Nurses are undoubtedly the unsung heroes of the medical world. From hospitals, schools, homes to correctional facilities, nurses work in a wide variety of settings, providing medical care and support to millions around the world.
Mamamia spoke to three nurses about their job and about some of the things a lot of people may not know about what they do.
“I love working weekends,” and other things nurses never say. Post continues after this video.
1. We do not know everything.
Nurses are obviously highly educated, medical professionals but like all of us, they do not know it all and often this is one of the misconceptions of nurses.
“We are not a medical dictionary,” Tanya*, a Queensland nurse of eight years told Mamamia.
“So many people expect us to know all of the answers for everything, but the reality is we often don’t have them. The nature of our job often means a wide variety of medical issues are presented to us on any one day and they all vary depending on so many factors, so it can be really hard to just provide an answer at the drop of a hat,” she said.
2. No, we cannot bring home supplies!
“People think we can go to work to shop for medical supplies, the number of things I’ve been asked for is ridiculous,” Mandy*, a nurse of 28 years told Mamamia.
Top Comments
Making mistakes is a big one.
The unfortunate fact is that every nurse at some stage will make a mistake, it's inevitable. You really just have to accept within yourself that you didn't mean to, own up to it, and hopefully learn from the experience. Your mistake may even be the catalyst for change in the hospital.
I myself was the victim of a drug error while in hospital, and received the wrong dosage of morphine. Ten times more than was intended. Hospital ended up doing a MET call (calling for the Medical Emergency Team) because of course my heart rate, blood pressure and respiration rate bottomed out. Hospital staff were extremely worried. I couldn't get up the energy to be worried, seeing as how I was simultaneously floating on the ceiling and nailed to the bed. Only thing that bothered me was that they might take away my iPod.
Oh Zepgirl. I was suitably shocked by your story, but then had a little giggle. I’m glad you and your ipod made it through.😊
Oh, I was hanging onto that thing for dear life. 'Yes, I can breathe fine, now for the love of God, stop interrupting my music!'
Hopefully, any nurse working on a Palliative Care ward would be professional enough not to refer to dying/death as 'passed away'.
What is the preferred professional phrase in this instance?
I've no experience here so I was curious about what the options are since they seem very limited.
Actually, having worked as part of a multidisciplinary pall care team, you do try to be as gentle as possible with patients and their families (many of whom are far more upset than the patient themselves). Saying ‘passed away’, ‘when Mum passes away’ etc etc is terminology often used when you’re trying to be very gentle and comforting at a very emotionally fraught time. Of course everyone is all too painfully aware that ‘died’ or ‘dying’ are the more correct terms, but you’ve really got to pick your moments to pull out the straight talk in these situations.
Totally agree with your words Carolyn.
Between professionals, using euphemisms is very much frowned upon (so we don't use those kinds of terms when communicating with each other). However, when dealing with patients and their families, it is quite appropriate to follow their lead and use language that they feel most comfortable with.