AshcroftAnnie

My most embarrassing nursing story......(so far....) Bear with me, it's a good one! I was a nursing student in a placement in OR. That night I was working with "Dr. S", who is notorious for yelling at & belittling everybody. He calls the nurses "Woman!" and when I worked with him last, he had been throwing intruments down on the tables, and winging sponges across the room in a fit. Well, that night we are doing an emergency surgery. I am the scrub nurse for a laprosopic proceedure, holding a net and the camera. He's in a ROTTEN mood, things are not going well, I'm nervous, he's impatient, things are tense. You get the picture. and then it happens.... I felt a strange draft, and realized with a sinking feeling that my size XXXXXL hospital-provided uniform bottoms have fallen off and are down around my ankles. And, being scrub, there is NOTHING I can do about it. It's not like they slipped lower & lower on my hips. They were there, then they were gone. I inadvertently said "WHOA!" and looked down. The surgery stopped. Everyone looked at me. Dr. S. started panicing and saying "What have you dropped, Woman?!" I tried to say "nothing, it's okay, carry on!", but he was insistant...and I had to tell this big, fierce, bushy-eyebrowed, angry guy what happened. Him: "I SAID, what did you drop?" Me: "I dropped my pants" I think the room shook because everyone laughed so hard. It was very humilliating. Every person there had tears cuz they were laughing so hard. I was redder than red. The circ had to be called in so that she could kneel down behind me, reach carefully under my sterile gown, and pull my pants up for me. No, it was NOT a good underware day either. Sadly, this is the second time in nursing school that my pants have been around my ankles (the first time they were pulled down by a mean old lady in a care home). I'm afriad this is starting to become a career danger.

Thanks VickyRN for the warm welcome and the great links! They're definately going to help. Thanks again!!!

Hi all, I am doing a presentation that is a nursing lab component on "understanding laboratory results" to 3rd year students, and was hoping maybe you could help me with some info/ideas... 1. What would you consider common lab tests that new nurses should have a good grasp of? 2. Do you have any resources for case studies that include observing signs and symptoms and comparing them to lab results to get a clinical picture? 3. Any suggestions for ways to get this info across without putting everyone to sleep? So far I am thinking: Power point on general info A matching game (i.e. test to why it's done, or what is being tested...and results to patho) Case studies set up around the room with symptoms and lab results A little quiz I want to stay away from jeopardy and who wants to be a millionaire (who wants to be an RN) games because we've done a TON of them lately.... ANY suggestions would be wonderful, and I really appreciate you taking the time to respond. THANKS KINDLY!

Just wanted to coment also on what cyberkat said: "Oh, and not all vet techs have a college education. Some are trained on the job. They may have less responsibilities in the vet's office, but I don't think so since I know one who administers anesthesia to animals and did not go to school for this." All people who call themselves "veterinary technicians", "animal health technicians" and the like have gone to school. They are certified by a governing body and have to do updating hours to keep their certification. Everyone else is a "veterinary assistant", and should not call themselves a technician. This is slowly changing as veterinary medicine becomes more established as a profession, but cases like cyberkat mentioned do still happen out there.

I have been an Animal Health Technician (Canadian for "Veterinarian Technician") for many years, and am also in my 4th year of my Bachelor of Science in (HUMAN!) Nursing, so soon will be an RN as well. I believe in England "techs" are called Registered Veterinary Nurses or Registered Veterinary Technicians. Many times technician and nurse have been interchanged, and I don't have a problem with this as long as the word "animal" or "veterinary" is in there somewhere. This tecnician should NOT have called herself an RN in my opinion. In fact, I have been called an "animal nurse" many times and I do not believe that this warrants correcting, but "animal RN" if not acceptable. There is a difference. This is obviously a very controversial subject, and I like to believe it is a matter of professionalism. I would like to think that Veterinary Technicians (being a fairly young orgainzied profession) would want to pave their own path, so to speak, and not be grouped under the umbrella of human nurses. While veterinary technicians Are "animals nurses" in terms of care giving, performing similar skills, and following the "dr.'s" orders (doctors of veterinary medicine), they also, however, do a VERY different job in a number of respects. Not only do they work on a variety of species, as already mentioned (I have worked on dogs, cats, horses, sheep, cattle, reptiles, birds, llamas, moose, deer, tigers, lions, bears, chimpanzees, sturgeon.....the list goes on & on), but they are pretty much the ONLY support staff in a veterinary hospital. Their jobs are very diverse compared to RNs, who tend to specialize. For example, in a day at the veterinary clinic, I will induce and monitor anaesthetic, perform small surgeries such as cat neuters and minor wound/abcess repair (closing wounds, placing drains, etc). I will make a cast, I will take countless radiographs, initiate IVs (and I'm proud to say that if you can hit a vien on a deyhdrated kitten or hampster, you can do it on almost any human around!!!). I also do dentistry (scaling and polishing teeth, doing root canals, extracting teeth), exams, perform and analyse laboratory tests....the list goes on and on! And I'm the cleaner, the surgical suite organizer, kennel girl, orderer of supplies, housekeeping, dietary....all thsoe things! SO, as you can see, it's a demanding profession with a solid knowledge base, and I'm proud to be a technician, and tell the world. I don't lump it behind human nursing because it is that AND so much more. I also recognise the need to specialize, and will do so as an RN. I am proud to be an RN too! I wonder if the initial poster's experience with the veterinary technician could have reflected a bit of insecurity or respect-seeking on the part of the technician? Perhaps she knew her client was an RN, and wanted to ensure that the client knew she had the proper training to care for the client's dog? I know that in MANY of the veterinary clinics I have worked in, there is a type of coding on files of animals belonging to RNs. This alerts the veterinary staff that the pet is owned by an RN. This is because there seems to be a history of friction between people in the medical profession for animals, or those for humans. Or at least a feeling of needing to be "on your toes" because some RNs will really challenge your knowledge. Unfortunately, I HAVE heard of a veterinary technician giving out advice to humans (and trust me, humans DO seek medical advice from veterinary staff regularily!). It happens on occasion when people are not cognizant of their professional roles, liability, etc. Dishing out medical advice when you are not an RN is bad, but not not as bad as this: I have seen many RNs try and treat their pets by themselves. Like, for example, the RN who knew cat's urethra was blocked and decided she could unblock it herself with just some xylocaine jelly and a small catheter. OR the RN who thought that her dog had a splinter in his member (not knowing that there is actually a bone in there), and decided to try and dig it out on her own. Neither of these pets were given anesthetic for these "treatments", and both ended with tragic results. I believe this is cruelty. Or RNs who want to save costs by doing injections on their pets at home-fair enough, but can they landmark properly? I had an RN kill her own horse by accidentally injecting penicillin into a vien, where it entered the horse's CNS. The horse had a reaction to this, and began rearing and one of his forelegs struck the RN in the head, killing her. So now both the horse and the woman are dead, and the veterinarian feels ultimately responsible. A technician can do damage to a person seeking medical advice only if that person follows the advice. But many times animals are restrained for proceedures and do not have a choice in the matter. To me, *SOME* RNs seem quick say that they are competent in veterinary medicine as well...I am sure some of you have used your medical knowledge to give advice on someone's pet. Now, I know the above are rather extreme examples, and do not happen all the time. But they are out there, and these are the reasons that such limitations need to me made clear: a veterinary technician IS registered as a nurse or technician, but for ANIMALS, and this should be stated every time. And an RN may have an excellent knowledge base, but needs to respect that there are differences in treating animals vs. people. Anyways, as you can see there is a difference between the two. Not everyone here is going to agree with me, and that's fine. I have the unique role of straddling both professions and being able to see the differences between the two on a regular basis. So I just thought I'd share some thoughts with you. :) Jackie

Hi all, Anyone have any good resources, articles or references for community development/program planning for the marginalized community (specifically homelessness or the working poor). Much appreciated!