Nurse Blogs

Ok, so I'm climbing on my soap box again.  Over the last several weeks, a nursing site I hang out at besides this one, (http://www.nursinglink.com) many nursing students are just badgering us older nurses on what speciality should they choose.   They are actually panicking because they just don't know what direction they should go towards.

I've always felt, the speciality you end up in, isn't what you choose, but what chooses you.  Never in my wildest dreams did I think  the Operating room would be where I found my niche.  It simply never occured to me.  I wanted the ER, thought since I was such an adrenalin junky this would be the perfect place for me.

Until I went into the OR and it was absolute love at first incision.  I loved every single aspect of the OR.  Interviewing patients, scrubbing, circulating, interaction between team members, the camraderie, the respect I received from most surgeons.  The absolute acceptance, as a valuable team member. Did it satisfy my adrenalin rushes?  You betcha! A trauma, an emergency AAA, a patient going sour. Not much better rush of adrenalin than this.

My advice here, is to keep your minds open.  Experience every aspect of nursing, while in school.  Embrace it all.  Don't narrow your focus, because to often your mind will discard valuable information, thinking it isn't in your speciality.  Do this and you may not pass your boards.  Do this, and you may miss your niche, where you'll be happiest and so will your patients.

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I have a good friend, I'll call Jack, who has more certifications behind his name, than you can possibly imagine.  Jack has been an RN for over 30 years, a flight nurse, at a level 1 trauma center,who has for the past three years, voluntarily donated his time, money ( a great deal of money) and services to a youth football.  You will note I've said volunteered, Jack is not getting paid or reimbursed for the money he has spent or the services he has supplied. He also had no children on this team, his are all grown up and gone.

Jack has triaged concussions, fractures, illnesses etc, without any problems, applauded and thanked by countless parents, until the other night when a woman, who did not have any children or relatives on the team over hear a conversation between the head coaches wife and himself.  She immediately demanded he show her his NR/EMT license, stating you are the team paramedic.  It was explained to her, several times, he is not the team paramedic but a volunteer. 

Jack said, if they want to pay me for this, then anyone can ask to see my license but I am not getting paid.

She then said, if I asked a cop on the street for his id, he would give it!  Maybe he/she would after they hauled her butt down to the police station. 

"I can wear a t shirt that says EMT on it".  Yes you can, but you have to produce your license number (star of life and EMT class embroidered patch) in order to get the patch to go along with it.  Her final shot was you don't show me your identification, you are not touching any of my kids......she had no children on the team and no one could figure out why she was there.

He had just finished checking a kid out, with an ear infection and his helmet was putting pressure on his ear.  So he told the kid, to keep the helmet off, get some water to cool down and do what he could without the helmet.  She steps in, touches the kid's forehead says "You're burning up"...sure he was burning up, he had a helmet on and it was 85 degrees outside and very humid.  SHE sent the kid home, where she had absolutely no authority to do so.  So does this mean she was practicing nursing or medicine without a license?  Yeah it does, at least to my mind.

 So, Jack and two other of my nursing friends left after the game and are not going back.  Because of this woman, who over stepped herself, made a big stink, these kids no longer have three very competent, highly qualified professionals who volunteered, to help protect them. 

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While this has nothing directly to do with nursing, it is imperative parents know how "dark" the newest Batman film truly is.  This film is not for young children or any child who has a tendency towards nightmares.  I'm truly not sure my greatnephew who is just 12 should have seen it.  His mother thinks it was ok for him, but we'll see tonight if he sleeps or not. 

Heath Ledger is absolutely outstanding as the "Joker".  I judge  actors by whether or not I forget who's playing a particular role or do I see them behind the character.   After 30 seconds of the Joker's appearance, I completely forgot it was the late Ledger behind the psychotic madman and just settled in to become totally enthralled with the entire film.  In certain places, the film is extremely frightening, with such evil intent manifested in the many layers of the plot.  I came away disturbed, but loved the movie. 

Batman started out dark, became a light hearted idiotic comic book post WW2 and now it's back to the original intent of good over evil starting with the earlier film Batman Begins.   Yep, I love comic books and graphic novels, odd for a 57 year old woman, but there it is. 

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I can't quite figure out why people/family think because my eyes are open, my neurons are synapsing in sequence and I'm fully cognizant.  Maybe because I used to have to be when I worked the OR and was on call all the time.  Some of you know the drill, the phone rings at 1am, your feet are on the floor and you're heading for the bathroom where you left your clothes as you're reaching for the phone.  Then you're running out the door, shrugging into your coat if it's winter or buttoning up an article of clothing or both at the same time.  Then you're in the car, dry brushing your teeth, because you keep a toothbrush and toothpaste in your car console and you spit out the window, (hopefully the wind is not blowing into the car and you remember to roll down the window) driving hell bent for leather to get to the hospital to set up an "emergency" case.  Maybe you'll even remember to run a brush through your hair, but often why bother, you put a bonnet on anyway.  However, this was me on call, this was and is not me off call.  It is no longer my life and I choose not to wake up quickly unless the house is burning down or some other crisis is looming.  I sleep like the dead.  I admit this.  There is something satisfying about waking up slowly and in my own time frame.

Anyway back to just because my eyes are open does not mean I'm cognizant.  Don't ask me important questions and expect me to give an intelligent answer or to remember what you've asked me.  I am not responsible and now refuse to take responsibility for anything until I'm actually awake.  I tell my great nephew this all the time, but being 12, he "disremembers" and takes advantage.  He came into my bedroom and asked me for a raise in his allowance to $20/wk a week ago (somewhere around 730am) and apparently I said sure.  Well Friday rolled around and he was disappointed when I handed him his weekly pay of $10. After 5 minutes of tears, ranting and more tears, (pre-pubescent hormonal angst) he did not get his raise.   I didn't remember nor was I going to honor it. 

I fixed his cute little tush yesterday morning.  He was still soundly asleep, I poked him, he rolled over and blankly stared at me and I said........ remember to, unload the dishwasher, clean the litter boxes,  pick up your room, brush your teeth and hair, before you fire up the xBox or no allowance this friday.  Did he remember?  Not a chance.  Then again, he doesn't remember 5 seconds after you tell him something when he's awake.  So when I confronted him he said, That's not fair!  I wasn't awake.  I just stared at him and  then the proverbial light bulb turned on over his mass of dark brown, curly, long unbrushed hair covering his head.  It was so bright, I'm surprized his mass of tangled curls didn't catch fire.  I, however, made my point.

So the entire point to this rant is this...........just because someone's eyes are open, doesn't mean they're awake.

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