bearscrubs75

Doing your job, being courteous to patients AND coworkers AND people in general is what we and everyone else on the planet should be doing----we are all members of the human family. *** You nailed it! Humility, kindness, respect, generosity, patience... are essential to making one a "super nurse."

ChutneyFries, I'm glad you're leaving that horrible place. Although I'm not African-American, I've worked in some incredibly homophobic hospital environments before - and no, it's not the same thing as being challenged by racism, I know that. But I wish you the best and hope you find a great team of co-workers to work with. I myself prefer an ethnically and racially diverse workplace. I might be going to Southern California after all. These Midwestern winters depress the hell out of me...

Chutney, SERIOUSLY, come to Minneapolis-St. Paul. I'm the only White male in an ocean of different shades of Black and Brown. It's different here. We'd welcome you with open arms. - Ryan/Bearscrubs75

Chutney, Come to Minneapolis/St. Paul. The majority of my fellow co-workers are Black (African immigrants) and everyone gets along. While Minneapolis isn't exactly a "Chocolate City" in the vein of Atlanta and New Orleans (love me some NOLA), it's VERY diverse and generally friendly. You would never receive racist comments from the staff where I work. And, yes, we're hiring nurses in The Twin Cities right now. It's not a bustling job market but it's not weak either. You shouldn't have to put up with people talking **** like that. I'd get out of there PRONTO. Ryan

One of the female nurses I work with recently went to answer a call light and came back fuming. "Mr. K" was a frequent flier and usually on the light for a multitude of nonemergent reasons. Anyhow, the nurse came back and said, "He told me he needed me to sit on his face." By far the most unusual request...

Annie, your children come first. They need their mother. You're right, no one is prepared for this. Let's face it: you wouldn't be given proper PPE for the suspected Ebola patient and you would have to juggle his/her needs in addition to your other 4 pts w/o the help of a PCA. My butt would be out the door so fast my charge nurse would think she saw a ghost!

Here's a scenario for all of you: You work at a large urban hospital, let's say CCC/ICU day shift. You come on and get your report for the day. One of your patients discharges to a step-down unit at 10:00 am. Suddenly, the charge nurse approaches you and tells you, I need to place a patient with Ebola like symptoms in the room occupied by the former patient and I need you to take care of him. The patient has recently flown to your city from Liberia. He's a 55 year old African male, married, in apparent respiratory distress, temp = 103.5 and climbing, vomiting, diarrhea, low sodium, low K, dehydrated, etc. All you are offered for PPE are the flimsy yellow gowns, N95 gowns, latex gloves. You complain to you charge nurse about lack of proper PPE and the nurse dismisses you and states you have no choice, you HAVE to take this patient. How many of you would say, "**** this" and walk off the floor, realizing you've probably lost your job?

Girl, probably a cheap mask and gown. You know those tight asses ain't ready to fork over the thousands of dollars necessary to pay for the expensive Hazmat suits and sealed respirators.

That is just an excuse to leave us unprotected with cheap flimsy gowns and masks rather than the real deal expensive hazmat suits and respirators we should be wearing! I want this jerk to come and take care of an Ebola patient in this flimsy outfit! Know way in hell would he walk near the patient let alone go in so unprotected! Apparently American healthcare workers are expendable and no need to expect the hospitals to spend the money to provide us with safe equipment! He should be ashamed of himself! Why doesn't he do us a favor and just resign already! -- Girl, let me tell you something. If I had to take care of an Ebola patient, I would DO IT and do it well. I'm not afraid of Contagion type viruses (when it's my time, it's my time). However, I would demand the Hazmat suit and pricey respirator mask. And then I would demand a decontamination bay after cares were completed. You're totally right, they don't want to pay for the expensive, life-protecting equipment. They'd rather subject medical staff to a deadly infection than spend money on proper PPE.

Fellow Nurses, how is this virus managed in a health care setting? Is it droplets or airborne precautions? Airborne would be dried particulate that escapes the nares or mouth and travels through the air, landing on another person and/or inhaled into their body, correct? Would it make sense to treat Ebola patients as if they had TB, given the high rate of infectiousness of the disease?

:tku::cheers:

esme, sorry about the racist thing i jumped the gun -- thanks for posting the links for me, but i will seriously have an mi if i read about this new "visas" bill. i'll be sick to my stomach and ****** off the rest of the day. i need something light and airy right now, maybe some court-and-spark era joni mitchell and a disney movie... ahhhhh

Merlee, My maternal grandparents were Quaker Brits, German-Jew and Irish. Their parents were both immigrants here at the turn of the 20th century. My father's mother is Irish (her ancestors probably immigrated here during the nineteenth-century potato famine). His father's side: Welsh and Brit. I realize your point and yes we are a nation of immigrants -- mine certainly came here for a better life: to get away from famine, pestilence, Nazis. This isn't about the fact that Filipino women want to come here to work. It's about hospitals hiring them over American college grads for lower wages. Even though you disagree with what I've posted, do you at least see the problem with this one element?? Canada: they really only hate Americans in Quebec. I'm going to Toronto :)

Esme, I'm not racist. This is not about race or ethnicity, I swear. I'd be as irate if the U.S. was bringing in Brits, Germans, and Irish (facets of my own European ancestry) to compete with Americans for jobs. It's about corporate G-R-E-E-D. It's about our nurses being able to work in safe, productive environments. It's about our patients receiving excellent nursing and medical care during the worst moments of their lives. It's about our hospital and nursing home units having safe nurse/CNA-to-patient ratios. It's about nurses receiving living wage salaries and good benefits to support themselves and their families -- for all the hard work we as nurses and nursing staff do and the time/effort/ blood/sweat/tears we put into our schooling and preparation. It's about our American nursing college graduates getting jobs right out of school so they can begin to build their lives, repay their student loans, pay taxes, start families if that is their wish, buy homes. Hospitals bringing in immigrants from other countries to work as RNs for lower salaries so "they" (e.g., CEOs, management) can benefit from not having to pay living wages/benefits is a kick in the crotch to Americans. On the larger, national scale: it's about our American-born young people having access to THEIR BIRTHRIGHT: financial aid and resources for college to prepare them for the American workforce. It's about the future of nursing and health care in this country. I know I'm going to get reamed from a lot of you for what I had posted earlier. Guys, we have over 300 MILLION people in this country right now. And the government keeps bringing in more and more (or passively allows it to happen) from third world countries or developing nations for jobs. *****!?!?!?! How many posts have you read on this site from nursing college grads who can't find work??????? I read something like this (the hospital bringing over non-English-speaking Filipinos to work for lower wages) and I get emotional and explode. Sorry if I offended anyone, really.

WHITE-COLLAR IMMIGRATION (sorry, this is going to sound very bitter): The always cost-effective United States is currently bringing in immigrants from around the world (e.g., Russia, India, China, Filipines) to compete with Americans for high-salary jobs with the expectation that this form of immigration can drive down salaries and benefits. For example, your three Filipino nurses would probably work for even half your salary and with hardly any benefits -- JUST to escape the poverty of living in the Filipines and enjoy the luxuries assoc. with living in the U.S. Then they remain here and rear large, resource-using families -- the children of these families end up competing with YOUR children for financial aid and quality education and, later, access to good jobs and healthcare. :dncgbby: This kind of immigration allows the hospital/organization/corporation to keep the real money at the top, basically in the CEO's pocket, so he can send his children (probably named Ethan and Abigail) to ivy league colleges, buy his fat stay-at-home wife a brand new luxury car, and get that McMansion in the white, rich, gated community of his dreams. Meanwhile you and your patients get the proverbial shaft end of the stick -- nothing against Filipinos in general, they're good people (but, really??): HOW MANY AMERICAN NURSING COLLEGE GRADUATES CAN'T FIND JOBS IN THIS ECONOMY RIGHT NOW?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? :banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead: I really hate this ******* country. My partner and I are moving north of the border as soon I graduate from nursing school. Canada has one of the STRICTEST immigration policies on this planet and some of the strongest labor unions on earth. For example, I will ONLY be employed by a Canadian hospital once every natural-born Canadian citizen has access to employment first. No cost-cutting, no bringing in busloads of fertile immigrants to drive down salaries and create ultracompetitive applicant pools. Man, we are in a lot of trouble.