January 16, 2012

Honestly in Nursing

This post is about what happens behind the scenes while taking care of patients


1. When we see you (the patient) laughing and talking to family and friends and then state you are 10/10 pain, we (nurses) don't believe you. We will still medicate you with pain medication, but we are documenting your outward appearance, and recommend to the MD's to discontinue the hard narcotics.

2. We are the ones that make sure the MD's don't make mistakes that kill you. So if some time goes by after the doctor talks to you about starting a medication it is the nurses that make sure it is in your best interest. So that is one reason why you may not get your medications right on time.

3. We cant write medication orders but we do... As a night nurse when we need a medication for XYZ problem, we have to call the MD for a order. But this doctor is not functioning at maximum capacity when being woken up at 3am with a complicated problem. So it is a unwritten understanding that we basically tell the MD what orders we want and why and 99% of the time he/she will say that's fine.

4. We do laugh at you behind your back.....Sorry but we have a job that can be very emotionally draining and humor is a cooping mechanism. We will treat you with the utmost respect and dignity while with you, but sometimes you (the patient) say or do something that is really funny. And we share these stories with other nurse, to escape from the very sad stories we sometimes have to deal with. So your funny situation or phrase is keeping us healthy....So thank you :)

More to come. :)

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