PreOpNurse

Any county hospital is a microcosm of what socialized health care would be like. If you think those are good wait times (3 months for an MRI, 6 hours to see a PCP, etc.), good access to care and top-notch care, then by all means, vote for people who will drown us in this type of system. Most people who report being happy with socialized health care (UK, Canada) are young and relatively healthy. They have not had to experience what a real health crisis in that country is like. I saw a documentary in which a Candadian man was having severe headaches and other neuro symptoms. He went to the doctor and was told he probably had brain cancer. When could he expect to get an MRI? Five months later. That could mean death for many patients. I also heard of rationing of dialysis in the UK after the age of 50. Is that what you want? I don't. I'd rather struggle with our imperfect system.

I've looked through most of the pages and I haven't seen the one that drives me absolutely BATTY! I never say anything to anyone, but I'm almost distracted after they say it for a little while. I've heard anesthesiologists say it (though far fewer than nurses). m-e-t-o-p-r-o-l-o-l Notice no "r" after the "t". It is, therefore, meh-TOE-pro-LOL (capitals for emphasis), NOT meh-troh-po-LOL like I hear it nearly every day. Also it is not meadow-PRO-LOL. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest!

OK, this is second hand, but I believe the source. So you know those floaty water noodles for the pool? Well this guy had one all the way up there. The entire 8 feet or however long they are. It was all compacted in his rectum and descending colon. The Xray showed the top of his descending colon bumped up against his diaphragm!!!! When do you stop yourself and say, what the heck am I doing? When do you stop shoving it up there? WHEN?????

I totally agree with the above posts, except to say that there is humidity. I am from Oklahoma which is more humid on average. But the last couple of summers have been terrible. Most houses (including mine) have swamp coolers which do not work in humidity, so I spend a lot of time in the summer not being comfortable. I had to buy a window unit for my room so I could sleep. The comment on the politics is spot-on. If you agree with the liberal side, this could be a wonderful sanctuary. The politics certainly bleed into the health care environment. I work at UNM and it is out of control. But, that being said, I love my job and I have great friends here, but I really wish there was more rain. The housing is VERY expensive for the wages and environment here. Even small apartments in the ghetto are $700 and up. Anyway, everyone's different so maybe you'll love it.

Have you thought about doing preop or PACU? They are both med/surg related but have a lot of advantages over floor nursing. In my facility the hours are great (6-4:30 Tuesday - Friday). Plus you have interaction with patients but its usually only for 1-3 hours then you get to send them to the floor. You still see the contact precautions and fall risks but for the most part you have relatively healthy people having surgery. I love it. Maybe you could float and try it out. Jess

I have a great story from when I worked mother baby. We have the call light plugged into the wall and we educate the patients that if they are having an EMERGENCY (i.e. baby not breathing, mom bleeding everywhere, etc.) they should pull it out of the wall. When its pulled out of the wall we hear a "high alert" sound and we all run to the room. Well this mom pulled the plug and we ran to her room. "Can you pull up my pants for me? I don't want to bend over." We helped her then educated her about using the regular call light for situations like that. 3 more times that night she pulled the plug and we ran, and it was like "can you move my diet coke closer to the edge of the table?", can you flush the toilet, I don't want to touch the handle." etc. I was pulling out all of my patience storage to deal with it. AAAAAAAAAH! Now I can laugh about it. :chuckle