Chlometov

Thank you, all, for your responses. I just wanted to see all of your perspectives on the issue. I had explained to my mom at the time that nurses can be pulled in several different directions at once and that I can understand why the nurse was acting the way she was. It was just a frustrating night for all parties involved. Like I said before, I felt particularly torn on the issue because I have been on both sides in my short experience of being in the hospital. I feel like I mention this in every post of mine, but I'm still only a student so I still have a lot to learn when dealing with patients, families, and colleagues

I completely understand, and I especially agree with your last sentence, which I felt like is the biggest issue for me. The issue isn't the fact that my grandmother had to wait but, from what I was told, that the nurse was being rude.

I think the issue was less about what the nurse was saying and more of how she was explaining it. She could have used a little more detail and stated exactly what you said: that while distressing, my grandmother is not in a life-threatening condition unlike the other patient and therefore the other patient must be treated first. A tiny bit of compassion would have been welcomed.

A few weeks ago, my 89 year-old grandmother fell at her home, resulting in a bleeding gash in her arm (and later discovered, a broken hip). My mother took her to the emergency room. I wasn't there, so everything I write here is what was told to me by my mother. After my grandmother was brought into the ER and placed into a room, arm still bleeding, she and my mom waited an hour and was still not seen or treated by a nurse or doctor. My mother goes out into the hallway to find someone to see what's happening and why no one has seen them yet. I don't remember the exact events, but there was one nurse who was extremely curt with my mother. She stated, "We literally having patients dying right now", using her hands to emphasize, and added that it's okay for bleeding to occur for a certain amount of hours, her justification was that infection won't occur until hour 6 of bleeding. (Which really is not in the best interest of my grandmother, who has anemia and frequently requires blood transfusions, but I can give the nurse the benefit of the doubt because how was she supposed to know that?) I just feel like the nurse was very rude about the situation, and could have handled it better. I understand that nurses need to prioritize patient care regarding acuity, but just bluntly stating that she "literally has patients dying" invalidates both my mom's right to be concerned for her mother and my grandmother's need for treatment and care. It is possible that my mother could have been bothersome to the nurses, I wouldn't know beause I wasn't present to witness it, but couldn't the nurse have calmly explained the situation and why no one has seen them yet? I am experiencing some cognitive dissonance from this situation, because I have been on both sides of this. I am angry at this nurse for being rude to my mother and inattentive to my grandmother, but I also know how irritating family members of patients can be, unaware of the fact that nurses have several patients for which to care. (So far in my hospital experience, dealing with family members is my least favorite part of nursing.) I'm trying to justify the actions on both the part of my mother and of the nurse, and I just want to know your thoughts on this.

Ah ok, that seems to make more sense. I think the poster was being sincere just because she mentioned how useful it is to know Spanish in her area. Sarcasm can be completely lost on me in the Internet world

Really? How so? Maybe it's because I am still a student, but both in the classroom and in the hospitals, I have never experienced antagonism when expressing a desire to continue education to advance my future nursing career. In fact, in school I recall having to read and discuss several articles that explored how furthering education improves the quality and the effectiveness of the nursing profession.

3 out of 4 times, it's not bedside nursing. Nurses can take on countless roles that extend beyond direct patient care in a hospital setting (teaching, research, public health, etc.). That's what is meant by that statistic, not nurses leaving the profession of nursing altogther.

Thank you to all of you for the encouraging words!!! We had orientation last week so my first official day will be this week and I'm definitely looking forward to starting!

I'll be starting my pediatric clinical rotation in just a few days. What has the experience been like for all of you? What should I expect for this clinical? This is the rotation I am looking forward to the most because I enjoy working with kids, but I don't want my high expectations to lead to disappointment.

I'm about to begin my 3rd year of nursing school to recieve my BSN. I've browsed through the forums here every so often and it's making me extremely anxious about going into nursing as a career. I initially wanted to become a nurse because I was interested in working in the health field and as of now I like the job security. However, it seems like a lot of the users on these forums are very unhappy with being nurses, and now I'm worried that I will be miserable as a nurse as well. Why all the negativity? Is the nursing field really that terrible? I'm hoping that maybe the unhappy nurses are just more outspoken than the happy ones.