nursedeedee

MY, my, my...this sounds like a marter to me. If this was mandated, I'm sure the labor authorities would love to hear about that one. No one can MAKE you work those crazy hours. Believe me, that is NOT the norm, so don't base your whole future career decision on one scary article.. Nursing has great rewards and its a very fulfilling career. GO FOR IT!!!!!

O.K. I shouldn' be a sceretary either because my typing stinkss!

Well,Suzy K, Your pints well taken. Non the less, I am discouraged by all this nursing"mess" and if I did go back to school, It wouldn't be in nursing. My hospital doesn't pay you anymore money for holding one, but you sure as hell better have one if you want to "move up on the ladder" I think i'll go be a veterinarian.

Gee, you did have a rotten time. Believe me, some day you will look back and laugh at at that story. Yes with time and experience, you will learn how to prioritize, get away from the crazy talkative patients with tack, so you can get to the more critical ones, answer the phones, input new orders, answer pt family questions, bake a cake, and cut the crust off of bread all before noon.(tee hee). The good thing is, you also experienced the the kind of nurses you know now you don't want to be....those who make students and new grads "pledge the sorority of nurses" buy hazing them, and RNs who feel that bedside care and dumping urinals is below them. I am an RN. If I am passing meds and a bed needs to be cHanged I do it, or if a pt needs the bed pan, I give it, or if they are sitting in their own waste, I don't say "I'll go get your bedside nurse...." as far as I'm concerned we are all bedside nurses. Nursing is hands on job, not a desk job. This obviously really BURNS ME!!!!!! With the nursing shortage the way it is we all need to pitch in, and no one should be playing the part of prima donna, ESPECIALLY to the students who are PROSPECTIVE COWORKERS!!!!!!!! you fools. A little kindness goes a long way and I'm sick and tired of nurses playing this power game with eachother. So see Michelle, you can take some positive learning and self awareness out of this otherwise awful experience. Good luck!!!!

What the profession of nursing really needs, is to pull itself together, and standardize. Look at the teachers, they have set standards for education, ceritifications, pay etc....they got it together for the most part, and are benefitting. I have a non-nursing 4 year degree, a two year associates degree from St. Joseph's Hospital School of Nursing, I am nationally certified by ANCC, have nine years experience in cardiology(critical care, telemetry, cardio lab)....so what???? So, some fool comes along and says, "well you don't have a BSN, so you don't rate"....yadda yadda Does it make me any less worthy? Alot of you are probably getting pretty defensive right now about your BSN's. I'm not putting them down. But at 37 years old with two college degrees, a 3 year old and a one year old, do I still need to go back to college for the 3rd, and possibly a FOURTH for a master's degree, before other nurses only look at "the papers" and consider me worthy? I think you get my drift. The point I'm making is, that there are many ways in which we can become nurses, and all are viewed different by ourselves and our institutions. Sometimes for the worse, and sometimes for the better. WE need a license, like lawyers, and doctors, and I SURE don't need to bring up the pay issue.......So maybe a national SOMETHING.. we have alot of national somethings, but bottom lines in the work place don't seem to be changing for the better.

Alright, we were just talking about this at work the other evening.. A patient of ours that had been with us a while had just died. She and her family were great people and it was sad. But none the less, death is not pretty. I am an RN and work on a cardiac step down unit with a mish-mosh of other multisystem failure illness....they all usually do have heart trouble,..anyway, this poor person had been basically rotting from the inside out. I will spare you all the gory details,but there is NOTHING more repulsive than the smell of rotting flesh. Swollen, oozing, infected, dead flesh. Reeeeettttccchhhhh! GGGGGGGAAAAAAAAAGGGGGG!!!!!!!! I couldn't handle the post mortum care. Blood and such ran out of her mouth when we turned her. Like I said, it is a rare death that is pretty. Actually, a good topic to discuss would be some real poistive experiences about how we as nurses have comforted people who are dying........well I'm still human and death has it's gross side.

When a baby is born it is such a blessing, and an honor for nurses to assist, (often doing it solo) the new life into this world. Did you ever think of how much a blessing it is to be present when a person leaves this world? Death is a tough one. Alot of us are very nervous around it, and uncomfortable. I was for a long time. At times I still am. When I became an RN 9 years ago I worked in MICU and saw more death in one year then I hope to ever see in 10. It did make me face my own mortality, and what it all "means". One death experience...... It was eight years ago in the ICU. This elderly woman was a DNR,lying in her bed with her elderly, very proper looking, husband standing on the left side of the bed. He was dressed in his overcoat with one hand holding his hat, the other very gentily stroking her hair. Her two grown children on the other side, quietly standing holding her hand. My preceptor and I stood at the end of the bed. It was evening so the sun was low and sent this warm glow into the room. I stood there and watched the ekg slowly go from SR to JR to VER......agonal. The room was very quiet, and the family didn't move. All eyes on the woman. As the monitor slowed, you could see the life slowly and quietly leave her face and body, as it relaxed into a 'stronger presence' that was in the room. The whole time the husband stood there and stroked her hair back, and slow tears dripped from his cheek. Asystole. I was quietly crying and so was my preceptor. There was a very strong presence in the room. I though,"Gee this is sad, but in a way, very beautiful. We encouraged the grown children of the woman not to shy away from her, but to hold her hands and touch and hold her. Some day they will look back and be glad they did. PLease, let's hear some of your stories, good, bad, funny, whatever......