Nursing and Stereotypes

One of the most important things that nurses need to do is to keep their stereotypes and prejudices at the door, and out of the profression.
This is one of the hardest things to do.  I've never considered myself overly judgmental, however, I have learned that my sub-conscious many times, jumps to conclusions on it's own, whether I admit it or not.  And unfortunately, its those moments that show me just how bias I really am.
The ER called to give me report.  The patient's admitting diagnosis was endocarditis (usually this is found in street drug users, especially if their drug of choice is percocet due to the fungal coating).
Stereotype number 1) "So he is an IV drug user?"  She told me, that of course he had denied it,but they were waiting for the result of the urine test.
When the patient arrived on the floor, and I saw him, my first impression became stereotype number 2.  He was this big muscular man with multiple tattoos and piercings, and he wore leather like he rode a motorcycle...in fact there was a helmet on the bed with him.  "Of course this man uses drug...there is no way he doesn't", I quickly caught my mind thinking.
As we were going over his admit paperwork, he adamantly denied using street drugs, smoking and alcohol.  I didn't think that I let anything show on my face, but I guess that my tone of voice gave something away.  As I was walking out the door, he quietly said, "I am a doctor.  I have been in Africa for the last three years, and I picked up the fungal infection there".
Ummm...I'm totally kicking myself now...This had to have been my most regretful and embarrassing moments so far.
I turned back around and quickly apologized...and found it really hard to look him in the eye.  He laughed "I'm used to it...you have no idea how many times I get that very reaction."  The rest of the night went smoothly and we were able to put it in the past thankfully.  He was very interesting and had some great stories to tell.
He was also the patient that made me re-examine the way that I view patients just based on report or things that I have heard other nurses say.  I made a quiet decision there, to make a harder effort to not judge my patients.  
  

Oh...There's That Vein

I love it when I have patients that make me smile and laugh.  They make the night go by so much faster.  One patient in particular had me about in fits and it wasn't even my patient.
The nurse I was working with asked me to go in and see if I could get some blood cultures on the patient.  Now many times when getting blood cultures we have to stick the patient twice...once on each arm.  The patient was upset and was complaining and trying to refuse.  Normally I let the patients refuse, however this patient was running a very high temp and the blood cultures were important.
I asked the tech to come in and help and asked her to distract the patient.  As the tech was talking to her, I tied the tourniquet and started to look for a good vein to get blood from. There was nothing.  I could not find a vein for the life of me.  Then the tech started to ask the patient about the men in her life.
The patient started to tell us about a man named Willard and another one named Ted.  She went on and on and was blushing as she was talking.  It wasn't very hard to figure out that she had a crush on these two guys (granted she was confused, but she was crushing on these two).  As she kept talking, her veins magically began to appear.  Not only did they appear but they popped out nice and big.  I was able to quickly get both of the sticks in and get the blood I needed.  She was so preoccupied with her guys that she was not even aware of when I stuck her.  It was a little amusing and made for a good laugh. 

Funny Moment

It’s important to remember to take time to laugh in the nursing profession.  Many nights, my co-workers are extremely busy and stressed out regarding the patients and yet we always try to find something to laugh about (and that’s why I’m a God send to my peers…because I’m good at making people laugh). 

For this story I can’t really give you much background information because it would totally ruin the story.

One morning as we were doing our bedside rounding and checking in on the patients…I managed to get a really good laugh at my co-workers expense.  The last patient we went in to check on was sitting up in bed drinking some apple juice.  Now normally this would not be out of the ordinary, but all of a sudden my co-worker began to freak out a little.  She jumped to the side of the bed and quickly took the apple juice from the patient.  I started to laugh and try to hide the laughter all at the same time.  The nurse was holding a urinal filled with apple juice!!!  This patient had been refusing to drink out of anything but the urinal all night (of course I made sure it was a clean one before I let him continue to drink from it).  The nurse coming on did not know this and thought he was drinking his urine.  The patient was not happy about his juice being taken away…and when I explained the situation, the nurse gave him back his juice.  I have to say it was one of the funniest things I had seen in a while.