alisunshine9

You are in the wrong profession! :offtopic:

I'm surprised noone has mentioned MBTs. They are expensive, but eight years of studying body mechanics and foot movement during walking has paid off. The shoes make you feel like you're walking in sand. They are very comfortable and they work with the muscles in your legs to help tone your lower extremities. :pumpiron: The Danskos are awesome, but they don't allow your foot to flex. You can get away with that for a couple of years and then the plantar fasciaitis will catch up with you. Hope this info helps!

I frequently forget patients don't know medical lingo. I've had a few odd/blank stares when I informed a patient I was going to empty their foley, no they can't eat because they're NPO, their pulse was low because of the beta-blocker they were on, etc. However, I have yet to meet a patient who didn't know what I was talking about when I mentioned an enema!!!

I decided to go to nursing school because I knew I wanted to work in medicine but I didn't want to be a doctor. :icon_roll I was not sure it was my calling until I realized something. I absolutely hate getting up at 5am. I absolutely hate driving for 30 minutes to get to work. But no matter how much I feel like I just don't want to get out of bed, when I step foot on the hospital floor I light up. My whole demeanor changes when I'm in the hospital. Time flies, I bond with my patients, I love the staff I work with, and I come home wanting to tell everyone about how great my day was (HIPAA has taken that ability away :uhoh21: ). I believe everyone has a different meaning of life, but the meaning I have discovered to mine is to get to know as many people as I can and help them in whatever way I am able. There are days when I come home and a little black cloud hangs over my head :chair: , but there are days when I come home and I'm smiling brighter than the sun. Give it time and you may notice one day that you really love being a nurse.

A nurse is a person who cares for the sick or injured. A nurse is a patient advocate. Nurses were recently voted by the public as THE MOST trusted person of all professions. You should be proud to be called a nurse. Stop focusing on the gender of the term and instead focus on the good you can do while practicing as such.

I had one patient with dementia. He started reeling in his IV tubing like it was fishing line because he was sure he "caught a big one" on the other end. :chuckle I went back to check on him after a few minutes and he had a magazine on his bed which wasn't there before. When I asked him where he got it he told me, "John Wayne gave it to me. He ususally comes at noon. He's late today. I wonder where he is?" I was working with an aide, cleaning a woman who had soiled the bed when the woman shouted, "I'm going to go again. MOVE! Get out of the way! I'm going to stink you up!" She was so serious and it took all my strength not to fall on the floor laughing. :rotfl:

There was one woman I cared for in the hospital who was dying of cancer with mets. We called her the pink lady because everything had to be pink with her, paper, pens, tissues, get well cards, clothes, etc. She would come back from radiation treatments sick as a dog, wearing a pink tiara. :) Anyone who entered her room would be greeted with "Hey Love!" She told me one day that she had her picture in a museum and it comforted her to know she wouldn't be forgotten when her time came. She was always so pleasant and so wonderful, even while facing such a cruel disease.

There are some patients who make your day a little more difficult, and there are some who make your day a little brighter. I thought I would start a discussion about the patients you will never forget taking care of. I had one patient with dementia. He kept trying to wiggle out of the geri-chair. I would find him mid-limbo, but when I tried to help him he would refuse to go for a walk. (Where did he think he was going?) But if you put a sandwich in front of him he would be happy and quiet....until he finished eating it, then it was back to the limbo. Even though he was always trying to sneak away when I wasn't looking, and he made my day much more busy, I always smile when I think of him. I also had one man in his mid 90s receiving a blood transfusion and "pleasuring" himself the whole time. :uhoh21: It took several minutes of LOUD knocking on his door before he put "it" away and let me take his vital signs. :imbar I guess he was putting the new blood to use! Then there was the sweet man who only responded with "what do you want?" When you proceeded to tell him, he would interrupt by saying "will you SHUT UP!" Who ever thought being a nurse could be so much fun! :chuckle

I had one patient who was grumpy no matter what. I almost broke my back getting him from the bed to the chair, and when I finally got him there all he did was complain about being out of bed and threatened bodily harm if I didn't get him back to bed right after breakfast. :uhoh21: Then I gave him a sponge bath and listened to him tell me how horrible I was. After caring for this man for an hour and trying to talk him into giving me a chance before deeming that I was incompetent to care for him, he proceeded to tell me that I was a "horrible nurse with no sympathy." :imbar He was A+Ox3 and had just said the worst insult I could ever imagine receiving from a patient. I told him, "I'm very sorry you feel that way. I do care, and if there is anything I can do to make your day better just let me know." I could've cried. I could've snapped at him. But sometimes people react with negativity when they are faced with their own vulnerability. You have to be confident in your nursing skills so these situations don't feel like a knife through your heart.

And I prefer to be called "Your Majesty" but I live in the real world where working with doctors is called collaborative care, not subservience. :angryfire How ridiculous is it that we have rules of properly addressing the doctor. I think we have more important things to do....like care for our patients!

You folks that comment about certain words being inappropriate for a lady to say - do you really think that its appropriate for a man to say?? I don't think they sound any better coming from men, nor do I think it is more acceptable for men to use them, so it just struck me as odd that people singled ladies out. Profanity is profanity - the gender of the speaker does not change a thing about the words. -RN4NICU I do feel it is inappropriate for anyone to swear while at work, however I feel we as women should not do anything to make ourselves seem less professional. We live in a society run by men. Until the world wakes up and realizes we are better than our male counterparts , we have to remain smarter than them to be given even close to the same respect as men. It is sad that we cannot be treated equally but we have to bust our butts to get the respect we do have. I wouldn't want to work this hard to get to where I am and earn no respect from my fellow employees, doctors, and patients because I cannot control what comes out of my mouth. :uhoh21:

I have heard that about a third of the class doesn't graduate. I have also heard that a high number of new grads quit nursing within the first three years of becoming a registered nurse. The bottom line is, if you really want to be a nurse don't let anything stop you! There will be tests you don't do well on and there will be times you feel like quitting, but always keep your goals in mind.