shovelhead
Experienced Member
Posts:141
 |
| 05/04/2009 1:53 AM |
|
Here is a pretty damn nice letter from a physician to the great unwashed. I was impressed as he really understands what goes on in a busy ER. Yes, I work in the ER. Yes, I DO think we have some of the highest calibre and hardest working nurses in the profession.
Forward this to all the ER nurses you know! Article written by a doctor in the ED
Guest Editorial ACEP News
September 2006
By David F. Baehren, M.D.
For a generation or two, we have lamented the loss of role models in society.
As
parents and individuals, we naturally seek out others we would like to
emulate. Sadly, a serious search through the popular culture leaves us
empty-handed and empty-hearted. Thanks to a long list of legal and
moral shenanigans, many entertainers, politicians, and athletes long
since abdicated this momentous position of responsibility.
We
usually look afar for heroes and role models, and in doing so overlook
a group of professionals who live and work in our midst: nurses.
And
not just any kind of nurse: the emergency nurse. There are plenty of
people involved in emergency care, and no emergency department could
function without all of these people working as a team. But it is the
emergency nurse who shoulders the weight of patient care. Without these
modern-day heroes, individually and collectively we would be in quite a
pinch.
This unique breed of men and women are the lock stitch in the
fabric of our health care safety net. Their job is a physical,
emotional, and intellectual challenge.
Who helped the paramedics lift the last 300-pound patient who came in?
Who took the verbal lashing from the curmudgeon giving admitting orders over the phone?
Who came to tell you that the guy you ordered the nitro drip for is taking Viagra?
The
emergency nurse has the thankless job of sitting in triage while both
the long and the short buses unload at once. With limited information,
they usually send the patient in the right direction while having to
fend off some narcissistic clown with a zit on his butt. They absorb
the penetrating stares from weary lobby dwellers and channel all that
negative energy to some secret place they only tell you about when you
go to triage school.
Other kinds of nurses serve key roles in health
care and attend to their patients admirably. However, few function
under the gun like emergency nurses do.
It is the emergency nurse
who cares for the critical heart failure patient until the intensive
care unit is "ready" to accept the patient. The productivity of the
emergency nurse expands gracefully to accommodate the endless flow of
patients while the rest of the hospital "can't take report." Many of
our patients arrive "unwashed." It is the emergency nurse who delivers
them "washed and folded." To prepare for admission a patient with a hip
fracture who lay in stool for a day requires an immense amount of
care--and caring.
Few nurses outside of the emergency department
deal with patients who are as cantankerous, uncooperative, and violent.
These nurses must deal with patients who are in their worst physical
and emotional state. We all know it is a stressful time for patients
and family, and we all know who the wheelbarrow is that the shovel
dumps into.
For the most part, the nurses expect some of this and
carry on in good humor. There are times, however, when the patience of
a saint is required.
In fact, I believe that when emergency nurses
go to heaven, they get in the fast lane, flash their hospital ID, and
get the thumbs-up at the gate. They earn this privilege after being
sworn at, demeaned, spit on, threatened, and sometimes kicked, choked,
grabbed, or slugged. After this, they go on to the next patient as if
they had just stopped to smell a gardenia for a moment.
Great
strength of character is required for sustained work in our field. The
emergency department is a loud, chaotic, and stressful environment. To
hold up under these conditions is no small feat. To care for the
deathly ill, comfort suffering children, and give solace to those who
grieve their dead takes discipline, stamina, and tenderness. To sit
with and console the family of a teenager who just died in an accident
takes the strength of 10 men.
Every day emergency nurses do what we
are all called to do but find so arduous in practice. That is: to love
our neighbors as ourselves.
They care for those whom society renders
invisible. Emergency nurses do what the man who changed the world 2,000
years ago did. They look squarely in the eye and hold the hand of those
most couldn't bear to touch. They wash stinky feet, clean excrement,
and smell breath that would give most people nightmares.
And they do it with grace.
So, here's to the emergency nurse. Shake the hand of a hero before your next shift.
DR.
BAEHREN lives in Ottawa Hills, Ohio, and practices emergency medicine.
He is the author of "Roads to Hilton Head Island." He welcomes your
feedback at DFBaehren@ameritech.net.
|
|
Motorcycle racing make heroin look like a vague craving for salt. |
|
|