And you thought your Nursing Orientation was difficult

The other day I was talking to a veteran CCU nurse. She told me that she worked at the hospital where the first defibrillations were studied and performed. Like many health care studies, the testing was done on animals – dogs in this case.

She then went on to tell me that one of the requirements for working in her CCU (back in the 1970’s) was that you actually had to defibrillate a dog to show that you were competent in that skill! Yes, the dogs were sedated before hand, but still.

Nurses see (and do) the craziest things.

Blogging Under the Influence: How a glass of wine (or 2) can make you a better blogger.

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(creative commons image courtesy of slack 12)

One of the great benefits of attending Blog World Expo 2008 was all of the great advice and inspiration I got that will help me to keep on blogging.

Hands down, my favorite blogging advice was dispensed by Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Work Week:

Talk to your readers the way you would talk to your friends after 2 drinks.

This makes perfect sense to me, and here’s why:

What happens when you sit down with some friends and have a couple drinks?

You start to get that relaxed, warm fuzzy feeling.

You start to loosen your inhibitions.

Your enthusiasm starts to bubble up to the top and affects what you say.

As people who blog, we all have something to say. The question is, What’s the best way to say it? And how do we write a really good post without letting all of our little insecurities and doubts get in the way? And the answer is, blog like you’re buzzed!

I think the 2-drink rule is brilliant, and I’ve already started to implement it. And what’s more, Tim Ferriss actually wrote his entire book with that rule in mind. Did I mention that it’s a New York Times bestseller?

If 2 drinks are good, wouldn’t 3 or 4 or 5 drinks be even better?

Easy now, I don’t want to encourage any lush-like behavior. At three drinks you start to take that turn where warm and fuzzy becomes silly and sloppy, and bubbly enthusiasm can turn into incoherence and long-windedness. Which is fine if you’re at the bar, or a party, or even sitting at home watching House and tweeting – Goodness, who would do that? ; ) – It’s probably just not good for your blog.

And obviously the 2 drink rule would need to be adjusted to fit your weight and tolerance. If you weigh 98 pounds, a scant glass of sherry might do it for you, but if you’re > 200 pounds, you might be halfway into a six-pack before you start getting the warm fuzzies.

And remeber, we juSt pretending we had two drinks, right? Not like we drink so much we forgette how to type an spell. And maibee even fall off out of the chair wile we are blogging.

*hiccup*

I see you later. guys,. Got t0 go take nAp.

o_O

I like to help people. So sue me.

You are a nurse. You are out in public, going about your business and you see a person in distress, or a situation where someone has been harmed or injured in some way.

What would you do?

I had a conversation with some fellow nurses yesterday that I found kind of surprising. Someone was cursing their husband for telling her son’s little league team that she was an ER nurse. Now the coach wanted her to volunteer to run the first aid station at some of the games.

“I never tell anyone I’m a nurse,” she says.

The other nurse agreed and said that she never wears her scrubs home when taking the subway, because she would be expected to help if something went wrong.

Now, I understand where this mentality comes form. Everyone’s afraid of liability. Everyone’s afraid of losing their license if something goes wrong.

Call me naive and idealistic, but if I saw someone in distress, or someone who had been harmed, it would take wild hungry pit bulls to keep me from helping them. You see, it’s kind of why I became a nurse in the first place. Not only is there something so infinitely rewarding about being able to help someone in a crisis situation, I also consider it to be my duty. And I may not have the type of first-line emergency skills that many ER nurses and EMTs have but I’ll tell you what I can do. I can hold pressure to stop someone from bleeding. I know BLS and if there’s an AED around I can set it up, calmly and quickly. I can hold someone’s hand, talk them through the situation and try to keep the scene calm until the EMTs get there.

And if you’re still afraid, well, there is something to protect you. It’s called The Good Samaritan Law.

I’m proud to be a nurse. Sure I may do my share of complaining about all the menial stuff, but in the end, I have pride in who I am. This is going to sound incredibly corny but when I wear my scrubs out in public, stopping to get coffee before work, or stopping at the grocery store after my shift, I hold my head up a little higher. The funny thing is that people seem to treat me with slightly more reverence when I’m in my scrubs. And I don’t mind that at all.

On Doing What You Love

So I was writing this post about how I’m really lukewarm on being a nurse and I came upon this post by Lisa Sabin Wilson, a wordpress designer who is a former nurse.

Here’s how she felt about nursing:

…I pretty much thought I would be a nurse until the day I retire…Nursing was one of those ok jobs. I didn’t love it. I didn’t hate it. It was . . . fine. I was good at it – – excelled in it, really – and took pride in that fact. But I wasn’t doing what I loved… nor was I loving what I did.

I feel like the future “me” could have written this. In the post I was working on, I was going to spell out why I was so lukewarm on nursing, but you know what? I don’t want to waste your time with that. And I certainly don’t want to discourage anyone from entering the field. There are many ways in which being a nurse is satisfying and meaningful, and the sky’s the limit as far as opportunities go.

But for me being a nurse has sort of been a cop out. It’s like the childish “me” has always wanted to do something creative but then my childish side kind of ran out of time. So I grew up and found a profession. When I first became an RN, I thought. “Finally. I have found a respectable and stable way to earn money. Now I can start painting again in my free time.” Ha. Flash forward to being a full time mom and a part time nurse and suddenly there is no free time. Fortunately I have this blog to fuel my creative side and keep it somewhat balanced for now.

Am I Contributing to the Nursing Shortage?

I got this comment the other day from Trish, and I really have mixed feelings about it:

I just wanted to let you know I like your blog and you have impacted someone’s life (mine), in an unexpected way.

I’m starting college this fall after being out of school many years. I was planning on going into nursing. Deep down I suspected I would suck at being a nurse, especially when I found myself gagging while washing out my pottytraining toddler’s poopy underpants. Your blog, and this post, has pretty much confirmed my suspicions and I’m planning on doing something else now. Thanks for opening my eyes!

On the one hand, I feel bad. We need nurses and I hate to think that I’ve influenced someone to not be a nurse.

On the other hand, everything I write here is my honest and open opinion about the profession, and I write about what being a nurse really entails. And unfortunately, the further I get in this profession, the more I want out of it.

Despite that, I have no regrets as far as choosing this path, and spending the last three years (5 if you include school) being a nurse. It’s been a mind-blowing experience, one in which I’ve learned a lot about life and a lot about my self, and what I’m capable of doing.

To Trish I would say this: Do a little more thinking about what drove you to consider nursing in the first place, because there are many types of nurses that rarely come into contact with poop. (Isn’t it crazy that I’m writing a serious post about poop?) Psych nurses, community health nurses, and case managers are a few types that come to mind. And you can always try being a NICU nurse, because as @thatguynamedtom said, “the poop is so much smaller there.”

One final thought: I used to be a person who was afraid of blood, and for years I wouldn’t even dream of becoming a nurse, for fear of having to actually draw someone’s blood. I later came to find out, however, that this was simply a matter of my own vasovagal response to giving blood. Years later I found myself up to my elbows in blood amongst the GI bleeders in the MICU, and I was as far from syncope as you can get. Instead I found myself pumped up with adrenaline and exhilaration at the chance to be saving someone’s life.

Now there’s a good reason to become a nurse.

It’s Oh So Quiet

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(photo taken by emdot)

It’s been a little quiet around here to say the least. I haven’t worked many shifts lately and so there’s not too much to write about. To tell you the truth I am thinking about shutting this here blog down and starting a new one in which I write about things other than nursing. As far as writing about nursing… I’m just not feeling it these days.

Ho hum. So anyway, here’s the latest version of Orientedx3.com. I’m happier with the look and color scheme. I do realize that when you scroll down the layout is seriously lopsided and I’m trying to think about how to fix that. I added a section at the top called “daily nurse” to post short blurbs about articles, blogs, or tweets that I think are interesting and nurse related.

In the interest of not leaving my readers completely unsatisfied I leave you this. The Laryngospasms are this completely adorable singing group made up of CRNAs. Also watch Breath, it will make you smile, I promise.

Maternal Suckling Thing

Apparently there is a wee bit o’ controversy over veterinary techs commandeering the term “nurse.” A complaint was made to the New York State Board for Veterinary Medicine, claiming that “nurse” is a term that should be reserved only for those who care for humans.

I’m not surprised that someone would make this complaint. Many BSN programs will spend precious class time explaining that nurses have some issues with image and identity, and there is a movement to make sure that nursing is looked upon as a profession, rather than just a job.

On the other hand, if someone wants to refer to themselves as a “vet nurse” an “animal nurse,” I really could not care less. It was this post, however, found on a veterinary blog, that had me ROTFLMAO:

Though I’m insulted by this RN action, I have a hard time defending the word itself. “Nurse” is an anachronistic, misogynistic term. Veterinary technician or “vet tech” is a far more descriptive and doesn’t denote a maternal suckling thing that has no place in modern medicine. After all, human nurses are technical and scientific; no longer do they fluff pillows and soothe the soul through their womanly presence.

Yes! That’s exactly what I’ve been wanting to tell my patients when they ring the call bell and ask for my help:

“Please do not confuse me for a maternal suckling thing! I am a human nurse, technical and scientific; and I will no longer fluff your pillows and soothe your soul through my womanly presence! (I’ll bet the male nurses out there love that part.) Sorry, looks like you’ll just have to lay there with your unfluffed pillow, I’m off to do something scientific and technical.”

(Many thanks to Shreela for bringing this to my attention!)

A “Former Nurse” isn’t a Nurse

Saw this headline show up on the “Twitter on Nurses” section of OX3:

Nurse Charged With Injecting Patients With Bleach

Basically, a former nurse, working at a DaVita Dialysis Center, injected two of her patients with bleach. Pretty horrific.

I’m wondering why Davita hired a “former” nurse to work in a dialysis center. Must be some reason she’s no longer a nurse. And why do the headlines have to say “NURSE charged with injecting patients with bleach,” when she’s no longer a nurse? It kind of makes me cringe.

A “former nurse” isn’t a nurse.

UPDATE: Thanks to Mental Father for leaving this link in the comments; it really clarifies some things:

Police: DaVita nurse injected 2 with bleach

Overall, this story is turning out to be pretty bizarre. There are some interesting comments in the Lufkin Daily News article regarding how dialysis nurses use a bleach solution to clean the equipment, and perhaps this is what the nurse ended up injecting into the patients by mistake. Either way, it is interesting that the patients survived.

Any dialysis nurses out there want to weigh in on this?

MICU vs Recovery Room: A Comparison

I’ll bet some of you are going to hate me for saying this, but nursing isn’t such a bad job when you only do it part-time. And recovery room nursing isn’t so bad either, even though I’ve complained about it in the past. All it took was one shift back in the MICU to make me realize how good I had it in the recovery room. Let’s look at the advantages of being a recovery room nurse:

No weekends, holidays, or night shifts.
We are rarely “in the weeds” and even when we are, it’s very manageable.
The patients are (for the most part) very nice, appreciative, and never poop in their bed – unlike MICU patients.

In fact, I’m starting to wonder why the recovery room that I work in needs to use so many agency nurses. Some days no less than a third of the nurses are agency. Given all of the advantages, I wonder why they have so much trouble recruiting good staff nurses.

Some of the possible disadvantages could be:

Lack of a challenge, it’s really a very easy job to master.
Too many waitress-type tasks; i.e. fetching cookies and ginger ale for patients.
The doctors I work with (radiologists and interventional cardiologists) kind of lack that warm fuzziness you get from the medical docs. But you know what gives me the warm fuzzies these days? Not having to clean up poop

All of this being said, (doh!) I can think of some reasons why one would continue to be a MICU nurse:

You crave excitement.
You need to be challenged in your work.
You don’t mind holidays, weekends or night shifts.

That used to be me – all three of them. It’s funny how things change though, when you start a family. I guess that’s one of the great advantages of being a nurse. When you get tired of one type of nursing, you can always try another. There is such a variety of jobs in our field that you could stick with nursing and never run out of ways to reinvent your career.

Unless of course your secret desire is to become the web designer that you failed to become in the 90’s. Then you may as well stick with recovery room nursing until you get it all sorted out.