I'm more or less writing to see if anyone else here has had a similar situation.
When out with my hubby last weekend, we went to the movies and when we walked through the side hallway, a girl was sitting on the stairway with her head between her knees and leaning over. There was a young man there beside her and a security guard crouching in front of her with a walkietalkie. My first instinct was to see if she needed help but at the exact time I thought this, the security guard said "The ambulance is on its way." I later realized that what I did was a visual assessment. She was not bleeding profusely or anywhere I could see, she was not convulsing on the floor, nor was she unconscious or not breathing. If I was to take a stab at what the problem was, I would guess nausea or diabetic problems. Heck, she may have even been pregnant and had some bad popcorn! Overall, her condition was stable in my eyes.
Anywho, I walked by slowly to be sure I was sound in my decision and said to my hubby, "she'll be ok." We walked up the stairs and I noticed him look back again over his shoulder.
Later in the weekend, he told me that he was weirded out by me not stopping to help. I logically explained everything as I did above but he still didn't get it.
To his credit, he did say later "I can understand how you wouldn't want to be a nurse that night." Congratulations! :balloons: Bingo. Now if any of the above criteria was present, I would have been there in an instant, assessing and intervening.
Anyone else been thought of as a superhero on duty 24/7?
Specializes in med-surg, home health, hospice, LTC.
I can relate to your story Haunted, we were at a lake several yrs ago, when a young couple pulled their kid up from the bottom of the swimming area, not breathing etc. I ran over to assist, and a couple people ran up and said We're EMTs, we can help, well, I was a med-surg nurse at the time, with little experience with peds, so I assumed(bad thing, I know) that they, being emergency trained, would know what to do. The kid, about 4 or 5 y/o I think, was not breathing, but his chest was moving and he was moving his limbs a little. Anyway, the "EMTs" did nothing, :angryfire so I asked what his name was and shook him, told him to cough. He coughed up a bunch of water, started breathing and woke up! He was fine after that, although I did tell his parents to get him to a Dr right away. I have not had a lot of faith in EMTs since that incident, although I know these may have been bad examples of a fine group of professionals.
Your story reminds me very much of a story that a good friend and former teacher told me. I still remember crying with her when she told us the story in First Aid/CPR class. She went to a State Park with her husband ( a physical therapist) and another couple. It was a crowded day and there were lots of people at the lake. Some one that was in the water walking around stepped on something, it turned out to be a small boy who had drowned. They got him out of the water, my friend and her husband saw what was going on, they offered to assist the lifeguards. Between the group of them they coded this poor child for over 45 minutes on the beach, by the time the ALS truck got through the traffic, he was basically gone. They were driving home that evening and witnessed a car accident. They pulled over and started trying to help the driver who had been ejected. He started to stabilize somewhat, still a little shocky but had a heart rate and his sucking chest wound had clotted over. She said that this man came up, identified himself as a medical student and proceeded to take a 4X4 and clear the clot from the wound. The pt. went into full arrest and my friend knocked the medical student away from him and started BLS. The sad thing is, she went to church with the accident victims father. Both of the people she had tried to help were pronounced dead when they reached the hospital.
funny...today I came to clinicals and then didnt feel good at all..(ate bad cereal in the morning) I asked to leave and on my way home in the train station I saw a woman being held up by a man..eyes closed. I approached, asked if she was ok. He told me she was having an epileptic seizure (I took out my penlight to assess PERLA) but she kept her eyelids tighly shut. It was a mild seizure that just resembles someone sleeping while standing. I ended up standing with the husband untill she recovered. I asked him several times if he wanted to go to the hospital ( a block away) he declined. I was basically glad I can offer my help...as little as it was.
Specializes in ICU, PICC Nurse, Nursing Supervisor.
This is exactly how I feel. If I'm the first on the scene of a accident "LAWD" I hate these situations; I do what I can to keep the person alive then as soon as I see those :redlight: red lights, IM GONE!!!
Maybe I am cynical or something. But unless I am on duty, I walk away going on about my business. The woman who "vaulted over three pews" probably has "RN" on her license's plate. There is the "good samaritan" law but are you willing to be the one that puts it too the test? I deal with "dudes and dudetts" everyday for 12 hours. When I am out on my time.....its just that my time.
Now before I get "flamed to death".......if its a TRUE and I repeat TRUE emergency .....ie choking or cardiac arrest etc..... I'm there lending a helping hand.
My husband and I are EMTs. I am also a nurse. In Wisconsin, transfer of care has to be made to someone with an equal or greater license. Therefore, I will only render aid as an EMT. I may not even mention that much if the situation seems dicey. I'll still give aid if it's a true emergency, but I'll do it as an innocent bystander and won't identify myself as a nurse OR an EMT.
We've stopped and given aid at three MVAs over the last decade. Oddly enough, two of them were only a couple of weeks apart. One was a fender bender involving a van carrying a large Asian family. The adults could not speak much English. a preteen kid did most of the communicating. What we did, for the most part, was keep everyone corraled and perform some quick assessments. Didn't see any evidence of serious injury but who knows what might have happened if they had all jumped out onto the busy highway.
Another time, we kept a man sitting in his car while we stabilized his c-spine. We kept him somewhat calm and immobilized until the local EMS rig arrived. In both of these cases, we tried to keep a bad situation from getting worse.
The coolest encounter happened by accident, pardon the pun. We were on the freeway to my folks' house, a trip we've been making for years and years. My husband got off one exit early. I looked at him and said, What are you doing? He shook his head and said he had no clue. As we were getting back on the freeway, we saw an accident that had taken place two minutes earlier. A motorcylist had hit something that caused him to skid and hit the dirt. His leathers took the brunt of the road rash, but he hadn't been wearing a helmet and his breathing was grossly inadequate. Because we carry some of our equipment in our private vehicles, we were able to get an oropharyngeal airway into him, bag him with 02, and stabilize c-spine until paramedics arrived about five minutes later and we gladly stepped out of the way. One of that department's officers sent our chief a letter of thanks and recognition, saying that we almost certainly played a crucial part in this man's good outcome. That was nice but the part that still gives me goosebumps is thinking about getting off the freeway at the wrong exit. Somebody was looking out for the cyclist.
People expect us to intervene in everything. I was at the theater and a lady got dizzy and fell....my friend said "excuse me he's a nurse, let my friend through.....". She was o.k. and there were enough people helping her without me barreling through acting like supernurse. :)
Funny thing about "would you respond." I was on a cross country flight and the flight attendant come on the intercom and asked if there were any doctors or nurses on the flight - would you please hit your call light. I was sitting in first class and 5 lights simultaneously lit up! The flight attendant's eyes flew wide open and we all looked at each other and busted out laughing. :chuckle
Fortunately, I have not been faced with a dire emergency, but if it were indeed dire, then I would probably do what I could. If it were a situation like the OP's, I would have done the exact same thing as she did.
Maybe I am cynical or something. But unless I am on duty, I walk away going on about my business. The woman who "vaulted over three pews" probably has "RN" on her license's plate. There is the "good samaritan" law but are you willing to be the one that puts it too the test? I deal with "dudes and dudetts" everyday for 12 hours. When I am out on my time.....its just that my time.
Now before I get "flamed to death".......if its a TRUE and I repeat TRUE emergency .....ie choking or cardiac arrest etc..... I'm there lending a helping hand.
I just stopped at a horrible looking accident and there were TONS of people helping. They seemed to be doing the right thing...the girl wasn't actually injured in an acute was, ie bleeding, LOC,ect.I stayed for a few minutes till I saw all was under control then silently slipped back to my car and left. I will always stop, but will leave as soon as I can see that the situation is stable.
You know its funny, but I've been in two other situations that worked out completely different for me. So I guess it always varies on how much you intervene.
My friend is becoming a professional wrestler and my hubby and I went to his last match. Of course it was a stupid cage match (I cringe at normal matches) and he ended up messing his finger up. His wife came out afterwards and said, "Hey you're a nurse!" I said, "yes, yes I am." I quickly helped him by assessing the finger, which was pretty bad off, the fingernail more or less saved him from severing the tip. We splinted the finger and he went to the hospital for treatment as I prompted him to do. It all ended well.
Another occurence where I would have intervened was at the grocery store and while I was in the checkout lane caught behind my cart. A lady entered the front door and promptly fell to the floor in a full-blown seizure. My feet didn't even move yet and four people rushed to her. They quickly protected her head and neck and called for an ambulance. Most of them were the employees. I was proud to be a customer.
It seems to me that people are brighter than what they appear. Or like in some of your posts, always able to point out the one and only professional in the bunch and say "Hey, its a nurse! Get 'em!"
Specializes in Education, Acute, Med/Surg, Tele, etc.
I also have a hubby that is a paramedic..and normally it is instinct for him to get into situations and lend a hand. He always offers his help if people need it. Sadly, at that point he will say "and my wife is a nurse" and wave me over. I say sadly because half the times we are late somewhere, or I have something I needed to get done, children to watch at the same time...uhggggg (isn't it kind of sad when you are helping someone at the grocery store and all you can think of is "darn it...my icecream is going to be melted by the time I finish this!!!" LOL!!!!!!) But can I really say no at that point...uhgggggg! It is like introducing you to someone and not saying hello..LOL!
But it hasn't been so bad lately, I quit going out..LOL!!!!! It does seem like nursing is 24/7 alert mode though. Friends/family calling at all hours about medical things, going out and having someone on the ground at the mall, and just the habit of being a nurse and doing visual assessments on everyone you see...LOL!
I agree though if I am alone and someone is in distress...and it isn't an emergency where my help is actually needed, or I actually think a EMT/Paramedic will have time to listen to me anyway (if I don't know the patient or their meds...ummmm not all that great if I don't know more facts than what they will actually ask the patient huh?!?!)...I stay out of their way so they can do their job! They are good at getting the facts, are use to getting facts in various situations...I trust them to do a better job than I could before they even arrive...so I tend to leave it alone! (unless it is an emergency where CPR or something is needed immediately and I can make the difference).
I do tease my friend a lot though....by saying I may be in the house, but OFF DUTY! LOL!!!!!!!!!
Now if any of the above criteria was present, I would have been there in an instant, assessing and intervening. 
old rural nurse, RN
36 Posts
I can relate to your story Haunted, we were at a lake several yrs ago, when a young couple pulled their kid up from the bottom of the swimming area, not breathing etc. I ran over to assist, and a couple people ran up and said We're EMTs, we can help, well, I was a med-surg nurse at the time, with little experience with peds, so I assumed(bad thing, I know) that they, being emergency trained, would know what to do. The kid, about 4 or 5 y/o I think, was not breathing, but his chest was moving and he was moving his limbs a little. Anyway, the "EMTs" did nothing, :angryfire so I asked what his name was and shook him, told him to cough. He coughed up a bunch of water, started breathing and woke up! He was fine after that, although I did tell his parents to get him to a Dr right away. I have not had a lot of faith in EMTs since that incident, although I know these may have been bad examples of a fine group of professionals.