What if the Boston bomber was your pt

In response to this ignorant comment: akulahawk

Yes. There are things that people can do that are worse. So bad, in fact, that they must be segregated from all other prisoners for their own safety.

Just ask a cop, or better yet, a prison corrections officer.

-Honestly I do not think I could care for this patient without detaching myself completely emotionally...I don't know. I'm wicked glad I'm not in such a predicament though...

Frankly, I think detaching yourself emotionally from your patient is a good rule of thumb to have with all patients.

I have cared for murderers, rapists, drunks who took out families of innocent bystanders who did nothing other than share the road with them, etc. It is very challenging professionally and personally. Especially when you are caring for one of their victims as well. I would like to think I did it well and that my patient's were completely oblivious to the disgust I felt at their actions and the absolute disdain I felt for them as human beings in general but in reality I really didn't care.

I had fantasies of substituting 0.9 for their ordered narcs, turning them with a little more physical force then necessary and of closing their doors and telling their victims families where they were located. In some ways it was hard to not feel like I was aiding these people or somehow contributing to the tragedies they had caused. Why should they get any type of comfort, even if that comfort was just a warm room, and medical attention, when their victims received none? Why should they get care when they have wreaked such havoc on people worth a lot more to society than they ever will be?

I resented these patient's for making me feel so conflicted. Why should I have to "suck it up" and be the better person? Why should I have to exhibit the self control they so obviously lacked? After my shift I couldn't wait to get home and take the hottest shower I could tolerate. It literally made me feel dirty.

After one shift with a particularly nasty specimen of humanity, I was griping to my hubby when he said to me. "Do you think the families of his victims will find it easy to sit a few feet behind him in a courtroom without taking revenge? Think of how many crime victims do just that each and every day, while the details of what happened to their family members are vocalized for all to hear and they still manage to honor the social compact." Don't you think that is moving testimony to what makes them so vastly different from these monsters? If they can carry that burden, surely you can carry yours."

Occasionally the hubs is a pretty smart man. Emphasis on occasionally, lol.

Exactly! I hate when people act like real issues that would affect the normal person wouldn't affect them. They took an oath, they are immune to conflicting human emotions. Give me a break. We are people...not robots.

Not giving in to your emotions isn't the same as not having them.

It's self control. As a nurse, we are indeed expected to put our emotions aside. Of course it's not easy. If it were easy it'd be meaningless.

If I understand you correctly you are saying that this person could have done "worse" and just ask a cop? Is that sarcasm or are you being serious?? If you are serious that's extremely ignorant... wow it's almost sickening to read. I myself am an avid runner...I had many friends there that were extremely devastated by witnessing such violence. Think about it. Marathoners pay money to run 26.2miles and donate their time/money to charity. The people at the Boston marathon were probably the most philanthropic individuals around....and to have your limbs ripped off of you...or lose an 8 year old cheering for his mother.... I mean come on people have a freakin heart!

I think what he meant was that cops routinely deal with worse situations in their jobs. Or not "worse", exactly, maybe "just as bad". When we're talking about such horrific deeds qualifiers become irrelevant.

In my short time a corrections nurse, I came in contact with inmates (patients) who had crushed an infants chest with his knee. Or pushed an old woman down the steps to her death. Or raped a five year old. If I (or the prison guard, or the cop, or the lawyer) stopped to indulge in self doubt or introspection or hesitation to render care, the system would grind

to a halt.

Again, no one said it's easy. Or that it isn't a challenge or deeply affecting sometimes. But, no, the question of whether or not you will provide care should never be a question that crosses a nurse's mind.

I'm no saint and have the same feelings as the rest of the country about what we should do this misguided boy. But, when I'm working as an RN, I'm doing what I love, and that is providing the best care that can be provided to my patient. No matter what he did or didn't do, it's not my place to be his judge or jury. My job is to get him better, so he can be held accountable for his actions. Thanks to this great nation we live in and HE lives in, he has that right. He will get what he deserves. But, if I were one of the health care professionals I would be doing all I could to make sure he makes it to that judge and jury. There are always those difficult patients. You put your personal opinion aside and do what you are obligated to do. God bless those who are taking care of him and all other victims of this horrific attack.

That photo was part of an ad. It's not real.

Bummer!

Frankly, I think detaching yourself emotionally from your patient is a good rule of thumb to have with all patients.

Yes I agree....that however, is a pretty challenging skill to master for all patients (not allowing yourself to be emotionally attached) but I agree.

With the statement made in regards to "it could be worse"...I still believe that was somewhat terrible wording...

My hospital gets plenty of prisoners. I don't ask what they did but some nurses have or some guards tell staff. murderers , rapists, people who have killed children (multiple) etc . I feel safer with the guards there and knowing some of these pts won't get out anytime soon. I actually worry about the pts who obviously have personality disorders and may have done some very disgusting things to other people. The pts who aren't prisioners aren't any safer in my eyes. I try to go by treat the diagnosis and the symptoms . I would go in and do my nursing care while trying not to think of what he did. Compartmentalizing and dissociating can be very helpful tools

I mentioned this post to a friend of mine...who does not work in a hospital setting: yes, and be a professional. I am sure that this guy is not being taken care of by a regular staff nurse, being that he is of 'high interest'...and I am pretty much sure that there is some level of chemical or physical restraint orders being written as this guy is a trained wrestler and being physically fit enough to run and evade capture while being wounded. It will be interesting to find out what the motive was and even so what his attorney is going to use as a defense insofar as the apparent statements he is issuing while being hospitalized: under duress? under the influence of medication? Can he understand the charges being brought against him in his currrent state of health? I would rather be the nurse than the person who is going to be pulled to defend him....but then again...being that you (the nurse) were witness to this patient's hospitalization that your charting and observations aren't going to be flitted to the wayside by the defense and prosecution by any stretch of the imagination.

I agree with so many of these comments, but I have to say that I hope I would find the compassion in my heart to treat him as I would any other patient. i would certainly struggle with this, but i would try to consider the possibility that this young man, like many other bombers (columbine etc...) is extremely conflicted and troubled to the extent that he actually believes that what he did was right. We cannot and should not forget what he has done, but we need to remember that we don't know all the facts. So easy for me to say considering I have not seen the horror first hand.

I mentioned this post to a friend of mine...who does not work in a hospital setting: yes, and be a professional. I am sure that this guy is not being taken care of by a regular staff nurse, being that he is of 'high interest'...and I am pretty much sure that there is some level of chemical or physical restraint orders being written as this guy is a trained wrestler and being physically fit enough to run and evade capture while being wounded. It will be interesting to find out what the motive was and even so what his attorney is going to use as a defense insofar as the apparent statements he is issuing while being hospitalized: under duress? under the influence of medication? Can he understand the charges being brought against him in his currrent state of health? I would rather be the nurse than the person who is going to be pulled to defend him....but then again...being that you (the nurse) were witness to this patient's hospitalization that your charting and observations aren't going to be flitted to the wayside by the defense and prosecution by any stretch of the imagination.

Why do you think he's not being taken care of by a "regular staff nurse"? Who else would be taking care of him? We don't have special nurses to care for federal prisoners in Boston.

He nodded that he did understand the charges against him today when said charges were presented by a federal judge in the presence of the US District Attorney and the federal public defender who has been assigned to him. The judge assessed that he was lucid and competent. The transcript of the first hearing is available online.

Nurses, as well as doctors, have a special responsibility to do our jobs regardless of our personal feelings. We cannot be judge or jury on any patient in our care. As a prison nurse I had to work with many of convicted persons of crimes, some to horrific to imagine, yet I felt and was expected to treat them as patients no matter what, and the same as any other person I took care of. Besides a nurses non-judgmental treatment of this man might just be the thing that makes him more cooperative with the authorities and even turn him around from what his feelings toward us could or would be.