Study Nursing....

...in your Spare Time
This was the title of some recent inbox spam. Compelling, no? It was the "spare time" part that really hooked me. "Why become a nurse?" the spammy body text asks. Why indeed. Apparently...
a nursing career is recession proof
a full time position usually includes benefits
there is a national shortage of nurses
and you can
work in a professional environment
Oh dear. If this spammage reflects common and successful strategies in nursing career recruitment, I'd say there are some nurse trainees that are in for a rather rude awakening.

"the lady with the f---ing lamp"

From Big Train

Puss

As the in house linguistics major, I was sometimes called upon for word and language references when I worked as a unit secretary. My least favorite was the time a nurse asked me to use my extremely out of practice Italian to communicate with one of our frequent fliers who spoke nearly no English. "Hai dolore al petto?" I asked tentatively (and, I think, incorrectly), only to be rewarded with his barrage of fluent Italian, of which I caught about every fourth word. I felt totally unhelpful and we were none the wiser for the nurse's having recruited me in her efforts to communicate with her patient.

But my all time favorite was puss - or more specifically - the adjectival form of that word. On more that one occasion I was fed the line which began "How do you spell..." And I would answer merrily "Exactly how you hope it isn't spelled."

I asked my mother about this one time. Without batting an eye, she rattled off "p-u-r-u-l-e-n-t". Damned English major RNs.

blogging nurse(s)

Celtic Rose at First Do No Harm examines the issue of "Patient vs Client" in an excellent post.
I work in the ICU, these are not clients, these are not customers, they have not chosen to be here. They would give anything NOT to be here.