Sourdough

I have been going to chiropractors since I was 7. At diving practice in the summer, I would come out of the pool with my head stuck on my shoulder...needless to say, I walked out of his office with my head back in its' right place....they have helped me more than I can say...and for me, any stress in my life seems togive me +++tension in my neck....I go to my registered massage therapist, and then on to the chiropractor....it is easier for them to adjust you if you've had a massage and are much more relaxed!!!!!!

In the late 1980's there was a major incident at a hospital in Toronto involving Heparin and Insulin...Back in those days we had heparin locks, they had not yet figured out that NS was good enough. Well, 7 patients died because their locks were flushed with insulin instead of heparin. The containers looked similar and the colouring on the bottles was the same...needless to say, if they had been checked with another nurse, 7 people would still be alive (hopefully!)...the drug companies went into overdrive to change the packaging...but the fact remains that we are very busy and usually over worked, and mistakes could easily happen. LPN's at our hospital are now giving meds (everything except IV drugs), but as the RN, you are ultimately responsible...they never forget to double check their meds...med errors can have catastrophic repercussions...I don't know if any of the nurse in th US heard about it, but in 1981 a nurse was arrested and charged with the murders (by digoxin overdose) of something like 20 babies at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto...she was condemmed before the facts could be investigated, but ultimately she was not guilty but her family and life were destroyed...we had digoxin locked up in the narcotics drawer for a long time after that....it was a frightening time to be a nurse(I was a student nurse then doing a rotation on that unit, and I also lived in the Nurses residence at sick kids)...so, it is foolish to think that just because you"ve got your "RN" means you don't ever have to double check anything anymore...that kind of attitude makes you a very dangerous nurse...

....NP=I can diagnose and treat A Nurse Practitioner is an advanced practicing RN. You need the experience of having worked in the nursing profession in a wide variety of clinical areas. Ask any RN that has worked in their area of expertise and they can rhyme off diagnosis and treatment options before the doctor. You really learn continuously on the job. The scope of practice is enormous. I'm sure there are a lot of experienced nurses out there that could be called NP's without taking any course. I became an NP by default I guess. I chose to do outpost nursing in the arctic...that means i work alone without any back-up, in areas so remote and isolated that anyone who hasn't been there could never comprehend...newspapers are 2 weeks behind... I have to rely on my common sense and the skills that i have acquired as a practising RN...and an NP HAS to be the social worker, the doctor, the hospice nurse, the veterinarian, the psychologist, the pharmacist, the drug and alcohol counselor, the grief counselor, the funeral home director,the midwife, the lab tech,the x-ray tech,to name a few...you are working and on-call 24/7...you need to have compassion and understanding..you are working with diverse cultures and languages which you need to respect...working in downtown hospitals in Toronto helped to prepare me. If you want to get away without all the "emotional" stuff that goes with nursing and NP, go to medical school. Sure, they have doctor's offices in the south (southern Canada) where NP's do all the pre-natal,post-natal patient care for doctor's, make good money, work 9-5 monday to friday, but there are also RN's doing the same job. Education lays the groundwork for you to get out there and practise your profession. Experience is the great equalizer. :roll

Nursing theory...science!...NP=I can diagnose... I graduated 20 years ago....I vaguely remember the actual nursing theorists that we studied, except that Sister Callista Roy rings a bell. The BScN was a REAL BSc program...1st year we took chemistry,psychology,sociology(with the other thousands of 1st year university students), nursing,and anatomy&physiology with 1st year med students& physiotherapists...cadaver labs and everything..2nd year organic chemistry...it was brutal...your other choice was to do the 2/3 year diploma course, and it concentrated on clinical skills, and social sciences, not the pure sciences...now in Canada we only have baccaleaureate nursing students...no more diploma's...but the program has changed to become what is really a Bachelor's of Art or of Applied Nursing Theory, yet some schools still call it a BSc...in Taber's there is a list of 17 different nursing theories...no wonder our profession isn't taken seriously..can anyone name another profession that does this? But I guess the bottom line is theory is here to stay for now, no matter how outdated and complicated some can be, so you bite the bullet and learn it to complete your nursing course...yes it can "suck", but it will prepare you for the REAL world of nursing, where you will find many things that "suck" every day (short staffing,not enough beds, incompetent doctor's..)...but I do love being a nurse despite all the things that suck..:roll GOOD LUCK !!!!!

Here in Canada you can refuse to float to areas where there are specialized skills required that you don't have....like being sent to a cardiac unit with telemetry, and you don't know how to read monitors...you can go to the unit, and let the charge nurse know that you have no telemetry experience, and she can give the responsibility of reading your patients monitors, or just give an assignment where you help the rest of the staff with all other kinds of paient care...it's so rare to get the extra help, anything you can done will be appreciated!!!

We had a patuient in the ER this summer who's name was EFIN LIPSHITZ...it was a panic when the orderly came in to take him to x-ray...she always shouts the names out loud as it is a zoo...after repeating it a couple of times she realized why we were laughing, and turned beet red!