Sadistic CI? I need an opinion.

[AliveToday]

The following is an attachment sent to my clinical group

by our clinical instructor. I find it sadistic and horribly inappropriate to set this kind of example, almost enough to report it to the head of the department (the semester has been over for a while, but it has been eating away at me). Do you think that I am overreacting?

Warning: this may offend.

Thanks in advance.

, sans-serif]What your nurse is really thinking:

, sans-serif]1. Don't tell me you have abdominal pain as you eat doritos in my triage booth.

, sans-serif]2. If you come to the ER by ambulance, the first thing I will ask you is how you are getting home. No, we don't have people on staff to drive you

, sans-serif]home, and don't tell me you don't want to "bother" one of your family members at this hour. You had no problem bothering 911 for the back pain

, sans-serif]you've had for 3 months.

, sans-serif]3. You don't get to pick your own IV site. This will irritate

, sans-serif]me and I will probably miss your IV on

, sans-serif]purpose and start your site in the place I wanted to initially to prove a point

, sans-serif]4. "Butterfly" is not an IV size, this word signals me to put in a larger bore needle.

, sans-serif]5. Nausea is not a reason to come to the ER. If you are not in severe pain, are not vomiting or pooping

, sans-serif]your pants in front of me, your butt goes back to the waiting room.

, sans-serif]6. How can you have the worst migraine of your life, but be able to yell at me about the wait after you just put down a magazine you were reading?

, sans-serif]7. Don't ever say things like, "I usually get 4 mg of Dilaudid". Requesting your med and dosage will prompt me to squirt out half of the med before I inject, then I lie about the dose.

, sans-serif]8. If you are allergic to Tylenol, Toradol, and Motrin, I have already assumed you are a drug seeker.

, sans-serif]9. If you came to the ER having a family doctor appointment that same day, I will make sure you are still in the department

, sans-serif]well past the time of

, sans-serif]your original appointment.

, sans-serif]10. I don't care if you are neighbors with the GI specialist. Unless he drove you to the ER himself, you can't be that friendly.

, sans-serif]11. Just because, "my doctor sent me here", does not mean you get right back to a treatment room. This tells me you are a pain in the ass, and

, sans-serif]he's pawning you off.

, sans-serif]12. The louder you moan/whine, the bigger size IV needle you get.

, sans-serif]13. Foley catheters cure pseudo-seizures. They also cure intoxicated persons.

, sans-serif]14. If you are on more than 2 medicines at home, bring a list. Don't say, "you know, the little white pill". I am not a pharmacist.

, sans-serif]15. RN is not synonymous with waiter/waitress.

, sans-serif]16. Don't ***** about missing breakfast when I'm on the ninth hour of my shift and haven't peed yet.

, sans-serif]17. What gives you the right to complain about your sore throat for a week while I have diarrhea from the antibiotics I've been taking for

, sans-serif]pneumonia?

, sans-serif]18. Broken toes are not an emergency. We'll make you feel stupid by putting a little piece of tape down there and kicking you out.

, sans-serif]19. I am currently inventing a trapdoor system in triage to be triggered when you say the word "toothache".

, sans-serif]20. Cover you mouth when you cough/belch. This is just common courtesy. When you neglect to do this, I am tempted to bust butt in your room, then

, sans-serif]close the door.

, sans-serif]21. If you tell me you have fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome, know that I'm rolling my eyes and thinking you're a loser.

, sans-serif]22. If you list Haldol, geodon, Xanax, and trazadone as allergies, don't tell me you have no psych history.

, sans-serif]23. Never sign in with chest pain because you were too embarrassed to write "penile sores" or "foul smelling discharge". This will **** me off

, sans-serif]that I bumped you ahead of other people and I'll make your visit horrific.

, sans-serif]24. Although you've been in the ER four times this week, you

, sans-serif]cannot list the ER doc as your family physician.

, sans-serif]25. Do not talk to me while I'm trying to listen to your lungs.

, sans-serif]26. Don't tell me you have no money for medicine while you have a carton of cigarettes in your purse (next to your cell phone), and each of your

, sans-serif]seven children are playing their own PSP's.

, sans-serif]27. Gravida 7 at age 22 means you are a ****.

[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

One of the things you will learn as you get through school and become a real-life nurse is never to take things too seriously. Another thing is that many of us develop a really warped sense of humor, and this is how we vent our frustrations while at the same time staying sane! No nurse worthy of the name would ever say such things to her/his patients, but it is tough sometimes not to think them when you've been on your feet for 12 hours and spent much of that time being verbally attacked by families, treated like something scraped off a shoe by patients, yelled at by doctors, threatened by supervisors, and ignored by administration.

One day, you will walk in our (battered, puked-on) shoes and understand EXACTLY what prompts nurses to write things like that..........

[AliveToday]

Thanks for your reply, VivaLasViejas,

I am just concerned about a clinical instructor teaching these things to students who are new to the field. I don't think it is a good idea to brush off some of these ideas on students. Joking around about giving a patient the wrong dose of their pain med, and writing off a patient's complaints of nausea as unimportant are not funny at all ... especially considering the fact that we just learned in class that nausea can be a manifestation of severe problems. I can understand veteran nurses joking around with each other like this (although I still find it inappropriate and extremely disrespectful to the patients, and pray that I never get that bitter), but sending something like this students who are learning the "ropes" -- I still find it dead wrong.

[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

You may very well be right.........I think it's one thing if you're dealing with older students who have lots of life experience under their belts so they can put these things in perspective. But a lot of nursing students are young and idealistic, and this sort of nursing humor isn't really appropriate for them.

Still: there's school, there are tests, and then there's real life as nurses live it every day. Yes, we get jaded as our careers progress and we deal daily with people who are usually at their worst. But there's time enough for nursing students to get used to that..........I agree, this is probably NOT the most appropriate thing for a clinical instructor to send to students.

[spider11]

Frankly, I think it's funny. Maybe poor taste for an instructor to pass this along. I think you may be taking this way too seriously. This list is not a list of what to do in those situations. If you work around many nurses, you will see that a lot of them (us) have a strange sense of humor that people who aren't in healthcare wouldn't understand. It's a coping mechanism. JMO.

[MaryAnn_RN]

Have you worked in ER, because the sense of humour there can be totally off the wall.

It looks like it was meant to be a funny (and it is) look at nursing. Our job is serious and sometimes humour is necessary to vent feelings of frustration.

Was it your first clinical placement? Have you worked in ER, because the sense of humour there can be totally off the wall.

[AliveToday]

This was my second to last clinical placement (6th), but I had not ever worked in an ER. Frankly, I would rather not ever work in one. :)

I can understand how these jokes could work as a coping mechanism.

Thanks for the insight!

[JustinTJ, ADN, BSN]

If you like that, you'll love these. My two favorite ER threads, some of which made me cry:

What do your ER patients families say or do that irks you?

https://allnurses.com/forums/f18/what-do-your-er-patients-families-say-do-irks-you-113146.html

What was the MOST ridiculous thing a patient came to the ER for?

https://allnurses.com/forums/f18/what-most-ridiculous-thing-patient-came-er-70657.html

[CritterLover, BSN, RN]

i once put together something similar, and shared it at both of the jobs i had at the time: one er, the other not (but still nursing).

my er coworkers thought it was really funny, and posted it in the break room.

my other coworkers didn't think it was even a little bit funny, and i think they decided i was mean.

it was then that i learned that not all nurses see things the same way.

oh well.

(and while i don't think your ci is sadistic, sending it [unedited] to nursing students was probably in poor taste. esp the second half of #7, and #12. but i'm sorry, the dorito thing is always appropriate. )

[elkpark]

Clearly intended as humor. Was it in poor taste and questionable judgment to share it with students? Possibly "yes," but I recall feeling complimented/flattered when I was in school and instructors would sometimes share "real" nurse humor, "tricks of the trade", whatever with me -- made me feel like I was (getting to be) "one of them." Sadistic?? Wow, you're taking this 'waay too seriously. One of the main "survival skills" of successful nurses, ER or anywhere else, is a healthy, well-developed sense of humor (if we couldn't laugh about most of what goes in a typical day at work, we'd have to cry ...)

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

Boy! Have you got the wrong impression of your CI. She was sharing something humorous with all of you. It was a gesture to make you feel an accepted member of the sisterhood of nurses--nurses lounge humor. You may not have liked the content of what was shared, but it was not meant to be personal by any means. Nurses, particularly those in the critical care areas, tend to lean toward sarcastic humor. This is how they let off steam. I have actually seen this before, possibly in the Journal of Nursing Jocularity. It might even be posted somewhere on allnurses already. Humor is a sign of intelligence. Someone should get these printed out in nice fonts, laminated and presented to this instructor as a gift to thank her for her instruction over the last term. A negative attitude leads to no where. It is the people with positive attitudes and outlooks and who see the good in others that have success in this life.

You should have heard the filthy jokes and other stuff that was said in the ICU nurses lounge where I worked! And, I'm not going to even begin to tell you what nasty stuff got displayed on our Christmas tree in the stepdown unit one year!

[TakeTwoAspirin, MSN, RN, APRN]

Humor is very much in the eye of the beholder. I think the mistake this CI made was to send this out to students presumably before you have even met her. I would give her a chance if this is the case. When you meet you you will get a better read on the real intention behind sending out such a message to a bunch of students. I would hold your fire for a little while at least and give him/her the benefit, at least for now.