Fuzzy

I work in veterinary medicine. Whenever I hear a client calling herself a "nurse", I cringe. She usually comes in with a chip on her shoulder and with a very sick animal that she has been "treating at home". She gets upset when we tell her that her pet is extremely sick and needs to be hospitalized. She will turn down diagnostics and treatments because she is a "nurse". She will look over our shoulders and tell us that we are doing our jobs wrong. She does not want "Fluffy" in a cage because that's cruel. An e-collar (cone) is out of the question because "Fluffy" will not chew her IVC out. (Fluffy did so twice). And the aggravation goes on... Don't get me wrong. Some of our best clients are nurses. In fact we really do not realize that they are nurses until after that fact. The real nurses know that we are on the same side. The intent is that the patient (pet) receive the best care that we can give him so that he can go home and continue to live a wonderful life. Fuzzy

Don't feel bad and I'm glad that your furry companion is recovering well. I am a veterinary professional (CVT). I will tell you that my brain shuts down when it's one of my own that is sick or hurt. Fuzzy

The smell, the look the texture, the cleaning up, being close and personal with the situation etc. This is another reason why I tell people who want to go into vet med to do some shadowing at a veterinary hospital. If the potential tech can live through the experience of pulling a decaying calf...well they might do okay. Fuzzy

Also keep in mind that the picture is different when you are reading the stories online instead of experiencing them in person. Fuzzy

I'm Fuzzy because I work as a certified vet tech in a vet hospital. So I'm covered in hair. Of course I'm "fuzzy" in other ways too. Fuzzy

Some of the things that my patients have eaten include: underwear; thumb tacks; cell phones; toys; nails; string/rope; socks; clothes; poo; spoons; garbage; etc. Oh, I'm also a Certified Veterinary Technician. Some of our worse foreign bodies have been in ferrets and in large hook bill birds (parrots) Fuzzy

We are the nurses of the animal world. In most countries we are called veterinary NURSES. So I would guess that veterinary technicians (which is what we are called in the US and Canada) would include us. I've been on this board for a number of years. Fuzzy, CVT

It also must be mentioned that most of our job as technicians involve dealing with people. The animals are the easy part. So if you are wanting to get into this profession to get away from people (crazy or otherwise) you need to consider a different career choice. Every animal comes attached to a human in some way. Granted there are positions where you do not have to work with the public but those positions still involve dealing with people. Fuzzy

We use several acronyms in vet medicine: PITA has already been discussed DIC Death is coming or dead in cage SDBD Small dog vs big dog HBC Hit by car TBT Trashed by truck or trailer SOD Stupid owner disease SNOP Should not own a pet Call Dr. Deere Large animal has died in the barn. Get the tractor to remove body from barn ADW Ain't doing well FOS Full of the other word for feces Fuzzy Oh and COW is a female bovine

I'm not a nurse but I started a new job in one of the maintenance staff positions at the local hospital. Yup I was a basement rat. My first week in this job involved a very comprehensive orientation. I was thinking wow this is an awesome place to work. We were treated very well during that orientation time. We got to meet the bigwigs who were very cordial and accommodating. Heck I even received a letter from the CEO welcoming me to the team. We all went through the PlaneTree training and did our SWANK units. I though that I was in heaven although I was at the bottom of the ladder. Fast forward two months. I loved my job in the basement. I was getting along wonderfully with my supervisors and co-workers. The compassion fatigue and burn out from my prior job was leaving my brain. Then one week before Christmas, I was called into HR by my direct supervisor. Her direct supervisor was there as well as the HR guy. I had this uh-oh feeling. Yup I was terminated. The excuse was I was not learning the job as fast as they thought that I should have been. However I was praised for my awesome attendance and work ethic. I was blind sided by this. I asked my co-workers several times how I was doing. They thought that I was doing well. My supervisor did not have any complaints as to my progress (or lack there of) to my knowledge. In the interview I asked about the training since I had never done this type of work before. I also explained to them about my ability to get lost until I learned were things were at. They told me that they were willing to put a lot of time into training employees. New employee training costs a lot more money so they wanted to keep us working for them as long as possible. Now I had never been fired (terminated is such a pseudo clean word for firing) before so this was a big blow to my self esteem. I was on unemployment for a time whilst working for work. Thankfully I was offered a part time job at the facility that I had left to take the hospital job. One of my friends is a supervisor at Wal-Mart. He told me that this was a common thing in this hospital. They hire, train and terminate many employees. In my current position I also work with a lot of current and past hospital employees. They also told me that my case was typical. I was told that many EMS, EVS, clerical and nursing staff were also terminated at this time. Fuzzy Funny, I see that my position and many others are listed on that hospital's job website. I just want to say "DON'T DO IT".

I've been on the other side of this door so to speak. I've been a patient. An involuntary patient. If you didn't attend groups, you didn't get to leave as a rule. So I attended groups. This facility (private) offered only one group that was a one size fits all type of thing. At first I didn't recognize it. What opened my eyes was when the facilitator said that we needed to chose new friends and not hang around with our old friends. It was like WHAT? My friends are a big part of my support system. When I asked for a clarification on the comment. She said that I needed to stay away from my drunk and druggie friends. I countered that I was there for a bipolar crisis and that I was not there for an addiction of any kind. In fact I have not been much of a drinker and I certainly don't do drugs. Unfortunately, the group never changed. It was still focused on substance abuse. I was in between a rock and a hard place on that one. Fuzzy

I have changed my focus. I have choosen to leave veterinary medicine for at least a year. The compassion fatigue and burnout is killing me. Plus my workplace has become more Toxic" Fuzzy

From Ethicrn4life: "My point is i think the LGBT community learned from these movements and decided that they would be in this fight for the longhaul, and would not relinguish til they could be treated as full citizens in every aspect of being a citizen and human being. I think profesdionals and people who suffer from mh isdues will have to come out with tht same intensity and vigor for the longhaul. And as we see a change in consciousness.of how people are treated, the fight must continue to make sure no gains are lost and further gains continue. This is my opinion derived from history, my experience as a psych nurse and counselor, as well as my experience of someone who has lived with depression most of my life." YES! YES! YES! This is why I used them as an example. If we want to change the stigma, we must be the first ones to make the change. This needs to be done one place and one person at a time. That means coming out of the closet. People need to start putting a face with the illness. That's how the ALS movement started. Pete Frakes of Boston has started the craze http://espn.go.com/boston/story/_/id/11366772/in-als-fight-pete-frates-message-loud-clear-ice-bucket-challenge Before this ice bucket craze I had no idea who Pete Frakes was. I have not had a personal experience with anyone with ALS. I know many more people that are being treated for MI. I've also experienced the suicides of many friends. Last night there was a suicide attempt (suicide by cop) about 6 blocks from me. I'm not sure if the guy made it or not. The story made the headlines of the local paper in this little town of 9000. Unfortunately this is a negative way to get our point across. Fuzzy

Ethicsrn4life: I too am a single person living on my own. I also live in an area where there is a lot of stigma. The state that I live in has been in the top five of suicides for the last twenty years. It is currently number two. In the past it has been number one. I have experienced discrimination and stigma big time. I have worked for several wonderful employers in the past. My current employer has been very reasonable. So I guess that I'm lucky in that regard. I know that it's hard to stand up for ourselves. Even withoui MI, it is difficult for us to stand up for ourselves. We want to keep our troubles and illness in the closet. Coming out about MI has to be a choice that an individual has to make for themselves. You do not have to stand out on a street corner and declare that you have MI (in fact this is so not a good idea) , you can help behind the scenes. I started out by being a self advocate. Self Advocacy helped me to build positive coping skills. Plus it taught me about the warning signs and what things I needed to be done before I crashed and burned. I've crash and burned bad enough to be involunarily committed. The most difficult time that I have with self advocacy is asking for help. Thankfully the therapist that I see, is someone I really trust as far as asking for help is concerned. Currently, I sit on the state's Protection and Advocacy Mental Health Advisory Council. This has given me an education about how the discrimination laws work and what steps can be taken should someone be discriminated against. I've brought this information back to my peers that have issues with MI. I have done some things for NAMI over the years also. I'm very thankful that I have a good support system that includes family, friends, co-workers, doctor and therapist. I wish that I could say that this journey is easy but it isn't. I have to say that for me, things have gotten better since I have refused to hide. Remember if we want change, we need to be the first ones to fight for that change. The fight does not have to be public, but it does need to be a fight. Fuzzy

Coping skills. Those of us that have mental disorders must learn good coping skills if we want to maintain some kind of "normacy". Those of us that don't often end up homeless, committed, in prision, or dead. Just because we have a mental illness, does not mean that we don't want to fit in. I feel that Robin Williams used comedy and acting to fit into the mainstream. If he were not in the entertainment field, he would have been considered "crazy". Think about it. Would a person like Robin Williams do well in a hospital setting? how about as a car mechanic? a roofer? as a lawyer? I would think that a Robin Williams type person would have a very difficult time holding a job in these professions, even if he could get through the interview process. So I feel that Robin's best coping skill was his choice of profession. We also have to remember that there are good and bad coping skills. Addiction is a coping skill but it is a poor one. As far as psychotropic medications are concerned, I would dead or in prision without them. Yes, I feel that many are over medicated. However they are a godsend for those of us that need them to live with some kind of normacy. How can we break the stigma? The first thing that we must do is to come out of the closet. The gay folks did that years ago in spite of the fear and the danger of doing so. Now being gay is considered "mainstream" in most parts of the country. We need to start with our family members. This is a medical problem that should not be hidden. After that, we need to talk to our co-workers and employers. Don't make the illness a reason for a poor performance. We must be responsible for our own behavior within reason. We should not be scared to ask for a reasonable accommadation for a consistant work schedule or other things that will keep us in the job place. Mental illness should not keep us from our dreams. We should be able to live our life to its fullest and be allowed to laugh and to cry. Fuzzy, a person with bipolar type1

Congrats. I'm thinking of going towards the dark side also...into human medicine. The pet euthanasia really takes a toll on me. We see a lot of it this time of year. At least I won't be killing patients however I will miss the animals and their people should I leave. I did talk to voc. rehab. Alas since I'm a success story I do not qualify for retraining. Fuzzy Are there cookies and cocoa of the human side? We just have dog biscuits and catnip on this side.

Ice cream and beer. Sometimes in the same glass... Fuzzy

I've found that this is more effective and easier to carry: [TABLE=align: center][TR] [TD] [TABLE=align: center] [TR] [TD=class: header, align: center] CAFFEINE Citrate Injection, USP and CAFFEINE Citrate Oral Solution, USP [TABLE=align: center][TR] [TD=class: header, align: center] CAFFEINE Citrate Injection, USP and CAFFEINE Citrate Oral Solution, USP [/TD][/TR] [/TABLE] [TABLE=align: center] [TR] [TD] [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] [TABLE=align: center] [TR] [TD] [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE]

Oh Heck!!! (I really wanted to say HELL) Fuzzy

I've not had a problem. The people that I work with are competent and very good in their positions. We need to stop stigmatizing and just do our jobs to the best of our abilities. Fuzzy

I hope that you get accepted too. Sounds like this will be wonderful for you. Fuzzy

If you feel that you are being discriminated against or treated differently because of your disability, contact someone in your state's proctection and advocacy (P&A) office. National Disability Rights Network They do have the knowledge and resources to midiate problems like these. I too am bipolar and it has given me some issues over the years. Good luck and keep your chin up. Fuzzy

I "WOW" my patients all the time. They just want a scratch behind their ears, a little walk, maybe a bit of soft food if the doc okays it. The clients on the other hand can be royal pains. Now we are expected to "baby sit" out of control children. Sorry I did not hire on as a baby sitter. Actually I most likely would get paid more if I were a baby sitter. Yes I'm on a rant fest. Fuzzy

"You idiot, I told you not to open THAT door."

Type 1 bipolar here. I so love mania Until the demons come out and get me. That does become a problem. Fuzzy