Before I decided to write this, I had to watch the youtube clips of Ms. Colorado's monologue from the Ms. America Pageant since I was working last Sunday, then I had to watch the clips from that show "The View." Now that I have seen those video clips, I can finally say my piece. I applaud Ms Colorado a.k.a. Kelley Johnson, for her monologue. I bet she has other talents like singing, playing a musical instrument and dancing (just like the other contestants or any person for that matter), but she chose to share what gives her the reason to do what she does. Only to be mocked and insulted by some overpaid, ignorant ladies of a daytime show. First off, I have been working as a Registered Nurse for 9 years and 4 months. Currently I'm working at an LTACH (Long Term Acute Care Hospital) where we take care of Medical-Surgical/Telemetry patients. So after watching the video clips I was really appalled and disappointed with The View's hosts. Lets start off about us wearing Scrubs. We as nurses wear scrubs because it is functional and comfortable. It is NOT a costume. Since we work 12 or 8 hour shifts, sweating, cleaning feces, urine, discharges, wound exudates and giving bed baths to bedbound patients, we need to be able to run when there are rapid responses and code blues called overhead, to be able to effectively do chest compressions and there are tons of pockets to put our saline flushes, IV catheters and the like so we don't constantly go in and out of the supply room. We don't wear fashionable clothes or heels to work, unlike most of Corporate and Showbiz America (though a lot of scrubs look fashionable now) unless we are part of the Administration in the hospital or if we are in other fields of Nursing. Also let us not forget that Almost everyone who works in healthcare wears scrubs. That is something that those ignorant hosts from The View didn't realize about Nurses. We are versatile and can work in any field even if it isn't in healthcare or bedside nursing (which is most commonly associated with nurses). Because a nurse can be in Education, Politics, Law, Military, Law Enforcement, Computer Informatics, Business Management and even Show Business. Even the Medical Doctors, some if not most have a nursing degree as their pre-med course. They may not be wearing scrubs and performing bedside care anymore, but at some point, they did. Now lets go to the comment "Doctor's stethoscope." I have been using a stethoscope since I was in nursing school because it is required in order to properly assess our patients during our clinicals. Now that I have been working for a little over 9 years, I'm still using a stethoscope to auscultate my patient's heart, lungs and bowels, used the stet to listen and verify Salem Sump placements, To "listen" for bruits on an AV shunt, to used the stet to listen for that "tick" when we use a sphygmomanometer (manual blood pressure cuff) when the vital signs machine is not working and the list could go on and on. It is not just a Doctor's Stethoscope because its not only the Doctors who use it. License Vocational Nurses use it, Certified Nurse assistants use it, Respiratory Care Practitioners use it, Nurse Practioners use it, Physician's Assistants use it and of course Registered Nurses use it. Sometimes you'll see us without a stet draped around our neck because each patient's room have a stet provided, especially if the patients have some sort of MDRO (multi drug resistant organism) precaution and we want to prevent the spread to other patients or take them home (though we do bleach wipe them after every use). The stets is not a fashion accessory for us. We are not just nurses, the doctors and other ancilliary departments value what we say with regards to patient care because we are EDUCATED, COMPETENT and we have one of the most important roles in patient care because we are the ones who work hands on with the patient more than any other department in health care. The doctors may see you for maybe at most 30 minutes in a 24 hour period, but they rely on our assessment of the patient and what we recommend that could be done for the patient's care plan. We advocate for those who cannot speak out, take care of patients who are unappreciative, who kick, curse and belittle us whether it be related to their medical diagnosis or just because they're mean, depressed and in denial of their condition. We comfort the grieving when their love ones take their last breath. We try our best to fulfill the requests and at some point ridiculous demands of the family members when their family member is admitted in the hospital. We hold the hand and comfort the dying when they lie alone because their family could not make it and we cry in private for our patients who may not get better. The comments that the hosts made were very insulting and degrading to the nurses who break back, brain and bone to care for their patients. They don't even realize that it takes a lot of heart, dignity and sacrifice to care for someone who thinks so lowly of you and your profession. And to add more insult to injury they didn't actually apologize, instead, they made it seem that we, nurses and the rest of the world who bothered to watch their show weren't listening and misunderstood what they said. NEWSFLASH: like what other people and nurses have posted before me, WE ARE TRAINED TO LISTEN! What I wish would happen is that the hosts of "The View" (and whoever would think of insulting or belittling nurses) would wear our scrubs and stets then work our shifts. Meaning for 3 days in a week, they work day shift for 12 hours and then the next week they would work 3 days for 12 hours on night shift. Then the next week they work 5 days 8 hours for Morning shift, then next week work 5 days 8 hours for Evening shift and then the next week work 5 days 8 hours for Graveyard shift. That includes holding your pee in your bladder for 4-6 hours, not taking your 15 minutes break or having a late 30 minute lunch break, charting your assessments of your 4 or 5 patients, medicating your 4-5 patients using the 7 Rights in medication administration, discharging and admitting a patient, cleaning the body of an expired patient, talking to the doctors about the plan of care for the patient.. ALL ON CAMERA. I guess that would be an eye opener for them. Because real life work in a hospital is not like Grey's Anatomy, Nurse Jackie, HawthoRNe, General Hospital, House MD and Doogie Howser MD. We worked and studied hard to earn our nursing licenses. We nurses take pride in what we do, we have been serving people and saving lives without being recognized for the work we do. Unlike the first responders, we are almost always never publicly praised for what we do, but we still do our job without pomp or circumstance, but we do what we do with pride. I do hope that the hosts of "The View" do not get sick or debilitated and would require for them to be taken to a hospital.. Where they would be met on the forefront by Nurses who would need their "doctor's stethoscope" to take their vital signs, assess their heart beat, lung sounds and bowel sounds And then be triaged before being seen by a medical doctor who would usually confer with the nurse first before seeing you. Because any nurse worth their salt have taken offense on how lowly you see us nurses. We deserve more respect than this. [Btw, that's me in the breakroom on my 15 minute break at 4:45am during one of my shifts.]
