Plato

Hope you have your flame suit on; go in peace? That's priceless. Anyway, an RN is a professional position in society just like the following: Physician Engineer Lawyer Accountant Administrator Teacher Military Officer That's all I can think of. The RN is really complete with a B.Sc. degree, but it's not necessary. An RN is an RN. The BSN makes them equivalent to a Military Officer, but I have personally known captains in the AF that were RNs with an associate degree.

You're a hopeful for nursing school next fall, and yet you are going to voice your opinion. Well, OK, but I hope you aren't writing checks with your mouth that your butt can't cover, or something like that. I wasn't actually implying a "large" butt or anything. On the BSN LPN issue. I think it's great. I say let 'em all get BSNs! What difference does it make what they do with their free time and money?

Yeah, you're a nurse in the general sense of the word, but not in the professional sense. And I never said the LPN was not of value, but one year practicing nursing tasks does not make one equal to an RN. And frankly, where I work we don't use LPNs. We have techs that do everything from lab draws to 12-lead EKG. I'm not against LPNs, but you need to realize what your mission is in the hirearchy. Have I got to you yet? Oh, and when I say shut up and color, they delete it. When you say it, they let it go. I think that speaks volumes.

You know, I get acused of this everywhere I go. What the hell is a troll? Maybe then I can tell you if I am one.

I think the people who don't find this post funny in the least, may be the one's on the list. I mean, when I was in Civil Service, there was a guy just like Milton in the movie Office Space. He finally saw the movie and didn't find it funny at all. Gee?

LPNs are not professional nurses. They have the word "nurse" in their title, but so does a CNA. An LPN is an assistant to the RN. A CNA, is also an assistant to the RN. The LPN is given technical tasks like dressing changes and med administration, and the CNA is given rudimentary tasks like ADLs and VS. I won't even argue this one. If someone wants to dress up like a nurse and pretend, that's fine with me. But a nurse is a Registered Nurse.

Oh my god--he was, he was...rude. Will someone please get the president on the phone, we have an emergency here!

Oh yeah, like I'm going to scare off someone who feels called by God to be a "good" nurse. Sure I might scare off the one who wasn't sure if there was more money in marketing or nursing, but not a "good" nurse. And one is a "good" nurse before they ever go into nursing school. And they know they are after their first clinical.

This is an online forum--I've never treated a student nurse bad in the real world. Of course, I've never actually had a student nurse, so... Anyway, I work on a telemetry step-down unit. Mostly CABG patients from ICU and cath patients from the cath lab. I'm a brand new nurse myself, so I still have a lot of student in me.

When you meet someone, do you know if they are being sincere or not? So will your patient--even if they're severly demented. When you talk to someone, can you tell when they are keeping a distance from you? So will your patient. So would you, if you were a patient. If I were your preceptor, I'd only eat you alive if you needed to be eaten. Believe me, if you're a "good" nurse, the bad ones can't eat you.

Who ever said you couldn't have opinions, but read the post: What difference do your opinions make? As a human being with a conscience, sure, you have an opinion. But will you act any differently when you have seven patients to care for? I know what a horrible nurse is. I know I am not one of them. But what about you? What do I know about you--what do you know about you?

nursing students: your job is to learn, not to criticize. you don't know enough to criticize what you see. you need to sit down with your coloring book and color. when you graduate, if you graduate, when you pass your nclex, if you pass your nclex, when you get a job as a nurse, if you get a job as a nurse, when you've been working for six months on the floor, if you last six months on the floor, then you will be in a position to judge things correctly. until then, you're just another student that may or may not be around next semester. so, no one's going to listen to you, and no one gives a damn what you think is proper nursing care or what you think is not proper nursing care. of course there are horrible nurses. but for all anyone knows, you're lining up to be the next one.

I like your signature saying better than that stupid pledge that wasn't even written by Flo. I'd rather light a candle and say what you said! "Wanna be a nurse so much! Wanna work at various nursing parts! Wanna live for My God!"

I used to work at a nursing home as an aid, for a year, I guess. Full time for a while then weekends while I was in level 1. I call it the dungeon, and that's what it was. I know I needed to be there. I know I needed to see and experience what I did. But I didn't think humans could treat or neglect other humans the way I saw people treated. I constantly reported to the DON. My last shift, I went to get a patient up--not mine. I didn't have her as a patient, I was just assigned to get her up, and the state I found her in was terrible. She was almost dead. Her LOC was at best a stupor. Her Glascow would have been about a 4. I know that now. She had feces in her hair, and her lips were so caked and cracked that they bled when I tried to give her some oral care. And while I was doing that, I found scrambled eggs in her mouth--that meant she couldn't have had any water for at least 24 hours. I couldn't get the nurse to come to her room, even when I told her that her pulse was uncountable. All she said (the lazy fat ass nasty-looking LPN) all she said was, "Well, she's a DNR." I finally lifted her into the wheelchair apologizing all the time, because I knew she was too sick to get up. But I told her I had to get her up to get her to the nurse. I wheeled her, slumped and strapped in her chair to the nurse, put on the breaks and said, "Here, you might want to check her pulse ox." A few minutes later they called the ambulance. I prayed for her death when they took her to the ER. But she came back, I heard. Her family who was going to sue, who I was ready to be a wittness for, put her back. I hope she's dead now. That's a loving statement, believe it or not. The dungeon, even by my estimation is the best nursing home in the area. There's a guilt a person gets when they fail. I failed by leaving. But once you tell the DON you are making yourself and every photocopied peice of paper you ever gave him available to the family who's threatening to sue, you know it's time to leave. The dungeon, please allow me to swear just this once: The ****ing dungeon. My position, I learned, was filled by a man who was fired from there as a dishwasher for harrassing women in the halls. He went to another nursing home to be a dishwasher, but they made him a CNA, then he left there and came back and they hired him back as a CNA--no longer confined to the kitchen. The dungeon: I wish all the residents there could pass away naturally in their sleep and then the place could burn to the ground, and then a parking lot could be made in its place.

Let's face it, some nurses are battle axes. They're mean, negative, condescending, uncaring, self-centered, lazy, neglectful incompetents. But where do they come from? #1 The Authoritarian Personality These are the ones who were treated like dirt in nursing school (and elsewhere in life) and because they were made to fee like dirt, they decided that was what real power was--the ability to make someone feel like dirt. So, they brown-nose anyone they consider their "superior" and treat anyone they consider their inferior like dirt. Nursing students and new nurses often catch the brunt of this. #2 The Burn Out This person is not a nurse, he or she is a hotel maid dressed up like a nurse. They never really loved anyone, they just wanted the pay, and now the years of "having" to care for others has taken it's toll. Because they're angry and hate their "servile" station in life as a nurse, they become mean. They never smile. They may even deliberately withold pain medication by making it their last priority when a patient asks for it. Subconsciously, they are getting even with the patient. This nurse judges everyone and everything. If a patient has a broken leg, then they shouldn't have been so stupid. If they have cancer then they shouldn't have smoked, and now they damn well aren't coming to the hospital and getting addicted to their pain medication--not on this battle axe's shift anyway! Patients often bear the brunt of this wretch in white. #3 The Stripper on the Side This one is immoral at best and nauseating at worst. She hits on all the doctors and male nurses and ex-convict transporters. She constantly has a sexual joke to tell and talks about what patients look like when they're naked. She likes to socialize and when her call lights are going off you can bet she's somewhere else. The patients are the last thing on her mind. Why she isn't working at Hooter's is anyone's guess. #4 Tammy Faye, RN This is the religious one. She goes to church every sunday and for some reason everyone knows this. She usually pins up some Halmark greeting card prayer on the bulletin board, and has some anti-vampire symbol around her neck. But in the patient's room she turns into a battle axe. She yells at the demented; she argues with the anxiety ridden, and has a good reason for every uncaring thing she ever does. Her patients foley bags are so full they've become a legal restraint, and under the fold of an old woman's breast you may very well find one of her needle caps or alcohol pad packets. When the nursing student asks about the PRN MSO4 that could be given ("Right, I mean we can give him that, right, right, please....please!) The moralistic reply comes across in the smoothest caring fashion--"Oh deary, didn't you know? He's a drug-seeker." This battle axe hypocrite is going to burn in hell for sure, but until then your medicare tax dollars are keeping her on the floor. All good nurses must make a stand and commit themselves to never becoming a battle axe. Be to work on time. Fake being happy if you have to for the sake of others. Answer your call lights. And care for your patients as if they were you--don't separate yourself from them.

Hoolahan, Please don't go there. If I had the problem of professional low self-esteem, then I would accept NPs as nurses--just like you do. I do not. So, even though I said "We" I was only trying to be nice. It's really you who think of the MD-nurse as advanced that have the problem. But, on to bigger and brighter things.

I think we've pretty much exhausted this topic, and it's good that we did, because I got a chance to see where you stand and you now know where I stand on nurse professionalism. I do want to say for the record that I don't consider NPs useless. Nor do I think of them as bad. I just think they shouldn't get to have the title of "advanced practice" registered nurses, because as NPs they have abandon the practice of nursing. But we hold them in high regard, because deep down nurses think of themselves as second-class to MDs. If we did not hold this opinion of ourselves, we would have relegated NPs to the status of PA a long time ago. As a profession, we are competing with MDs and we shouldn't be. Nurses are not MDs. Nurses are nurses and their profession is a different profession.

Yes, in general, I think it's true that most nurses have a psychological issue they are trying to work out, and that leads them into the profession. The profession and the tasks that go along with it are not something a normal human would want to do. But in the case of the good nurse, the psychological issue has pushed them over the edge not towards dysfunction but toward higher function. I work in cardiology (a step-down telemetry unit). My father died of an MI, and barring accidents, I will too, given my body type and r/fs. This causes me anxiety. I fear death, even though I believe in God and the life hereafter. My fear propells me to be around others going through what I believe I will go through one day. My hope is to come to grips with it and be able to accept it. In this way, I am uniquely capable of forming a bond with my patients where I see them as myself. So, now I see that some other part of me has used my psychological problem to help me ascend to a greater spiritual and vocational functioning. Hmm? Might we call that higher self the Great Nurse?

I say that doctors, their PAs and NPs will always fail, because their task is to dx and tx diseases that lead to human suffering and death. They will always fail at this task. But the compassion of the nurse--the love of one person for another--will never fail, even if the patient should ultimately cross over. An NP doesn't just choose to further their education; they change roles in the medical paradigm, and still have the audacity to call themselves nurses. I believe this stems from a form of "professional guilt." After all, a CNS is just as educated but can remain on the "nurse" side of the paradigm. Or a DNSc, even though their focus is education and research remain on the nursing side of the fence. I'm sure NPs want to be considered super-nurses, but all I see them doing in the large hospital where I work is the daily rounds for the doctor. In the sticks, 3 miles from here, an NP may function independently--as a nurse? No. As a physician. NPs don't provide nursing care; that's the bottom line. Even though I am accused of it, over and over, I am not saying NPs are worthless. I'm saying they are not nurses. NPs are important to physicians. They're important to nurses, too if they can write some orders that will help, but they aren't nurses unless they stop practicing as an NP and go back to doing those things that RNs do. This is my opinion. I don't know what everyone is so upset about--my opinion is not shared by the nursing profession. So, it really shouldn't matter that much.

I would like to clear up one thing, because it seems to be a common theme in these replies: I am not jealous of NPs nor do I have any bad childhood experiences with them. I simply don't like them trying to have their cake and eat it too. Nurses, whether the individual nurse is or not, are thought of as compassionate angels of mercy. They have a very good reputation in society. Again, they represent a person who for low middle class wages is willing to bathe a leper or sit with a dying cancer patient until they cross over. They have the Blessed Mother Teresa as their call-to-arms and mentor. But their job is tough. There are many ways to get away from the tough bedside nursing care (the generator of all that good reputation). A nurse can become an instructor, a lawyer, a consultant, an NP, a researcher, whatever. All those people are needed in their capacity, but if they are not performing bedside care or on the floor supervising those who do, then they are not sharing in nursing. That's not a problem--many are called but few are chosen. What really gets up my crack is when the NP is considered an "advance practice nurse." Because that implies that what she does is higher functioning than an "ordinary" nurse. This is not the case. The nurse who can hang with it at the bedside as a nurse is the one who has the highest functioning and the most advanced practice. The NP fights to still be considered a nurse, because that's where the glory is. The NP fights to be considered "advanced practice" because it's obvious they aren't doing nursing any longer and there has to be some explanation that lets them keep their status as a nurse. This is indeed the way the world and ANA works, but I disagree with it. The bedside nurse, filled with compassion and competence in caring is the most advanced practice nurse there is. What did Christ say? Did He say, "I was sick and you prescribed prozac and your boss the MD cosigned for it."? No! He said, "I was sick and you cared for me." Doctors, their PAs and NPs, will always fail in the end. But the kindness and caring of the nurse never fails.

Dayray, You have said what I meant to say, exactly as I would have liked to have said it! Thanks!:kiss

Sorry folks, As much as I would like to reply, there are just way too many replies to answer, so I will have to just read them now and pick out one or two to answer. I assure you, I'm not ignoring you, I just don't know how to use the software in here yet well enough to do it in less than three hours. I am glad to see so many replies though!:)

Ashley Kay, this is an excellent post. And you can be proud already, even as a student, in that you can see the evil in front of you. If you don't want to become evil, you won't become evil. Just don't do what you hate, and you will be a good nurse. You have to stay the course, or there will be one less "good" nurse out there.