From John…

The worst experience I ever had was before I was a nurse. I was working the ambulances and sometimes we had to go check on the elderly.

We were dispatched to a scene to check on this elderly man who had been acting strangely. When we arrived the police were already there and told us to be careful as it was nasty in the house. How bad could it be though? SO I opted to not wear any PPE’s.

So we enter this very dark house and the stench was awful. We were sourounded by decades old newspapers, rotting cat food, and yes… you guessed it at cats. There were at least a hundred of the furry little guys runnng around. It looked like they had been using the house as a huge cat box. The place was covered in cat shit and urine.. it was awful!

So my partner and I get o the man and try to sitpic him to the gurney and exit the house. But as I went to get the man I slipped.. landing head first in cat shit and urine. I instantly puked and had to go outside. My poor partner had to get one of the cops to help him carry the old guy as I was busy barfing.

A friend of mine on a forum mentioned that she thought someone needed to have a deep faith in God to be a good nurse. Her argument was that with out a strong spiritual foundation someone won’t be able to be able to meet their patients spiritual needs. Is that even a nurses job?

I mean if you could provide that it wouldn’t hurt things but there are specialists in the field. Beyond that what if your  religion or lack there of makes the patient find you repugnant? Certainly an attempt to meet their spiritual needs could degrade the patients car in that case.

I dunno, as an atheist, I find the whole idea curious…

What do you think?

edit:

people I’d like to tag with this question….

Small Town RN, May, Geena, Beth, REBIRTH, Jaxia, Nurse K, Keith, kim

Are you thinking about nursing? You should read a few nursing blogs to get an idea of what nursing is all about. While LPN Career.com is a great resource be sure to check some reports from nurses in the feild to. Here are some of my recommendations.

Crass-Pollination: An ER blog

Nurse K is just funny… I mean check thi sout from the other day.

Female patient with pain: Uh! Uh! Oh my God! Uh! Uh! God! Uh! Uh hhhhh Ohhhhh Uh!!!

Nurse: [Exiting room] God, it sounds like a bad porno in room 5, doesn’t it?

How could you not want to read a blog like that?

Digital Doorway

Keith writes in depth stuff as well as touching which is why I like it so much. He provides a good insight into nursing and I recommend it for any nursing student.

Emergiblog

Kims been a nurse for 30 years now and writes often, which is refreshing for nursing blogs. Personally like the recent post about the bs paper chase nurses have to do.

I love reading about nurses and their lives. My mom was a nurse ( adult critical care ) when I was a kid so they bring up a lot of fond memories. If you are looking to get an idea of what nursing is like these blogs are some of my favorites are….

A Place I call Home

Neat little blog about a nurses life in Vancouver. I like it because its so personal and “unboring” (is that a word?). She writes freely about nursing, family life, and her dog. If your considering nursing ( and yo are.. why else would you be reading this blog..lol.. ) I suggest you read this post about a combative patient. Nursing isn’t easy.

about a nurse

A very no nonsense blog about nursing. You’ll get a good look at day to day issues that nurses face and some of the difficult situations they face. Think I am jokeing? Take look at his post about assisted suicide. Keep on trucking Nurse May!

code blog: tales of a nurse

Lots of medical tidbits from a critical care unit nurse. Honestly my favorite post on here is the one lamenting not giving patients beer. Seriously why not? Their terminal drunks anyways…save the tax payers some money already!

PixelRN

Lots of good posts by Beth Anderson, an agency nurse.  This amusing story about a homeless patient is one I liked a lot.

REBIRTH

A nurse turned midwife who has a great view on childbirth. My wife and I are big believers in hands off child birth ourselves. If you want a good view of obstetrics nursing and midwifery check out this blog. Apparently its frustrating explaining midwifery to everyone though.

YKYW - Nursing Student Blog

Search Marketer turned Nurse student.. (yeah I know I didn’t beleive it either I did some due diligence to check) talks about whit life is like as a student nurse and a lesbian. Mostly the nurse stuff though.. lol..

1. Do you like challenging jobs?
2. Are you good using deductive reasoning?
3. Do you prefer to work with a team of other highly educated professionals?
4. Are you compassionate?
5. Are you kind?
6. Are you tough enough to work twelve hour shifts?
7. Are you a leader?
8. Can you see yourself financially secure?
9. Does dealing with life and death situations appeal to you?

If you answered yes to most of these questions you are likely a potential nurse!

Many people have heard the terms LVN and LPN used when talking about basic nurses but don’t know what they mean.

LVN is a acronym for Licensed Vocational Nurse. LPN is an acronym for Licensed Practical Nurse. Both of theses types of nurses are considered a basic nurse with educational requirements one level below that of a registered nurse (RN). In their day to day duties and educational requirements there are no differences between the two types of nurses. The different names stem from titles the states choose to use when licensing basic nurses in their states.

So because of this when you are in Texas and California basic nurses are referred to as LVN’s. In all other states basic nurses are referred to LPN’s.

3 The Age of a Nurse should not exceed Thirty I would further venture to state that it should not be much under twenty five I have already shown elsewhere 1 that the age of the highest sexual development in a female is twenty six at which age she is in the best condition to fulfil her maternal duties After thirty this power slowly deteriorates and before twenty five she can scarcely be said to have completely acquired that physical health which has been weakened during the progress of puberty and the changed position which she has been made to occupy in society It is but right to add however that we do not find the milk itself very much altered chemically or microscopically between the ages of fifteen and forty Still at the extremities of the scale the differences are obvious In the very young the butter casein and solid matters generally excepting the sugar which exists in diminished quantity are on the increase in the older women there is a larger proportion of water and sugar the amount of butter and casein is diminished

Infant Feeding and Its Influence on Life, Or, The Causes and Prevention of Infant Mortality By Charles Henry Felix Routh

Scholarships for nursing education students were awarded to several deserving nurses working on their masters programs. The scholarships will help them pay for books, living expenses, tuition and other costs of the college.

The program the scholarships are awarded from was implemented to provide more educational opportunities for potential nurses by increasing the amount of educators. Over the past several decades the number of nurses and nurse educators has beren on the decline due to an aging workforce that is retiring faster than replacements are being educated and hired. The increased competition for nurses has led to many incentiviced programs to engourage more hopeful nurses to complete their educationadn nter the workforce.

Licensed practical nurse  April Locklear in Jacksonville, Florida was arrested by the State Bureau of Investigation and charged with trafficking by possession, possession of hydromorphone, a schedule II controlled substance, and embezzlement of a controlled substance by employee of a registrant. She worked at Onslow Memorial Hospital.

This underlines the amount of trust that is placed in LPN’s and the responsibility LPN’s have to maintaining ethical behavior amonst their colleagues.  With ot oversight and checks and balances hard drugs could be taken from the needy adn given to children. THank god this scum bag has been taken off the street and out of our hospitals.