Those Overly Exaggerating Nursing Stories

[Cvepo]

Do you ever read those stories from nurses that completely play up and skew what nursing actually is for the sake of an article? I see them now and again and I distinctly remember them all over the place during that stupid "doctor's stethoscope" debacle. You know, the articles that go something like:

"I am a NURSE. I've HELD A DYING WOMAN'S HAND while simultaneously SWADDLING A NEWBORN. All while I've been HOLDING MY PEE FOR 22 HOURS." And then there's like a stock photo of a newborn with like 12 IV pumps.

But seriously, does anyone know those articles? The ones your nurse friends post on Facebook that make you shake your head because they were clearly written by someone who was upset that someone said something insulting about nursing that they feel the need to validate their career by exaggerating the profession?

Yeah, they drive me crazy, and I feel weird that I can't relate to them. I roll my eyes everytime I see them, and yet I feel guilty if I don't "Like" the post. Am I ashamed to be a nurse? Not at all. Nurses do amazing work and we help people everyday. But I really get annoyed at how these posts over-exaggerate our profession. Does anyone else have any thoughts on this, or am I just a jerk for feeling this way?

[Hygiene Queen]

I tried to follow. My travels took me afar, to many a foreign locale. To the many women with children and old men, I was ""doctora" or "enferma"...

Why do I feel like I'm reading a 4th rate Daphne du Maurier novel?

[Hygiene Queen]

AmoLucia, nobody can top your skills. I'm just waiting for the next installment.

Reminds me of an aide I used to work with. She'd find the worst romance novels and read them out loud at break, in the most serious and dramatic way possible. Her timing was a comedic gift. She'd have me doubled over in tears.

You're killing me.

[amoLucia]

I continued this post after a few jumped in way back at the start. I figured they were just doing silly 'fun-sies', so I did too. But I found I really did like being silly - still hoping others will pick up a thought and run with it. Kinda like the 'word game' over on the 'blue side'.

"Such a grand opportunity for words long forgotten but so evocative of raw emotion and feelings hidden by norms of society. Memories, deep in the core of one's being, well-up and come alive and defy all explanations".

Just playing around, trial & error, with words makes this fun! Don't know about Daphne; thinking maybe Barbara Cartland.

[No Stars In My Eyes]

I struggled to wait. Six years of 'waiting' Six years. "Time DOES NOT fly. I suffered an excruciating, abruptly painful, agonizingly slow 6 year journey. Like a prison sentence. I hesitated until I believed all was well, believing that he would wait as he said he would all those years long past. But he followed a mistress too intriguing, too powerful and so demanding that I was no competition' albeit my pitiful efforts.

I tried to follow. My travels took me afar, to many a foreign locale. To the many women with children and old men, I was ""doctora" or "enferma". I saw humanity at it worst, but also at its best. People needing my skills, the application of all I knew as an art & science was of little import when it could do little for myself. But just the knowledge that HE was somewhere near made it all worthwhile and bearable.

I could face the solitude. Or so I thought. Until that one night, ...

Having accepted an assignment to a tiny group of islands that were nearly swallowed by the vastness of the ocean which loomed as a living presence all around us, I thought to lose myself in the difficult work of saving lives in primitive conditions with outdated supplies. The islands were so isolated, but the need, that oh so critical need was what lured me to them. Hoping to forget my past, hoping to forget... everything!

I took to wandering at night when I could not sleep. My soul echoed in the restless heaving of ocean waves as they endlessly crashed on the lonely, empty shores. Empty, like me, longing for more than the insistent thundering of the tides.

Those restless tides cried out again and again, with no peace, no respite, like my heart continued to beat with the longing still alive inside me, clutching at my heart, refusing to be banished.

As I walked with a listless and bereft gait, tears ran down my face as if by their own accord. So often were they on my cheeks, I barely noticed them anymore. I had no need for a handkerchief as the ocean breezes dried my tears as they fell. My thin cotton dress teased around my body, the hem lifting and falling, at the mercy of the ever changing winds.

Something intruded on my reverie, all these years the sole companion of my physical being.

Suddenly I noticed an unusual sight: a faint light coming from a small bungalow in the distance. I began to walk a little more quickly. When I arrived at the doorway that was ajar, I slowed and stood listening.

There was barely any sound except the waves now coming to my ears from a distance. Yet, I sensed another being within that shack. Curiosity overtook me, so I eased my slender, lithe body through the door, my chest quivering nervously with the effort of breathing quietly, so as not to be discovered.

As I crept into the shabby treatment bay, I saw a tall shadowy figure standing with it's back toward me, concentrating on what was on the table below, where a flashlight with a fading battery was set on end. It's puny light pointing upwards cast a faint halo around the figure. I gasped with a shock of unbelieving recognition. The adrenaline shot through me. Could it be...?

The figure turned at the sound of my breath of shock. As it turned, I knew the rapid beating of my heart was amplified in the silent room.

So filled with emotion I could barely whisper, I panted out just one word...."YOU!"

[amoLucia]

Mi Hermana - YES!

"Genetics bind us as distance keeps us apart".

[AutumnApple]

Those articles and, as I call them, fish stories, are a symptom of something that has held back nursing since.......well, since day one.

That something is the ascetic expectations placed on our profession by the general public and healthcare delivery facilities. Their point of view is that we should be perfectly willing to "hold a dying woman's hand while swaddling a newborn while not peeing for 22 hours." And, we should be so compassionate (cough) that we'd be willing to do so with only minimal compensation.

Nurses who are desperate to live up to these expectations (or at least convince themselves they are) try to do so by doing things like posting the articles you're speaking of on facebook or wherever else anyone will listen. Sad part is, they go into work the next day and are nothing like the articles they post. Or so I imagine. Something tells me, the more avid posters of these articles are the ones who aren't worth a nickle as a nurse.

[No Stars In My Eyes]

Say, I've got a question about that photo of Fabio several pages back. Anybody here have the ability to read lips? I studied it over and over, and it seemed to me he was saying "mammaries". Whaddya think? Though I wonder if the thought of breasts would bring that little star-flash in the corner of left his eye.He might have been saying, "I'm gay" ... WHO KNOWS?...or cares, actually.

[Hygiene Queen]

Thanks. I just spent more time looking at Fabio than I ever really wanted to... just to see if he was saying "mammaries". Oh, Life! My bosom friend! Why hath thou dunst left me? Yay! But I am without a life. Succor me! I hath stared into the abyss of Fabio. Let me sin no mo'...

Say, I've got a question about that photo of Fabio several pages back. Anybody here have the ability to read lips? I studied it over and over, and it seemed to me he was saying "mammaries". Whaddya think? Though I wonder if the thought of breasts would bring that little star-flash in the corner of left his eye.He might have been saying, "I'm gay" ... WHO KNOWS?...or cares, actually.

[amoLucia]

To Autumn - I think I basically agree with you. So many images conveyed seem to profess a noble, exalted, self-sacrificing attitude that even Saint Mother Theresa would find difficult to uphold (NOTE - I am NOT speaking little of St Mother Theresa).

Thing is - those old-timey nurses really did give up lives of wealth and comfort to persevere under most severe and horrendous conditions. And they did lead austere, personal lives. Also, they did expect similar lifestyles by their followers.

And then there was the time in nsg's early history, when women caregivers were dredged from the lowest dredges of society as they were mostly prostitutes (pretty much up until the Civil War). Hence much of the sexpot, snarky history of nsg.

As nsg moved into more recent times, developing nsg diploma schools (and early nurses) were the product of many a Catholic or other religious order. So those images of devotional, sacrificing women persisted (and to some degree, the snarky 'wanton woman' image.

There really hasn't been anyone to champion the nsg image except ourselves. The healthcare industry profits keeping us in place. That women have made some inroads into medicine and law enforcement kind of surprises me. And I have a whole theory re the field of education.

It makes my hair curl when someone posts here "I LOOOOOVE nsg" or "I want to care for pts" and "make an impact on their lives". The best comes when someone accuses another nurse of "not being compassionate and caring" and shouldn't be a nurse anymore".

What we're writing here is PURE DRIVEL. Dramatic, phoney-baloney overly romantic pulp mush. To the Nth degree! And I hope, we all know it!

I gotta' tell you, though, it is a hoot to write all the flowery stuff. And propos to NSIME for her breathtaking continuation of the storyline. Your entry far surpasses mine!

[No Stars In My Eyes]

Thanks. I just spent more time looking at Fabio than I ever really wanted to... just to see if he was saying "mammaries". Oh, Life! My bosom friend! Why hath thou dunst left me? Yay! But I am without a life. Succor me! I hath stared into the abyss of Fabio. Let me sin no mo'...

Hahahahahahahaha hahahahaha:roflmao: hahahahaha:roflmao:

... sorry .... ... sort of ....

[No Stars In My Eyes]

DRAT, RATZ, PHOOEY ,DAMMITALL!

I was hot into this next chapter, and just when I was just REALLY getting into it big time, every bit of it --*POOF*-- disappeared!

Now it is 2 AM and too late to recall and rewrite ...

I'll have to return tomorrow to resume the story.

[Davey Do]

Say, I've got a question about that photo of Fabio several pages back. Anybody here have the ability to read lips? I studied it over and over, and it seemed to me he was saying "mammaries".

[ATTACH=CONFIG]25130[/ATTACH]

He's referring to the first love of his life:

"Fa-bi-o".