I really like the Reader's Digest new monthly article. 13 things_____ won't tell you. This month it was teachers. So here are some I would like to see listed for nursing:
I really resent when you call and say you need a nurse immediately and when I get to the room you tell me you need a drink of water with a lot of ice. That is NOT something you need immediately and not something you need a nurse to do for you. Next time I won't hurry.
Standing at the desk staring at me isn't going to get me moving any faster, I am on the phone with the doctor getting orders. Glaring doesn't help either.
I understand you just had surgery, part of your recovery process is getting up and walking, so get up and walk.
Your doctor is an #@$hole, he will kill you sooner or later. Please don't sit there and say to me "well, my doctor says..."
Your family is crazy. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
If you hit me, I will prosecute. I am not your punching bag.
You break my heart. You have been sick for so many years and yet you still smile when I walk into the room. AND manage to make me smile.
I love my work, but it is my work. My life is outside this place with people I love.
Please don't talk to me like I am stupid or deaf. I have a four year college degree and great hearing.
Use your call bell and your inside voice. Screaming nurse, nurse, nurse and banging your cup on the tray table will have people thinking your crazy and they will just ignore you.
When you come in acting like an idiot, your not advocating for your mom. The second you leave every nurse on the floor will avoid that room because they don't want to do a thing to tick you off.
That hug you gave me meant the world to me. The thank you for your great care? Made my day. Yes, I will be back tomarrow and one way or another you will be my patient.
Nursing is hard physical work. Nursing is hard physical work. Nursing is hard physical work.
I'm so sorry if you think I'm mean because I won't give you any more water after you've already had your 100cc allotment of water for night shift. I'm following Dr's orders which is apparently something you DON'T do otherwise you wouldn't get readmitted monthly with exacerbation of CHF. There's a reason you weigh over 300lbs! Had you actually LISTENED to the Dr's orders instead of ignoring them, you might be able to live at home.
If you refer to my African American counterpart by any word beginning with "N" other than nurse again, I will make sure I give all your IM injections with a blunt needle. And how DARE you act like I would automatically share your views? Please excuse me while I go put your next bag of IV fluids in the freezer.
"I don't care what you think. Lie down, shut up, and if you touch that bell again I will wrap it aroubd your neck and pull" - after a run of particularly trying nights, enhanced by a significantly difficult patient who would often open with "Wanna know what I think? I think..."
I agree with so many of these comments, but wow...
As a student, I may not know all the in's and out's of nursing but I have been a person for 31 years. I would HOPE some of these people are kidding. I would never want to work with them OR have them as a nurse. Turn up the white stuff and no bedpan for someone that can't do it themselves? Why the HECK are you a nurse? It is NOT all about paperwork and read-out's, shots and BS.
Maybe it has been too long for you to remember what a nurse is. Let me remind you:
Nursing is a health care profession focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life from birth to end of life.
Nursing evolved from the familial roles NURTURING and CARETAKING. The hallmark of nursing is caring more than curing.
The role of nursing has obviously evolved tremendously since Nightingale's era but the idea has not. Have some of you been out of school too long to remember why you wanted to be a nurse in the first place? Has the bureaucracy burned you out? If so, the University's and local college's are offering some GREAT courses for re-training America's work force. The taxpaying public is even paying for it. I will get you the number if you are too busy to look it up.
It wasn't long ago that I had this same attitude. I kind of cringe at how I thought I knew it all as a student. Now, in the real world with mountains to move between 7AM and 9AM and then fires to put out all the way until 7PM I've realized that there is quite a difference between the SN and the RN.
All of the sudden I have families yelling at me that their sister is in 10/10 pain and I'm not doing anything - even though I've gone out of my way to advocate for her and the MD is convinced she's a drug seeker.
Now I'm responsible for the pt who wouldn't get up to ambulate all morning but the minute my other patient codes, she's calling to go for a walk.
I do go to work with the absolute best intentions, and I do know the definition of nursing, but until you are the RN you won't know the depth of frustration. And while most nurses won't tell these things to patient's we have all and will continue to stand in a patients room thinking "you have got to be kidding me" and still manage to move mountains. It doesn't mean we're not the definition of nursing, it means we too are human.
jrw...write us all back when you've had a few years of real nursing under your belt rather than student experiences having a maximum of 2 patients hand picked for you as opposed to 6-8+. Believe me all of us who responded to this 13 things are just venting...Frankley I would not want YOU for a nurse you are way too idealistic to be able to see the real picture. Therefore maybe you might miss something really important because it does not fit into your unrealistic mindset. That's why every nurse on your unit watches out for you and oversees everything you do...It's their head that will roll if YOU commit an error. Hope your career is as long and satisfying as mine has been for 30+ years--- I am anything but but burned out and YES I DO remember what nursing is all about and it's defination.
Well, to JRW's credit, she did apologize a few pages back. There have been a few others, I hope students, who think we are just meanies. If these are real nurses who think we are such bad people (which is why we go to work everyday and deal with all this) then they have to get a clue.
Thank you, Student Nurses, for your bright-eyed enthusiasm untainted by poor staffing and crappy management. Thank you for your desire to help (even when it means more work for me) that hasn't been beaten out by 14 hour shifts and burnout co-workers. Thank you for reminding me that a little over a year ago I was just like you, an excited, enthusiastic person who just wanted to be a great nurse.
OMG, that just breaks my heart. All of it. I love my kids so much and would do anything to make sure they are safe, protected and healthy. I just don't get it.
My school nurse rotation during nursing school was one of my most difficult. I never realized what was involved and I have a totally new perspective and respect for school nurses.
I do not read lips! so stop wasting your time trying to talk to me with that tube down your throat. All I am going to do is turn up the white stuff and put you to sleep.
My school nurse rotation during nursing school was one of my most difficult. I never realized what was involved and I have a totally new perspective and respect for school nurses.
Thank you. Most people have no idea what school nurses do. Even the staff and admins think all we do is pass out bandaids and put ice on bruises. Ha! it's so much more. I go all day, from 8:45 to after 4:30. I am the one who responds to every emergency--and just know that anything that can happen in a hospital can and does happen in school, except there is no backup, no oxygen, and no emergency drugs. There's just little ol' me, trying to do a good job while bystanders try to tell me what to do *rolls eyes*. I call 911 at least once a month for severe asthma attacks, chest pain, anaphylaxis, and seizures. I monitor blood sugars and educate my diabetic students, many of whom are noncompliant. I educate parents about the course of illness, many of whom could care less. I communicate with parents who don't speak English. I identify those students who may be at high risk for serious medical and psychiatric illness(diabetes, depression, eating disorders, asthma, seizures.) Every day I deal with parents who don't give a hoot. I deal with teachers who use the clinic to get rid of students who are acting out in class. And I see 60-85 students a DAY--thats 1200+ students per month. And i have to literally beg for supplies every week because the administration can pay for teacher breakfasts and pizza parties for the whole 7th grade, but they can't loosen up the pocketbook to buy bandaids,paper cups, soap, ace wraps, bandage materials, and thermometer covers.
and that is why I am quitting school nursing. I'm tired of being treated as a second class citizen.
What your nurse won't tell you? "HOLY CRAP! YOU'RE GONNA DIE!"
hahahahahaha! I read this whole thread and this was the last one, and I swear it's the best!
when I had you yesterday and you dumped a BM the size of the Eiffel Tower, that does not mean you are constipated today because you haven't had a BM yet and no, I am not giving you a suppository.
RNforLongTime
1,577 Posts
I'm so sorry if you think I'm mean because I won't give you any more water after you've already had your 100cc allotment of water for night shift. I'm following Dr's orders which is apparently something you DON'T do otherwise you wouldn't get readmitted monthly with exacerbation of CHF. There's a reason you weigh over 300lbs! Had you actually LISTENED to the Dr's orders instead of ignoring them, you might be able to live at home.