Dhalia27

it's annoying how people are always trying to outsmart one another or have the final word on a matter. get over yourselves, there are many ways of looking at something. a lot of these people take what others say way too literally just so they can prove a point. we're not writing legal documents to be critiqued... grow up. agh it's frustrating having to sift through all the garbage responses. for some, this may be a garbage response and i'm totally ok with that.

Dec 24 by hope3456 Quote from gettingbsn2msn I totally agree and thus why I am leaving it behind! I especially loved your comment "we do not save a life, we extend it". Sadly, very true! Compassion in nursing is gone. We leave old people alone in hospital rooms and visit them bi hourly (if they are lucky) to give them some med to extend their life. This is no way for anyone to live. These people are lonely and many times this is not the best medicine, and I am no MD by any means. I believe in the mind body connection and it is not there any more. Yes!! I think people are starting to realize this and want palliative care instead of aggressive medical treatment. ================================================ Excellent point Hope!!

Hi, thanks for posting. You are obviously bright, creative and ambitious. Just from your writing style and ability I can tell you have a lot potential. I had some questions though and would much appreciate hearing your thoughts please. Do you regret going into nursing or do you think taking a dive into this profession was worth it even though you are utlimately going elsewhere? Also, do you think you should have quit sooner or why are you quitting now? And more personally, do you know what your next profession will be or are you still figuring that out? Will it be in healthcare? Thank you so much, happy holidays! -Dhalia

I'm from an emerging second world country. during communism doctors were paid a pittance yet they got into the profession for prestige, not money. also, everyone got, and still receives, healthcare. also, to this day doctors still are bribed to perform a better job, or to get perform a procedure sooner, or whatever extra care you need... as a result if you visited a doctor's home you could see it littered with vodkas and liquor. today money is used instead of alcohol. nurses are severely underpaid, way more so than doctors. i totally understand that in this country nurses ARE underpaid for the tremendous responsibility in their care. it is absurd as the world itself. when i was in my country and told people i wanted to be a nurse (in the states) i wasn't praised for it or encouraged or impressed for my career choice like in this country (for the most part). one person even derided my non stop, made fun of me... etc. it almost, at 20 years old, made me change my mind. i find it impressive that i even wanted to get into nursing considering that in my country there is so much stigma behind it. when i saw that my state university offered a degree in nursing i was blown away and immediately considered it. i felt it was my "calling". (is see it as just a job too, the two attitudes are not exclusive). so, my point is that in the end, America is still very advanced in its compensation. yes it is ultimately outrageous, incendiary, that nurses are waaaaay underpaid when you look at what they REALLY do. their responsisbility, I think, is close to a doctor's. most medical conditions do not involve a complex diagnoses, one could go on WebMd and possibily figure out what the treatment is if you are smart enough. i've been a fan of allnurses.com before i was a nurse and it is obvious to me that nurses have way about average intelligence by how all of you write. i once saw somewhere that nurses have an average IQ of 120. doctors an IQ of 130. the standard deviation is not that much greater between doctors and nurses. ok... i am falling into a rant. the IQ thing was a distraction, sorry! my point isn't that people should get paid according to IQ. what I'm trying to say is that firstly people should get compensated based on level of RESPONSIBILITY then level of KNOWLEDGE. nurses and doctors carry similar levels but different a kind of responsibility which is why the disparity between the two professions should be closer. ok, returning to my main pt. (when I started I had intended to only focus on this point! hah!)... nurses in America are actually paid pretty dang well COMPARED to the rest of the world. which is related to why nurses in this country are actually respected more well. level of income=level of respect in a materialistic country, not level of responsibility=level of respect. if i lived in any other country (with the exclusion of a few progressive ones) i would NOT want to be a nurse. compared to the rest of the world i think that nursing in this country IS paid well and I am actually grateful for it. in an ideal world, sure, i would NOT be grateful for it and i would be angry. but this is not an ideal world, and america is a "little" more ideal than most of the rest of the world, therefore, I, am grateful for the salary nurses receive here. that's it!

this may not directly answer your question, but from what I know those who suffer from BPD truly "suffer" from it. There is no relief from the suffering as in a manic phase for someone with bipolar disorder, or a "preference" for it as in depression where some people say they prefer to be depressed. it is truly a terrible, terrible thing to experience and those who have it suffer tremendously. they are "emotional burn victims"... the points about them needing lots of structure are well-mentioned

all those meds you mentioned... vistaril, phenergen, benadryl, are at the bottom of the list of what an addict would ever abuse. especially if the addict is in rehab... i'm assusming they are there for REAL drugs of abuse, not antihistamines. why do you care if the are asking for vistaril every 6 hours? it's your freaking duty to dole it out as the doctor ordered. also, YOU have CLEARLY never suffered from withdrawal. why not make withdrawal as comfortable as possible? these patients are trying to allay their anguish, not get "high", while you sit there.... even if you gave these patients all of the mentioned drugs at once they would STILL be in pain. yet you have the attitude of "how dare they want to feel better? don't they understand they must suffer to understand what they have put themselves through? don't they get the puritan ethic of no pain no gain?" wow. simply. wow.

wow i can't believe how some people who replied did not take the time to read my post carefully. it appears that some of you must have formed judgements after reading bits and pieces of my post without understanding where i was coming from. it also strikes me as annoying that people who read my post haphazardly have the harshest remarks. i notice that people like to POUNCE on this forum. i'm not going to clarify the "missed points" here, actually read over my post if you're interested. thanks though to all who took the time to read over my concern and who gave an honest answer. HONEST answers people is all i was looking for.

I am shocked with the quality of instruction during my CNA clinicals. One incident is particularly poignant of the lack of heart that residents/patients have to deal with from health care administrators. I am new to nursing and would like to work as an RN for a few years before receiving my NP but am absolutely horrified at the attitude I've encountered from the teachers and even my student partner. Is this how it REALLY is? My partner and I were instructed to give a shower to Diane (name changed). Diane has alzheimers and is very unhappy. She is obviously severely depressed and apathetic and completely exhausted all of the time. I have never seen her smile. Since it is clinicals the instructor accompanied us to the shower. My partner has been a resident assistant for a couple months so I am doing most of the work (no problem there since I want to because the more experience the better). Our patient, Diane, is very difficult to work with as she is so unhappy that everything makes her even more unhappy and she HATES showers. So we tried to make it as fast possible for her. After I washed her hair I got a towelette to scrub her body and was handed a bottle of conditioner by my partner. I said "this is conditioner" and my partner said it doesn't matter, we just want to get this done with. I look over at the teacher and she said the same thing, to just "hurry up". Diane was in no danger to herself or us at the time, she was moaning and complaining. I asked if there was soap and they prodded me on to just do the job, and I told them to give me the shampoo since it was still nearby. I cannot believe that the student and teacher who were working with me in the shower would use conditioner to wash Diane's body. Am I missing something? Perhaps conditioner is useful for cleaning? I'm not being sarcastic. Maybe they thought it's a soap anyways. But my partner is extremely intelligent (the "get the right answer" type of intelligence) so I don't think she thought it could be used as soap as well. I really think they were trying to cut corners to the point where the conditioner was just an excuse to get the "act" of washing done so that we could get the shower skill done. Might as well be slapping on butter to clean skin... It made me feel uncomfortable, as if we were putting a dirty depend on Diane. I told them that I didnt' want to use conditioner because it would take longer to wash off instead of being upfront and saying, "I'm not going to play along with pretending to shower Diane". Then today me and my partner were pushing her in her weelchair and asking Diane to raise her feet (no footpads... not the best nursing home I know). I kept having to press behind her knees to get her to elevate them since her feet kept dragging on the ground and getting pushed behind. Diane kept saying her feet were too heavy, which is porbably true, Diane has Alzheimers and her muscles are atrophying. Anyways, I told my partner that "poor Diane doesn't get it" to which my partner replied, "she's just being lazy". I seriously don't think Diane was being lazy, I don't see why she wouldn't raise her legs up to make things easier for herself but that she just doesn't "get it" and that it actually does require strength to raise them. My partner insisted that she was just being lazy. What concerns me more is the conditioner incident. The wheelchair thing I mentioned because I needed to vent. But the conditioner thing????? What is up with that? Am I possible missing something (please please let it be that). Thank you.