COWman's Corner of the Web

I found this image to be rather amusing. As we all know, a nurse in doubt should always consult his/her "readily" (and I use that word losely) available reference materials on his/her unit, and/or the unit's policies and procedures. Appearantly, where this nurse works, those materials are kept in another building, somewhere on a wind swept moor. And you thought tracking down the drug book at the nurse's station was annoying. Imagine having to put on your cape ever time you needed it.

The title of this entry is a direct quote from my hospital's chief of police during a talk he gave during our nurse education days. He said that he is married to a nurse, so therefor he has an understanding of what makes nurses tick. This got me to thinking about whether or not nurses are any different than any other group of professionals.

The answer that I came up with was a resounding "Yes". I also think that nurses in specific work areas are very different than nurses in other work areas. Personally, I can't imagine working anywhere other than a emergency room. There is just something about the barely controlled chaos, the unrelenting urgency, the collisons with coworkers at every corner, the constant interuptions, etc. that keeps me going. The idea of working on a floor, or worse, in a clinic setting, makes me want to run screaming for the hills (not that I don't appreciate those nurses or their skills, just not the place for me).

I think the best evidence that I have that I should be an ER nurse happened just after New Year's. In our current department, our trauma room opens directly into our kitchen area. Since we do not have a break room at the moment, if you want to grab a quick bite during your shift, you have to do it in the kitchen. One Sunday night, I was eating my lunch in the kitchen (since the cafeteria was closed at that point) while we had a patient come into the trauma room in full arrest. Since the rest of the department was pretty slow, a number of us were standing in the doorway watching and/or being available to help during the code. I calmly stood there eating my lunch while the code went on. Another nurse saw this and said, "You are a true ER nurse if you can eat during a code". But then again, I was not the only one doing it either.......




It's things like that which convince me that us nurses are a special group of people. We have a........... unique sense of humor, and general view of life. The more different nurse's blogs I read, the more I realize that we nurses just are not quite "right", and most of us would not have it any other way!