Okay, so I'm a pre-nursing student who wants to work in the NICU someday. Well, a couple days ago a group of pre-Nursing students-myself included-talked about looking forward to Nursing school. I said that I couldn't wait to be a NICU nurse. One pre-nursing student replied, "But you'll have to watch babies die!" And I answered, "Yeah, but I'll be able to save babies' lives as well."
Another pre-Nursing student, who I find to be smug and abrasive, stated, "Nurses rarely save lives." ***** I wanted to slap him for making an ignorant statement.
So, is his statement true? Do Nurses "rarely" save lives? How many lives have YOU saved?
Lol at saving the doctors. I have heard some Nurses state that they have had to correct the doctors' mistakes.
But seriously, I'm just really ticked off that he made such an ignorant statement. If nurses don't save lives, then what DO they do, exactly? Stand around and look pretty? I find him to be pretty argumentative (always tries to start something). If he says that again, how should I reply?
Specializes in MED/SURG STROKE UNIT, LTC SUPER., IMU.
I have only been a nurse for a year and a half and I know personally I had a hand in saving several people. One recently, newly diagnosed CHF (doctor's didn't get the results yet) stopped the iv fluids immediately when I saw the test, due to the pt's lungs sounding like crap. Called the docs with the results of the test and get an order, to make it legal. By the next morning the pt's lungs sounded much better and the vitals were more normal as well. If I had waited for the MD to come around the next morning, this person would have been in big trouble, quick like. This was not a code or anything. The pt was not critical at that time, but would have been by the next morning.
Specializes in Trauma Surgery, Nursing Management.
Nurses save lives by initiating CPR during an arrest, they save lives by questioning orders that were written erroneously (doc writes to give PCN OCTOR, pt has an anaphlactic rxtn to PCN), and use their skills to recognize when a pt is circling the drain, thus alerting the code team.
This jackwagon pre-nursing student was obviously trying to stir the **** pot, so I would totally disregard his comments. You describe him as abrasive, so let him fall on his face. Don't engage in his opinions.
Lots of saves. It comes with the territory. Even in nursing school (practicals)!
Just relish in the fact that this guy will get knocked down a peg or two soon.
ANA'S Definition of Nursing
Nursing is the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury, alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human response, and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, communities, and populations.
While you're relishing, consider the OP (pre-nursing student not excused), not even being capable of defending to some point, nursing being about helping save lives. What gives? The guy is entitled to his own opinion but the OP's non-response is bothering, "
How many lives have I saved? Well...I was carving notches into the wood of my desk for each one. Unfortunately, there were a couple of times when I forgot to.... so let's see.....On second thought, maybe the question should be..."how many lives haven't you saved?"
Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
If he tells you that again could say "yes they do save lives, and I know that because I took the initiative to ask the people who would know the answer, a very important skill for a successful student/nurse to develop."
It seems there's always one person who just knows everything, and it's really annoying. If you're going to cross paths with this guy a lot, you will need to set boundaries. Sounds like he butted into a conversation you were having with someone else, so the larger issue may end up being his personality - not researching the veracity of his pronouncements.
I would never claim to "save a life"...it's a little dramatic. However, I have had several patients become very unstable on me and had I not assessed the situation properly, called a rapid response, resulting in interventions like iv fluid bolus, transfer to ICU, iv blood pressure medication, transfer to cath lab, they might have easily deteriorated into a full-blown code. I guess I would have to say....yes, I think nurses do save lives. We are the eyes and ears of the medical team.
Specializes in Emergency, Critical Care (CEN, CCRN).
Ok superhero nurses, how do you know you saved their lives, are you God or do yall have some powers that I dont to determine when one was going to die
We have a slightly different perspective in emergency, as we usually have a pretty good idea when we've saved someone; when you receive a patient that's apneic and pulseless on arrival, and that patient walks out of the hospital four days later, that's a pretty clear-cut save.
To answer your question, I personally saved two in 2010. I can think of plenty more patients saved by the interventions of the care teams I've served on, where I and my fellow nurses and allied providers either assessed a change in the patient and alerted the MDs early enough to head off a life-threatening deterioration in the patient's status, assessed physical findings that directed the MDs down an alternate path when the original diagnosis and treatment would have been wrong or even hazardous to the patient, and/or advocated for treatment that either directly saved the patient's life or saved them from profoundly disabling sequelae. And no, I'm not a superhero, nor any order of higher being. I'm simply a reasonably competent emergency department nurse, and all I've done for those patients was the exact same thing any other reasonable and prudent nurse would have done in the same situation.
We as nurses save lives every day; some saves may be more spectacular than others, but at the end of the shift a save is still a save. Don't sell us so short.
If those are not team-building choices you could say "yes they do save lives, and I know that because I took the initiative to ask the people who would know the answer, a very important skill for a successful student/nurse to develop."
noelia23RN
69 Posts
I would say to this dude " so who do you think think is at the bedside 24-7"?
a Dr I don't think so!!!