I wish I'd have known....B4 nursing school

katmndu224 · May 19, 2004

Are you a nurse? It is very disturbing to me that you could hold this view. Yes caring is a BIG part of what nurses do, but it is not the only thing that they do. :rolleyes:

Thank you GracefulRN:) I also found Snake's comments innapropraite and disturbing. I would also like to know if you are a nurse and if so, how many years do you have under your belt. Your comments sound very much like a medical receptionsit who gives out medical advise...useless!! Are you trying to baffle us or dazzle us with all that BS???

Really, lose the pseudo-intelect and go pick up one of the more reputable nursing journals. If you knew ANYTHING about nursing, you would know that there is a drive for ALL nursing practice to be outcomes-based due to scientific research...yes, nurses also do research too, which is based on science (both qualitative and quanitative)!!

God help me if I were ever a patient in the setting in which you practice...indeed, if you are a nurse...and you talked that talk, you would be respectfully to get out of my room. You miss the core of nursing...I leave it to you to figure it out. I just hope an SN does not read that dribble and think what you said is true. I for one would not want to be a nurse if it was all that you stated.

NP2BE · May 19, 2004

I wish I had known how many more doors would open for me with a BSN. It only took me 12 years after my ADN to get it... :)

I am so glad to hear this, can you expand?

Havin' A Party!, ASN, RN · May 19, 2004

... When I got out and faced reality, I felt inadequate; like I'd missed several courses that I should have taken and it was very scarey!... I'm gald that horrible time is well behind me (been practicing for 27 years now).

Wow, RN! That scary, huh?

Thanks for sharing.

watersnake · May 19, 2004

Hello:

I didn't mean to ruffle a bunch of feathers out there. Any offense taken is unfortunate. I have my credentialing also, have 23 years of nursing in many areas under my belt. Never on probation, never counseled in a way that mattered so far as my practice goes, never fired. And I smoke Marlboros, and that's that. And I'm not trying to dazzle anyone. I was mentored by an MD who is one of the most brilliant people I've ever met, and I guess his ways of questioning rather than accepting on faith or conformance rubbed off. Unfortunately, he forgot to get haircuts or buy new shoes and such, you know the type. But he taught me a lot about a lot of things, some of which helps me to refrain from insulting you in kind.

I find it ironic that I am criticized by people who don't know that ad hominum and straw man arguments are fallcious. I appreciate any correction if done in a professional manner.

My point is this: you can know things, you can know how things act and interact, interperet labs, and we should all be held to that standard based on our skill and experience. So far we agree.

Science: Now a baseball catcher, for example, has to know his team mates' strengths and weaknesses, know all the batters he is up against, essentially running the game while being a major participant. This does not make him, or the manager, or the team owner a scientist.

A scientist objectively formulates and tests a hypothesis, observes and reports results, and those results must be reproduceable using similar method. We use someone's scientific results, but we do not in the clinical setting use the scientific method. I am well aware that there are research nurses, biomedical engineers, and all that. I am also aware that funding and support might be withdrawn if the results don't come out the way the money man wants. But that's a side issue.

Any action or interpretation a nurse takes must be backed up by a doc to whom the nurse reports, who is backed up by standards of care, which are backed up by higher ups and so on. That is not creative scientific practice.

It is technical skill. The scientist is the person who developed the test, procedure, intervention or whatever. Using a device developed by someone else does not make me a scientist, for if it did, reading a speedometer would grant us all that title.

Art: I think I adequately addressed that in my post. Caring is not an art. It is a verb, an action, an affect. It is something that must be communicated to have an impact. If we agree, however, that the quality of caring is an art, and that nursing is by definition an art and science, then those few in the ranks who truly don't care, and simply do a job are excluded from being a nurse regardless of how well they perform. Also I am yet to know of a true scientist or artist who punched a clock, or was told how to arrive at his own conclusions, or which color of paint to use, except in the WPA days.

Psychology and Psychiatry:A disease is defined and continues to be defined as an identifiable lesion or infective process which is troubling and/or threatening to the victim. We have yet to define anything anywhere which accounts for thought process, or thought disorder. As soon as a lesion is noted, it is no longer psychiatry, it becomes the realm of the science of neurology and the psychiatrist is no longer involved except perhaps forensically. To sum that up, give me one example of a reputable medical pathology book that identifies any psychiatric disorder out of the realm of neurology, such as neurosyphillis, tumor, endocrine disturbance and the like and I will be happy to read it. But I'm not holding my breath waiting.

I respect your opinions and loyalty to the profession. I admire your zeal. I'm not what you seem to think I am. I love my patients as fellow beings. I just don't see that we have an artistic or scientific leg to stand on, or else we would be more highly respected and better paid.

Respectfully-----Snake

Ortho_RN · May 20, 2004

That SOME of your fellow co-workers are always looking for something to get new people in trouble for... They think they are perfect.. Its just that when they make a mistake noone confronts them...

jerseyRN · May 20, 2004

That my BA in another field is virtually worth nothing in nursing. Went to a diploma school. Shoulda gone for a BSN.

KarafromPhilly · May 20, 2004

Stop saying that already, Tom!

My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die. :roll :)

CHATSDALE · May 20, 2004

A New Graduate Asked Be If She Should Take A Job She Wanted But That Is Was Only Part Time And Prn I Told Her That In Nursing That Meant 80 Hours A Week Until You Dropped Dead That Still Holds

Q. · May 20, 2004

Thank you GracefulRN:) I also found Snake's comments innapropraite and disturbing. I would also like to know if you are a nurse and if so, how many years do you have under your belt. Your comments sound very much like a medical receptionsit who gives out medical advise...useless!!

Quite honestly, this attitude is what I feel contributes to our demise of the profession.

Does someone's opinion really gain worth by how many years they worked in a particular field? I mean, honestly. What's the magic number? More than 5? More than 10? More than you?

And the eliticism brewing from the medical "receptionsit" [sic] comment I find quite, um, what's the word? "Innapropraite" [sic] and disturbing. I've gotten better medical advice from my 89 year old grandmother-in-law than I've gotten from most nurses.

Supercalifragilistic · May 20, 2004

My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die. :roll :)

OMG - that is my most favorite movie line EVER!!!!

Oh, now I know what I'll be picking up at Blockbuster this weekend.... :roll

Hellllllo Nurse, BSN, RN · May 20, 2004

My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die. :roll :)

Lol, Mandy Patinkin, right?

What was the name of that movie?

plumrn, BSN, RN · May 20, 2004

My first day on the floor as a student, standing in the bathroom of my very first pt, holding a bedpan with stuck-on poop wondering, 'what am I going to do with this now?'

I honestly wondered, 'what have I gotten myself in for?'

That was several years ago, and I've learned a few things since then. For one thing, emptying a pan with stuck-on poop is the least challenging thing I will do in a shift, and not nearly as troubling as it was that first time. I'm glad I was so naive about a lot of things we nurses do, or I might not have ever entered the field, because I really do love nursing. (When staffed well, that is.)