Requirement: Have an off-beat sense of humor
Written: Nov 04 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: There is no feeling in the world like helping someone who really needs it and you see some neat stuff
Cons: Mediocre pay, work weekends, holidays, forced overtime, getting pooped or puked on
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| clooneyfan's Full Review: Nursing Profession |
A review by of my favorite writers (SurgRN911) about the nursing profession prompted me to write my own review. You can read her original review at http://preview.epinions.com/srvc-review-5573-FD6C471-3A01B539-prod2
I am not a nurse. I originally wanted to be one back in the 1980's but 2 years of working as an aide in a nursing home and many years of volunteering on an ambulance taught me that I did not have the stomach to handle some of the more disgusting aspects of the profession. Sure, I can handle blood and even poop and pee but holding the bucket and watching someone vomit makes me realize surely there are easier ways to earn a living. Some things I just can't deal with. If you've ever had to suction phlegm out of a tracheostomy, you'll understand what I mean.
So I decided to branch off into a subdivision of the nursing profession.
I am a cardiology technician and I do diagnostic testing of the heart and the brain. (Don't ask how the brain got thrown in there.....at my hospital many years ago neurology and cardiology was under the same manager so I was trained to do both tests). Like a nurse, I still get to have patient contact and be actively involved in the medical field, but the interaction and responsibility is not as involved on my part.
No, I'm not as well-trained as an RN, but neither do most have the training to do my job (with the exception of a few critical care nurses). My job is a specialty.
I've been working at the same hospital doing the same job for the past 17 years. I've seen a lot of changes in health care. Technologically, things are getting better and better. We are saving more lives than ever before.
On a morale level, things are at an all time low.
I do believe insurance companies (managed care) have a lot to do with this and the decline of hospital care in general. Because insurance companies have made reimbursement so difficult, my hospital has had to institute "Pathways". Pathways are basically plans of care pre-defined by medical diagnosis and organized along a timeline. They want to decrease the length of a patient's stay by increasing efficiency and maximizing resources. My physical and emotional resources are pretty much maxed out!
With the chest pain pathway (the one I'm most familiar with) we have 23 hours to test and discharge you. Of course, if you are diagnosed with a problem (such as a heart attack), the pathway changes and you can stay longer. Because insurance will not pay for a chest pain patient to stay longer than 23 hours, if we are incredibly busy on a certain day, instead of holding the patient overnight and doing the test the next day (like we used to in the old days), we have to stay over and do all the tests on the same day. Now I suppose the hospital could hire more staff to cover the overlapping shift, but because we're not consistently busy enough, it not cost-effective for them to do so. So they don't.
Who thinks the patient is going to be getting quality care after I've been on my feet after 10 or 12 hours on an already busy day?
I don't. I've made the mistakes to prove it, too. The busier I am, the more mistakes I make. The more tired I am, the more mistakes I make. Combine them, and you have the potential for a big problem.
My attitude becomes abrupt. I want to stop and take care of my patient the proper way, but there's an assembly line of patients still waiting for me so I don't. I wouldn't want my mother to be rushed through her testing like this.
Most of the time, my stress test patients are ambulatory and capable of taking care of little things themselves (like going to the bathroom or getting a sip of water) but occasionally we get the LOL's (little old ladies)or someone really sick who can't. It's a shame we have to view them as "problem" patients because they are holding us up. I don't know any health care workers who like to be like this.
It's days like that when I really hate my job.
Busy. Short-staffed.
Maybe you can pull this off in another line of work, but healthcare is sacred because people are not always in a position to fend for themselves.
Not being able to give my patients the attention they need is one of my biggest complaints. I've thought about quitting a million and one times and working in a bank (great working hours and no one pukes on you.)
Yet, I want to make a difference so I keep going back.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
clooneyfan
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Location: Baltimore, MD
Reviews written: 206
Trusted by: 168 members
About Me:
I've worked in health care all my life.
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