Question about injuries and illness directly related to bedside nursing

Nurses General Nursing

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  1. Do you feel you have an illness or injury that is directly related to being a nurse

    • 28
      yes
    • 4
      no
    • 2
      Maybe

34 members have participated

Do you have an illness or injury that you feel you would not have if you have been a secretary or IT professional. This is for bedside nurses only.

I have practiced for 18 years at the bedside. I have heel spurs and have had to have plantar fasciotomies on both feet. My back is gone and I have bursitis in the major joints. I have already been told when I get older the knees will have to be replaced but I am too young now (47) Everyone else says I am an old ?????

My sister was just past her probation when she heard bedside rails making a racket. She investigated and it was not her pt. The patient was in for a herniated disc and possible surgery. Well the doc was called as the woman was out of control(DTs) and the doc ordered Valium 5mg op They told the doc she was going into DTs and he said it was impossible. Where have we heard that before. When she went to the patient's bedside she pulled on my sister's stethoscope which was as we all have it around the neck and pulled while trying to bite herface. My sister's response was to pull back and that is when it happened. Thely figure that the wouman's totla weight was 1 and a half times her actual weight. Well my sister went to the ER and had tests and sent to an orthopod and nothing was helping. She now has a titanium plate in her cervical spine with 3 screws and RSD of the left arm and TMJ of the left. The woman who caused the problem went home the next day. My sister hasn't worked since so if any of you can put your stethoscope anywhere else do so. At the time she got less than a years salary and a lifetime of pain and suffering.

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I was researching a paper for my research class and came across an article that compared 25,000 death certificates of nurses and women who made the same salary. It was over 21 states. It found that nurses have more breast, uterine, ovarian, and get this nasal cancer than the regular population. Few die from AIDS or hepatitis. I was shocked with the nasal cancer.

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Hmm. Nasal cancer, eh? Wonder if that may be related to the fumes we are exposed to....it would be interesting to see the stats on ALL hospital workers as a comparison. There should be a wide study done on nurses and environmental hazards, IMO......

I just had a huge growth removed from my thyroid....wonder if that has to do with all the portable xrays I assisted with through the years?? Docs kept asking about my exposure to radiation.

All our environmental hazards...kinda scarey as we get older and think back. Mixing chemo without hoods and gloves (nobody thought it was dangerous to the mixer 25 years ago...)

All the radioactive implants that were used in uterine cancer patients....no precautions for the nurses way back when.......hmmm.

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I injured my rt shoulder and neck when lifting a patient in the TCU. I was an NICU nurse at the time and got "pulled".

I now have RSD (reflex sympathetic dystrophy)on my entire rt side of my body and it has spread to my left side from my hip to my toes. I have a herniated thoracic disc, multiple bulges in cervical and lumbar discs with DDD in both areas, cervical spondylosis, uncovertebral spurring at almost all cervical vertebral levels, severe degenerative facet joint disease at C6-7, bilateral trochanteric bursitis, bilateral sacral iliac joint inflammation, femoral neuritis/neuralgia, frozen rt shoulder, ulnar nerve compression, and sciatica. Also, fibromyalgia/CFIDS, myofascial pain syndrome, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome ( most probably related to the RSD), thoracic outlet syndrome, suspected lupus, and various other problems.I'm sure there's probably something I left out.

I have had cervical fusion at 2 levels, 2 shoulder surgeries, thoracic outlet decompression, sympathectomy and brachial neurolysis.

I am in persistent, unrelenting, burning neuropathic pain 24/7 and am on a boatload of meds. I have tried almost every modality known to man to help with the pain including nerve blocks, PT, TENS, etc.

Enabled... I am so sorry for your sister's pain with the RSD and I so completely understand how hard it is for her and for you to have to watch her suffer with it. I hope that she has a good pain management physician.

Prior to my injury I had an occasional bout of a pinched nerve in my neck. I was never able to collect any W/C and I haven't been able to work since approx 7 yrs ago.

I am 49 going on 100!

Warm regards,

PappyRN

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"The patient who caused the injury went home the next day" This is too common! In this case (DT'S) she wasn't in control of herself..but....OK.I am driving all over creation being insanely diverted and doubled back on freeways.detoured to other closed freeways..by road workers who had to have realized they were sending commuters to closed roads....all the time reading the signs that warn of long jail sentences and hefty fines if we accidently injure a road worker........nice.....are nurses less valuable? Why is there no law that punishes those who PURPOSELY injury health care workers? On another thread I asked if any were harmed by people who were a/0 x 3 and did or should have known better....don't you all think that it is time we had our own protection from purposeful harm? I mean, we are under enough risk from the unintentional...why permit that which could have and should have been avoided?

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