I didn't know whether to list this as vent or concern, so I guess I'll just let it all out. I have been an RN for about 3 years and was a street medic for 7 years before that. I feel like I might be opening Pandora's box of the paramedic vs. RN discussion that has no easy black and white answer or solution to mutual respect one for another. My concern is the level of incompetence of nurses. Let me give you a few examples, but first some background information of the facility I work for. We have a centralized cardiac telemetry service that monitors the rhythms of all the patients on telemetry on the 3 cardiac units and 3 medsurg floors. It is staffed by either LICENSED paramedics (in my state we are licensed) or by extremely qualified personnel that have had extensive cardiac rhythm education. There is one unit that has a very big ego when it comes to the superiority of RN's and despite the outcome to the patient, refuse to listen to the advisement of a patient's rhythm or change. Every unit in our hospital of 400+ beds has emergency phones located through out every floor for tele services to use in cases of lethal arrhythmias. (examples: v-fib, v-tach, brady 140). Now for the examples of incompetence
1) A patient had an A-V nodal ablation and was totally pacemaker dependant. Shortly after arriving from the EP lab the patient goes in to a slow wide complex tach (WCT) in the 120's sustained. The cardiac floor was notified of the rhythm change via the emergency phones. The nurse and charge nurse ignored the advisement of tele services. The floor was then notified every hour on the hour for about 8 hours (we work 12 hour shifts) of the WCT. The nurse did not notify the EP doc. The patient then codes right at shift change. They coded the patient for about 2 hours and ultimately the patient died. The family files a law suit. EP doc was very livid at the withholding of information from him by the nursing unit (Tele services cannot contact a doctor themselves.)
2) Same cardiac unit different patient and different nurse. Patient was on a lido drip for ventricular ectopy. (big. And trig. PVCs, slavos, short bursts of WCT. ) The patient goes into 2 degree AV block type II (AKA Mobitz II). Again tele services used emergency phones to contact the nursing staff. Again nursing staff does not appreciate the notification of the rhythm change. A follow up call was made to the floor. The experienced charge nurse turns up the lido drip in response to the new arrhythmia. (It is an arrhythmic, but come on people- check your nurse drug guide you had to purchase in nursing school!) Fortunately the tele services employee convinced the charge nurse to contact the doctor. That probably saved that particular patients life.
3) Different patient same cardiac unit. The patient is less than 24 hours post cardiac intervention. The patient goes into v-tach. Again the emergency phone was used to notify the floor. When the patient comes out of v-tach after 55 beats, they are having tombstones. Follow up call was made to nursing unit. Of course the nurse checked the patient. They were snoring (it was at night if you want to give them the benefit of the doubt). So the door was shut and the nurse went back to the satellite nursing station. When advised of the tombstones, patient was found basically dead. The patient was coded but was never resuscitated.
Now my concerns: I have been through both paramedic school and nursing school I know that there are some differences in the ways paramedics treat and nurses are suppose to treat patients. Our cardiac rhythm training in nursing school was very, very, did I say very limited compared to what I went through in paramedic school. Sure in nursing school we are taught the basic principles of common rhythms like SR, V-Tach, V-fib, A-fib/A-flutter, ect. But what about MAT, A tach, PMT, non-conducted PACs, 12 lead interpretation (I do not mean the doc-in-the-box interpretation included at the top of the printed EKG), Juntional Tach, in depth training on A-V blocks. My education as a paramedic was superior in this aspect. One can argue what about lab values, checking for dilation on an OB patient, acid base balance, antibiotics, microbiology, yada yada yada. Thanks for asking. How many nurses actually get to check for cervix dilation other than those that birth babies- how many can remember what a 7 feels like compared to a 10? Lab values- at our facility reference values are printed on the same sheet that the results are printed. Microbiology? Well truthfully I don't remember much from that required prerequisite to nursing school, so I guess I never had much use for it. An intelligent monkey can be taught to hang antibiotics with the use of an IV pump. So I don't think of paramedic school as training. It is education. As a matter of fact, our medical director of my paramedic school actually went through our curriculum and stated "This is the 3rd year of medical school". How many physicians have said that regarding the "education" of nurses? Really if this has happened I would like to hear about it. And this is just my personal experience, but I have met more incompetent experienced RN's than incompetent new grad paramedics. I have been through both. The NREMT-P test is much more difficult than the NCLEX. NCLEX is more of a quiz.
And lastly, I would like to pay my solemn respect for ancillary staff that assist us RN's and making our job a complete circle of care. CNAs you have no idea how much I respect you. You know the patients. You are an invaluable set of eyes and ears to me. You see the slightest changes from baseline of a patient. I want to sincerely apologize for the other RN's that treat you as if all you know is how to wipe a butt, or empty a Foley catheter. Maybe one day when all the CNAs on your unit get blue flu, and the nurse must get out of the satellite nursing station and take their own vitals, and give all 7 of their patients a bath, they will have the same respect for you. (not to give anyone ideas.) To the unit clerks: I wish I possessed your knowledge on entering orders into the computer, or who to call when my patient needs a hepabilliary scan. Thank you for your job well done. To the cafeteria worker: what a blessing to see a smiling face when all has gone to hell, and I get a 10 minute break. To the supply clerk: I greatly appreciate you speediness when you get my X-large latex free gloves to my floor right after my c-diff patient has a BM the size of Texas. Nursing students: don't let these high minded individuals give you reason to become the same way. I understand that someday you may be hanging a lido drip on me or my family. Don't let these RN's give you any hell for asking questions to educate yourselves. Field medics: If I am in a car accident and the RN in the car behind me want to help, please have them block traffic. They are not in their controlled environment with a specific order written for a specific patient, so they probably don't know what they are doing. LPN's I believe you are the better nurses. Nothing heals like a caring touch- yes human contact- not an automated blood pressure cuff activated from the station. You have obtained a huge amount of knowledge. If I or any other RN's is doing something detrimental to a patient, stop them, don't put up with this higherarchy BS that they have taught themselves.
RN's get over yourselves! You are not God's gift to modern medicine! Without the full circle of staff, we could not provide patients with any type of continuum of care. (I do understand there are more like me, so this is not to include everybody. But those that needed the previous statement- you know who you are.)
I know there are some very appreciative, competent RN's out there. I'm sorry if I have offended you this was not my intention. I wanted to try to explain the whole circle of care from pre-hospital to discharge nurse. Are there any suggestions on how we can correct these problems?
I once wrote a column in the newspaper about EMT/Paramedics that was syndicated across the united states in response to a patients family member who was nitpicking an incident that occured with their family member and the services provided by our local Emergency Response team.
In that column, I wrote about the education and defensive driving classes, the Advanced Cardiac Life Support training, Intubation techniques and the general caring attitudes that our men and women projected and utilized in their day to day training.
I have tremendous respect for the training that these wonderful men and women recieve. Not often do I have to deal with extremely dangerous situations, fires, car wrecks, falling debris, etc that they deal with on a day to day basis.
I also think it wonderful when anyone furthers their education.
That being said, I have no negative or critical comments to make to Keith. However, i do have advice based on years of managment experience.
Utilize two departments. Your nursing service department and the Risk Managment department. Both, if the situations you presented were indeed true, need to be "in the know".
They will need specific time, date and person information.
While i hate to say there are incompentent nurses or doctors or lawyers, etc. out there in the world, the fact remains....
There are those who are incompentent for various reason. Lack of education may be one, lack of caring may be another. Lack of access of education may be a third.
I, too, in my nursing tenure have seen things that make me cringe. My goal is always to strengthen my own education and those of my co workers. When you do this the right way, all benefit.
Being critical in our profession is the equivelent of destroying our own self worth. I am highly education, but when a co worker of mine offers advice, you can bet your last dollar I listen, even to a new first year nurse.
I have always said, the day i stop listening, learning or crying over my profession, will be the day I leave it.
I am still here after seventeen years, and still love it as much as the day I entered nursing school ( back in the dark ages).
I have a wonderful telemetry tech that i work with, when he calls, my hiney jumps. Its about trust and a professional working relationship that you develop that is paramount to life saving.
Personally I could not work for a cardiac unit who doesn't monitor their own telemetry. I see trouble and death flying in the wind. I think you assume the problem is the nurse's are incompetent because your frustrated.
Ditto. What the heck is this?
Another issue is the "float" issue - I personally always just love the "You're being floated to Cardiology - don't worry someelse covers the tele" dance.
And thirdly, the "Well, we are getting more and more overflow cardiology patients/onco patients that need tele but the onco MD hates going to the cardiac floor" song and dance, let's have you all take a tele class and that fixes everything!
Try convincing them that , NO, that is not the be-all and end-all of suddenly converting an onco nurse into an "expert" card/onco nurse....or converting the floor into that level. I worked on an onco floor that started taking cardiac overflow, after a few checked off on tele......do you think that the PTB, actually started staffing that onco floor to the better staffing of the cardiac floor? Of course not. We started getting orders for procainimide drips because "we were a cardiac floor".
To the OP, three things to consider....were the nurses that you communicated to, actual cardiology nurses The other is what was the staffing that they were working with? And how accurate is the equipment?
If indeed they were card. nurses, the staffing was good and there were no equipment issues, you might find another place to work. But please do not generalize your experiences to all nurses.
I recently received a few patients from paramedics/flight medics. Patient is jovial, vital signs stable and he can ambulate. Said medics were mystified as to the need for emergency and flight for the patient and making snide comments about all the emergency surrounding this transport. I explain that the patient is in new onset blast crisis with a WBC greater than 350,000, with a extremely high blast percentage, LDH in the thousands, low HCT w/ low platelets/ low fibrinogen, a bad CXR and some renal failure...all makings of severe leukemia with extremely high risk of crumping at any moment from pulmonary leukostasis/DIC/tumor lysis/renal failure and that time is of the essence.
They get miffed that there were no tranfusions of platelets or RBCs ....after all, wouldn't that making it safer. I explain that for the higher risk for greater danger if we transfuse in a very small community hospital for blast crisis. The facility has access mostly to pooled random donor platelets and does not routinely leucoreduce blood - even transfusing through a filter will trigger the body to produce more defective WBCs, further sapping the bodies resources for producing its own RBCs/platelets, and contributing to development of antibodies in a patient that will soon need large amounts of blood products.. While it might help in the short, in the long term will cause harm - an inappropriate risk unless there is an absolute present emergency.
(While often in ERs, they will transfuse for any Hgb less than 8 or platelets below 25 - even if the the patient is blast crisis, and not symptomatic of anemia. While not "wrong", it does complicate further treatment, and seriously PO many major hematology MDs and crank up the WBC count,)
The point, is we know what we know. Paramedics are great at short term, immediate solutions. But sometimes they dont know all the parameters....just as nurses do not always know all the parameters.
I get a transfer from the unit in a major teaching/research facility. In my orientation, I have gotten the schpiel that the ICU nurses are aces - that they are one to ones - that they can do "everything" - unlike ordinary ICU nurses. They give me the primary diagnosis - leukemia. They tell me that the patient has an access in left arm - they do not know when the dressing was changed. They do not know when the last BM was, have to put me on hold to check the IV rate. The patient has a rash - given the complications of my patients and the drugs that they are on, I ask when it started and do they know what it is from - I get silence. I quickly realize that I will be looking in the H&P for all relevant report. I am told that the BP is stable - Hypotension was one of the presenting problems.
I get the patient. First the patient has two infusing IVs...to separate arms. The second (unreported) line has a post op dressing to it. I see the rash...I look at the med bag....there is tacrilimus in it....and PO vancomycin. The patient runs to the bathroom. I also see where the pt has a normal BP now, as I take it - but the two BPs prior in the unit, were substantially subnormal.
So how can you miss telling the receiving nurse that the patient has been recently transplanted, had a a recently placed central line( that has an infusion going to it, no less), and is positive for CDiff? And continues to have low BPs.
The ICU of course stabilizes emergencies, in this case, some of the details important to us, that were not important to them, got "lost".
Now I could stereotype all ICU nurses as shortsighted - but they are not. Perhaps I found one that was preoccupied with something else, got a VERY bad report, or was not the brightest bulb in the box. Just as I could class ALL paramedics as clueless and unable to see outside the immediate situation. But I won't - I took the time to educate them and will hope that it helps.
Please do not class the majority of nurses based on that one facility.
ok, so op culd have some god points BUT if a patient is in danger from from incompetence it is not a time to hand wringing and fingerpointing
it needs to be addressed by filing a detailed reportthrough proper channels
incompetence can be recitified with further training, removal of said nurse from floor..to do nothing is incmpetnece in itself
i am sorry, but i have worked with so many people who brag on themself and put down their coworkers on a ego trip it just isn't funny
the op may be missing the rush that an emergency brings, and they are absolutely much more frequent in a paramedic setting than you will find
on a hospital floor - if you are looking for epinephrine rushing thru your veins you need to request transfer to code team or something else that you will find more satisfying
Keith, I've got a lot of respect for you. So many times people have issues but they are too afraid to put their name to it. Kudos to you for that.
I completely understand your frustration. I have seen these exact scenarios play out all over the country. Tele techs and nurses rarely see eye to eye.
The biggest offender in these situations is a lack of education. Nurses are not taught comprehensive cardiac care in school. Most of their knowledge of rhythms, drips, ACLS protocol, etc is obtained via OJT. I imagine you have seen that when the budget is tight - truly useful education goes out the door. The hospital does the bare minimum to be able to put on paper that they have trained the staff. This satisfies JCAHO, Dept. of Health, etc. but it does not mean that the staff is well trained. Many hospitals have that problem of newbies teaching newbies teaching newbies, etc. thus perpetuating the problems. There are nurses who are unable to learn the fine art of prioritizing because no one on the floor has ever learned it. Thus the patient yelling and screaming at them because their med is 5 minutes late takes priority over the patient with tachycardia because the tachy patient looked fine when the nurse popped their head in the door. The nurse would rather placate the peeved patient than stop to check assess the seemingly fine tachy patient. Poor choice, but when your manager is up your rear about customer service and you are struggling to tread water - the squeakiest wheel gets the grease.
As some of the others have said - many nurses do not educate themselves. They take the required CE for their license and/or jobs but other than that - they do not keep up with trends in evidence based practice. This harks back to individual professional responsibility - and you don't want me to get started on that issue.
There are also times when the tele tech sees something but the patient truly IS fine. Unfortunately nurses are bad about keeping the tele tech informed that "I saw the patient, BP ok, everything ok, and I am watching them". I've also seen nurses who know that the leads are not on right but do not place a high priority on fixing them because they are overwhelmed with everything else.
Also, paramedics are taught to deal with emergencies. Nurses are not. There are nurses who should only work in places with pt's who are DNR because they truly are unable to assess a situation and know what to do about it in that split second. This is why RR teams were started. Because something is wrong with the patient but the nurse doesn't know what to do or doesn't have time to deal with it. If nurses had the proper education and staffing, the RR team would not have been invented by JCAHO.
It does sound like the issues you have described have some validity. Unfortunately in todays healthcare, you can fill out incident reports till you are blue in the face and nothing gets done. Many nurses do not understand Root Cause Analysis. Healthcare is notorious for implementing new policies as a knee-jerk reaction to these types of situations. Of course the stop-gaps don't work because no-one can identify, or perhaps fix the root problem. Usually the root problem has $$$$ as a component.
Another frustration I sense in your post probably lies with the fact that you are a male working in a female dominated situation. Females think, act, and interact totally different than males. Many times I have wished that I had joined the military so that I could work with more men than women to avoid some of the gossip, backbiting, and ugliness.
All I can say is that you need to CYA. If you can truly prove incompetence then do so. But it won't be easy and you will find these same issues everywhere.
As a side note - I have been on an accident scene and directed traffic for hours in the dark and sleet because there was not enough EMS/police due to the ice storm. I never made it to work that day. The emergency equipment I carry in my car was not enough. The fire extinguisher could not take down the flames. A volunteer FF and I had to watch as the car exploded with 3 people inside and we couldn't do anything about it. There was nothing left for me to do but redirect traffic away from the scene.
I completely understand your frustration. I have seen these exact scenarios play out all over the country. Tele techs and nurses rarely see eye to eye.
The biggest offender in these situations is a lack of education. Nurses are not taught comprehensive cardiac care in school. Most of their knowledge of rhythms, drips, ACLS protocol, etc is obtained via OJT.
Many hospitals have that problem of newbies teaching newbies teaching newbies, etc. thus perpetuating the problems.
Unfortunately nurses are bad about keeping the tele tech informed that "I saw the patient, BP ok, everything ok, and I am watching them".
Also, paramedics are taught to deal with emergencies. Nurses are not.
Another frustration I sense in your post probably lies with the fact that you are a male working in a female dominated situation.
Thank you for your very understanding post. It is kind of a relief to know that this is not isolated to my area of the country or my facility. I do agree with you practically on your whole point of view. Education is the first thing that is cut back when it comes to budget. This is of course very sad, considering the more we know the better we can treat our patients. Can someone answer why nursing schools do not go more indepth with cardiac training. It would seem only logical considering the massive increase in heart related conditions over the last generation. Medicine is an ever changing field, not something you can master over even a lifetime.
You are absolutly correct about newbie's teaching newbie's. Last year's new grads are this years preceptors. That is not necessisarily a good thing.
I think all around communication fails between services. But that is a nurses job. They are to coordinate care of their patients. If the coordination fails the patient is the one that suffers.
You absolutely correct that paramedics are taught emergency care. That is our speciality. But in another post on this same thread, we paramedics were accused of not seeing the BIG picture of the patient's condition. That is not entirely true. In this particular post it describes a patient with acute onset of leukemia. The helicoptor attendants didn't understand why it was an emergency. (FYI helicoptors around the country are 99% of the time staffed by an RN and a Flight medic) Maybe the hospital transferring the patient did not give them a report. I cannot name the times I have been called out to a hospital for an emergency transfer to another facility. When we arrive, the patient is A&O x3, hemodynamics are stable, and so forth, but when we ask why the emergency, most times we get the "I've already called report" line. To me this is not a satisfactory answer. I am caring for the patient until he/she arrives at the other facility. I have a hard time risking life and limb to get a patient somewhere when by all outward appearances are stable. Care for that patient does not take a break when he/she leaves your door and enters the door of the one you gave report to.
In the state I previously lived, legally, the paramedic and the RN were considered equals as far as training and skill level with some minute details (medics can intubate, RNs get to hang blood). In some situations, RNs did intubate and medics did hang blood. I guess I just don't understand the anamosity for one another. When I become an RN it was like I was switching teams. Not completely accepted by the nurses at the hospital, no longer accepted by the medics on the truck.
As far as the female domination in the work place. You are absolutly correct. We think totally different. I think this is something God put on earth to give Him some entertainment, all be it extremely frustrating for mankind. There is no answer to this delima.
I too have been on scenes where a patient had a collision with a truck carrying tar. The T-top sportster, ran right into the truck and hot tar spilled all in the car. The only thing exposed was his hand, and it was too hot and was drying too fast to get him out. The only thing that could be done was to get an order for high dose morphine till his screams were squelched out and direct traffic away from the site. I still have nightmares about that one.
Anyways, I do appreciate your understanding. Is there any solution to educating both sides (RNs and paramedics) of the similarities and differences in our training-the strengths in one are the weaker in the other.
Keith
PS I love having a unit that continually monitors my patient's rhythms. I keep an eye on the slave monitor that is on the floor, but I know if something happens when I'm doing nurse duties, there is a trained professional keeping an eye on my patient giving them the attention their heart deserves.
Hmmm. I said I wasn't going to get into this one but I would like to respectfully disagree with whoever said that nurses are not trained to deal with emergencies. There are many many many different types of emergencies, and while I may not deal with MVCs daily, I do deal with ante- and postpartum hemorrhages and babies who don't know how to breathe fairly regularly. And you bet your boots I am 'trained' to deal with them. I bet you'd want me as your nurse in the aforementioned situations.
to You absolutely correct that paramedics are taught emergency care. That is our speciality. But in another post on this same thread, we paramedics were accused of not seeing the BIG picture of the patient's condition. That is not entirely true. In this particular post it describes a patient with acute onset of leukemia. The helicoptor attendants didn't understand why it was an emergency. (FYI helicoptors around the country are 99% of the time staffed by an RN and a Flight medic) Maybe the hospital transferring the patient did not give them a report. I cannot name the times I have been called out to a hospital for an emergency transfer to another facility. When we arrive, the patient is A&O x3, hemodynamics are stable, and so forth, but when we ask why the emergency, most times we get the "I've already called report" line. To me this is not a satisfactory answer. I am caring for the patient until he/she arrives at the other facility. I have a hard time risking life and limb to get a patient somewhere when by all outward appearances are stable. Care for that patient does not take a break when he/she leaves your door and enters the door of the one you gave report to.
In the state I previously lived, legally, the paramedic and the RN were considered equals in the other.
Keith
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Perhaps it isn't true that all paramedics aren't seeing the big picture, but then again the poster never said this was true of ALL medics. She gave an example, much like you did in your original post. Just as you are jumping to defend what you seem to perceive as a slight against medics based on one example, many nurses on this board are a bit miffed to see a few examples being used to support the implication that RN education is lacking and promotes incompetence. Incompetence can be found in any profession. I'm sure there are plenty of stories an ER nurse could tell about paramedics they've encountered and I am sure both groups have stories about physicians/NP/PA.
hmmm. i said i wasn't going to get into this one but i would like to respectfully disagree with whoever said that nurses are not trained to deal with emergencies. there are many many many different types of emergencies, and while i may not deal with mvcs daily, i do deal with ante- and postpartum hemorrhages and babies who don't know how to breathe fairly regularly. and you bet your boots i am 'trained' to deal with them. i bet you'd want me as your nurse in the aforementioned situations.
i wasn't going to get involved with this post either, but yeah i had to jump on the whole "not trained to deal with emergencies" comment also. there are several types of emergencies when it comes to nursing, as the above post said. i completely agree with this, and i'm sure others will too.
our floor routinely has "mock codes" that staff are expected to participate in(i've actively participated in 3 actual codes in just a little over a year of working on the floor), and we are also required to be pals certified within 12 months of hire date. our floor is also a hem-onc unit, so we are also trained to hang chemotherapy. i might not know what to do at the scene of an accident--but i do know what to do if one of my kids stop breathing, if they spike a temp. and start going septic, pull their port-a-cath needle out with chemo infusing, etc.
i think you get the point. it's not fair to associate the word "emergency" with only certain situations.
I would like to speak to the comment made that rapid response was invented because nurses don't know what to do. Actually, rapid response is getting as many people to help a patient from a potetial slippery slope into a full blown code. Our rapid response team consists of a resident, respiratiry therapist, anesthesiologist. If my patient is going south, I would rather have all of them here asap, rather than trying to do everything they can do all by myself. Respiratory can draw ABG's, help to oxegynate, if the situation turns worse, anestesia can begin the process of intubation, and residents can order any neccessary labs and diagnostics, etc. These extra hands can also run for neccesary equipment, therefore patient is not left alone. I do not agree that RR is for us undereducated nurses.
I'd like to add to that. The Rapid Response team essentially creates a portable Emergency Room in a unit that simply doesn't have the resources or the staff to handle a crumping patient.
Rapid Responses weren't initiated because of ignorant nurses; they were created for busy nurses. And for docs who take their sweet time calling back, or who give useless orders, or who don't care to treat the patient, putting the nurse between a rock and a hard place.
I've had docs tell me things like: "Don't call me unless the trop is over 50." Or "Don't call me at all for any reason tonight."
Of course, I've taken it up the chain and gotten appropriate treatment for the patient.
Did you ever notice that when the nurse screws up, the docs can yell at her, but when the doc screws up, it's always someone else's fault?
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rsharpe
4 Posts
I once wrote a column in the newspaper about EMT/Paramedics that was syndicated across the united states in response to a patients family member who was nitpicking an incident that occured with their family member and the services provided by our local Emergency Response team.
In that column, I wrote about the education and defensive driving classes, the Advanced Cardiac Life Support training, Intubation techniques and the general caring attitudes that our men and women projected and utilized in their day to day training.
I have tremendous respect for the training that these wonderful men and women recieve. Not often do I have to deal with extremely dangerous situations, fires, car wrecks, falling debris, etc that they deal with on a day to day basis.
I also think it wonderful when anyone furthers their education.
That being said, I have no negative or critical comments to make to Keith. However, i do have advice based on years of managment experience.
Utilize two departments. Your nursing service department and the Risk Managment department. Both, if the situations you presented were indeed true, need to be "in the know".
They will need specific time, date and person information.
While i hate to say there are incompentent nurses or doctors or lawyers, etc. out there in the world, the fact remains....
There are those who are incompentent for various reason. Lack of education may be one, lack of caring may be another. Lack of access of education may be a third.
I, too, in my nursing tenure have seen things that make me cringe. My goal is always to strengthen my own education and those of my co workers. When you do this the right way, all benefit.
Being critical in our profession is the equivelent of destroying our own self worth. I am highly education, but when a co worker of mine offers advice, you can bet your last dollar I listen, even to a new first year nurse.
I have always said, the day i stop listening, learning or crying over my profession, will be the day I leave it.
I am still here after seventeen years, and still love it as much as the day I entered nursing school ( back in the dark ages).
I have a wonderful telemetry tech that i work with, when he calls, my hiney jumps. Its about trust and a professional working relationship that you develop that is paramount to life saving.
Isnt that what we became a nurse for?
Respectfully to all my fellow medical personnel.
rsharpe