We Recognize Nurse For All They Do!

Nurse Diane

Today is another day that is near and dear to me - National Nurse's Day/week.  I remember the first year I was working.  The hospital went around to all the floors delivering nice umbrellas to the nurses.  In the past few years while I was working at home, I didn't get much in terms of gifts, but the appreciation was very apparent.

Nurses just want to be appreciated on this day and all days.  Being a nurse is not a very easy job, not only do you have to have Patience (patients) but you also have to have knowledge, skill and a caring heart.

Nurses work nights, days, weekends and holidays.  They spend time away from their own families to take care of your family member.  When you take care of someone, you do so in a way that you imagine how someone would take care of you, or your family member.

Not only do you have to learn the skills, but you must continue learning, drugs change, procedures change. Things improve to make health care better.

Nurses can be found in all types of places such as schools, hospitals, DRs offices, and sports arenas, off shore wells, campgrounds, airplanes, and any place where the possibility of injury or illness is around.

Today is National Nurse's Day.  According to holiday insites.com, the purpose of nurse's day is recognition to nurses for their contributions and commitment to quality health care. It brings awareness to the importance of nurses in the care , comfort, and well being of all of us, and especially our children and the aging, and those in poor health.

The roots of International Nurses Day goes back to 1953, when Dorothy Sutherland of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare sent a proposal to President Eisenhower to proclaim a "Nurse Day" in October of the following year. The proclamation was not officially made. But, this day was born and eventually gained national recognition.  Some of the individual days include:

May 6-12: National Nurse's Week

May 8: National Student Nurses Day

May 6th: National Nurses Day

Wednesday of Nurse's Week: School Nurses Day

May 12: International Nurse's Day

November 14: Operating Room Nurse Day

So today, if you know a nurse, or come in contact with one today, make sure to say thanks for all their hard work!

(All images from Google) 

Emergency Room Nurse's Week

(Google Image) 

By Nurse Diane

While working in the hospital, we were frequently moved to other areas to work when the staffing was short.   One of my favorite areas to work in was the Emergency Department.  This department is constantly moving.  You never know what is going to happen when the next patient comes through the door.  I’m sure you have seen television shows like ER and House.  The action is fast paced, and people are bleeding and having tubes pushed down their throat, and they are getting paddles ready to shock you back to life.  While this kind of activity may happen in the larger cities, here in my small town, we never experience anything that critical.

(Google Image) 

The nurses in the Emergency Department have to be knowledgeable in every area, and every medical problem - from heart attacks, to women in labor to cuts and broken bones.  When you go to the hospital for an emergency, you are frightened and anxious.  You rely on the medical staff there to take care of the problem, and fix it and make you all better.

(Google Image) 

This anxiousness also calls for alot of patient nursing care.  People often take out their anger on those who are there to help them, only because they are the closest ones available.  The Emergency department is quickly becoming more like a battle ground instead of a hospital.  Drug addicts come in, hoping to steal drugs, fighting family members want to include nurses in their fights, as well as unruly patients.  The security at the Emergency Departments has become tighter than Fort Knox, just to keep the nurses and other staff safe.

(Google Image) 

Many people come to the ER with just a cold or virus.  These nurses treat these patients with importance as well.  While the work in the ER is stressful and tedious at times, there is still no place in the hospital these nurses would rather work.  On the site lifeinthefastlane.com, these examples of Emergency room nurses were listed.

You know you’re an Emergency Nurse when:

• You see stress as a normal way of life;
• Your idea of a good time is a code at shift change;
• You occasionally park in the space with the “Doctors Only” sign, and knock it over;
• You have recurrent nightmare of being hit and run over by a portable X-ray machine;
• You silently diagnose people as you walk through the shopping center;
• Your most common assessment question is “what changed tonight to make it an emergency after 6 years?”;
• When checking the level orientation of your patients, you aren't sure of the correct answer yourself;
• You have competitions with patients presenting with urinary retention, who has the largest bladder volume;
• Your sense of humor seems to get more “warped’ each year;
• You think transdermal meal patches would be a good idea;
• Your family members must have a fever over 104° or be missing a limb with active bleeding in order to receive your sympathy;
• You believe the government should introduce a permit to be able to reproduce; and
• You believe “to stupid to die” should be a diagnosis.

(Google Image) 

This is Emergency Room Nurse's Week.  If you or a family member have to experience the Emergency Department at your local hospital, please be kind to the nurses there.  They are only there to help you, they can't make tests return any faster, or move along the other patients any quicker.  They will show you the same time, courtesy, professionalism and care as they show to the patient before you, and the ones who come after you.  Even if you aren't feeling your best, they will try their best to make you feel better.   Show your gratitude to an Emergency Department Nurse today.

Perioperative Nurse Week

(Google Image)

By Diane Forrest, RN

I can't remember when I wanted to be a nurse, seems like I have always wanted to be one.  I do remember watching MASH and the scenes in the operating room.  The surgeons, Hawkeye, Frank, BJ, the Colonel, and Trapper John, would tell the nurse what instrument they needed and she would hand them with speed and precision.  I was always impressed with this, and thought it would be an exciting career.

Being a perioperative nurse is a very difficult position.  Their day begins very early.  They start the day checking the procedures for the day.  Then they make sure all the supplies and equipment are available.  Once the room has been taken care of they make rounds and visit the patients and talk with them about the procedures, answer any questions, make sure the Doctor's orders are correct and all the permits are signed.  When the visit is completed, they return back to the operating suite and start to scrub up.  This takes 15 minutes, and that’s just the hand washing.  Once scrubbed, gowned and gloved, they enter the operating room and set up the supplies.  This is all done using sterile technique.  Not only do they have to set out the supplies using sterile technique, but they must maintain an accurate count of everything from scalpels to sponges.  This is to make sure the beginning count and the end count match.  You don’t want to sew a patient up with more parts than he came in with.

(Google Image)

Once everything has been prepared, the patient arrives and is positioned to the area that will be operated on.  The anesthesiologist arrives to put them "under", and finally the surgeon appears to do his thing.   As I am writing this I am reminded of the joke about men cooking:

When a man volunteers to do the 'BBQ' the following chain of events are put into motion:

• The woman goes to the store.
• The woman fixes the salad, vegetables, and dessert
• The woman prepares the meat for cooking, places it on a tray along with the necessary cooking utensils, and takes it to the man, who is lounging beside the grill, beer in hand.
• The man places the meat on the grill.
• The woman goes inside to set the table and check the vegetables.
• The woman comes out to tell the man that the meat is burning.
• The man takes the meat off the grill and hands it to the woman.
• The woman prepares the plates and brings them to the table.
• After eating, the woman clears the table and does the dishes.
• Everyone praises man and thanks him for his cooking efforts.
• The man asks the woman how she enjoyed "her night off."

And, upon seeing her annoyed reaction, concludes that there's just no pleasing some women.

This is how it is with Perioperative nurses and Surgeons.  This week is Preoperative Nurse Week.  If you are planning on having surgery, or know someone who is, remember all the hard work they do to make things go smoothly for you and show them your appreciation.

(Google Image)