Happy Nurses Week

Monday was Nurses Day and the week of May 6^th is considered Nurses Week. Which is awesome and all, but there are times when I feel nurses don’t get appreciated enough. Sometimes I truly feel like what we do is taken for granted or brushed off as something anybody off the street could do.

I don’t think I could fully put into words the loathing I feel when someone says to me, “Oh, you’re nurse? You didn’t want to be a doctor?”

Pictured: my disgust at that question

Clearly, if I wanted to be a doctor, I would have become a doctor! I think nursing is the only profession in which we question that person’s career choice and almost sneer down upon that choice. I mean, have you ever heard of anyone going up to a lawyer and say, “Oh, you’re a lawyer? You didn’t want to be a judge?”

No, you haven’t.

There’s still a stigma out there that nursing is an easy career choice for underachievers. That nursing is less challenging, fulfilling, rewarding, knowledgeable or ambitious than other careers. Which, of course, is seven colors of bullshit.

I can think of about five instances (which might not seem like many, but they are pretty big instances) in which our floor had been introduced to a new technology and us nurses got a one hour crash course before we were deemed competent. Um…what?

And I'm not talking about, "Oh, here's a new IV pump you have to learn", I'm talking about, "Oh, we implanted a new heart pump in a patient yesterday that nobody in this hospital has ever used before, so here's your one hour class so you can teach him everything he needs to know once he comes out of the unit in three days. Great, thanks!"

You tell me that’s not challenging.

And it’s not even those instances that make nursing challenging. Some days I feel like I’m in constant battle against inadequate staffing and keeping patients safe; against doing what’s best for my patients and doctors who are fighting me; and against maintaining my sanity while catering to the needs of others.

There is a reason some nurses burn out quickly. But damn if there aren’t some moments that make all those extra long, grueling shifts worth it.

ACCURATE

The thing that bothers me the most about the snobbery against nursing is the assumption that nurses aren’t as smart as doctors. Hm, sure, maybe in some things. I would definitely argue that all the heart surgeons I know know more about heart surgery than I do. But for all of their “superior” schooling, doctors say and attempt to do some pretty stupid shit.

I had a patient, a frail 80-something year-old man who had been admitted because his ICD kept firing. The doctors wanted to bolus the patient with amiodarone and start a drip immediately. Unfortunately, this patient had crap for veins. One of my co-workers had managed to get an IV in that drew back blood fine, but would leak fluid under the skin every time it was flushed.

The intern had the audacity to argue with me about running the amiodarone (a drug which is very caustic if infiltrated and can result in loss of limbs if not caught quickly enough) through an infiltrated IV because he’d heard you can infuse amiodarone through an infiltrated IV if you run it in over an hour.

Pictured: how I feel at least once a shift

I took all my will power not to laugh in his face. The nurse I shared this patient with happened to be standing next to me as I was arguing against his stupidity, telling him under no circumstances would I run amiodarone through an infiltrated IV, and point blank looked at him and said, “We have a patient who lost her breast because of an amiodarone infiltrate, we’re not running it!” Both of us argued with him for about five minutes about just writing an order for a PICC line.

So much time wasted before the intern finally conceded, but in a tone none of us appreciated; “Well, if you’re sure…”

  I was sure

Not all doctors, regardless of rank, conduct themselves in that manner. There are number of doctors associated with our cardiology team who respect the nursing staff and take our opinions and observations seriously. One doctor even went so far as to warn his interns that the nurses can make your lives a living hell so they had better listen to what we have to say (which rather makes us sound like tyrants, but the thought was there).

I have heard stories about one of our attendings (who also happens to be our Chief Medical Officer) feeding a patient for a nurse because she was too busy and then apologizing to said nurse for getting the patient to only eat half of their meal. He’s also one of the nicest doctors I’ve ever met; he takes the time to learn all the nurses names, takes us seriously and doesn’t treat us like we’re wasting his time asking questions.

I wish more doctors would realize that nurses are the ones at the bedside recognizing the subtle changes in their patients long before the doctors do. 

Accurate 9 times out of 10

I spend more time than I would care to admit cleaning up feces, urine, sputum, vomit and tending to wounds that would make anyone squeamish. There are days I don’t have time to use the bathroom or eat lunch. There are days I don’t see the seat of a chair until I’m sitting in my car and driving home.

However, on the other side of that, there are days that I form strong bonds with my patients that go beyond the cares I provide. There are days I get to sit down with my patients and teach them the skills necessary to care for themselves at home. There are days where I literally bring a patient back to life with my hands.

It’s for all the days that we touch lives that I wish we were seen as more than “just nurses”.

At least Ryan Gosling understands