What to do with people who think they know nursing?

[nohika]

I was out with my family for dinner today, and trying to decide what color scrubs to get for my CNA program - we have the choice between light pink and navy blue. I eventually went with navy blue, but that's not the point. I was talking with my sister (I have two younger siblings) and she wanted me to get pink - I told her no, because if something happened, pink would show dirt more. She asked me why it mattered, since I was going to end up in wintergreen scrubs anyways. I stared at her and asked what she meant. She told me that since I want to be a nurse, I would work in the OR and wear the wintergreen scrubs like all the nurses do.

(By the way, she's addicted to House.)

It just reminded me of all the people that know I'm pre-nursing and keep talking about "the shortage" and how "you'll always have a job" and everything. How do you guys deal with that? I've kind of resorted to nodding my head and agreeing, as explaining takes a lot more time.

Advice, please? I'm just not sure what to do with it! :redbeathe Thanks! :heartbeat

[Ginger's Mom, MSN, RN]

First - Remind your sister that House's hospital is a teaching hospital and likely requires more formal uniform codes than standard hospitals.

I have worked in teaching and non teaching, I find the teaching hospitals much more informal.

Second - Remind her that on TV doctors do the jobs of Nurses so you can't believe anything you see.

That is not true. I seen the opposite, nurses doing physician jobs such as making diagnosis and ordering tests.

Third - Why do people think they can know all about nursing from watching a TV show and yet would not assume the same thing about being an auto mechanic?

Yeah, I agree considering you are not a nurse......

[Heogog53]

I have a friendly acquaintance. I say that because she drives me crazy with her nonstoppable "looped" stories of her medical woes. She has the misfortune of fertility issues and a very common gyn syndrome I can't remember right now. When I met her I'd already been a nurse for over 15 years and having worked in a community OR, was exposed to a lot of information about various infertility syndromes, treatments, etc. She asked me a question about her syndrome, and I started reviewing things in my mind before I opened my mouth and stuck my foot in it.

Too bad I did! She started to describe the whole syndrome in exquisitely tiny detail, describing the meds, the this, the that, then finding the best doctor in the world, etc. Finally, when she took a breath, I tried to cut off a huge chunk of conversation by saying, " Yeah, I've seen that, had a really good doc who told us about this....." and she jumped right back into the loop, starting with how her doc was the best in the world.....goes on to describe what a laparoscopic gyn procedure is, what the pictures looked like, what her doc said, ad nauseum.

I gave up trying to remind her that I really did know about 99% of what she was talking about and just resigned myself to my fate. After another 40 minutes, she wound down. She and I have had a repeat of that at least 4 times, and many other folks I know have suffered through it as well(non nursing).

Then she asked me about her galbladder problems. I should have known better, but after hearing that she'd had three negative ultrasounds for gallstones, I asked who her doc was. He was a local community hospital guy. I suggested that perhaps she had something wrong with her gallbladder besides gallstones and that she should come into my place of employment and see a GI specialist, suggesting that she could have cystic duct dysfunction or this or that.

I shouldn't have even bothered. She looked at me, at the end of the spiel and said, "Well, I guess I'll just take papaya enzyme and bromwellian extract after I eat."

I have never ever tried to give her any answers about nursing ever again. She also knows everything about "her medical issues", more than the docs, nurses, phlebotomists, EVERYONE!

Her hubby is a nice guy. He adores her. Most of us would love to invite him over, but not her. She has a bunch of these "expert tapes" and they roll out if she hears anything that she knows(?) something about. Our eyes glaze over.......

[MedSurgeMess]

the best RN's are in the critical care units. The stuff that we do isn't so glamorous and sexually charged, we need to keep our pants on at all times.

Sorry, dear, we're in med/surg

[Heogog53]

Hmmm...if the best nurses are in the ICU's and need to keep their pants on.... what does that imply for the floor nurses or the clinic nurses?:yeah::thnkg:

Sorry, I know it's:offtopic:, but I simply couldn't resist!