Remember When

We had a few rare moments last night at work to stroll down memory lane.

We remembered when nursing meant something more to us. Evening back rubs with warm lotion for our patients was better than a sleeping pill.

Patients checking in the night before their surgery so we could do pre op teaching and do that dreaded enema and bowel prep under our watchful eye and aide. We taught you to deep breath and cough and told you what to expect when you got out of surgery.

You knew that your primary care Dr. would be there for you in the hospital. You felt safe and secure because your Dr. knew you and your needs. Now you are placed under the care of a stranger, however competent he or she may be.

Remember when you got one bill? I know this is a stretch for some of you younger ones. Now there is confusion over who got paid by the insurance company and who do you owe.

The paper work is overwhelming to say the least. Sign here to say you understand that there is no smoking on this campus. Okay. Sign here to say you understand that you will be responsible for anything your insurance does not cover. Duhhhhh! Sign here to say you understand that you will be receiving a separate bill from radiology and lab. Sign, sign, sign.

I wish for simplicity for us and our patients. I wish for comfort and caring for our patients. I wish for less stressed nurses and an atmosphere of kindness and love. I wish for no more added paperwork. Let's do some take aways for a change.

Remember when we loved what we did?

For the sake of a clean shower door.

I am always interested in knowing how people hurt themselves. Maybe so I can be more careful in life and avoid those same mistakes.

This one is priceless.

A man wants to have a clear shower door instead of an opaque one. His wife agrees if the husband agrees to squeegee the door after he showers.

The man agrees and the door is installed. The wife discovers his trick. He always showers first leaving her to squeegee the door after her shower.

One day he was headed to the shower and she decided to beat him to it. She fell and broke her ankle.

Now she won't be taking showers for awhile with her cast on so guess who gets to squeegee the shower door?

She smiles when she hears the squeegee sound now I bet.

Are they listening?

I've been working some overtime lately on purpose. ER has been slower than usual. I have had more time to actually spend at the bedside with my patients. I really enjoy that.

I talked with a German lady and found myself mesmerized by her accent. She told me stories of her travels and compared things with living in Germany.

One thing she talked most about was getting around in the different cities. In Germany, you don't really need a car. You just get on a bus and go anywhere you want.

Freedom means going where you want without having to drive there.

This lady was very sick when she came in. And much better when we had our conversation. I saw her color get healthier and her eyes brighten as she told me stories of her travels. This is my favorite kind of nursing. The human kind.

Listening is cheep medicine.

Flu Season

We are all being bullied to get the flu shot. If we don't, we have to wear a mask during our shift. How crazy is that. I'm a nurse taking care of sick people and I have to wear a mask. I think we are going to frighten people walking around all masked up.

If we really "care" about our patients, lets keep children under 12 out of the hospital. And make the visitors wear masks too.

Here's the funny part. We ran out of flu shots the second day they were offered. We are so far behind the ball now it makes no sense to even get the shot.

Can you imagine a true Pandemic? We could never make enough vaccine to take care of everyone.

Some more stupid stuff: We have monitors that you can print out your patient's vital signs. We are being told that we have to chart every vital sign because the print outs are being lost. Now that makes sense right? Lets not fix the problem of medical records losing a legal part of a chart. Lets punish the nurses and make them spend time charting five minute vital signs in the computer.

So if you have the flu or anything else wrong with you come on in to the ER. Your nurse will not infect you because she or he will be wearing a mask. But you will be exposed to other patients with viruses galore.

Junk Food Taxing

While I don't care if they tax junk food, I think the real money is in religion.

We could do a lot with the money we would get taxing churches and religious organizations.
They influence a lot of people regarding who to vote for and what they believe is good and bad in the world.

I think anyone who spreads so much hate and discrimination should have to pay for it.
They push their way into our schools and government facilities, blatantly stand up and pray to Jesus at football games and put the nativity scene on the court house lawn.

The Christians forget what separation of church and state was created to protect us from.
The very thing that Christians are doing now. . . .Proclaiming that their God is the only one and everybody else is going to hell.

Give me freedom from religion. And make the churches pay taxes and turn off all those lights in Andice Texas where the Baptist and the Catholic church across from each other battle to see who can light up the sky more.

And let me introduce you to my God, The Flying Spaghetti Monster. May his pastaness lift you up and carry you through a happy day.

Cleopatra is alive and well.

While she is known for so much more, Cleopatra is also the Queen of "Denial".

Nurse to elderly man--I see that you are a Diabetic.

Elderly man to nurse--What makes you say that?

Nurse--You are taking Metformin.

Elderly man--Oh, I don't have Diabetes. I just take that to keep my blood sugar down.

Coffin corner

I read in my time magazine an article on the recent plane crash in the ocean. It was said they were flying in their "coffin corner". Too low, too slow. It sure gave me a creepy feeling and made me think about, what else, my job.

It is very hard for me to think about making money off people who are sick or injured, although I couldn't live without my paycheck. But the pressure is on when my health care organization sees fit to cut "corners" to save money in this bad economy.

This is our "coffin corner"-----

The first to be canceled or cut are the very people who save lives. Nurses.
The next are our clerks, who if they aren't around, the nurses left have to answer phones, put in orders, make calls for DR's. and answer call lights. (One less nurse out there taking care of patients)

We do not have a shortage of nurses in this country yet. We have them knocking on our door to be hired. There are no openings. Productivity, patient numbers, steers the need. What we have are older (45 to 60 year old nurses) however experienced and skillful, who are "flying lower and slower" than we used to.

Expected to do more with less, I struggle as a charge nurse to pick up where others need help and take care of my own patient load while staying prepared for the one coming in who may need all we have available to save their life. And that person deserves nothing less.

May we never be caught flying too slow, too low.

My daughter lost her pregnancy at 10 weeks. We all felt helpless and sad. At least we know she can get pregnant after her cancer battle. It seems the women in this family do best when we have something we can fight against. It is having to accept the things we cannot change that pisses us off.