The Know-It-All nurse

sblanchet · Feb 7, 2005

The Baxter Colleague volumetric infusion pumps have tubing that can be taken out of the pump and run by gravity. See the link below. (Baxter is a US manufacturer.) These pumps are very easy to use, accurate and take up very little space at the bedside. I prefer them the the Alaris volumetric pumps, that obviously were not designed by anyone who would have to use them in real life.
http://www.baxter.com/products/medication_management/infusion_pumps/large_volume_infusion_pumps/colleague/index.html
Please do not dump on Canada because of one experience with a Canadian. And please don't suggest that our health care is any less professional or cutting edge because of one encounter. I work in a state-of-the-art quaternary care facility that has some of lowest morbidity and mortality rates on the continent.

In the first place I have worked in seven different hospitals and have probably used every type of pump on the market. I am not impressed with any of the drip counter pumps or others that have tubing that you can take and use to run fluid by gravity. I cannot think of a situation in which this would be necessary. High volume rapid infusion can be accomplished with straight macrodrip tubing. As I said in the first place but knew would happen anyways, I have worked with many foreign nurses, probably more than most nurses on this site. I lived in So Florida and worked with Canadian nurses, Filippino nurses, nurses from Guyana, Jamaica, England, Australia, you name it including from most areas of the United States. As far as healthcare in Canada I am entitled to my opinion and I am not impressed. This same nurse told me she had to wait approx 3 months for an appointment for a physical and then the MD spent approx 5 mins with her. In addition she told me the province had stopped reinbursing physicians for calling patients with lab results, etc, so that after waiting three months for the physical, it was another three months to get the lab results. Patients had to be physically present for the MD to be able to bill the government and so people are coming for idiotic things like getting lab results, taking up office appointment time that could be better used seeing people who are actually sick. I know of no true innovation, technological advances or anything else that has come out of Canada. Read Mark Steyn at Mark Steyn.com for more insight.

BETSRN · Feb 7, 2005

Thanks for that! I have worked as a CNA for ten years and am going to LPN school this fall. I am scared to death of some nurses, and my greatest fear when I start a job is not being able to ask questions. School and training are great, but I know enough to know that when I get out there, that is when the real learning will begin!

Seasoned nurses appreciate AND expect new colleagues (new grad or not) to ask questions: LOTS of them. One should never stop learning.

fergus51 · Feb 7, 2005

Don't bother Jan. If there's one thing I've learned it's that you can't convince people that Canadians might know more about Canada than an American who knows someone who has been there before. I see the same thing the other way around too (Canadians who think they are experts on the US because they know an American). You can't have rational discussions on the matter with such people.

I guess insulin wasn't an innovation eh? I get the same thing on occasion. One place I interviewed at asked me if we used monitors or ultrasound machines in Canada:D She also asked me if we have any black people. I just told her "Nope, just whites and eskimos";)

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Feb 7, 2005

I guess insulin wasn't an innovation eh? I get the same thing on occasion.

Neither is the Edmonton Protocol, I assume. It has only been successfully freeing Type I diabetics from needing insulin for about 5 years... and has now been performed with a living donor for the first time by our own James Shapiro. (Delightful man, very pleasant and friendly.)

We could probably rule out Plexiglas, the antigravity suit used by all the astronauts the US puts into space, the Canadarm that lets those same astronauts fix things outside their modules, cardiac intensive care, the carcino-embryonic antigen test used to diagnose certain cancers, the electron microscope, bone marrow compatibility testing, the CPR mannequin, the electric range, green garbage bags, Jolly Jumpers, jet aircraft, newsprint, Pablum, cardiac pacemakers, paint rollers, the telephone and zippers as innovations too.

fergus51 · Feb 7, 2005

I just read about that Jan! It's on CBC's website which is the only link I have to Canadian news down here. Are you at U of A hospital? I looked at Royal Alex when I was a new grad, and was quite impressed. Capital health has some great recruiters, but I couldn't get psyched up for living in Alberta winters.

One other really interesting new procedure I read about was the docs at Sick kid's in Toronto using unmatched heart transplants in infants. Very interesting stuff.

ps, we use the Baxter pumps here at my hospital in California and no one seems to think they are museum pieces.

widow2RN · Feb 7, 2005

this is very prevalent among new nurses...i guess that they believe that their training is more recent or that the other nurses will respect her for being a fountain of knowledge..this is not just in nursing...the old saying that a new seaman is the 'saltiest' man on the ship...sometimes it is their personality..i have known some who could really convince the management that they were the smartest, hardest working nurse on the floor....other nurses were not smiling

I'm in my 2nd semester of nursing, and personally, I can't IMAGINE coming out as a new graduate and thinking that I now know it all. If the nursing program has taught me anything for sure, it has taught me that my true knowledge will only come when I start working under others more experienced than me in the real world.

SmilingBluEyes · Feb 7, 2005

Just know, not all American citizens think this way, PUHLEEZE.

And we use the Baxters where I work, too. I have also used Plums in two other hospitals. I prefer the Baxters , hands-down, except for their absolutely CRAPPY battery life. The worst! That and they are loud, even when you turn them down. THe patients hate it.

widow2RN · Feb 7, 2005

teemarie,
I thinks it's a shame when anyone thinks they know it all, whether it's a doctor, R.N., L.P.N. or an aide. I am an L.P.N. who let her license expire. I worked as an aide before I became an L.P.N., and am working as an aide again. I have seen the issue from both sides of the proverbal coin. Due to the many duties placed on nurses aides in most instances spend more time with the client than the nurse. While they should certainly not presume to be nurses, aides can be and are a valuable source of information to the nursing staff. It is not necessarily that an aide thinks she is a nurse. In many instances an aide gets sick of being treated like she hasn't got a brain. She merely wants her observations of a clients condition noted. There have been numerous occasions when I have noticed subtle changes in a clients condition and reported these changes to a nurse, only to have them dismissed.It is very degrading. We are supposed to work together as a team. Nobody knows everything. How nice it would be if that were true.
Thank you,
Linda

I'm in an RN nursing program, and have made it to 2nd semester. Working with the aides in the nursing home in first semester was all it took for me to tell you that as far as I'm concerned... the aides have my respect! They are some of the nicest to us students and are always the one you could find to help out with a resident. They know what they are doing, and know what they are talking about, and I think it's a same that the title/pay puts them into a classified category as any less than those of us who had to do the care plans. We all work together for the patient's good...

DelightRN · Feb 7, 2005

Just know, not all American citizens think this way, PUHLEEZE.

Ditto that. I've often thought about emigrating to Canada, actually.

And also know that know it all nurses are not specific to OB. We have our share in peds. :uhoh21:

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Feb 7, 2005

I just read about that Jan! It's on CBC's website which is the only link I have to Canadian news down here. Are you at U of A hospital? I looked at Royal Alex when I was a new grad, and was quite impressed. Capital health has some great recruiters, but I couldn't get psyched up for living in Alberta winters.
One other really interesting new procedure I read about was the docs at Sick kid's in Toronto using unmatched heart transplants in infants. Very interesting stuff.
ps, we use the Baxter pumps here at my hospital in California and no one seems to think they are museum pieces.

I do indeed work at the U of A. I was one of the nurses who cared for the only pediatric patient in the world to have undergone an Edmonton Protocol back in September of '03. She's 14 years old now and lives in Nova Scotia. By the time she left our unit she was off insulin completely with normal blood sugars. We all really like Dr. Shapiro. He's very easy to get along with and appreciates nurses more than many surgeons I've been involved with.

We also have done several ABO incompatible heart transplants on infants. In fact we've done 15 pediatric heart transplants in the last 13 months, 2 of them just in the last week and a half, and had one who was on his way to the OR Friday night but the donor deteriorated before they could do the surgery. All 15 that we've done since January of '04 are doing really well.

I traded Manitoba winters for Alberta ones and really prefer Alberta! It gets cold, but it usually doesn't stay cold. This winter has been one of the mildest on record. Summers are nice, not too hot or wet. And our standard of living is so much better here. Too bad you couldn't just wear a sweater...

Ruby Vee, BSN · Feb 7, 2005

don't bother jan. if there's one thing i've learned it's that you can't convince people that canadians might know more about canada than an american who knows someone who has been there before. i see the same thing the other way around too (canadians who think they are experts on the us because they know an american). you can't have rational discussions on the matter with such people.

well, this thread is about the know-it-all nurse, isn't it?:wink2:

HarfdMedlegal · Feb 7, 2005

I actually see it more with the old battlehorses. We have a couple nurses who probably haven't done any updating in their knowledge since they finished nursing school in the 1920s.

Hey! I take exception to the word, battlehorse! Old, I admit to! LOL It's been a long time since I posted to this board but this thread, in my email, caught my interest. I'm one of those old battlehorses of 30 years duration. Contrary to what seems to be the general impression, we old ones do keep up our training & Cont. Ed too. We may not move as fast as you younger ones, but our minds are just as quick, perhaps more so because we do have a vast amount of experience to fall back on. At the age of + 45, I went back to school to take paralegal studies & then went on to forensics. Many of us old ones are the ones who are now auditing/reviewing the medical records & nurses' notes of the younger, more up to date, nurses. Many times, we are appalled at the poor nursing care & sloppy documentation we see.

As to the person who stated they saw another nurse do something wrong & then didn't do anything about it but stand by & watch a co-worker get fired, Hmmmm. I'd suggest that nurse get herself a book on The Nurse and the Law, and learn about her own potential liability in that kind of situation.

Those who have been in the trenches long enough are the ones with enough experience to look back. So don't be so quick to judge others......look to your own self first. Of course, I say all this with a smile! :)