So I am not a nurse yet, but I would like to enroll in a community college to become one. My concern is that when a doctor orders me to draw blood 2-3 times a day to an elderly patient, this will hasten their death. Or if he orders me to give them morphine or something which also accelerates a patients death. I am not being cynical or anything. I know doctors are out there to help people. But I just remember a time, where a nurse would draw blood from my grandma three times a day, and the head nurse shouting "this is BS, THE LABS DONT NEED THIS MUCH" And the doctor refused to listen to the head nurse and said the blood is a must for lab work.
I really want to become a nurse, but this has put fear inside of me. As a nurse if I feel it's too much blood to draw from a patient- do i have the right to tell the lab and doctor, "sorry, if we take anymore, the patient's death will be hastened."
Sorry I was licensed; retired RN. I did not work hospice but hospital for over 25 years; my knowledge of hospice is from personal experience of an uncle, mother and good friends all in hospice care; the most recent one I was her caregiver and dealt with her hospice nurse re any needed items or care
No offense but this is clearly a comment made in ignorance from someone who clearly has zero medical knowledge. Post on all nurses when you're taking classes, in clincals, have a license...
OP- You just don't know what you don't know, as they say.
If you want to persue nursing, you'll take a lot of classes, many even before the program, that will help sort all of this out. In A&P You'll learn how much blood there is in the human body and you'll understand why blood draws wouldn't hasten death. Later down the road you'll learn about medications, and that will shed a lot of light on your questions.
The best thing to do is shadow someone, like others suggested, or even work as a CNA. As you go through school you'll find the answers to questions you never even knew you had.
Lab tubes are very misleading in how much blood they appear to hold. It's a few ml, when it looks like an ounce or more in the tube. In 40 years of being a nurse I have never heard of anyone having a problem because of too many lab draws. The nurse in your story sounds a bit crazy TBH.
Amen!! I hate it when I hear "Morphine kills people." Or that hospice does for that matter. Keep getting the word out.
At this point I have to assume there are two totally different things that the word "Morphine" refers to, because morphine the medication most definitely has the potential to kill people and does so disturbingly often even when used appropriately.
It is absolutely true that the intent of hospice is never to hasten someone's death, so why cause people to second guess that by combining it with such a ridiculous claim? It's like saying "The world is flat and I didn't steal that car". Even if you didn't steal that car, is it as believable when combined with a clearly false statement?
Mommavik, ADN
87 Posts
Sorry I was licensed; retired RN. I did not work hospice but hospital for over 25 years; my knowledge of hospice is from personal experience of an uncle, mother and good friends all in hospice care; the most recent one I was her caregiver and dealt with her hospice nurse re any needed items or care