anglezwarmth

I do not agree with most of these comments. Yes, there is some silly ethical issue these days with health care professionals not being allowed to contact patients even if the patient is ok with it. We are supposed to basically be like "professional robots" as some have called us, do our job, and pretend the patients no longer exist after they leave our care. That is how I have heard nurses being described. I do not believe in this. I believe in the old fashion care. It is inhumane, in my opinion, to tell any nursing professional to not have feelings for or to not make friendships through their work. Yes, this can be a HIPPA issue if you attempt to contact them without their consent and the patient giving you their contact information. However, if they willingly give you their information and are ok with continuing a relationship outside of the work area, I find that to be good. It's not about ethics. That is stupid. It is pathetic to know that the nursing profession in this country has come to a turning point that medical staff cannot create a "bond" of any sort with their patients, especially if you live in rural communities. Are you saying that I cannot walk down a street and see people I take care of nearly daily and ask how they are doing? That is just plain stupid. I might as well avoid my entire community. Sorry, life just does not work that way. Where I live, it is a rural community and everyone knows everyone else. You don't go around advertising a person's condition but if you see someone, it is considered polite to stop and ask how they are doing. This country has become terribly rude in how the medical profession has become. I see such "cold" nurses anymore who do their job and go home because as one told me "you cannot be allowed to show feelings towards your patient because you can get into trouble." That again, is just plain stupid. We are here to care for people, love what we do, and love the people we care for. If we did not have this type of love, I think any nurse that lacks such should just quit being a nurse. I refuse to stop caring for my patients. I am a loving person and I will continue to say hi to them and if they want me to call them on the phone, I will. This is what life is meant to be. Not "nursing robots." It is pathetic to think we are not even allowed to send them a thank you note. What has this country come to? Too many lawsuits, "nursing robots," and people in the government trying to micromanage healthcare to the point that nurses and doctors become stressed, over-worked, and show little to no feelings towards patients. I had a doctor recently tell me that it takes an act of Congress now to get things approved for a single patient. It's stupid. This nursing profession needs to go back to it's loving and caring aspect, and get rid of the "nursing robot." I work with nurses who literally show almost no emotion towards their patients. They are grumpy, and you can't tell if they even care about the patients. My past instructor had stated it is because they are protecting themselves from any "ethical" problems that could arise. I personally would never want to be cared for by any nurse that truly didn't care whether I lived or died.

I am a new LPN of 5 months in the field. I started out working as an LPN in a nursing home with my own residents. I was loving everything I was learning and absolutely love being a nurse. The residents would comment on how patient I am with them compared to other nurses. However, recently, I was put as a 3rd night shift nurse and I wasn't so ok with this. As the third nurse, I have no residents I am allowed to care for. The reason I got into nursing is to help people and to care for them. As the third nurse, I am only allowed to do paperwork and assist CNAs. I went on vacation and when I returned I found that my schedule had me down as a third nurse or a CNA for the first two weeks of September and then I wasn't even on the schedule at all the last two weeks of the month. I wasn't even working as a nurse anymore. I was absolutely devastated. I may not be a perfect nurse, as I do not think there is such a thing. However, I love my nursing and am learning every day and am one of the friendliest nurses you will ever meet. I am no "nurse crotchet" as some call them. I went to the administrator and discussed the schedule issues. I noticed other nurses were working at least four days a week with 12 hour shifts. This put them over the full time mark. I tried to ask why we couldn't split the shifts more evenly amongst all of the night nurses. I was only asking for 2 days per week during my RN schooling. He didn't want to hear any of it. He only wanted to know if I would work as a CNA or not. I told him I went to school to be a nurse, not a CNA. I had been a CNA for over 12 years. I didn't want to do full time work as one again. To make a long story short, I guess it's time to quit this job. I am very upset and devastated. This is my first nursing job and I keep wondering what went wrong and what I did so wrong. Fellow workers just tell me that I wouldn't work full time is why I'm just a "filler." What happened to wanting to work part time through school to keep my nursing skills up and learn more to become a better nurse??? What ever happened to caring for nurses too and not just pushing us aside? I love being a nurse too much to become a CNA permanently again. I don't mind working as a CNA here and there and I always answer call lights and assist residents when CNAs are busy. I just don't want to BE a CNA completely again. The administrator wouldn't even consider rotating the night nurses as CNAs and third nurses. I was stuck with it.