lost soul

it is the same everywhere. Everyone thinks that they are the ones who work and all the others do nothing and expect others to work for them.

I want to thank all who took the time to respond. I think I should have titled this post " I used to be proud to be a nurse" I find the responses interesting. Some want to discount my experience and chalk it off rather then entertaining the idea that it may actually be true. One called me a troll. Others had varied responses. The thing is that my wife received terrible care. This is a fact. What I have seen makes me fear for the future of health care. (some of the responses do too) It does seem that no one would admit that the care was bad. This was my whole point. I was just wondering what the nurses here might say. I did not say why she in the hospital because it makes no difference. It has been 2 months since she was discharged and she is doing well. Thanks for the kind words towards her recovery. What bothers me the most is the lack of caring on the part of the nurses in the hospital. Maybe they just dont have any idea what it means to be a nurse. As long as they get paid they dont care. It is just a job. I became a nurse because I actually cared about people. There is no excuse for the care that she received. We are nurses, caring is what we do, or what we are supposed to do. We cant let the problems of health care stop us from acting in the best interest of our patients. I also wonder about the education of nurses. there is no excuse for not knowing how to treat blood sugar. What scares me the most is that it seems that anyone can be a nurse these days. They dont need to have basic intelligence. I see few critical thinking skills. Why did I post here? Seems obvious to me.

To Pangea, Maybe I was unclear, I edited my post. They gave her juice and crackers for low sugar. I dont understand the question "did the nurse have a choice?"

My wife has been in the hospital 4 times in the past 2 months. During this time I have seen terrible nursing care. It seems that nurses are just robots who need to stay on a schedule of giving pills. There is no thinking at all. Every thing is by route. A good example is that my wife is a diet controlled type 2. (diabetic) She was on glucose checks AC and HS. At HS she was 85. That was at 2100. I left to go home at 2300. When I arrived at 0700 I found out that the night nurse treated her low sugar.... This blew me away.. I asked her why she would treat some one with a normal blood sugar and on no hypoglycemics, and asymptomatic........ I honestly think she did not even understand the question. Her next admission was for only 24 hours. She arrived in the er at 1900. They did blood work. I found out that her glucose was 75. (normal) Remember this was at 1900. She was sent to a room and I met the nurse. It was routine for her. Just fill out the paperwork. I left to go home at midnight. I arrived at 0700 the next morning. I was told that the nurse treated my wife's low sugar. Again, the same idiocy. She did not even due a finger stick, even though it was several hours after the blood work was done. If they actually thought they were doing the right thing, they would have checked her glucose after they gave her the food and drink, to make sure her bs was normal. I am sure that if they did that, she would have been high and they might have given her insulin....then they could recheck, and she would be low, and round and round they would go...... I am adding this as an edit, as I may have not been clear. What is below has noting to do with her glucose. They gave her juice and crackers to treat the "low sugar" I was with her for 16 hours a day for 2 weeks while she was in the hospital. What I saw scared the hell out of me. I had to constantly fight with the nurses to get her care that she needed. They would give her pills that made her vomit on an empty stomach. Then they would not learn and try to do it again. I had to fight for them to give meds with food. I had to dig the pills out of the puke to show that she did not ingest them. I had this one nurse who wanted her to drink salt water to treat hyponatremia. I finally had to call the pharmacy and ask, or beg, for a pill. Who the hell wants to drink salt water? I pill is just as effective. dont ask about the pain pills....... I could write a book about all this. I am sick over health care. When I was at the university, I was told "patients get well in spite of what we do to them" I had no idea how prophetic that was.

I would not participate in applying snake oil and I dont participate in a patients delusional behavior. Unfortunately they have plenty of company in their delusion. Of course I dont confront them on this issue, I just ignore it. There has been a few times where I had to state that there was no god to get out of a situation. At times patients credit god with the improvement of their health. When I hear this, I just ignore it. I had a 40 year old woman who had breast cancer. She went home to have faith healing. A couple months later she was back in the ICU to die. As I was caring for the tumors protruding from her chest, her sister was playing today's sermon. She even told me that I was the answer to her prayers. I asked how that was, and she said that she prayed that I would be her sisters nurse. I know that a patients emotional health is just as important, and I act appropriately. I just wish our world would over this religion thing and realize the truth.

This is an old thread but it infuriates me. Dont be a nurse if you are not willing to care for the patient. End of story!! find another career.

In BSN school we were taught nothing about LPNs. We just know that each type of nurse can do what their practice act says they can.

I dont think that men want a man to do any kind of nursing on them.. I mean that they dont prefer a male over a female. They may be just gettiung you to do their job with that as the excuse. A male foley is quite simple. Females can be a real pain to do.

the female nurses take advantage of the men constantly. That was my experience. May have something to do with my back failure, and fusion and being disabled now.

I dont get it. Do you think you are supposed to do "girl things" ????

I wish that LPN schools were eliminated. The minimum for nursing should be a BSN. Sorry but nursing is a profession that is screwed up. There are different paths and education level leading to the same job. It sucks. sucks for nurses and patients. You are not a nurse yet, right? So thinking that you want to get a masters in whatever is very premature. Go of the BSN, be a professional!!!

RN guy, that is the deal we got ourselves into. Because of all the sexist stuff, things are so sensitive. SOme female nurses say sexual stuff that I hear. I never never respond. I just listen to the joke or statement and then walk away. Many times I wish I could engage with the sexual joking, but I never do/ I was raising abed with a female patient who was wiggling and not staying covered, One nurse make a sexual remake, just fooling. Ut was funny, but I did not respong. Sometimes, with ones who are friends, I will just say, "come on, you know I cant say anything" . They tend to get it. I just dont have the time to worry about all that stuff. I wish i could pursue it, but the patients need me. Anyone can say anything to me,a nd I can keep cool. who cares

people judges others on their race and grooming, regardless of the job, or situation. That is just a fact. each person decides who 'individual" they want to be, and what "side effects" they are willing to deal with. he cant change his gender or race. The rest is a personal decision.

we are people and talk about what we are thinking. You have to use those peopple skills. I try to keep things mostly about work, especially when those boring or redundant topic come up. Also, and this is a big one, there are 2 kinds of nurses. There are the pros, and the ones who are just there to get paid. Be a pro, and act like a pro. Nursing is a profession, and needs to be treats as such. Try your best to avoid the ones who are not pros.

you are new grad? if the job was only two months, dont put it on the resume. pretend it never happened, as far as employment is concerned. Personally, You have to figure out what and why