lucianurse

I have never heard of something so ridiculus that I must share it. A nurse friend of mine told me that another nurse friend of hers who works in the operating room said that a male patient came in for minor surgery and was being catherized when some "fluid from his member" spilled unto her abdomen and rolled down into her lady parts, later she noticed that the man had sores on his member which she feared to be syphysis. She became so frightened that she wants her friend to administer bezathine penicillin to her. This story is so absurd. Any one has any thoughts on this issue.

October is Cancer Awareness Month. One way to get volunteers is to invite the local Cancer Society/Support group to stage a booth at the health fair, other booths may be set up by the local Diabetic and Hypertensive Association.

This incident happened years ago. One Easter Sunday morning on the male medical ward that I worked on, a charitable community group came in to visit the patients bringing with them the joys of easter. We had just finished the routine of morning baths. The group came in and distributed painted easter eggs to the patients. One man who seemed a little disoriented held his easter egg in his hand and squeezed it hard. Imagine the anguish we felt when we had to clean up raw egg all over a patient who no so long ago had had a complete bed bath.

Recentlly at one of the community hospitals on the Island there was a maternal and child death which caused quite a stir on the Island. The story as told by the boyfriend of the deaceased on national T.V. goes like this. He arrived at the hospital about 10.00pm with his girlfriend who was experiencing labor pains. He left his girlfriend in the vehicle and went to the nurses station to get the nurses. The door to the nurses station was closed and he kept banging on it to alert the nurses who refused to open the door and attend to him. When they finally did, he was told that there were no midwives and so he should take his spouse to another hospital which was approximately twenty miles away. The men said he responded that his wife was having strong contractions and that he had come to an institution where he knew that he would obtain help and he was being turned away. From what else he said, it would seem that a quarrel ensued during which time the man said the proceeded to the police station, which is not too far away from the hospital to get the police to have the nurse to assist his girlfriend. Meanwhile the young lady's sister was left with her. On his return he found that his girlfriend had already delivered in the vehicle. He screems at the nurse, "you see what I was telling you, look my girlfriend has delivered in the vehicle." Then the nurse orders the orderly to get the wheelchair ,she comes out to assit, all the time grumbling that she was not aware if the client attended pre natal clinic, done required investigations and tha tthe clients' blood had spilled on her uniformed. she refused to call the ambulance to transfer the client when the clients sister begged her to do so. The baby and the mother were eventually taken into the hospital and were then franticlly worked on. The baby died soon after, the mother was transported via ambulance to the other hospital where she later died. This is what the spouse said on national television. This hospital indeed has a problem with shortages of nursing staff, particularly midwives, however I believe the nurse did handle the situation badly. Evidently she was not in sync with W.H.O.'s World Health Theme for 2005 "Every mother and child counts.

Help! I need to hear from you. Recently at my clinic an elderly lady came in from a french teritory with an injection she claimed to be an influenza shot. She said she normally gets a flu shot every flu season and that she was told by her doctor that she could have any nurse administer the shot. The trouble is the literature was written in french and I unable to read it, and also she had no prescription for the shot. I politely told her that due to ethical reasons, I did not feel comfortable to administer the shot to her. Yesterday I friend of My spouse asked my spouse whether I could administer a shot of depoprovera to his sister in law who is a visitor from the Dominican Republic. She has no prescription, however she came to the Island with her own supply, I told him that I did not feel comfortable administering due to ethical reasons. I could not help but wonder how are people able to get their hands on these pharmaceuticals. Please let me know how would you have reacted in these situations.

Some doctors take nurses for granted,but it all depends on your response to the situation. I experienced a situation with a particular house officer (doctors who are understuding the surgical consultant) and I have no doubt that he has great respect for me thereafter. Years ago I worked on the surgical unit of the general hospital. One night when I came in on duty, I received report on a diabetic patient who had had amputation of her toes. She had been on a sliding scale of insulin three times daily. The nurse who handed over to me, said that the client had not eaten anything during the day, her urine was tested three times that day and was negative all three times yet she was given insulin all three times. I went to the patient and noticed that she was diaphoretic, non responsive and urine still negative, Igot on the phone immediately and called up the house officer I explained to him what the nurse told me and I also described to him what was happening to the patient presently. His response to me was that the patient always sweats like this and that he had seen the patient earlier in the evening. I said to him this is different and he needs to come urgently to collect blood and set up an i.v. He started argueing with me, I had no intention to argue back and forth with the doctor when I knew that the patient's condition needed immediate attention. I responded to him in a threatening voice "Dr,. P good night and slammed down the receiver as hard as I possibly could. I called up the night supervisor and appraised her of the situation, she came in withdrew blood for labs and was setting up the iv when the said doctor came rushing in. He turned to me and said to me, when I heard you got upset and slam down the receiver I came immediatly. He was very apologetic and voluntered to take the blood sample to the lab. Later he telephoned the results which was 2.0. he continued to be apologetic,saying that I should call him at any time he would be happy to come in no matter what the crisis. I was able to get him to see the seriousness of the situation without wasting valuable time arguing with him.

Today,one of the clients who came to see the doctor was told by the assistant who checked her pressure that the reading was 200/100. Her reply was, oh! is it still 300? ( 200 +100=300). I burst into peals of laughter when I heard this.

Yes indeed!! Lots of nurses are motivated by the money, and this is in no way limited to the American continent. I think this is a world wide trend. I can speak for the caribbean Island of which I am from. Lots of students enter nursing school, not because they have any interest in or great love for nursing but because of the prospects of (1) obtaining employment in the USA,or England. (2) obtaining citizenship/work permit in these countries, (3) gaining access to material wealth quickly and (4) improvement in the quality of life. The sad thing is that they are very open about it, and will not hesitate to say this at any forum. They whole attitude reeks of indifference and contempt towards clients. Their actions are not subtle in any way. Though If I may add, that clients complaints may be multifauceted, a lot of dissatisfaction stems from the attitude of these "money/status motivated nurses" who care for them.

At the general hospital where I once worked, there was a ward sister(supervisor) who was as lazy as jack **** and seemed always to be in a daze. One day when the surgeon was making rounds, he questioned her about a patient receiving an enema which he had ordered the day before. She replied, " yes doctor, I gave it to him orally." The doctor looked at her, shaked his head and said, "You need to be in the Guinness Book of World Records."

When I was a nursing student years ago,we did cllinicals at seniors' residence. One of the residents was a frail woman about eight years old. When ever someone would ask her, "how are You?" Her response was always "so so and so".

When I worked as a clinical instructor a few years ago, one of the students' assignments was to conduct a physical exam on a client and then formulate a nursing diagnosis. One student, in her narrative summary of the client wrote,"Mr. Doe is an elderly man, he only has twenty teeth in his upper jaw." I burst into peals of laughter when I read that. The senior lecturor asked me what was so funny. I told her that the student perhaps did not examin the client and wrote whatever she pleased since one can only have sixteen teeth in each jaw. Her reply to me was that it is quite possible to have twenty teeth in the upper jaw since her daughter had had her full set of teeth and she grew some more. Well, myself and another lectuter had the time of our lives laughing at this suggestion.

A middle aged lady walked into the doctor's office and said, "Doctor I have lots of problems, from the top of my head to the sole of my feet." The doctor replied, "Tell me those in between."

When I worked on the med-surg unit years ago, we had a grouchy middle aged unmarried supervisor, who made both patient and nurses alike feel her wrath. one of the young RN's poked fun at her unawares. She said that the supervisor suffered from "penile dementia".

I will be visiting Canada nest month, whilse there I want to explore the possibility of working as an RN. I am a registered Nurse trained in 1981,and trained as a midwife in 1990.

Nurses in St. Lucia celebrate International Nurses Day on Wednesday 12th May. It is the birthday of Florence Nightingale. Lately I've been reading some very negative things about Florence Nightingale's Nursing practice. Please share your comments. :chuckle