Sunday, May 20, 2007

Be A Miracle in Someone Else's Life

Instead of looking for a miracle in your life,
look to see if you are the miracle in someone else's life. ~~Nola Rohde Vollmer

Oh jeez, can you tell my mood. I know we can't all be the "miracle in someone else's life", and I probably get more chances than most considering I'm an ER nurse, but sometimes I just get plain tired of trying to make a difference. And I really, really hate being scammed. Like the other night my patient right up front asked me to get her some Valium for her back pain because that is "the only thing that works". First off, I'm not the doc, NP, PA, or whoever, and all I do is follow their orders, not the patient's requests. So when I went into the room to give this lady a pain pill she was like "where is my Valium?". I told her the PA didn't prescribe her one and to take the pain pill and we would see how she feels later. I could already tell where this one was going. So, over the course of the next 45 minutes her friend came up to the desk repeatedly requesting Valium for her friend. I very firmly each time told her I would be in the room in a little bit (and I was three more times). When I went into the room to discharge the patient she became very irate and started screaming at me that I was a horrible nurse, that I had no bedside manner, that I was "trapping her in the bed" when I tried to take her blood pressure and demanded that I "get the charge nurse". I really, really, really hate it when patients think they can get what they want by demanding a supervisor. Thank goodness the charge nurse that night stuck up for me and even stated he was standing by the PA when he handed me the chart and said that he was not going to prescribe the patient any Valium. So the patient left all in a huff and trying to act like she was going to throw up because she was so upset and needed her Valium. As she passed by me she said "You are mean!" That got everyone laughing, but it really wasn't funny because I mean, jeez, this isn't why I got into nursing. KWIM?

Ciao! De;)

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