"Why are you here?"

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I've had gotten this question a couple of times already everytime a patient asks me if I'm a nurse or a tech. Whenever they find out I'm an RN, they always ask me "Why are you here? You're a good nurse. You should work in a hospital!" To my surprise, most of them think being in a dialysis is a ****** job for an RN. I always tell my patients that dialysis is special to me. Helping people extend their lives daily and actually being a part of it makes me happy. I actually love what I'm doing. If only these patients see and appreciate our efforts, that would be really nice.... Until then, I'll continue to do what I love to do.

Imagine a spoiled, trust fund brat telling you that having a job must be such a blessing.

BTW, in my analogy you would have been the trust fund kid telling someone what a blessing it must be to have a job.

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Specializes in Dialysis.
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And...finally as to why dialysis pts do better in other countries: in Europe, and the Far East, they dialyze 4-6 times/week so they more closely mimic their native renal function.

Price, quality or speed. Pick any two.

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BTW, in my analogy you would have been the trust fund kid telling someone what a blessing it must be to have a job.

Whoa...

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Whoa...

Yeah, that sounded bad :nailbiting:

It was an analogy. I'm not calling OP a spoiled trust fund kid. So sorry, foxy1112

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

Why do we care so much when people attempt to denigrate what we do? It's so ingrained, but silly. I don't care who thinks they are a "real nurse" and we are not. The same thing happened when I was military. If you were not assigned overseas or at a tactical or some base like that, "you were not in the REAL Air Force". I guess I no longer care. I am over such pettiness.

Dialysis IS the real deal, like said. We are very autonomous and have to have strong clinical skills to do what we do. But I am not going tit for tat with ANY nurse ignorant enough to say you need to be a hospital nurse to be "real". I have done a lot of different areas, OB, GYN, MD office and nursing home nursing. ALL NURSES are pretty damn "real" to their patients. Focus on that and quit listening to noise.

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No one said that. At least I don't think so. ???

I personally think HD is most Definitely the real deal. In fact, I think I said that.

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Whenever they find out I'm an RN, they always ask me "Why are you here? You're a good nurse. You should work in a hospital!" To my surprise, most of them think being in a dialysis is a ****** job for an RN.

Refering to the patients' perspective in original post?

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Refering to the patients' perspective in original post?

Oops, yes probably. Thanks!

Sorry SBE.

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

Yes I am referring to the original post. Have not read all the responses here. I have a saying in nursing: "If you don't like where you are, bloom where you are planted til you can make the necessary changes".

It works well for me. And others' opinions don't factor into the career decisions I make.

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It just might get a little ANNOYING being reminded that if they aren't 'good for the environment' aka 'of use to our society' that they wouldn't be deemed worthy of living. That it's lovely corporations like DaVita that allow them to live on. Without DaVita---where would they be? Not a very conscientious thing to say to the patients.

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OP was refering to early days of diaylsis when demand was much higher than supply. Boards were set up to determine who would live and who would die and that was based, in part, on the pts benefit to society. Thankfully, we are no longer in that situation.

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

I need to say that I live in central IL and $12-13/hr here would allow you to live on your own. Fast food workers in my area make $8-8.50/hr.

New York is a different story with higher living expenses.

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