nursing questions :o)

Hey, don't feel like youre intruding! I like any young person who has respect for my profession

I live in BC, Canada (North of Washington state to you yanks). I have been nursing for a few years and decided to go into it because I knew a lot of FABULOUS nurses and wanted to be like them. My experience spending my teen years in the States was that doctors mostly cared about cash, but nurses cared more about their patients.

I work in Labor and Delivery and LOVE it. Most of our doctors are great, they really respect our knowledge and expertise (they have to because they don't even come to the hospital until we tell them a woman is ready to start pushing).

There is one doctor at the hospital we call DR GOD who is a giant jackass. We sometimes have to play games with him to get his patients good care. Like we can't call and ask him for an order for more demerol, we have to say "The patient is in pain, what should I do?" like helpless idiots. We don't let it interfere with patient care, we just play the games we have to to get things done.

Burnout? No, not yet

Salaries, oh honey you don't even want to get me started! I am now in Canada and starting nurses make about 13-14$US and max out after 6 years at about 18$ US. We also pay twice the taxes up here. Our contract is up this year and a big wage increase is being demanded because we lose nurses to the States and it's higher wages (we call it the Brain Drain). I am one of a rare breed that actually came BACK to Canada. 18$ an hour is ridiculously low for the work that we do, the responsibilities we have and the toll this job takes on us. In high school I made 15$ an hour working at a LIBRARY!!! Why take four and a half years of school (the minimum to get a BSN and L&D certification) to start making 14 as a nurse?

I think people don't realize that the doctors don't keep them alive, the nurses do. The majority of the time there is no doctor on the floor and it is the nurses that decide when you need to see a doctor and how to respond in an emergency. They are the fornt lines and deserve to be compensated for their knowledge and skills.

Nurses only go on strike when they feel they HAVE TO. As far as I have seen hospitals are warned of a strike well in advance so they can stop admiting new patients. Usually though they decide to hire strikebreaking nurses at a pay scale at least twice as high as the staff nurses were getting before they went on strike. It doesn't take a genius to see that if they met the nurses demands regarding safe working conditions and decent salaries they would probably save money.

Healthcare is at such a bad state today that nurses need to take drastic action to save patients lives. Especially in the area of nurse to patient ratios. How is a nurse on a med/surg floor supposed to look after 14 people safely? They can't. The hospital administrators cut staffing levels to save money then a patient sues for bad care and gets millions. STUPIDITY IS EVERYWHERE!! See the CNN nursing shortage links for some horror stories.

The public has no idea what nurses do. I had no idea until I went to nursing school They see it as nurses are like robots who just have to do what a doctor says. The reality is VERY different. It is a highly specialized profession that takes a lot of education and training.

As for a definition, I've said it once, I'll say it again: Nursing is the profesionalization of the art of caring. And it must be a calling because if it weren't no one would put up with the crap we do.

Good luck, and I hope you do go into nursing, we always need young blood!

Name: Timothy

Where do you live?: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

How long have you been involved in nursing?: In multiple capacities since 1987

When did you decide you wanted to become a nurse and why?: Not sure when. I knew I wanted to help people. I loved old people and wanted to know more about them and do what I could to help them.

What specific area do you work in?: Primary Care Geriatrics

How is your and the other nurses' relationship with the doctors (good/bad communication, how does this affect the patients' care)? My collaborating physicians are very supportive of me. They are an excellent resource, and never miss an opportunity to teach me something in a positive way. The result of my work with the Doctor's is usually excellent patient care.

Have you ever experienced burn-out?: NO, because I have always taken care of me. When things get too 'nuts' I vent to a fellow staff member. Personally, I have always worked with excellent nurses with whom I have enjoyed a supportive relationship.

Do you think nurses' salaries are too low in general (or personally)?: In general yes, personally no.

What do you think of nurses going on strike (unfair to patients, necessary to fight against staffing and salary cutbacks, etc.)? I cannot speak to the whole of nursing. People must do what they feel is right under the circumstances at the time. I can only answer for myself, and, as for me, I would feel as if I were abandoning my patients. Nurses must find a productive and effective way to fight against staffing as well as salary cutbacks. An effective way [although generally disputed on this web site], is to belong to your state's nurses association.

How do you think nursing is viewed by the general public? I don't think that the public spends much time thinking of nurses in general. The only glimpse of nurses people get on day-time TV are the soap-operas that show nurses as 'easy little tarts' who spend their entire day in the coffee shop, or trying to seduce a handsome doctor. I used to joke with my friends by saying 'that's the kind of job I want.... She drives a BMW, lives in a $1,000,000 house, is never actually working and does it all on an RN's salary!!!'

How would you define nursing? I view nursing as a helping art. It combines knowledge from the sciences and allows care to be delivered through a humanistic medium. If done by an insightful skillful nurse who cares about what they do, it is the FINEST art.

Anything else you'd like to add to help me write a truthful and effective paper?:

If you are looking for information on nursing you could go to the following web-sites: www.nursingworld.org http://www.ncsbn.org/ http://members.aol.com/nmgrant/index.html http://aamn.freeyellow.com/ http://www.wholenurse.com/

Thank-you so much! I can not tell you how grateful I am )

Your welcome... and good luck with your paper.

Thank-you so much for responding! I am very, very grateful )