"I Narcanned Your Honor Student"

Nurses General Nursing

Published

After browsing Reddit today, I came across something that troubled me deeply. This is not the first time I have seen something of this nature displayed. Once I seen an EMT with a VERY similar quote on a t-shirt. Being in nursing school has allowed me to open up and become compassionate about many things.

Why would someone take humour in this situation?

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Specializes in Med/Surg/.

Well as an old Nurse I would say a good sarcastic humor!. If you are not a Nurse or in the field you would not have the same reaction. I hate to say this but most of us have a dark sense of humor when it comes to things pertaining to Nursing. In 40 yrs. I have heard much worse....It's a release mechanism. I would hazard to guess it isn't far off as the rich can afford it more than the poor and they do. These things might be insulting to the outside world but we just take it in stride as we deal with it often....Would I put it on a t shirt and wear it in public...NO as most everyday people do not understand our "dark humor" and this does hit close to home even with us...We just wear it different!...

I worked in Director roles in Quality/Performance Improvement/Risk Management/Patient Safety for nearly 2 decades. Unfortunately, this is a topic that would cross my desk by way of patient family, patient and sometimes staff grievances.

Having worked the floor myself, I understand how dark humor is how hcp often "deal" with horrific tragedy and sadness. The problem with this is that someone is always listening and unintended individuals end up hearing these comments that result in the hcp appearing to lack care and compassion for their patients and gives the professions, department and organization, if not healthcare as a whole a black eye. Staff and leadership need to come together to come up with better outlets of support for our hcp in these situations so there won't be a need for the dark humor.

One successful method at an organization I worked at was an immediate debrief by all those involved which focused on positives and any support needed.

I totally get dark humor. It has gotten me through some bad times. This is, however, privately shared with close friends and coworker's. Not the general public. You don't know what pain you could cause someone reading it. Would you wear a shirt that said I D50ed your honor student? It costs nothing to be kind.

Specializes in Hospice / Psych / RNAC.
I believe people have dificulty associating drug abusers as individuals inflicted with a disease like any other disease because it is unique in the aspect that it is a sickness that the individual has inflicted upon themselves whereas many other diseases are not. It is the difference between an individual getting hit by an unforeseen car and an individual walking out into oncoming traffic. I do understand and agree that drug addiction is an unfortunate disease however I can also see why many lack sympathy for habitual abusers. It is hard to see an individual who is both the antagonist and protagonists as just a victim.

I just found out that my step-brother is on disability. Why...he can't quit putting food into his mouth. He's 400 lbs and brags he gets to sit home and eat. There are many more examples of people that have a disease that they cause so please think about it. Even cancer...the majority of hospice cases I had one year were nearly all lung cancer. Can you tell me what the number one killer in the United States is? Heart disease or CAD. Yet we shovel that meat and meat by products down our throats heart related disease occurs.

I like to tell the story of when I was in clinical and a young women was in for pancreatitis. She was warned if she drank one more time she would die. I wanted to get a counselor, social services or the priest to have a talk with her. She told me no one cared anyway. I was stunned when the nurses laughed at me saying she was a frequent flyer and will die soon anyway so why bother. Yea, many examples of that kind of treatment towards people who are addicts.

I watched my mother ignore her blood pressure and eat whatever and drink whenever. There's just too many examples of habitual over eaters, smokers, drinkers, non-compliant with whatever, so their health is failing but that's ok...the doc will prescribe something while the body takes a beating and we all get to pay for that too. The cost of heart disease is huge. So diseases that a person inflicts on themselves are a plenty. :) Frustrating to watch because I know what's going to happen to them. My friend had COPD and A-fib...yep; a beautiful barrel chest and many medications and probably won't see the age of 70.

Accidents happen and many times those people are impaired due to age, drug and alcohol use, distracton, etc... I was just involved in an accident where a women just T-boned me out of the blue. She took full responsibility but as I observed her there was something off about her.

She was stopped at a stop sign and as I was making my turn (I had the right of way) she was waiting her turn to come out into the intersection but suddenly she just shot out and hit me full force on the side. I couldn't smell any alcohol on her but she was about 350 lbs and had clubbed fingernails, probably in her 50s. There were cars behind me...it was a mess. Everywhere I look I see overweight stressed people.

Addicts deserve the same treatment as the ones who know they're killing themselves via bad habits like large portions of food, alcohol, couch potato syndrome and just not caring enough or too lazy to care. Somehow, I think that's worse.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjTyYqg5fvUAhVQ72MKHY6EB0kQFgg1MAE&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fnchs%2Ffastats%2Fleading-causes-of-death.htm&usg=AFQjCNEPXeNGfjHFUG91YZmdHo2ik7lGig

Specializes in Public health program evaluation.
I enjoy morbid, dark healthcare humor, the more twisted the better, but by definition this is humor that only those of us in healthcare will appreciate, so putting it on a bumper sticker shows a poor understanding of how dark healthcare humor works.

It's one thing to share this joke among coworkers who might find it funny, but to direct dark healthcare humor randomly at the public which may include those who are the butt of the joke, which is what a bumper sticker does, is basically sociopathic. I'm curious how many really feel it would be fine to walk up to someone who as far as you know may be the parent of a child who died of opiate abuse and tell them this joke.

AMEN!

I enjoy morbid, dark healthcare humor, the more twisted the better, but by definition this is humor that only those of us in healthcare will appreciate, so putting it on a bumper sticker shows a poor understanding of how dark healthcare humor works.

This is precisely why I don't believe this shirt/bumper sticker is meant to be about coping via dark humor.

It is meant to be a self-aggrandizing smack down.

Thinking, "saved another honor student!" in your own mind after you've just administered narcan in a stressful situation...that's dark humor, and it's pretty funny. It's a well-known, acceptable, good way to cope. Wearing that statement around like a badge of honor....that's another beast entirely.

Hmmm...as the parent of a child who struggles academically and finds the "my child is an honor student" bumper stickers obnoxious, it's kind of funny. As a nursing student, I can see both sides of the argument. If it raises awareness, however, I'm all for it. Messages such as this give people pause and make them uncomfortable, which is the first step in changing perceptions. Perceptions such as "My kid is an honor student; ergo, couldn't be the victim of an opioid overdose."

Hmmm...as the parent of a child who struggles academically and finds the "my child is an honor student" bumper stickers obnoxious, it's kind of funny. As a nursing student, I can see both sides of the argument. If it raises awareness, however, I'm all for it. Messages such as this give people pause and make them uncomfortable, which is the first step in changing perceptions. Perceptions such as "My kid is an honor student; ergo, couldn't be the victim of an opioid overdose."

Fair enough. My experience as a parent of younger honor students is that I haven't spent one second believing that they don't live in the same world as everyone else, and that is true for all matters pertinent to kids (drug use, teen pregnancy, bullying, sexting, etc., etc). My acquaintances, co-workers and family members who have children doing well academically also are not struggling for information about these issues.

Either parents are keeping tabs/staying in tune or they're not. Looking around me I see zero evidence to assert that parents of honor students have a lesser handle on these issues than anyone else. It's only shocking to other people because they know actually nothing about the "honor student" in question, and they also lack wisdom and common sense about the world around them. So I continue to refute the idea that this is a PSA of any sort, or that parents of honor students need this information any more than anyone else does.

as the parent of a child who struggles academically and finds the "my child is an honor student" bumper stickers obnoxious, it's kind of funny.

Exactly. THAT is exactly why it IS funny - - from a parent's point of view!! Those bumper stickers are obnoxious. I wouldn't have even become involved in this discussion if it were about a parent making a bumper sticker that said, "Heard your honor student got narcanned last night!" That's funny because, although it is obnoxious, it is dished out by the appropriate person...as opposed to the situation we're discussing.

Specializes in Pediatric Critical Care.

I'm not a fan of the shirt, but I'm also not a fan of any of the shirt or bumper stickers that I've seen that disparage "your honor student". It's such a tired joke.

Not sure what this says about me, but I don't have a problem with the narcan part...just sick of people being nasty about honors students.:sarcastic:

I just found out that my step-brother is on disability. Why...he can't quit putting food into his mouth. He's 400 lbs and brags he gets to sit home and eat. There are many more examples of people that have a disease that they cause so please think about it. Even cancer...the majority of hospice cases I had one year were nearly all lung cancer. Can you tell me what the number one killer in the United States is? Heart disease or CAD. Yet we shovel that meat and meat by products down our throats heart related disease occurs.

I like to tell the story of when I was in clinical and a young women was in for pancreatitis. She was warned if she drank one more time she would die. I wanted to get a counselor, social services or the priest to have a talk with her. She told me no one cared anyway. I was stunned when the nurses laughed at me saying she was a frequent flyer and will die soon anyway so why bother. Yea, many examples of that kind of treatment towards people who are addicts.

I watched my mother ignore her blood pressure and eat whatever and drink whenever. There's just too many examples of habitual over eaters, smokers, drinkers, non-compliant with whatever, so their health is failing but that's ok...the doc will prescribe something while the body takes a beating and we all get to pay for that too. The cost of heart disease is huge. So diseases that a person inflicts on themselves are a plenty. :) Frustrating to watch because I know what's going to happen to them. My friend had COPD and A-fib...yep; a beautiful barrel chest and many medications and probably won't see the age of 70.

Accidents happen and many times those people are impaired due to age, drug and alcohol use, distracton, etc... I was just involved in an accident where a women just T-boned me out of the blue. She took full responsibility but as I observed her there was something off about her.

She was stopped at a stop sign and as I was making my turn (I had the right of way) she was waiting her turn to come out into the intersection but suddenly she just shot out and hit me full force on the side. I couldn't smell any alcohol on her but she was about 350 lbs and had clubbed fingernails, probably in her 50s. There were cars behind me...it was a mess. Everywhere I look I see overweight stressed people.

Addicts deserve the same treatment as the ones who know they're killing themselves via bad habits like large portions of food, alcohol, couch potato syndrome and just not caring enough or too lazy to care. Somehow, I think that's worse.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjTyYqg5fvUAhVQ72MKHY6EB0kQFgg1MAE&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fnchs%2Ffastats%2Fleading-causes-of-death.htm&usg=AFQjCNEPXeNGfjHFUG91YZmdHo2ik7lGig

I do not disagree that these are prime examples of individuals who are both the antagonist and "protagonist" in their life story. I do not disagree that whatever the cause of their disease they should be treated. What my previous comment stated was that I can also understand those who do not and will not see them as the unfortunate victim or a victim of circumstances. I do not deny that their are others who cause their ailments I just understand those who have a lack of sympathy for such individuals.

The author has a good point. As nurses, we must uphold integrity. I have dark humor, but I also understand that lay people don't. I'm passive aggressive enough to wear that under a scrub shirt, but in my state, the BON can easily call that a HIPPA violation and unprofessional conduct. We must be ever conscious of how we are perceived by the public. There is a reason that RNs are the most trusted and respected professionals 15 years in a row.

I like the shirt, but think back to your therapeutic communication. Ask, what would the mom be feeling if they read that shirt at WalMart. We need to take mental health seriously. To her, her kid's OD, is not a joke.

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