essbee

My daughter and I just watched blue collar comedy special and this was soooo right on time, an hilarious end to my grueling day thankyou, thankyou thankyou.

The headline of a recent news show was "65 pregnant teenagers at this (name withheld) high school, what went wrong", should give you an idea of what teachers are held responsible for. This headline amazed me and the fact that the reporter actually went to the school to question the principle was even more unbelievable. I agree with the writer who is a teacher now going to nursing school. As a former trainer, I found the responsibility to be enormous for instructors to complete students in programs in spite of themselves. Think of the years that teacher spent learning how to share education only to find out that he/she would be reponsible for an impossible situation, how distressing, but this is similar to the experience some nurses have when they compare what they thought nursing would be like and what they found it to be. Remember that at some point we all have something that we don't like about our profession or would at least like to change. The unhappiness most nurses feel could be alleviated by an administration that understands and tries to lessen the stressors for its nurses, and sadly it is our own nurse management who are most guilty of mistreatment of their staff or who fail to represent their nursing staff to those who are not nurses. While most professions have had a metamorphisis and have learned to value those within it, nursing as a profession has not. I believe this must happen so that more students will want to experience the joy of nursing. Imagine the caring and emotion that goes with nursing and not receiving acknowlegement because that is what you were trained to do and are paid for, again how distressing. Most nurses still love nursing they hate the aside issues like, rude doctors and families, ungrateful patients, disrespectful administration, miserable attitudes and co workers who are consistently not dedicated enough to do their work in the manner in which they were trained, this can be said of many professions. If you spoke to teachers I think they would agree that there are similar issues in education, but the majority of teachers choose to remain in their profession. Nursing was and still my choice in spite of the negatives because of the joy I receive when a patient recovers and goes home or when the care that I give makes the patient have a bearable day, that is so very rewarding. Nurse or teacher, joyfully you can do both as a nurse and enjoy the pleasure of two professions. In the end if you decide that teaching is more to your liking you can continue on and become an instructor for nursing schools. Good Luck.

At least you told at some point what you saw. Imagine how many persons went in and saw the eye but either said, it's been like this(someone must know) or simply did not notice due to the invisibility of true problems with the elderly. Your instructor should encourage a quick assessment of patients prior to treating them, and as you nurse you will learn to due mini assessments quickly. No nurse is perfect and even an experienced nurse forgets or dosen't notice everything. Use this opportunity to remind yourself to stop and write things down because due to the volume of information you receive it is easy to forget. The government heavily regulates how possible/actual abuse is handled which is why there were so many people involved once the incident was reported to the charge nurse. Those who are demented or confused have often been underserved and there is great emphasis in making sure they are not cast aside simply because they are not alert and oriented x3. You did the right thing and obviously are a very ethical person, it is better to report than to avoid it and a resident is harmed.

You may want to use your talents on a skilled rehab unit in a LTC facility. Many hospital nurses find these units to be closer to what they are used to. Most LTC nurses consider LTC to be a specialty and would probably suffer the same shock u have at going to a hospital where developing a longterm relationship with patients and their families/friends can not be the focus due to length of stay protocols. LTC is indeed a different kind of nursing setting and because of tough state regulations, a challenge to deliver care and avoid state citations while doing so often takes up more time than actual care giving due to LTC's past history of patient care . More patients to care for, same basic rules to follow that we all learned in nursing school, challenging indeed but often a roadblock to those from other nursing settings.

You are not selfish, as hard as you have worked, and any nurse should understand, your concern about what will happen now is warranted and probably just one of the many things you are worried about right now. I can't begin to imagine your dismay and obviously you are a survivor (a true nurse) because that is what a nurse does seek resolution to problems and probable outcomes. Good luck, may God bless and please let us know when you find out the information you seek.

Eloquently said!!!!!