Firefighter Vs. Nursing Home – I can relate, can you?

Classic, we were passing that around at work last week. Also look up “Patient faking seizure in the ER”.

Been there, done that CK!

I try to remind myself and my co-workers that we only see nursing home and visiting nurses at their worst. Occasionally they do call us before things get extremely bad, and in my area these would be handled by a transfer BLS crew.

I'm also reminded of the old doctor joke: “What do you call the guy who graduated last in his med school class?” Answer: “Doctor.”

Same thing goes for nurses, and even paramedics.

I just had to leave you a comment. I am currently a home health nurse, but I have worked in nursing homes in the past. I have had to call EMS a few times as a home health nurse, but, fortunately, never in the nursing home. When I worked in the nursing home, it was often on weekends as it was my second job. I did not know the residents, but I made a point of finding out as much as possible about any patient who seemed on the verge of some kind of serious illness. Had I been forced to call for an ambulance, I probably would have had to use some of those lines myself. I have a lot of respect for paramedics, firemen, and EMTs, who I realize save lives on a daily basis. I don't get to do that in my job, but in many cases I get to help make their lives a little better. In my career, I've only managed to actually save one, maybe two lives. But I've made countless patients and family members more comfortable, I've done lots of teaching that some doctor or clinic nurse failed to do, and I've been able to catch potential problems well before it was necessary to call 911. All that being said, I am a good nurse, with 15 years experience, and there is not much I wouldn't do to make sure my patients are well cared for. My experience with EMTs and medics is that they approach nurses with the attitude that we don't have a clue. It would be so nice for you guys to find out that we don't have a clue before you automatically act as if we don't. Out of about a dozen times I had to call 911 from a patient's home, I've had about 4 medics who didn't come into the home with an attitude, asking me questions with a hostile tone of voice, and even rolling their eyes when they found out I am a home health nurse. Whenever there is time, assuming that the patient is relatively stable, I write down the meds and diagnoses, doctor's name, and any other pertinent info that I think they will need, so that there is no need for writing on gloves or uniform pants as I have seen many medics do. I don't call 911 if there is not a true emergency or if there is a family member who can drive the patient to the hospital. I usually call the non-emergency number in order to not tie up 911. It saddens me that there are so many of these videos that make nurses appear to be idiotic puppets. Apparently, many of you have had experiences that have made you believe that most of us are that way. Just so you know, if I were making videos, the male medics would be portrayed as cocky, hostile, impatient asses, and the female ones would be even worse. Thank goodness there are good ones out there, I just wish that the good nurses and medics outnumbered the bad ones, and that we could all learn to respect and appreciate each other as medical professionals with very valuable skills to offer our patients.