Respect nurses. Respect them.
Nurses, I think, are the most patient people in the most frustrating job.
This story must begin with another story.
Story 1:
Last night I worked in PoCo. We got stuck at Royal Columbian Hospital. Surprise, surprise... there were no beds available. Wait, tangent... new story.
Story 2:
Why did we, as the city of Vancouver, decide to spend billions of dollars on the Olympics while our health care system goes down the drain? Why, when people are dying on ambulance stretchers in the hallways or sitting on said stretchers for 19 hours at a time without any privacy or proper medical care, are we deciding that we need to spend an extra 5 million dollars on the esthetics of the speed skating rink in Richmond (which is just going to sink in 5 years anyways)?
Ok, back to:
Story 1:
So, while sitting in the hospital I was given 3 other crews' patients so as to clear up crews from the hospital so they can go out to the street and bring more people in. We were there for 3 hours. You may think, wow, that would be quite boring. Well, apparantly sick people need quite a bit of attention.
Patient 1 vomits and needs to be cleaned.
Patient 2 is short of breath, terminally ill and needs to be readjusted constantly so he doesn't aspirate on his own saliva.
Patient 3 needs to go to the bathroom
Patient 4 is cold and needs another blanket
Patient 2's oxygen has run out
Patient 1 vomits again
Patient 4 is thirsty
Patient 3 wonders why a doctor hasn't come by yet and proceeds to complain about the health care system as if there is something I can do about it
Patient 1 vomits again and needs their IV bag to be changed (the fluids goin' out as fast as it goes in!)
Story 3:
This brings me to my point: Nurses are amazing.
Nurses care for at least 5 patients at a time. Being a nurse would be like being stuck in 2 hallways for 12 hours at a time. Blughhhh. Nurses do everything for their patients from keeping them comfortable to medical care to wiping their asses.
So, while some nurses sometimes seem grumpy, you must remember that they are people too. People working 12 hours and wiping everyone's asses.
*DISCLAIMER: any comment in this post is a personal view; the point of a 'weblog' if I am not mistaken. I am in no way intolerant of the beliefs, creeds or opinions of Olympians themselves. And hey, if you disagree with me and think that all nurses are cows, I guess that's your prerogative.*
This story must begin with another story.
Story 1:
Last night I worked in PoCo. We got stuck at Royal Columbian Hospital. Surprise, surprise... there were no beds available. Wait, tangent... new story.
Story 2:
Why did we, as the city of Vancouver, decide to spend billions of dollars on the Olympics while our health care system goes down the drain? Why, when people are dying on ambulance stretchers in the hallways or sitting on said stretchers for 19 hours at a time without any privacy or proper medical care, are we deciding that we need to spend an extra 5 million dollars on the esthetics of the speed skating rink in Richmond (which is just going to sink in 5 years anyways)?
Ok, back to:
Story 1:
So, while sitting in the hospital I was given 3 other crews' patients so as to clear up crews from the hospital so they can go out to the street and bring more people in. We were there for 3 hours. You may think, wow, that would be quite boring. Well, apparantly sick people need quite a bit of attention.
Patient 1 vomits and needs to be cleaned.
Patient 2 is short of breath, terminally ill and needs to be readjusted constantly so he doesn't aspirate on his own saliva.
Patient 3 needs to go to the bathroom
Patient 4 is cold and needs another blanket
Patient 2's oxygen has run out
Patient 1 vomits again
Patient 4 is thirsty
Patient 3 wonders why a doctor hasn't come by yet and proceeds to complain about the health care system as if there is something I can do about it
Patient 1 vomits again and needs their IV bag to be changed (the fluids goin' out as fast as it goes in!)
Story 3:
This brings me to my point: Nurses are amazing.
Nurses care for at least 5 patients at a time. Being a nurse would be like being stuck in 2 hallways for 12 hours at a time. Blughhhh. Nurses do everything for their patients from keeping them comfortable to medical care to wiping their asses.
So, while some nurses sometimes seem grumpy, you must remember that they are people too. People working 12 hours and wiping everyone's asses.
*DISCLAIMER: any comment in this post is a personal view; the point of a 'weblog' if I am not mistaken. I am in no way intolerant of the beliefs, creeds or opinions of Olympians themselves. And hey, if you disagree with me and think that all nurses are cows, I guess that's your prerogative.*
posted by Robyn Bishop @ 11:39 PM
2 Comments:
At 9:59 AM,
Michael LaRoy said…
Hooray for nurses (of which there are several in my family)!! They truly are heroes indeed.
Some food for thought: it is actually the province paying for much of the Olympic ventures. Which, actually, makes your frustration even MORE valid since they're the ones responsible for delivering health care too. As for the esthetics, it is the city of RIchmond paying for the skating stuff, not the province. So for the record, I fully agree. That being said, it can be worthwhile to play devil's advocate every now and then, so here goes: if you compare health care spending here compared to, say, european countries whose systems rock, ours is WAY higher, yet we struggle so much. Perhaps the problems lie not in the funding, but in the system itself? I wonder how much beaurocracy eats up money and makes things more complicated than they need to be...
Keep up the good work, nurses! And paramedics! You rock too!
At 10:52 AM,
raych said…
come for beers tonight. ryan, also come.
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