owe it to ourselves and the industry to rise above this type of behaviour and be more professional.
I'm curious how do your own values influence the advice, care and support you provide for your patients?
