Actually, I lost all respect for two colleagues today. One is a brand new grad, about 21 or 22 and gorgeous in one of those fresh, "girl next door" ways. She gets her scrubs tailored so they fit her just so, her hair is long, shiny and falls in loose lustrous waves. She could be a model, so we'll call her Heidi. The other is a married neurosurgery fellow, whose wife is pregnant with his first child. We'll call him Dr. Dick, or just Dick.
Heidi didn't do anything to seriously endanger a patient: she didn't slam in Lasix, for example, or trickle in Adenosine. She didn't miss a run of VT (although, to be fair, the Clin Tech noticed it first and pointed it out to Heidi). She didn't ignore post-op pain or bleeding, and she wasn't the one sitting at the computer at the nurse's station, headphones on and watching a hockey game while ignoring monitor alarms and call bells. Nevertheless, I've completely lost respect for her.
It was a slow night for a Friday night -- half of our surgeons were out of town for a conference and of the remaining four, one just lost his mother and isn't back from the funeral in Asia. There's a new sushi restaurant near the hospital, and they deliver if you can put together a lucrative-enough order. The folks I work with are crazy about sushi and even the Respiratory Therapists and the X-ray techs were ordering $20 worth of sushi.
We were all sitting in the back -- well, not ALL of us. Half of us were sitting in the back, having drawn the long straw and were enjoying our sushi while the other half watched all of the patients. Heidi was sitting next to Dick, something that really didn't register with me at the time, and Dick was regaling us all with a tale about how his wife's incredible morning sickness caused her to toss her cookies in the waste basket of a patient's hospital room while the patient described in great detail the "unusual" nature of his poop. (Only nurses -- and surgeons, RTs and X-ray techs can sit around enjoying a good meal while describing poop and someone's vomiting episodes.)
And then I went back to relieve Steve, my substation partner so he could eat his sushi. While Steve was gone, his patient's attending surgeon stopped by and asked a question I couldn't answer, so I popped into the break room to ask him about it. Both Heidi and Dick were still there, only this time they were sharing a single chair. The sexual tension was palpable, and Steve looked thrilled to be interrupted. He shot out of the room as though he'd been fired from a cannon.
Heidi, it seems, has been sleeping with Dick since her arrival on our unit in July. She knows all about the pregnant wife . . .
Heidi may be a good clinician one day, she may be a compassionate and caring nurse. She may be a hard worker. But I will never again respect a woman who could sleep with a married man, a man whose wife is pregnant with their child and who is a sometimes-colleague on a consulting service. And the fact that they made no attempt to be discreet makes them even more contemptible. I've lived through the drama on a unit when an affair goes bad, witnessed a famously and flagrantly unfaithful surgeon's wife storm into the ICU demanding "which one of you ugly ******* is ******* my husband?" and making a good attempt to castrate the man in question. I've seen the aftermath of the DON being found going at it with the Medical Director of Emergency Medicine and I've lived through more nurses breaking up with doctors on our service than I can even remember. I've been the cheated-upon, and it was more painful than even I can describe. Why would you put someone else through that deliberately?
Keep it out of work, people. And if you cannot do that, at least be discreet.
Oh yes, you'll have to excuse SionainnRN; she disapproves of anyone who fails out of nursing school and matriculates at another one with the intention of even at ATTEMPTING to apply to CRNA schools after gaining 6 months of experience. Instead, she feels that they must spend a minimum of 4-5 years begging for redemption before they have the audacity to proceed with pursuing their career goals. If they happen to apply sooner than that and get in.... well, shame on them.However, there's a more pressing problem at hand here: the Heidis of the world aren't going to sit around and wait 5-6 years for me to become bona-fide. So regardless of what Sionainn thinks, I must act, and I must act quickly.
Seriously -- the Heidis would rather get freak nasty with a relatively unattractive male who has money, than with an attractive one who might "only" earn what they earn (even if they have loftier goals they're working towards)?
Oh yes, you'll have to excuse SionainnRN; she disapproves of anyone who fails out of nursing school and matriculates at another one with the intention of even at ATTEMPTING to apply to CRNA schools after gaining 6 months of experience. Instead, she feels that they must spend a minimum of 4-5 years begging for redemption before they have the audacity to proceed with pursuing their career goals. If they happen to apply sooner than that and get in.... well, shame on them.However, there's a more pressing problem at hand here: the Heidis of the world aren't going to sit around and wait 5-6 years for me to become bona-fide. So regardless of what Sionainn thinks, I must act, and I must act quickly.Seriously -- the Heidis would rather get freak nasty with a relatively unattractive male who has money, than with an attractive one who might "only" earn what they earn (even if they have loftier goals they're working towards)?
Wow that's hilarious. You should take up comedy when nursing, CRNA, PA and med school don't pan out. And if you're going to accuse me of something at least have your facts straight.
Oh yes, you'll have to excuse SionainnRN; she disapproves of anyone who fails out of nursing school and matriculates at another one with the intention of even at ATTEMPTING to apply to CRNA schools after gaining 6 months of experience. Instead, she feels that they must spend a minimum of 4-5 years begging for redemption before they have the audacity to proceed with pursuing their career goals. If they happen to apply sooner than that and get in.... well, shame on them.However, there's a more pressing problem at hand here: the Heidis of the world aren't going to sit around and wait 5-6 years for me to become bona-fide. So regardless of what Sionainn thinks, I must act, and I must act quickly.Seriously -- the Heidis would rather get freak nasty with a relatively unattractive male who has money, than with an attractive one who might "only" earn what they earn (even if they have loftier goals they're working towards)?
I thought you had to have 1, or even 2 or more years experience in an ICU to get into a good CRNA program. At least that is the experience of all of the CRNAs I work with. None of them went into CRNA school without at least 2 years of CRITICAL CARE behind them, most of them with more. Maybe times are changing, though perhaps not always in a good way.
Aside from that, did you NOT just read the administrator's admonition about making personal attacks on other posters?
Wow that's hilarious. You should take up comedy when nursing, CRNA, PA and med school don't pan out. And if you're going to accuse me of something at least have your facts straight.
No, what's hilarious is your insistence that one failure will inevitably and unavoidably lead to another failure. It's okay, because you sound like you're obviously under substantial stress at work and serve, ironically enough, as a prime example of why I don't want to languish in bedside nursing for the majority of my career.
But let's keep the thread on topic -- so Heidi has banged, er, bagged the millionaire of her dreams, and Dr. Dick has finally figured out how to achieve the ultimate pay-off for spending all those years in medical school, residency, and fellowship (and I'm talking about a pay-off that involves gaining something OTHER than money). It's not surprising to hear that nurses, like professionals in many other fields, will fall for money/status, but is there seriously no "friends-with-benefits" culture that ever exists between/amongst nurses? Do these situations always involve the (female, in this case) nurse making a vertical and not lateral move?
I thought you had to have 1, or even 2 or more years experience in an ICU to get into a good CRNA program. At least that is the experience of all of the CRNAs I work with. None of them went into CRNA school without at least 2 years of CRITICAL CARE behind them, most of them with more. Maybe times are changing, though perhaps not always in a good way. Aside from that, did you NOT just read the administrator's admonition about making personal attacks on other posters?
To put it simply, she "called me out," so to speak, so I just responded accordingly. To try and answer your other question, based on what I've learned via researching many of the CRNA programs throughout the southeast, there does seem to be a trend whereby more and more programs are mandating that applicants have at least 1 year of experience at the time of matriculation (not application). Anyways, back to the thread topic...
No, what's hilarious is your insistence that one failure will inevitably and unavoidably lead to another failure. It's okay, because you sound like you're obviously under substantial stress at work and serve, ironically enough, as a prime example of why I don't want to languish in bedside nursing for the majority of my career.
Oh honey. I never actually said any if that. But if it makes you feel better than that's okay. We all need to do what we have to do to get through the day. You poor thing.
Oh honey. I never actually said any if that. But if it makes you feel better than that's okay. We all need to do what we have to do to get through the day. You poor thing.
Thanks for the sympathy. I really need it, especially since I applied to every local nursing program area in my area and got accepted to... all of them. And that's AFTER I failed out of the first program! How about this... maybe, just maybe, instead of admonishing people for having the gumption attempt to apply to CRNA programs with "minimal" experience, try and do something about the fact that, yes -- at many programs, the admissions standards are embarrassingly low so as to enable those applicants to get accepted in the first place. There are two for-profit CRNA programs in Florida that aren't even affiliated with established universities, for God's sake. And in the realm of RN education, there's gotta be a problem when a student can earn an F at one program, walk away from said program nonchalantly without even bothering to re-take the class, and practically walk right in to another program, despite the fact that nursing school admissions is more competitive than ever.
Either way, I have now witnessed the product of too many years of bedside nursing, and I can state without hesitation that it is not something I want to become, so thanks for enlightening me.
Thanks for the sympathy. I really need it, especially since I applied to every local nursing program area in my area and got accepted to... all of them. And that's AFTER I failed out of the first program! How about this... maybe, just maybe, instead of admonishing people for having the gumption attempt to apply to CRNA programs with "minimal" experience, try and do something about the fact that, yes -- at many programs, the admissions standards are embarrassingly low so as to enable those applicants to get accepted in the first place. There are two for-profit CRNA programs in Florida that aren't even affiliated with established universities, for God's sake. And in the realm of RN education, there's gotta be a problem when a student can earn an F at one program, walk away from said program nonchalantly without even bothering to re-take the class, and practically walk right in to another program, despite the fact that nursing school admissions is more competitive than ever.
Either way, I have now witnessed the product of too many years of bedside nursing, and I can state without hesitation that it is not something I want to become, so thanks for enlightening me.
I guess I would be offended if anything you've said about me was true. Too bad you never actually read anything I wrote when you were asking for help. Plus you don't know anything about me, including how many years I've been at the bedside. Now I guess I feel badly for wish you luck, multiple times, on all your future endeavors. Gee my bad. Guess I'm off for more Jell-O shots and paper wrapped young! Good luck with the CRNA school and getting your very own Heidi!
Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
To put it simply, she "called me out," so to speak, so I just responded accordingly. To try and answer your other question, based on what I've learned via researching many of the CRNA programs throughout the southeast, there does seem to be a trend whereby more and more programs are mandating that applicants have at least 1 year of experience at the time of matriculation (not application). Anyways, back to the thread topic...
Well first you called yourself a new grad, or at least it it looked to me like you were.
Second it's not a "trend". ALL CRNA programs require a minimum of one year of ICU experience period. there are no CRNA schools who accept less.
Well first you called yourself a new grad, or at least it it looked to me like you were. Second it's not a "trend". ALL CRNA programs require a minimum of one year of ICU experience period. there are no CRNA schools who accept less.
Sorry for the confusion; I stated "new grad" because that's the stage I'll be at when I'm finally ready/qualified to go Heidi-hunting. Also, regarding CRNA programs and experience, what I meant was that some programs accept applications from ICU nurses who have less than a year of experience at the time of application (as has been pointed out, though, many programs require that applicants have a year of ICU experience at the time of application).
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
Getting back to the topic:
IMHO - its never good to gossip especially at work. Since the break room was a private place, why does it matter what happens there as long as its private? The OP freely admits that "Heidi and "Dick's" behavior didn't compromise care.
The break room is not a private place. Folks were trying to take their breaks in there, and the behavior chased more than one person out of the break room on what should have been their break.
Hedgehog25
70 Posts
Oh yes, you'll have to excuse SionainnRN; she disapproves of anyone who fails out of nursing school and matriculates at another one with the intention of even at ATTEMPTING to apply to CRNA schools after gaining 6 months of experience. Instead, she feels that they must spend a minimum of 4-5 years begging for redemption before they have the audacity to proceed with pursuing their career goals. If they happen to apply sooner than that and get in.... well, shame on them.However, there's a more pressing problem at hand here: the Heidis of the world aren't going to sit around and wait 5-6 years for me to become bona-fide. So regardless of what Sionainn thinks, I must act, and I must act quickly.
Seriously -- the Heidis would rather get freak nasty with a relatively unattractive male who has money, than with an attractive one who might "only" earn what they earn (even if they have loftier goals they're working towards)?