themoreyouknow

i emailed her here is her response: hi sherri, thanks for your message and for joining our group. i wish he was unique in his thinking! i read the thread beneath his blog posting and he appears to have heard the concerns that many nurses expressed to him (good for those nurses!), so we're thinking of leaving him alone since he appears to have gotten the message. his mom's a nurse and he makes public comments like that. ick. anyway, we have plenty more people with ignorant impressions of nursing to tackle and we need you to join us to educate them! here's one for instance. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnc2qbrzsdm&nr=1 new show called whitney. we're beginning to analyze it, hopefully have this out in a couple weeks. looking forward to working with you! sandy the radio station took down the blog, and i am so happy to hear that. that's the power of nursing baby. or is it pine-sol? hmm

The blog has been deleted. How interesting. :)

I thought it was a farce. It's so fake that it is more offensive than the original comments.

I realize he is a shock jock, but part of the problem we have today is that we don't demand respect. I've read hundreds of posts where we as nurses tend to accept negative behavior rather then confront it. As the medical field begins to adopt the attitude that "the patient is always right no matter how wrong they are", I find myself struggling with the right answers. It frustrates me when patients belittle my PROFESSION. Nursing isn't a job. It's a career - a profession. We are professionals and we deserve to be treated as such! Would you ask your lawyer to hike up her skirt? No. Would you ask your IT specialist to open his shirt so you could see some chest while he works on your "hard" drive? No. Would we expect our real estate agent to roll around on the floor and invite us to experience how soft the "shag" carpet was? No. You wouldn't. Why not? Because they are professionals and they are respected. We should be too. I honestly don't think he believed he was being offensive. He really does seem like a buffoon. As long as no one is telling him he is offensive, then he can go on ignorantly believing he was correct in assuming nurses should be hot, young, and sexy and he somehow missed out. He must have been there the day AFTER they discontinued wearing the white tube tops with the red cross on the front. Shucky darn. The great thing about nurses is that not only are we a profession full of intelligent, educated, fantastic women (and MEN!), but we are a MASSIVE group. There is power in numbers and whether it's for 'shock' or not, money talks and they listen to what the majority has to say. There are men calling the station agreeing with this goober. If there is no one calling to say "Stop!" then they'll just keep on keepin' on. I am so very proud to be a nurse. I love my job. I love educating new moms. I love being part of the process that brings a new baby into the world! I love helping others. I wouldn't do this if I didn't love it. I hate to see the profession I am so proud of reduced to a trashy pole-dancing shadow of what we really do.

It really frosted my cookies when I read this. I used to work at the hospital he is talking about. The nurses are awesome! Pretty young nurses often don't WANT to take care of patients like this guy. They don't want to be hit on by an overweight loudmouth with cellulitis saying "Baby can you get me some fried chicken?" Ugh. He needs to take a long look in the mirror before he starts complaining. His picture in the article is him STANDING on the windowsill of the hospital! How rude! If he feels that good, he needs to leave. What a jerk.

this radio dj "reviews" his hospital stay. he feels he would be in "better hands if i had nurses that were sexy". grrr!! tired of men thinking nurses are pin-up girls in stiletto heels wearing white miniskirts! what a jerk! http://1061evansville.com/big-boys-hospital-review/?fb_comment_id=fbc_10150213137251615_16862332_10150214067946615#fe9eed964aebd4

I guess my pet peeve is poor spelling, poor grammar, and slang talk. We consider nursing a profession, so we should be able to write and speak like professionals. We did graduate college so our spelling should be at a high school level (at least) or we should understand how to use spell-check. (That little wavy red line under your words - it means they are not spelled correctly. If you right click it, you will get the option to insert the correctly spelled word.) Nurses whine? Of course we do! We whine to other nurses because no one else really gets it. When I tried talking to my husband about the nurses' concern with the new CNO's rules, he tried to help by saying "Why don't you use the standing orders?" At least he threw in some nursing terminology. Nurses understand each other. After a lousy day at work, I call my mother-in-law who is a nurse or one of my nursing friends. We vent to each other so we can get all of that frustration out and go back and do it again with a smile! At work, our code is "step into my office" which really means "I need to vent so I can walk back into that patient's room and smile." That bell ringing patient? When another nurse vents that she has been in that room 200 times since her shift started and she's going crazy, I offer to answer the next three call lights. Sometimes venting is another nurse's cry for help. Instead of judging, ask what you can do to help. Nursing school DEFINITELY didn't prepare me for real world nursing. In most of our clinicals we only had one patient. Sometimes we had to share a patient because the facility had to approve the patients we could have AND the patients had to approve. Sometimes there weren't enough patients for each nurse to have one. When I started nursing in the real world I was given six patients. It was so overwhelming at first. Nursing school prepares you to pass the NCLEX. Nursing prepares you for nursing. It is definitely a "jump in with both feet and swim" profession. The constant complainers are in EVERY profession. The drama queens and girls who make mountains out of little molehills (I call them the BDD Big Dang Deal girls) are everywhere. Some nurses view nursing as a calling. Others view it as a career. There are those select few who view it as a "job" and those are the nurses who are generally the most unhappy. Whining? I'll take a nurse that blows off steam in the break room and walks back in to her patients room with a smile any day over the nurse who mouths off to patients because there isn't enough staff, there aren't enough aides, and she shouldn't have to even be changing his bedding since it is the aides' job! (I've seen those nurses too!) ~Sherri

This post truly hits home. I agree with the person who said they believe the high unemployment rate plays a part. Hospitals have cut back their nursing staff. Ours is currently trying to (illegally) force us to work overtime and be on-call even though our state dept of health states it must be voluntary. Hospitals cut back staff. Unemployment is high. Student nurses are coming out of the woodwork from all angles. It increases competition for jobs and has employers asking "What else will you do for me. I have 30 nurses who want this job. What else will YOU do?". I do wish they would stop turning out so many students. Every community college has a "nursing program" now. They are going to oversaturate the market and then there will be no jobs available. Of course there will still be jobs in the worst parts of Chicago or other areas that are difficult to staff. The job market for nurses here has dried up. Every other high school graduate becomes a hairdresser if they don't want to go to college for long, a nurse if they only want 2 years of college, or a teacher if they want a bachelor's degree. Those are the options. It isn't that I don't appreciate new grads, etc. I was one once too. I just think the sheer NUMBER of grads combined with the recession has allowed employers to treat nurses as if they were disposable. What are they going to do when they run off those with experience and their entire fleet is green and an emergency rolls in? ~Sherri

Did you ever get an answer? I have emailed National Nurses United twice now and have received NO response

It takes FOREVER to get your license in Illinois too! I wish you luck! :)

You are right. I would have to be 1/2 way to work for the entire day. I have heard it has been suggested that we simply drive to the town I work in and "hang out" for the day in case we are needed. Are they going to pay me full wages for "hanging out"? No. Because I would have to pay my babysitter full wages if she watched my children while I spent a day away from my family to "hang out" in case they needed me. We are an L&D unit and I understand that when we have an emergency and need more staff, we need them NOW. For 1/2 of us on our unit, being there NOW or within 30 min just isn't an option. Nor was it a requirement when we were hired.

My unit manager is looking to institute an on-call program. Nurses must sign up for one on-call day every pay period (two weeks). They are wanting nurses to be within 30 minutes of the hospital if they are on call. Many of us commute. I commute an hour to go to work. Has anyone else had this issue? Can they force nurses to be within a certain distance if they are on-call? I have worked for this facility for over a year, and they knew I would be commuting when they hired me. Many of us have at least a thirty minute commute. (That's not counting the time it would take to get my children to a babysitter if called in) The department of labor in my state has made it against the law to mandate overtime for nurses. I feel this is a way around the law. They are mandating an on-call day which could essentially turn into overtime. Any thoughts?

Sure, the nurses may KNOW what the answer should be, but... it's the doctor's job to know this. I worry when doctors start asking us for medications and diagnosis. When I started med-surg out of nursing school, there were so many residents/docs with privileges at the hospital that they didn't know a new nurse from an experienced nurse. When I would call for orders, I was mortified when they said "What do you think we should do/give/etc?" WHAT? Me? I am NOT the one who went to medical school! Docs go through eight years of college including medical school. I went to a two year program at a community college to become a nurse. At that time, I had only worked as a nurse for 3 weeks! Fortunately for them, I would tell them that. I have worked with some know-it-all grads who would ask for crap that isn't relevant. I realize Docs have to learn too. If they aren't sure, they need to consult with another doc - not place their license at risk by asking the voice on the other end of the line what to do. I am not trying to underestimate our knowledge - but we aren't docs. Unless they know they are speaking to Nurse Jones who really knows her stuff, why would they risk their license by asking the nearest RN they are not familiar with how to diagnose a patient? I don't mind when a doctor wants my opinion, but when they want me to do their job and diagnose/treat patients? No thank you. Are they going to do mine? Not likely. I work for a smaller facility now and we work with the same few doctors in OB over and over. They know us by name and they know our skill level. They know who is new and who has experience. I am comfortable with us talking over patient care when making decisions because it is such a small group and we know each other. I did not feel that kind of comfort with most doctors at the larger facility. Again - I'm not trying to undermine our knowledge, but.. there is a reason we do not prescribe medicine. There is a reason we do not diagnose patients. When doctors ask us to do these things, they are asking us to step outside our "scope of practice" and that is not fair to us. It puts us in a no-win situation. If we answer, we are operating outside our scope, if we don't know then the doc may think we are an idiot (Even though he doesn't know the answer either). With the modern age of PDAs and cellphones, I can't help but wonder why docs don't communicate with each other better. As far as funny thing - in an ER report. Our patient had stepped on a rake and it had punctured her foot. She came in with the rake protruding from her foot. MD wrote in the notes "Patient still wearing her thong" It sounded like he was peeking up her skirt while doctoring her foot! He meant flip-flop or sandal, but it gave us a pretty good chuckle. He edited it later that night when the patient made it to the unit and he read his transcription. ~Sherri :)

Truthfully, the "olde order view" is still pretty current today (at least in my region). Sure my hubby can watch the kids and make an edible dinner, but it has taken quite a bit of time to get him there. He isn't the only hubby like this. We joke at work about our spouses saying things like "Well, I didn't do the laundry because I was watching the baby!" I don't think it is 'unfair' for men to watch their own children, but they aren't "mom". They know it. The kids know it. The old Bill Cosby skit about "Dad is great! He gives us the chocolate cake!" is still true for many dads I know :) I think another poster hit the nail on the head. Nurses give. We are caretakers. We take care of our patients, our children, our friends, and sometimes in all this caring, we put our husbands on the back burner. Often times we put ourselves on the very back burner and don't even turn it on low! I know I've been guilty of this. I'll agree to stay extra (I already work a 12 hour shift with an hour commute each way) or I'll come home and someone from work will call about an issue and I'm on the phone for 30 minutes after I walk in the door. Sometimes it's hard for us to put everybody first and everybody thinks they should be first. I've said it before - I guess I have to wait until I am in the nursing home for someone to take care of me! :) I do all the care-taking! Don't get me wrong. My hubby is a great guy, and he'll do anything I ask. I have to remember to ask,though. Lately, he has gotten better. It only took almost ten years to figure out clean kitchen = happy wife. Happy wife = chance of nookie! If I have to clean the kitchen after I've worked 12 hours, no energy for the nookie. ~Sherri

The problem is this: it can be considered a HIPAA violation (I was told). I had a pt hemorrhage and made copies of my detailed notes because the doctor wanted to review the case the following week. I was told by my director that I was violating HIPAA by keeping a copy of those notes in my locker. I did not take them OFF the facility grounds. So...darned if you do...darned if you don't..

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After reading your second post with the right answer included, I concur with your professor. The question asked you to decipher which action showed TEACHING. If I had to choose between the two, the choice regarding bruits is actual the choice where the nurse is TEACHING. In the other choice, there was no teaching. The nurse was simply stating the bp was normal. In nursing school I was taught that under 120/80 was normal. 120-130 systolic and 80-90 diastolic could mean pre-hypertension so this patient's bp is actually more borderline for prehypertension. When I answer nursing questions and I'm not sure, I reread the question and ask myself: Does this question want an assessment or an action? This question wanted an action. The first answer was an assessment. Hope that helps :)

Thanks for the advice. We tried paging each other away from the desk yesterday. He just stood there. For fifteen minutes while we avoided the desk, he stood there. Ugh. I think I will try the whole "HIPAA violation" thing. I guess I just get so frustrated because is seems like nurses are under scrutiny. I feel like we are supposed to be the customer service rep for the entire hospital. On our unit, we provide drinks and snacks for the mother. When visitors ask for coffee, sodas, etc, we direct them to the cafe. One nurse was told "if their perception of good customer svc means giving their friend a soda, then why not?" Why? Because I am NOT a waitress. I didn't go through college to take orders for drinks and snacks and provide refills. At least when I waitressed in college, I made tips! Sometimes it feels like we are expected to put up with a lot of bs and kowtow to any patient or visitor's request in order to provide "optimal" customer service. When we argue that the visitors are not our patients, then we hear "But they could be!" Sorry for the ramble. I wish we could post a job description for lay persons to read stating what our job is. I get so frustrated with people thinking we are the pill passing soda bringers.

I think what your instructor is trying to instill is the proper TERMINOLOGY. For example: You walk into a patient's room and he says "Get the **** out!" and throws his urinal at you. If you state: Pt very rude and abusive to this RN. Demanded RN leave the room. You are judging that the patient is rude and abusive. You have to document objectively by only stating fact: RN entered room. Pt states "Get the **** out" and threw urinal at this RN. "Normal" is subjective. If I say "bleeding is normal" for my post partum patient, what does that mean? How much bleeding is "normal" to you? To me? She is probably just trying to have you focus on charting OBJECTIVELY instead of subjectively. Words like "Well, good, normal, poorly, easy" are subjective and should never be used in charting. Just state the facts :)

How do you deal with lurkers at work? I am talking about the patient or family member that just wants to stand at the nurse's station and talk to you. The ones who don't get the hint when you don't look up from your computer. The ones who will still stand there and wait for you to return even after you've been called away to care for a patient. With the healthcare field's attitude of "customer satisfaction is number ONE!", it can be difficult telling people to bug off. Even if you do it super-sweet in your best Barbie from Toy Story voice.. "Gosh, I would love to sit and chat, but I really do have to call a doctor and blah blah blah." They still get offended. I have a family on our unit. Mom is discharged. Baby was in the NICU but is now a well-baby and is rooming in with mom and dad. They are young. Dad admits to a history or drugs and alcoholism. And he roams the halls all stinkin' day and night. Talking talking talking. Talking to other family members as they try to make haste and exit. Talking to the nurses to let us all know that he REALLY loves his baby. Really, really, really loves his baby. If he doesn't get enough attention by standing at the nurses' station, he will find a reason. "This blanket has a spot on it." "I took my baby's temperature with my thermometer and it was 99.0. Will you come take it?" "Could I get another pillow?" How do you tell these people (who technically AREN'T patients) to bug off?

:yeah: You hit the nail on the head. In the end - it comes down to attitude.

Thanks. I have been delving through case after case looking for one where the nurse admits to not utilizing chain of command or where the doctor turns the pit back on himself. Thank you! :)

I know.. I know.. dreaded homework help. I am scouring through cases for my Health Law and Ethics class. I'm an RN -> BSN student. I am looking for a case involving a woman in labor on oxytocin/pitocin. A case where the nurse turns the pit off but is ordered to turn it back on. I know I have read several of these throughout the years, but now I can't seem to find one. I'm googling furiously. My focus will be on utiilizing chain of command. We see this issue on our unit often. Many docs have the "make 'em or break 'em" attitude and believe that simply increasing pitocin will guarantee a baby by 5 PM. If any ob nurses (or anyone!) happens to remember the name of a legal case regarding pitocin and chain of command, I would greatly appreciate it.

Nurse Practitioner :)

Forgot to add.. When you do go to interview.. bring a short list of questions such as: Why did you go into this field? What do you like best? Worst? What do you do at work? Any advice for someone considering this field? Job opportunities available?