Sunday, September 13, 2009

Somedays You're the Monster, Somedays the Gnome

Ugly or scary? Not much of a choice, actually, all though the odd little creature is actually very cuddly.

I am having bad nursing mojo. I am sick of my hospital and the weird things going on with management. I am sick of the doctors who put pressure on me to place lines, teach,and get the patients out the door. I am sick of the patients who don't realize that the fact that they are ALIVE and able to bitch at me is a modern miracle, that even ten years ago they would not have lived, let alone had the option to bitch at me. I am tired of the coworker with the chronic everything, bless her little malingering heart, and I am tired of the the coworkers who care less, more, or about different things than me.

None of this is any ones fault, really, but if someone were to come to me and say, wide eyed and earnest: "I want to be a nurse. I am going to help people, make a difference in people's lives, and give my all to humanity".

I would turn to them, and with a tone somewhere between a shriek and a growl " Run!!! Run for your life! You will be harmed by this profession, you will see horrible, haunting things. You will be treated like dirt, and you will be shit on. Literally. You will be mocked by doctors and looked down upon by many, many people. You will be back stabbed, you will be humiliated, you will try your best and be told that your best is not good enough. Run for your life. Find another job."

So, uhm, if you are a new nurse, or thinking about becoming a nurse, go find someone else to talk to.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are a great nurse. I love nurses. They are compensated fairly well. The public at large trusts them a whole lot more than doctors. They really do make a difference in people's lives (saving more than a few). There's also flexibility in work schedule and duties. I'd be a nurse if I could and probably should have been.

Mr. Woolly

You can call me Betty, or Bethany, or Beth ...Just don't call me late for dinner. said...

I love Nurses. When my son had an emergency appendectomy, I really appreciated the NURSES. I can't imagine what you must tolerate and then corporate/co worker BS as well?

Well, I thank you as a stand in for every Nurse that helped us out when Doctors couldn't be found, when extra family couldn't be bothered, and as over whelmed parents we just needed to be told to "sit down, this is normal."

Thanks.

Cher said...

it's good to have a rant...hope you felt better afterwards

AlisonH said...

It was a nurse who took one look at me and somehow her instincts knew exactly what was what, and ran and tested my blood sugar. 50. I was diabetic on the 200mg of steroids, but somehow I'd been given the wrong amount of insulin.

I can't tell you how grateful I am for each one of the nurses who took care of me this year. There were over 50 of them.I managed to knit something for about half, and wanted to for all of them. I wanted them to have something tangible to hold onto on a bad day, something soft, something that took time to do to say, thank you, and not just thank you but I really mean it thank you.

In your case, I have a shawl you made me! And a shawl I knit out of yarn you dyed and gave me. THANK YOU!

woolywoman said...

Makes me wonder if this bad day was because of the flu I had the next day...do viruses cause crabbiness? Maybe a research project here..