So, what is the other side of nursing? Apparently, if you caught the original entry, it involved you being as bored as possible in a grad school class. My apologies, I will not delete it read it if you must, but seriously do we need another nursing blog that sounds like that? Yeah, no. So,rewind and start over.
The topic is serious, but not taken seriously. The other side is the “dark side” filled with dark stories or those horrible provider stories about patient encounters. We use these to make a point not to belittle the people who are sick that have no idea they are doing this, or maybe they do. Trust me they all make a point, and that’s what we are trying to do here.
Ok, so what’s with this “we” crap? There are 2 of us right now, possibly more soon that are contributing. Me the NP (I kind of like that rhyme) and My man Igor who I keep around to edit this while I work on what I gave him that caused that hump…
Nurseferatu is not a vampire story although jokes about night nurses have been going around since Florence was a nursing student (And some of the nurses on nights are that old too.). I want to start where Dr.Google leaves off. Oh, I know everyone’s 15-minute search on google for abdominal pain is way better than my assessment and technology used to diagnose you. Do you really believe that we like that? Hearing a patient say they“looked it up on the internet”, makes us cringe because honestly, it is usually wrong, but you are so certain that you have a rare form of stomach cancer (that ends up being gas). Because you read it on the internet, it has to be true.Have you been on the internet? This blog’s first medical advice is how to be a patient and let us do the diagnosing. Yes, medicine is consumer driven,insurance companies are as painful as a patient that self-diagnosis. Yes, be a good consumer and ask questions, but let’s work off my diagnosis, mmkay?Googling it is like trying to speak a foreign language you know just enough to make yourself dangerous.
Nurses, as a whole, are professionals. We do want to discuss our nursing journey and provide some professional content. You, of course, can read along, however, see above. We are scientifically trained and tested. I would like to advance the idea that RN doesn’t just stand for, “Refreshments and Narcotics,” and NP doesn’t just stand for, “Now Prescribe them”. Nursing is your safety net in the hospital. We are the ones that re-read the orders,question things and advocate for you as a patient. While your doctor may be an overworked resident or waking up to a phone call from us at two in the morning,half in the bag.
What blog would be complete without some Chicken Soup for the Soul kind of things? Well, this may be a darker or maybe not so pleasant thing, but nurses develop an odd sense of humor that helps them cope with the sometimes-rough daily drain of nursing. These are not meant to shame the patient, and I would doubt you would ever be able to identify the patient from the story, but they can point out situational humor as well as lessons learned.I even have a couple of chronically ill folks that may write about their experiences in healthcare.
New nurses can benefit from this blog. You can see how jaded we get as we have nursed, for a few years, as the ladies put it at the nurses’station. It will help you stay a nurse and push back at all the nurseier-than-thou nurses out there who think that treating a new nurse like crap is the way to “toughen you up.” I have never understood that dynamic, and yes, we will address that too.
So there, this is more me. I make great pains not to swear,because like most nurses we swear, sorry ma. Anyway, last mulligan. The rest is the blog