I have a question..... a serious one. Should I in fact be a nurse? I am a registered X-ray and Cat Scan tech of 10 years. Im almost 30 years old and i am considering Travel Nursing. I also finish Nuclear Medicine school in about 7 weeks. I immediately then will attempt nursing school for the ONLY reason of being a travel Nurse.
I firmly believe i have the skills to be a nurse clinically. Im not quite sure i have the people skills though. Being a CT / Nuclear Medicine tech, i love the fact that i can take solid care of my patients for their exam and send them about their merry way. Im not sure if i could deal with a patient for 8 or 12 hours along with their family, friends, needs etc. I know what its like to be short staffed along with other issues nurses face but im just not sure if i could handle certain issues.
Also.... i hate to say this.... but im an *******. I pretty much care NOTHING about others peoples issues. Dont get my wrong, i LOVE my patients but all the nit picky political ******** of a hospital i just dont get into. I dont care about what he said, she said, hes gay, shes cheating, blah blah blah. I really just dont care. I dont care about nagging family members, i dont care about the reasons you are in my care. I am considered all business to some, an ******* to others. I foc
us on the task at hand and do not care at all about circulating issues around the hospital or patients life other than their care.
I dont brag, but im considered a stellar CT tech and i really think i will enjoy nuclear medicine while in school for RN. This career change is strictly for travel nursing. The field of travel radiology in any field is dried up and i see lots of travel nurse jobs everywhere.
My reasoning for wanting to be a travel nurse is basically this: I want to make good money, housing and car allowance paid, and if i dont like the facility, i can screw in 6-13 weeks. Thats basically it. A good friend is a Travel Nurse and lives in her hometown, takes the housing stipend and pays her mortgage on her home. I want to be just like that since i live in a metropolitan area. If i feel the urge to move away for 13 weeks, the travel company still pays my housing.
Anyhow, this is getting long and my apologies..... but i want to know this. Am i being delerious to think i can be a nurse? Like i said, i think clinically i think i can handle it. Intrapersonally, im not sure. Im all business in the hospital, I dont get caught up in politics and im VERY straight foward even to the point where im not afraid if my truth hurts your feelings. Anyhow, thanks for the input. Unlike SOME (not all) radiology staff, i have the utmost respect for nurses and have thought for a long time now that i will be one some day. Thank you.
basically, i think im compassionate in the sense that i want to do the best job i can do while they are under my care. the point of this whole thread is to get some opinions to whether not i can do it or not, not a bashing session to me. i firmly agree with some of your opinions on this situation. i believe that when i am a patient, and i know i will be one day, i want the most highly skilled nurse. they dont have to be the sweetest or dandiest or paint the most colorful picture for me. i want the highest skill just as if i needed an ultrasound tech to us my testes, nurse to give me an iv, surgeon to cut me. i just want the highest skilled.
i'm really sorry you think we're bashing you.
i appreciate your self-assessment and your forthrightness.
i was under the impression that we were reciprocating said forthrightness.
not judging at all, more of objective feedback.
pertaining to skill set, well, it's going to depend on what type of skills you speak of.
assessing a subtle downward spiral of a pt in indeed, an invaluable skill.
but so is the nurse who can appease the fears/anxieties of a critically ill pt, who you know is going to die but somehow manages to assist them in calming and appeasing them...
or who can defuse a psychotic pt from inflicting harm to himself or others.
what kind of skills are you speaking of?
im sorry that you do not feel as if patients are customers. that is the beauty of internet forums. everyone has an equal say of their opinion. i can guarantee you that the people that sit in the board room and make desicions about you and your care at your hospital see these patients as a customer. that i can promise you. we on the front line of care are to deliver the best "experience" we can.... this is a firm example of the patient being a customer. any business or marketing class will tell you the power of the "experience".
agreed.
board members, ceo's, mgmt/admin, all see the hospital setting as a business and the pts as consumers.
i can assure you this is one of the reasons why nursing is experiencing such acrimony and mayhem.
press gainey and its ilk, repeatedly strong arm us into performing w/curteous robotics, to ensure customer satisfaction.
guess what?
it's not working.
that i can promise you.
anyhow, i really do appreciate all of your opinions. it is really helping me make my future desicions on my education and career. call me jaded or mean or whatever. it may be true. im not really denying anything. im just here to seek the best path to take in the next few months/years.
i don't consider you the least bit jaded.
but if you train to become a nurse, you will be learning the holistic model...not the medical model.
you will be addressing your pt's body, mind and spirit.
unfortunately, with pathophys, comes an entire package of debility.
you are dealing with the disease and its secondary attributes, which is how man responds to trauma, imbalance in one's life.
i can also promise you that our jobs would be 100% easier if all we had to deal with were the physical needs of the pts.
nursing is not just task-oriented, now matter how you will it to be.
there truly is an art to it as well.
to think otherwise, will deprive you and your pts of being and receiving the very best that nursing has to offer.
my ideal vision of nursing care is unending compassion and protection and advocacy and selflessness and hard work for those in need. in a way, your needs are secondary to those in your care. if you don't have this feeling inside you naturally, nursing likely won't be an easy path.
Basically, i think im compassionate in the sense that i want to do the best job i can do while they are under my care. The point of this whole thread is to get some opinions to whether not i can do it or not, not a bashing session to me. I firmly agree with some of your opinions on this situation. I believe that when i am a patient, and i know i will be one day, i want the most highly skilled nurse. They dont have to be the sweetest or dandiest or paint the most colorful picture for me. I want the highest skill just as if i needed an ultrasound tech to US my testes, nurse to give me an IV, surgeon to cut me. I just want the highest skilled.
Im sorry that you do not feel as if patients are customers. That is the beauty of internet forums. Everyone has an equal say of their opinion. I can guarantee you that the people that sit in the board room and make desicions about YOU and your care at your hospital see these patients as a customer. That i can promise you. We on the front line of care are to deliver the best "experience" we can.... this is a FIRM example of the patient being a customer. ANY business or marketing class will tell you the power of the "experience".
Anyhow, i really do appreciate all of your opinions. It is really helping me make my future desicions on my education and career. Call me jaded or mean or whatever. It may be true. Im not really denying anything. Im just here to seek the best path to take in the next few months/years.
My first BS is in business management, and, from what I learned there, I agree: You're absolutely right about patients being "customers." After all, every case study in nursing school referred to them as clients. I hated this, though. Any time I responded to one, I always changed "client" to "patient."
While I firmly agree that healthcare is a customer-service driven entity, and it's the "business" of the matter that makes it so (versus a socialized system like that in Canada, England, France, etc.), and I ALWAYS treat my patients like "customers," I adamantly refuse to view them as JUST customers / clients. They are SO much more! Spending 12 hours with 2, 4, 6, 8 (whatever your ratio) patients is not the same as a quick "Here's your burger and fries" trip through the drive-thru or 30 min CT, then they're off!
All bashing aside, it sounds as though direct patient care (aka: nursing) for 8 or 12 hours is not for you. But that's ok because we still need people to do the numerous other jobs that make a hospital function.
Have you considered any other "customer" driven markets that require less intimate contact with your customers?
I'll try to give my opinion as well, from a man's perspective so-to-speak. As you already know, males generally look at things with a certain amount of logic and rationality, rather than emotion.
So, with that in mind, let's look at your posting point by point.
Basically, i think im compassionate in the sense that i want to do the best job i can do while they are under my care.
This is not compassion, this is pride.
The point of this whole thread is to get some opinions to whether not i can do it or not, not a bashing session to me.
Agreed, and no one here wants to bash you. Nevertheless, you did ask for everyone to give you a positive or negative response to your OP, along with, I would assume, their rationalization.
I firmly agree with some of your opinions on this situation.
All of them so far, with the exception of Leslie (our rebel ) have been opposed to your becoming a nurse for (1) the money (2) to travel only and (3) self-aggrandizement.
I believe that when i am a patient, and i know i will be one day, i want the most highly skilled nurse.
And yet experience has shown us time and time again, that the "most highly skilled nurse" is far down the list for those who come to us - with cancer, with lupus, needing transplants, with emphysema, with head trauma, and the list goes on and on.
At this point, even the most cynical become frightened of a looming death sitting on the bed next to them. Even the toughest feel the need to have someone sit with them and hold their hand or brush the hair from their brow. THAT is what nurses do.
They don't have to be the sweetest or dandiest or paint the most colorful picture for me.
:chuckle Not many of us fill that bill so succinctly, but we DO try to "be there" emotionally and physically for those with whom fear is ever present.
I want the highest skill just as if i needed an ultrasound tech to US my testes, nurse to give me an IV, surgeon to cut me. I just want the highest skilled.
Most certainly. I would as well if I were in the hospital for a simple procedure. But, nurses spend the "most" time with those who are in critical conditions, not with someone who's in for a day, out the next day. I agree with you on THOSE terms. I, too, would like the "best" diagnostician or technician for these procedures.
I'm sorry that you do not feel as if patients are customers.
Well, many are you see. However, many are not. In your current position, you might not be able to discern this as clearly as a nurse would. We are from different worlds.
That is the beauty of internet forums. Everyone has an equal say of their opinion. I can guarantee you that the people that sit in the board room and make decisions about YOU and your care at your hospital see these patients as a customer.
Yes. Administrators look at numbers, rather than single patients. But, then again, they come from THEIR world. And that is how they must look at it.
We on the front line of care are to deliver the best "experience" we can.... this is a FIRM example of the patient being a customer. ANY business or marketing class will tell you the power of the "experience".
True, but then your "customer" is with you for only a few minutes, perhaps a bit more. Our "customers" are with us for hours, days, months and even years at a time. Our "experiences" are different. Any marketing class would also be able to tell you of the power of a customer's "perception" of service.
Anyhow, i really do appreciate all of your opinions.
It is our pleasure.
It is really helping me make my future decisions on my education and career. Call me jaded or mean or whatever.
I call you neither. You are who you are; It's as simple as that. No one here is judging you, Jason.
It may be true. I'm not really denying anything. I'm just here to seek the best path to take in the next few months/years.
We wish you the very best on your decision, and hope that the path you finally choose is the best one for YOU.
Hey ctnjason. I have been an er nurse for 3 years. I was not the most compassionate person in the world when I started, and I am still not in certain circumstances. No, as nurses we shouldn't see the patient as a customer. That's what administration does. Still, sometimes the facilities we work for put us in that situation. Still, no matter how hard you are there are things you will see and people you will come in contact with that will touch your heart in ways that you will not forget.
When an 11 year old comes into your ER not breathing with no pulse, they aren't a customer. They are a dying child, and you will want to save them. When a 70 year old man is struggling to breath, and adamantly refuses to be resusitated in any way, you will feel it. Knowing that someone is actually CHOOSING death. You won't see that person as a customer while their family is crying, and begging that he reconsider. When a 20 year old girl is lying on the trauma bed, strapped to a backboard, talking about how she's going to be a nurse too one day, and he arm is completely traumatically amputated and she doesn't fully realize it, she's not a customer. Even if you want them to be, and I've seen some hardened nurses, certain patients will FORCE the compassion out of you. I'm a male nurse. I'm 6'3," 210 pounds. I have facial hair. I have muscles. Still, I've broken down a few times. I've seen so much that has touched me. Yeah, there's job security. There's money to be made. heck, in the ER where I work you rarely have any patient more than 3 hours. Still, if I done it for the money, I'd have been gone a long time ago. It is frustrating. You will cry, smile, laugh, hurt, think, bend, break, touch, be disgusted, enlightened, scared, rushed, etc. Mostly, you will feel. So many feelings will be tapped.
Yes, unfortunatley healthcare is a business. I am not criticizing you in any way. I respect your honesty. There are some good nurses that I know that aren't that compassionate. Still, the GREAT ones are the ones that are skilled, knowledgeable, and compassionate. Even if you go into it all business, it won't be long before you throw that out the window, let yourself be human, and feel for these people. Good luck with whatever you do.
Basically, i think im compassionate in the sense that i want to do the best job i can do while they are under my care. The point of this whole thread is to get some opinions to whether not i can do it or not, not a bashing session to me. I firmly agree with some of your opinions on this situation. I believe that when i am a patient, and i know i will be one day, i want the most highly skilled nurse. They dont have to be the sweetest or dandiest or paint the most colorful picture for me. I want the highest skill just as if i needed an ultrasound tech to US my testes, nurse to give me an IV, surgeon to cut me. I just want the highest skilled.
Im sorry that you do not feel as if patients are customers. That is the beauty of internet forums. Everyone has an equal say of their opinion. I can guarantee you that the people that sit in the board room and make desicions about YOU and your care at your hospital see these patients as a customer. That i can promise you. We on the front line of care are to deliver the best "experience" we can.... this is a FIRM example of the patient being a customer. ANY business or marketing class will tell you the power of the "experience".
Anyhow, i really do appreciate all of your opinions. It is really helping me make my future desicions on my education and career. Call me jaded or mean or whatever. It may be true. Im not really denying anything. Im just here to seek the best path to take in the next few months/years.
The thing is.. you talk about how you want a highly "skilled nurse", well, Im still in NS however its already been made clear from our professors that a strict "skill oriented" nurse is nothing to strive to be. It takes a lot more than just being the best at "skills".. and this includes compassion, intuition, and the ability to connect to your patients on a more personal level. A great nurse has a lot more depth than just being "highly skilled". These are the best nurses, in my observation. If you are unwilling to "hand hold", then Im not to sure how you would like nursing. I dont know, thats just my two cents. I wish you luck in your future though.
If you love what you do and want to travel, try getting hired at DoD hospital, you can go to other countries on uncle sam's dime without actually being in the military
I, too am a male (hopeful nurse, ex-cna/emt/paramedic). Minus the muscles.
The phrases, "They are a dying child..." and "When a 20 year old girl is lying on the trauma bed, strapped to a backboard, talking about how she's going to be a nurse too one day, and he arm is completely traumatically amputated and she doesn't fully realize it, she's not a customer" about broke my heart. :redbeathe
It is wondrous that there are still people out there who can elicit such feelings through the use of mere words.
) have been opposed to your becoming a nurse for (1) the money (2) to travel only and (3) self-aggrandizement. 
davb
25 Posts
Off the subject a little, but I was just curious. Do you administer the contrast fluid before a ct in your hospital, or does a nurse do it?