HeyJude

It was trying, for sure. I think people have some very unrealistic expectations when it comes to their newborns.

No, your apple juice isn't as important as the lady trying to bleed to death in the next room, nor the 33-weeker antepartum down the hall who's sitting on the toilet trying to push, that I am trying to get transferred to labor and delivery. I'll be happy to help you breastfeed, but you do not have to see a lactation consultant before the first latch. Sorry to burst your bubble, but our LCs don't work nights, so it's me or nobody. I know it's only been 2 hours since you last breastfed, but your baby doesn't know that. He's hungry. Please feed him. Don't let him lie there and cry because 'it's not time for him to eat yet.' Reality is going to hit you hard when you take this baby home tomorrow....

While I would eventually like to do something outside the hospital job, I really can't think of what I'd like to do on a fulltime basis apart from that. I don't really see myself as a teacher, I don't want to do management, and I'm not (at least not at this point) motivated to go back to NP school. So...probably it will be hospital nursing for me until I keel over. :)

Link #2 posted: http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/03/26/healthmag.circumcision.hpv.herpes/index.html In Uganda. They also point out that roughly 3/4 of US adults have already had at least one HPV infection....already. That in a country that still circumcises the majority of baby boys. Hmmmm. And link #3: http://www.fsneo.org/JourClub/3-023.htm Does not say where the study was done. Furthermore, the two sample pools (circ vs intact men) were not even remotely close in size. 292 circed men, vs. 847 intact men. Got to have similar sample pools if the research is going to be considered valid. Still, I especially like the MD's comment at the very bottom - that he fully expects for us to start doing mastectomies on newborn girls, because it will prevent cancer in the future, should be able to be done w/ local anesthesia, and they won't remember it anyway.

Hate to be the one to point this out to you, but I am quoting directly from the links you posted. http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/resources/factsheets/circumcision.htm Your research sites were located in Africa, and this research is far from conclusive in saying that circumcision is the only way to reduce HIV transmission.

You hate male doctors and nurses? Without even knowing them? You certainly can ask for the caregiver you want, but to say you hate someone just because they are male? I don't understand. On what are you basing this? I have never ever had this experience, not for myself nor with my loved ones who have needed medical care. You are assuming that just because someone is a male, they are going to be flirting with you or staring at your boobs instead of listening? I'm not flaming you - just genuinely asking a question because I want to understand what you mean. I've had to catheterize men, and swab their memberes for gonorrhea/chlamydia, and there was never the first inkling of anything sexual about it. Why would/should it be any different when the roles are reversed? Does anyone honestly think all men are such pigs? None of the men who are important in my life are. I know many male nurses that I'd ask for any day over some female nurses that I know....but it has nothing to do with their gender, and everything to do with their knowledge, caring, and bedside manner.

What really fries me is when it's not the VIP making such a big deal over themselves, but admin does. We had one not too long ago who was a very nice patient with a very nice family, and probably had no idea this big a deal was being made over them, but admin/mgmt was up 'checking out the room' to make sure it met standards. Barf. They never do that when it's someone from the homeless shelter. Hmmm.

I have to admire this doc's candor but do not agree with his stance on so many things. The evidence strongly suggests that many of the things he is intent on doing are either a) not helpful; or b) downright harmful. And on the flipside, I have seen things happen in hospital deliveries resulting in very very bad (unnecessarily so) outcomes that would not have happened had the delivery occurred at home. The evidence strongly suggests that home delivery is safe in low-risk pregnancies, and in many industrialized nations, birth takes place at home all the time, with very very few preventable bad outcomes. Have you by chance looked at Ina May Gaskin's numbers? A pain in the butt for whom? It's her birth experience, not mine. This is not quite the catastrophe it's being made out to be. The human race survived for many many years without Vitamin K. It does little or nothing to prevent early onset HDN, and the incidence of late-onset HDN is around 7 in 100,000 in babies that don't get the Vit K. Did I get it for my son? Sure. But do I get all in a hot mess if parents don't want it? Not at all. ....infections that mom has been tested for (at least in my facility) upon admission. If she comes back GC & Chlam negative, there is absolutely no good reason to give the drops. Again, I got them for my son. But the next baby, I might forgo them. No need to treat for an infection Mom doesn't have. Forgive me for disagreeing so much, but too many doctors and nurses (I'm including myself here) forget that childbirth is a normal, common experience that has worked well for millenia, if not millions of years. Women and their babies are made to be able to handle it. The Creator is not a careless mechanic. Babies die and moms die when doctors intervene too much too. We have got to get out of this collective mindset that normal lady partsl delivery is a retrospective dx. You know, I didn't have a problem with having IV access during my labor. But there are several nurses/midwives on this board practicing in other countries that do not routinely put IVs in laboring women....and have never had a problem getting access when seconds count.I am sorry if this comes across as a personal attack on you, because it's not. I just strongly disagree w/ many of the ideas. It's been my experience that we cause more problems than we fix with all our interventions, well-intended though they may be.

Want pt satisfaction to go up? Staff us adequately!!!!!

CRNA, and I find these generalizations disturbing and, more importantly, inaccurate. You act as if you are the only person whose tax dollars would be used to support the healthcare of the entire country and you know that's not true. Everybody who pays taxes pays into it and everybody benefits from it. Nobody here has ever said that they aren't willing to pay for it, and your characterization of liberals wanting to spend everyone else's money does little to help find a solution. The last I checked the current conservative government has spent a lot of MY tax money to fund an unnecessary war that has cost money, lives, and the mental health of many. Instead of attacking everyone who doesn't agree with you, why not suggest a viable alternative?

Silas, Unless you have been to nursing school and medical school, is there any way to know which is more rigorous? I cannot tell you how many times I have been right and a physician has been wrong. Do I rub it anyone's face? No, because that's not the point. But I have to wonder what kind of training residents are receiving when an OB/Gyn resident - a doctor - admitted to me that he did not know that milk ducts extended to the pectoral wall and into the armpit. THAT makes me pause. Good luck. You are going to need it. And come back to us after a few pimping sessions.

I'm a pretty crunchy kind of gal. I have a shirt that says "The Hippies Were Right", if that gives you any idea of the kind of things I believe. So if you don't want the Vit K, Emycin, Hep B, or PKU for your baby, I will probably be ok with that. However, if in the next breath you ask me when he will be circumcised, I WILL wonder where your thinking cap is.

Oh Lord, how terrible. I think it's perfectly understandable for you to be sensitive about things like that years after they happen.

I completely understand and respect where you are coming from, ingelein. I didn't mean to make light of your family's history. I was referring to several hundred years ago, and the 'Manifest Destiny', not displaced people who were kicked out of their homeland by an evil madman's policies. Please know that. And I agree with you that it's reasonable to ask people to learn English if they come here to live. That's perfectly fine, and it benefits both citizen and immigrant. And it DOES show gratitude to a country that allows you to live here. On this I agree with you wholeheartedly. I don't think it's unreasonable to give people say 3-5 years (maybe more, maybe less) to prove they can speak English once they've established residency. I agree with English-immersion. It's the best way. Immersion is how I learned Spanish, and I don't speak it with an American accent. I completely agree that people (especially kids, the little sponges) may struggle for a few weeks, but after that will be almost flawless speakers. I've seen it over and over.

I have a question. I'm just throwing it out there. Do you think Native Americans ever sat around having this exact same discussion about the invading hordes of colonists? People who: - for the most part, forced their language(s) on the Native Americans, not vice versa; - did not stay in their countries of origin to try and better their situations; - did not ask permission of the peoples already living here before taking over their land, their possessions, and their wives - spread all kinds of diseases; and - planted their flag anywhere they darn well pleased - "claiming the land for England (or Spain, or France, or...) I'm not saying we here are to blame for their actions. Just pointing out that these are not new problems, and that 'they' eventually become 'us.'