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Common sense nursing?

I am not the sharpest turnip to fall from the truck but I ain’t stupid either. Some of you jaded ER nurses might want to listen up every now and then and take some advice from a ‘student’ nurse. When I tell you the hospital medical directors’ brother is a patient in the hallway, your response should not be, “So you think I should kiss his ass like every other patient or something? He’s in a hallway bed, do you think I f!@#$% care?” Your response should be a polite nod and ‘okay’ whether you know him or not, and regardless of what your opinion is of nursing students. You too may have been that bumbling student in the past. What I am saying (for those of you that are not as sharp as a turnip) is that you should mind your p’s and q’s just like you should with every patient regardless of whom they are. I know this concept is outside anything your pea-sized brain can fathom and I do realize the number of jokers that present in the ER but you never know who your patient is unless they are one of our frequent fliers. I observed a slack-jawed patient in the hallway watch you and your girlfriend complain less than 5 feet from him in a ‘hallway’ bed, about some pathetic social situation that you just had to gripe and moan about. NO ONE, much less a patient, wants to hear how your white trash ex-husband’s cousin’s brother is such a pain in the ass but you still continue to sleep with him. Get a life and PLEASE don’t scream your love life in the hallway. A very simple tenet you should have learned in nursing school. I too would want to forget the nurse that carried on in front of me that way. And you wonder why the medical profession gets such poor “customer service” satisfaction surveys?!

Triage this!

Am I really that jaded now that I have spent time in and ER as a tech and a majority of what little free time I do have in nursing school surfing nursing and medical blogs? Today, I was allowed to observe for 4 hours in triage in a large, county hospital. I have learned that I will not make a good ER triage nurse or I might run the risk of being fired for telling people to get out. I sat through 4 hours of unmitigated hell. There is living proof that licensing should be required to birth people into this crazy world. One patient out of 47 I think actually had an emergent situation. Arterial blood spurting all over the place tends to draw the attention of the leeches and you want to holler at those sucking on the teet of society, “SEE PEOPLE! THIS IS AN EMERGENCY! The rest of you need to disperse because there is nothing to be seen here. Go to your local, non-emergent clinic and find a PCP!” This community has several, easily accessible clinics that are set up for this purpose. Educating the public is a daunting task. One thing for sure, Momma wouldn’t allow this nonsense occur.

Ted Kennedy is a pompous…

Man have I ever been busy with school. Saw some blurb on the local news about Ted Kennedy and his hospital stay. I wonder what he thinks of the medical treatment he is getting while lying (ba-dum-dum) in his fancy-schmancy-pantsy hospital suite while indigents struggle to get the care they need?