doublej

Always think of a future reference you might need. Now if you have no plans to include this present employment on your resume, for conscience sake, I would still give a notice. You can never go back and redo something you might later regret.

Doctors who expect THEIR lab reports to be on the charts when they make rounds even though lab techs have 150 labs to do all over the hospital and haven't even returned to the lab at the point that he is demanding. Doctors who go in little geriatric patient rooms and babble professional lingo to them, walk out and charge for the visit when the poor patients doesn't even know what he said because of his elite terminology! Doctors who keep my pen. Doctors who never can call me by name even though I worked there longer than he has been a dr. It is wonderful to hear one of them address me with my birthname! Doctors who forget to flag charts with new orders and put them back in the chart rack, then blow a fuse when an order is not found till later. Doctors who defame a nurse in the presence of her coworkers. Doctors who expect us to lie to a patient. We had a drug-dependent patient (who was also a nurse) who wanted Demerol. He ordered Compazine and told us to tell the patient that it was "Opazine"- an unheard of drug. The HN asked him if he would be in the court room when the patient sued the nurses and he just smiled. He was a psychiatrist. Maybe that's why he just grinned.

I guess I was misunderstood when I referred to the "60ies" and what us oldies did. I was trying to convey the idea that professional courtesy back then had a totally different meaning.

Long gone are the days when we, as student nurses, were taught and expected to stand when a physician came into our presence. There must have been a higher element of respect back then. One time I had a lady dr. throw a packet of pills across the nurses' station to me (in the middle of the night when she had to go get a medication from her office that they didn't have in the pharmacy). Then she went back into the patient's room with a professional and compassionate voice! Another dr. threw a phone and it hit the face of a nurse. You can believe she made a big deal out of it (don't blame her). Could it be that they don't like the fact that sometimes the nurses know their patients better than they do? My recommendation of a dr. to someone, although their reputation is a major factor, would be based on their bedside and professional manner.

Recently my brother-in-law was in the hosp. of a big city. He was in a semi- private room. The dr. came in to his roommate and reported that the recent biopsy was a lymphoma. The patient was visibly upset. The dr. attempted to console him. Now... his diagnosis was exposed to the roommate (my brother-in-law) who attempted to comfort the other patient. But what if the my brother-in-law decided to go out and report the conversation to the man's family? What if the patient did not want other family members to know? My brother-in-law did not do the unthinkable but I now realize that semi-private rooms violate HIPPA, do they not? Just how confidential can it be? This is a serious question.

After 21 years of night shift, I can suggest some things from my own experience. When day shift comes in, that they move through report quickly and get out to relieve us. Too much time is spent behind the doors of the report room, yakking, sipping coffee, eating the fast food breakfast they grabbed on their way in, etc. Also do not imply that night shift "never does anything." We work with a skeletal crew with many less resources that might be needed for advice during the night. Yes, scheduling inservices for their convenience might be handled by videoing the inservice in the day presentation for their review at night. Saves the hospital money because they don't have to pay them to come in on their time off. Don't leave them stranded when it snows and day folks call in because "they can't get out of their driveway." Shovel it until you can get out. Remember the night shift folks are on a schedule contrary to what the rest of the world is and really need to be able to go home instead of pulling extra hours/shifts till some relief come to them. To me, the 7 p.m.-7 a.m. shift is a killer for even supernurses! Yet I know that many facilities are going to that. Also when it comes to evaluations, make sure the ones that do them knows the nurse and does not judge them by what they hear from others. My older sister was a nsg. home administrator for years and she would spend a night shift every six weeks in the facility where she worked so she could see firsthand what goes on, acquainting herself more personally with the night folks. We are willing to pull these shifts and should have recognition like the other shifts.

And that much more is said about night shift nurses. They do not realize that we work with less staff, less resource individuals and departments, no doctors on hand (sometimes a blessing), no one to call in to take the place of one of our folks who call in, and on and on. Sometimes the only satisfaction in my wonderful years of nursing was going home and knowing I did my best even if no other human being knew or recognized it. One needs to walk in the shoes of the nurse on one of those nights (or other shifts) that we packed 16 hrs. of work into 8 hrs. and then had a head nurse come in and the first question might be, "Why didn't you get that ua on patient so-and-so?" When there was bad weather and nurses called in, our HN would be on the phone at 4 p.m. making sure we night people would be in. Yet, when we are there at night and day shift calls in, no one was there to help us find replacements so we could go home. It only happened twice but in my years of night shift nursing, I ended up having to stay over and work a day shift because there were no replacements for me so I could go home. I wonder if this could have been a legal complaint? So my comments have gone beyond ungrateful visitors or patients and even into those of our own profession. My memories of the positive moments are with me and I will always love my profession.

Several years ago, one of the other nurses on the floor had been suspected of stealing narcotics. The suspicion had been there for almost a yr. but no one seemed to catch her. She was very intelligent, well liked and had many friends (up to the Administration). On evening at change of shifts there was a blatant error on the narc sheet. When I asked the evening nurse if she reported it, of which three other employees were listening, each had their own reason for not bringing it to the proper authorities' attention. (May their consciences since have dealt with them.) I took action that needed to be taken earlier. Did I gain popularity? No! Did my fellow employees stand with me? No! Only one fellow worker stood by my side through the next weeks of agony as her "secret" had been exposed and known throughout the hospital. It took awhile but she was let go (two mo. after the blatant error was noted on the narc sheet). Was there any follow up for the staff, reminding them of their professional duty to report her? No! Did I "gain respect" for stepping forward. No! But before the Lord, to whom I am accountable, I did what I knew I should do. What about our patients who had complained over the months that their pain shots "were not helping them?" How could we not have professional indignation against one who knew better?

I don't know what diploma schools are today but back in the "dark ages", they were fantastic. It was three years- all year- one mo. off each yr. and by the time we were seniors, we were in charge of the floors with supervisors over us. Now that was a long time ago and I am sure that legally this could not be allowed today (that is, being in charge as senior student nurses). The biggest need in nursing (coming from a retiree who had young new nurses working under me) is "on hands" experience and learning to handle volumes of patients. Not easy but it comes at you once you have been graduated and face the real nursing world.

The sad thing is that after you have years and years of experience, they gently move you to the rear because your methods are outdated and your declining flexibility is not what is needed today.

Excuse my ignorance but where does one find the article that brings the responses?

I feel undermined when ready to start an IV and the patient informs me that the other nurses had to stick them umteen times before they got it in the right place. Not exactly a confidence building statement! Another painful situation was when a fellow employee repeatedly told her patients that she wanted to check their "fungus."

Yes, elimination products are all a part of nursing. I was trained to be a bedside nurse and that involved all aspects of patient care. As one other nurse said, one day I could be the one that would be lying in the bed in the same condition. Pity the nurse who thinks she is above the care of a patient who no doubt did not choose to be incontinent!

I have a twin sister. We did most everything together. Our older sister was a nurse (3 yr. diploma) and we always admired her. So from childhood up, we always dreamed of being nurses. That we did together, graduating from a highly reputable nursing school in Phila. Never regretted it either. Now retired, I miss it very much. However the lawsuits (at least for an older nurse who never heard of these till the last years of my career) felt it was time to step aside and let the younger ones do it. I do wish they had programs for older nurses who could work now and then and not let the years of experience they gained, go down the drain.

I too lost two babies in early pregnancy, in a remote village of a Latin American country-----in the outhouse, yes outhouse. God enabled the miscarriages (I like that word so much better than abortion) to be complete so a flight into the city was not necessary. Then while still in Latin America, we had a fullterm son who lived only two days. It was not till years later here in the US (when I was working OB), that the "Christmas baby" was born (I always worked 11-7 on Christmas Eve) and was diagnosed with Potter's syndrome. Not knowing what that was, I got a Peds book from the Nursery. I realized then that this is what our son had and it was comforting to know exactly what was his condition. I now know that God brings these difficulties into our lives so we can realistically comfort others. Little did I realize in 1973 that one day I would be back in the US working OB, and finding myself at the bedside of a mother who had a stillborn. One can so much better identify when we have walked through those paths of grief ourselves.