rogramjet

We wore all white in nursing school. I hated it. I'm a big guy and I felt like either the Stay-Puft marshmellow man or the Michilin Man.

Im think a good nurse has to be caring and have a positive attitude. Critical thinking is important and unfortunately I think most nursing schools drop the ball here. They focus too much on how to be good test takers so we can pass the NCLEX and not enough on how to be a good nurse.

I have struggled with weight my whole life. I went to nursing school to be a diabetes educator, since I have diabetes myself, I wanted to help others. I went to my class reunion and was talking to a classmate who is also a nurse. When I told her that I wanted to be a diabetes educator she told me that I was too fat to be a diabetes educator. I AM a Certified Diabetes Educator, and I'll tell you that my patients appreciate the fact that I DO struggle with weight and diabetes right along with them. I think in the 4 years since I started as a diabetes educator I've only had 1 pt comment on my weight. It is your personality, your knowledge, and your skills that your patients will notice and your coworkers as well.

What other job allows/requires you to come to work wearing pajama's :yeah: My thoughts exactly...... Was diagnosed with diabetes, decided to become an RN to do diabetes education, and that's what I do. And I love it!

I think it would also depend on the circumstances. If it is an emergant situation and the patient is in immediate danger, I think the patient would come first. Other than that I think they would be pretty understanding.

I agree that a lot of so called non-compliance is about non-acceptance by the pt, family...etc. But how do we get them to accept it? Through education. If a person knows the consequences of uncontrolled diabetes they are more likely to manage it. Remember the old saying keep your friends close and your enemies closer. The more educated we are the more apt we are to control it. I have seen many patients who were in complete denial until they attended our class. I know I can't save them all, after all you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink...but if we can educate them, and we can show them the dangers of non-compliance we may save a few. Unfortunately diabetes has no pain involved...until they start hacking off limbs, or strapping you to a dialysis chair...it is easy to get complacent. In a nutshell, what I'm trying to say is, one way to get them to accept the disease is to educate them, some will be non-compliant anyway, but we do what we can.

I agree with you that not all complications can be prevented. But the risk can certainly be reduced. Daily foot exams can reduce amputations by 50%. Proper eye treatment can prevent blindness by 90%. A 1% decrease in A1c can reduce the risk of complications by 40%. We may not be able to prevent them, but we can sure reduce them. Actually I don't agree with the study that says that only 25% of diabetes is related to insulin resistance? That number is far too low. Lots of things make us insulin resistant, stress, weight....from my professonal experience that number needs top be much higher. The key is education. I have that a lot of "non-compliance" comes from lack of knowledge about the options that are out there for us. We have to treat each patient as an individual.

I have a few pet peeves of my own. I am a Type 2 who is a nurse and a diabetic educator. #1 that type 1 is worse than type 2. These are 2 different diseases with the same outcome...high sugars. Niether one is worse than the other, niether one is harder to control than the other. It depends on the person and their compliance. Both diseases equally effect our organs, and cause the same complications if unmanaged. Type 2s with severe insulin resistance are hard to control I have had patients on 300 units of insulin a day and still running in the 300's with their bg. It's very hard to lose weight with that much insulin on board. #2 is the "Borderline Diabetes" myth. As far as I'm concerned, that's like being a little pregnant. Either your metabolism is working or it's not. If we could get insurance companies to allow us to see patients at this early stage, and doctors to be more agressive, we could reduce a lot of diabetic complications. I guess insurance companies would rather pay for prosthetic legs, dialysis, and seeing eye dogs, than my meager charges to help prevent these complications. Alright I'll step off my soap box now.

No such animal in my hospital. RED = FIRE PINK = CHILD ABDUCTION GREEN = NATURAL DISASTER WHITE = VIOLENCE Then there is the housekeeping code Brown....'nuff said...

I am an RN with type 2 diabetes. In fact that is why I went into nursing in the first place. Stress is hard on blood sugars, believe me, nursing school and diabetes are not an easy combination. So, since you have a family hx and you are going into a high stress time in your life, you might want to keep an eye on your BP and BG. Both can become elevated with stress.

well now.... diamonds. that'll shut her up....for a minute. - ron white

I don't know about TX, but here in WA we use CNAs all the time. Lots of nursing students that I have known did this through nursing school.

I have a friend who is a police officer and he said he was glad women aren't allowed in combat. He was at the firing range with a female cop she hit the target 5 times in the kill zone and once in the crotch and chuckled. As he said, women would take all the fun out of combat....

Woogy you are right, we shouldn't have to put up with it. We had a nurse manager that told us that if a doc ever treated us like that to tell her and she would get right in that docs face. We really miss her.

Does your state have CE requirements to keep your liscence? WA doesn't so I would sit the NCLEX and pay the $50 a year. EVERYONE hates nursing hell....I mean school. But being a nurse is amazing. I am much more worried about those who aren't afraid, they're the nurses I worry about. Being a nurse is a huge responsibility, and there are times that you will wonder why you are doing it, then a patient will smile and thank you, and it is all worth while. You've come this far, give it a shot, otherwise you will never know.