Should ADD RN be given "disability" allowances?

[meatloaf RN]

Hello...I've posted before about my 12 yr history of problems with med errors (either giving them way late or forgetting them all together), and am at a crossroad of finding other avenues of nursing that don't involve administration of meds. However, I can't help but wonder if having a diagnoses of ADD should allow one special allowances, ie: lower nurse/pt ratio? Naturally, I feel sheepish that it should be included in this category, being that otherwise I am fully healthy. Please forgive me, as my intention is NOT to offend anyone. I really love being an Orthopedic nurse in the hospital where I currently work and would rather not change my career drastically, but am also aware that I took an oath to "do no harm". I would love any insight you could offer...Thanks!

[Pfiesty]

HM2Viking RN wrote: "Oh how true.....ADD is both a blessing and a curse.....It is a blessing because as an individual I can think outside of the box..."

I love this! ADD is a blessing and my entire contingent of relatives are so creative due to the ADD. I have always designed my own organizational tools to make it work for my RN job. But I consider the ADD more a strength and less a disability or liability!

[Piglet08]

"I think special allowances should be made because the teacher and the nurses don't understand what the hell is going on with people who have ADD. And certain teachers will think you are dumb. This has nothing to do with caring for a patient and giving them CPR, bc that's an emergency response. I don't know why you would conflate the two. Being new to the clinical setting is very hard and some people need to be taught differently to understand things better"

We're 'conflating' the two because not giving meds in a safe manner can LEAD TO a code situation. This has everything to do with caring for a patient. And the OP was asking about performing the job, not about a learning situation. And the OP was not new to the job, either. I don't think that allowances (other than as many rehearsals and practice sessions as one needs in order to not have butterflies) in a learning or testing situation are in the nursing student's best interest anyway, exactly because once one is licensed and in a position to kill people, there will be no such safety buffer around. The Real World, in Real Time, will not respect ADA considerations. (If you think a TEST is stressful, wait 'til your patient is coding and you are expected to tell the code team his H&P from memory. ) It will be real-time big stakes and part of nursing school should be learning what one needs to do in order to handle it - or, to learn that you can't handle it and need to do something else. And I think everyone posting similarly appears to understand ADD pretty well, and there's no lack of compassion being shown here. Yes, nurses can be too hard on each other, but I'm not seeing that in this thread.

A nurse has to find ways to keep his/her practice safe. Multiple med errors is not "safe"; I don't feel the OP is a bad person or a "defective" person, and have no intention to vilify her. But if the med error situation can't be repaired she needs to find another job. Her position is not a good fit for her.

Yes, our job is about compassion... among other things. I would hope administering safe care is our first priority. I think saying that "nursing is all about caring" is the sort of touchy-feely stuff that minimizes our skills and education in the minds of the public. I know a couple of nurses that are very warm and fuzzy and "caring", and a couple who are socially inept and have a clumsy bedside manner and can sound mean but their critical thinking skills ROCK. Guess who I'd pick?