Nurses

Yeah, because those look comfortable.

But what would the men wear?

The capping ceremony used to be a big thing, but none of the men had caps...

I think they should dress in white, white scrubs if they want, but white. In most hospitals you can't tell the RNs from the techs unless you know the hospital's colors. I also think those with long hair , male nurses and techs too, should be required to were it tied back. I hate it when their hair hangs on my arm when they're doing a blood draw or starting an IV. I also think they should have to have trimmed fingernails, not the daggers so many of them have and for God's sake not be allowed to wear any kind of scent. People have respiratory diseases that perfume and after shave can make worse.

What I'm amazed at is how many doctors, usually female attendings wear very high heals. WTH does a woman walk around on those all day long?

I agree because in today's hospital settings it is difficult to distinguish among nurses, aides, ward clerks, cleaning staff, etc. because they all dress in smocks and pants. Perhaps the RNs could wear their caps.

R2: male nurses (orderlies) wore white shirts similar to those worn by male doctors, and white trousers; that look could still work today.

Well they do look way more professional than today. Today's nurses have taken casual day too far.

I agree. I hate the modern ways. Nurses without caps. Nuns without full black habits.

The caps were vectors for infections. They were made of stiff material and impossible to wash. And yes, they were uncomfortable.

As long as the male nurses wear the same uniform, I don't see a problem

The women used to wear capes.

Nurses are revered but most aren't very educated (2 years and you're an RN) and most are Trumpians and fraus if their female. Bland and group think.

Well, the gentlemen of DL certainly get pissy about every little thing, don't they?

I guess that's why gay men have the reputation they do.

[quote] Nurses are revered but most aren't very educated (2 years and you're an RN) and most are Trumpians and fraus if [bold] their [/bold] female.

Pot--> kettle

R12 I believe LPNs have 2 years of study. An RN these days has 4 years/bachelor's degree. My sister, who is retired, went to a nursing school years ago. They went full-time 3 years and were RNs when they graduated, but did not have a bachelor's degree. She said they just lacked a few courses to get their bachelor's but she was eager to get to work.

Many RNs are as smart and knowledgeable as an M.D. Also, they are often the highest ranking medical person around when something goes down at the hospital. For example, many an RN has delivered a baby when the dr. was still on the golf course, delayed getting to the hospital, etc. Most drs. respect them because they do have training and experience.

Those outfits went out of fashion after Michael Caine wore one in Dressed to Kill.

The caps were boiled and starched and recorded meticulously based on the design of each particular nursing school. The capes kept the starched uniforms from getting wrinkled by coat sleeves.

Those prim, fitted dresses and neat hats worked when nurses spent most of the time walking around giving out med cups and charting. When I worked in an ICU, we were hauling incapacitated patients around (including ambulating patients on ventilators and complex cardiac support equipment like VADs), dragging machines to and from rooms, and squatting/ kneeling on the floor to check and plug things in. Hospital patients live longer, are more ill when hospitalized, and are discharged as soon as possible to make way for sicker people. It is a much different job now. I can’t imaging wearing a dress and hat for that kind of work.

In my hospital, RNs wore blue scrubs, techs wore green, lift team wore black, and I think that respiratory therapy wore their own color as well. Patients learned quickly who was who.

I loved wearing scrubs to work—the are comfortable, cheap, and easy to care for. It is a huge luxury, actually.

[Quote]The capping ceremony used to be a big thing, but none of the men had caps...

They still have them, and the males still don't wear caps.

....

Such a faggy thread.

OP, did you start the thread about bringing back the rolled hair for women? Are you trying to relive your childhood?

With long sleeves to cover up those with tragic tattoos.

White uniforms? LOL. Do you want to be reminded of the horrorshow that nursing entails with stains from blood, pus, and shit left behind even after the scrubs are washed? Because that’s what you’re proposing. If you’re well enough to be concerned about what I’m wearing as your nurse you’re not sick enough to be in my unit.

OMG, nurse’s cape is really a Thing:

Quite fetching, I must say:

I like Miss India. Do you think she's the most popular nurse in the collection? I think she probably is. She looks friendly. I can kind of see how she'd look in a wedding gown if our first date went well. I don't know where we'd go on our first date. Where would you go? Do you think Miss Morocco looks snobby? I do. She has cold eyes.

Ivy League jocks should wear classic cotton BIKE jocks.

And I like my thug meat in a durag.

Our nursing class photo looked VERY different from R19's pic. There were three guys in my class. The females in our class outnumbered us in voting for nursing caps for the class photo. We three voted NO As we would, obviously, not be wearing nursing caps and would look "left out." When I offhandedly mentioned that we would fit in as we three would be wearing white painter's caps (backwards) if the women wore their nursing caps, the vote immediately changed to NO CAPS for anyone. I loved it.

all the people i deal with at my clinic wear every day clothes. even my docs. the LPN's? kinda nurses but not really nurses wear scrubs....it is kinda strange to see my doc in her regular pants or capri's and normal flats....but hey, good for them...

L.P.N.s (Licensed Practical Nurses) are nurses, Brainiac. You say you work in a clinic? Is literacy not a requirement there?

Ja Zuster!

In NY, the scope of practice for an LPN is way different then an RN, but I was surprised to learn that NYSNA hasn’t taken away their ability to administer meds. I know they can’t push it in an IV though, or hang blood. We don’t really have LPNs in my hospital in the acute care sections, but I think they still have them in some of our ambulatory clinics. Skilled nursing homes use them though, for sure. Because no one wants to work there!

I love the nurses in old movies. So cool and competent and sexless in their white uniforms, smoothing sheets, fluffing pillows, telling visitors they have to leave now...

It was a good look on me.

I think the workload of RNs has changed too much, they’re really the backbone of a hospital. How could they wear an uncomfortable outfit for the long hours and grueling work they do? Sometimes they get UTIs because they hold their piss so long without a break.

OP doesn't care, R37. He just wants women to go back to the aesthetics of his childhood for whatever deep-seated psychological reason. There's a lot of that around here.

If I were a patient, I wouldn't care if a nurse came into my room wearing a clown outfit as long as they connected with me, made eye contact, were sincere, and made good on their promises for pain medicine, timely care, and attention to my needs as a patient. Young nurses these days FAIL on these things continually because they are only marginally developed as moral human beings.

[Quote]Many RNs are as smart and knowledgeable as an M.D.

Nurses are absolutely the backbone of medical care but statements like this are a bit silly. The level of medical knowledge between an RN and a MD is big.

RNs are great for standard patient care, but if you have unusual cases you will quickly realize the limits of their knowledge.

RNs take two years of school. Many hospitals will only hire nurses with bachelors degrees but that's changing again because of a nurses' shortage. The majority are Conservative Republicans. They chose nursing because it's a traditional woman's job and they can't think out of the box. They don't support the ACA even though it goes against their own paycheck. They marry alcoholic brutes that expect them to take care of the kids and housework while the husbands are barely employable or have low level jobs. This is what they accept, even the cheating. On the weekends they go to Trump rallies and sell candles and leggings on the side. They are in huge credit card dept but appreciate the extra 20 dollars a paycheck that Trump so graciously gave them. They only know big box stores and churches and read romance novels on their phones.

Nurses should wear whatever is comfortable and practical. Scrubs sounds great but I can see the need to be able to visually ID nursing staff, so obviously a colour code is needed. I would go for navy blue for nurses. If not scrubs, maybe a tunic top and trousers would bridge the gap between scrubs and the old style nurses dresses.

RN here (retired). Hospital administrators like to dress nurses and aides alike in order to fool the public into thinking that they're getting competent nursing care when in fact they are receiving treatment from a poorly paid aide with a minimum of training. People need to learn to study the name tags carefully in order to understand who does what.

That said, there are many competent aides who work hard and there is no reason that aides can't do routine chores like bathing, noninvasive treatments and the like.

I was an LPN before I was an RN and during the run through prior to the actual capping ceremony an instructor announced that she didn't want the men to feel left out of the ceremony and had found an appropriate substitute for the caps. She then reached into a bag and pulled out several jockstraps. Much laughter ensued (including some nervous laughter). It was a joke, of course.

How much education is required for an RN is determined by the Nurse Practice Act (a state law) which varies from state to state. In Massachusetts you can earn RN status by graduating from a two year or four year accredited college program or by graduating from a three year 'diploma school' which is not accredited as a college but is accredited to teach nursing skills. In all cases you also have to pass the state Nursing Board exam. In recent decades the diploma schools (which once did all of the nursing training and were often affiliated with hospitals) have been closing. I'm not sure how many are left.

In Massachusetts you need to have a Bachelors Degree and then complete a Masters level program to become a Nurse Practitioner. There are also a lot of 'Specialty' certificates one can earn after a training period to do specialized nursing care. Usually the more training and accredited you are, the higher your pay.

R43 agree 100%.

R38 its not that difficult to figure out; hospitals are bleak and depressing enough without having to look at bedraggled nurses that look like they were dressed by blind monkeys, in ill-fitting, unmatched, unflattering, slept-in-looking smocks and scrubs and crocs.

The image of a perfectly attired woman in immaculate white at the bedside who can ease all worries and pains may not be a practical or realistic one, but it remains a comforting one for many patients.

No Bitches. I'm a male nurse. I ain't wearin' that fucked up hat.

[quote]Nurses are revered but most aren't very educated (2 years and you're an RN) and most are Trumpians and fraus if their female.

The oncology nurses at my infusion center are liberals and Trump haters. My favorite one told me she'd help me plan some assassinations if I learn my cancer is terminal and want to go out with a bang. (We were joking, NSA.) Also, they are smart AF; good at everything from science to math to human relations.

Hospice nurses are angels on Earth

Man nurses, too, OP? LOL. I won't wear that hat for you, but I do a lot of heavy lifting for you that you might appreciate. ;)

Sudanese male nurses wear their hats and bloody aprons with pride.

My mother was an R.N. for forty years and she was very proud of her cap. As for the white uniform, unless you work in the ER or Surgery, the uniform is not going to see much blood, if any. I have no recollection of any bloody uniforms. As for the cap, two Bobby pins held it in place all day long. Easy.

The current practice of wearing scrubs is disgusting. And I NEVER want to see someone in scrubs in a grocery store. JEEZUS!

R41, Do you wear a headlamp with your head stuck so far up your ass?

Some of you need to get out of your mother's basement and join the 21st century. Maybe you live in rural Flyoverville, but in any hospital I've ever been in, the staff wears clearly-identifiable tags with their hospital I.D. that denotes their function (I.e.: C.N.A., R.N., etc.). If you report having pain to the lady who brings your breakfast tray in to you or the guy who restocks the toilet paper in your bathroom, don't be surprised that, "That damn nurse took FOREVER to bring my pain pill!"

Agree, OP.

An RN degree is the same as a 2 year Associates Degree. It takes a 4 year Bachelors Degree to become a PA (Physician's Assistant).

I think the old uniforms kept them thin. Once they were allowed to work in their jammies they all got fat.

Sometimes - okay, a lot of the time - DL shows its age. And this thread is one of those. As for keeping the cap in place with bobby pins - bitch, please get with the real world. Some of you have no idea what goes on beyond the tips of your noses. Violence against healthcare workers has exploded in the past decade. These people - mostly women, of course - have bigger fish to fry than indulging the sexist

^^Ugh, fucking phone. They have better things to do than indulging the sexist expectations of people who want them to look perfect while doing an extremely messy job.

Now that's a cap

Male nurse with cap.

Nurses: They shouldn't wear their scrubs to work as they're being in outside germs into a building full of sick people. There, I fixed it for you OP you sexist, misogynistic homosexual. Why don't gay men stop acting like hateful, bitter, miserable, nasty "cunts"?

^bringing in...oh and 🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕. Thanks.

Fat nurse in jammies at R61

What is with all the threads lately scolding women for how they look/dress/groom?? Get a new hobby!

Nurses are not Trump supporters LOL. They’re unionized and work in health care. Sure, some are republican and voted for Trump but that is not the majority. Many are liberals.

Mean girl alert ! @ R61

[quote]What I'm amazed at is how many doctors, usually female attendings wear very high heals. WTH does a woman walk around on those all day long?

I visited a friend in the hospital for several days in a row, and there was a doctor probably in her 30s who made her rounds each day wearing a tight black dress and hot pink stiletto high heels. No white lab coat. It made me wonder if she had a second job as a streetwalker.

There was a very muscular male doctor who also made rounds wearing a tight shirt that emphasized his muscles and tight pants. Again no lab coat.

The average age of this thread is 78.

I ain’t wearing white bitches. Kiss my ass!

R32: no, i do not work in a clinic thank dog since i am not a brainiac right? i admit my LPN description sucked and i have the greatest respect for all nurses. more than for MD's actually.

but i didn't need you to be such a PAIN IN MY HOLE with your sarcasm and holier than everyone remarks. some of us are up at all odds writing may not be 100% when we do it.

some of us also may have just found out friends we know had their homes burned to nothing in Paradise so probably shouldn't have been looking for some kind of grief relief here.

oh, and you have a nice weekend ok?

Someone needs to take their insane little meltdown offline.

[quote]If I were a patient, I wouldn't care if a nurse came into my room wearing a clown outfit as long as they connected with me, made eye contact, were sincere, and made good on their promises for pain medicine, timely care, and attention to my needs as a patient. Young nurses FAIL on these things continually because they are only marginally developed as moral human beings.

Yes, why don’t you blame the ‘marginally developed ‘ morals of the young nurse because your Tylenol was a few minutes late when it’s your generation that has made the working conditions of modern nurses abysmal with constant understaffing to maximize administrative profits. Your frame of reference must be when nurses only passed pain pills and fluffed pillows, and could take 10 minute smoke breaks on the hour.

The ones i work with are definitely Trump supporters, marginally educated, and not in a union. They live in lily white suburbs and come into the "inner city" hospital to complain about how scary the neighborhood is. All the while the scary city they come to has 300,000 people and as many fortune 500 companies as Boston Ma. But this is a red state.

I'm a RN. I went to a 4 year school and have a BSN.

No way in hell is wearing white conducive to the work life of a RN. I also don't wear scrubs into the hospital. We change into hospital provided scrubs once we arrive. We also change throughout the shift due to every sort of body fluid you can imagine. We change back into street clothes before we leave.

I work in a NICU. At my hospital you must be a RN to work in all ICUs so there's no discrepancies. However, it's easy to know who's who by looking at ID badge.

I disagree with the poster who said RNs don't know as much as MDs. I may not know as much about say cancer patients/protocols but I will put my knowledge/expertise about my specialty against any doctor in my field. We are patient advocates. We are the last line & I can't tell you how often we are the ones to guide the MD into the correct ventilator change, if the patient is showing signs of sepsis, if we hear a cardiac murmur or see a change in the EKG, etc... And don't get me started on how often we're the ones guiding the code.

Being a RN is a stressful job that only grows more stressful by the year due to cut backs

And the bullshit that RNs are Trumpanzes ? You're an idiot.

[quote] "An RN degree is the same as a 2 year Associates Degree. It takes a 4 year Bachelors Degree to become a PA (Physician's Assistant).—Anonymous"

Yes, R54, an R.N. may have a two-year degree (Associate Degree) OR a four-year degree (Baccalaureate or Bachelor's Degree) in Nursing. A P.A. (Physician's Assistant) or an A.P.N./A.P.R.N. (Advanced Practice Registered Nurse or Nurse Practitioner) requires additional study beyond a four-year degree. A P.A. is governed by the A.M.A. (American Medical Association), whereas A.P.N.s/A.P.R.N.s/Nurse Practitioners are licensed to deliver care under their state's Board of Registered Nursing.

I don’t even think we have diploma nurses in NY now? I remember though the massive state psych hospitals had programs that graduated hundreds of diploma nurses each year, most of which would work on the campus and sometimes even live there. Getting an Associates was fancy (I’m talking the 50s or so) and a Bachelors rare. Now though, the Bachelors is almost the norm. Especially if the RN wants to become a nurse manager or clinical specialist. I see lots of MSNs too, like the nurses in infection control, quality, compliance, risk, administration etc all seem to have MSNs.

We had sone of the best nurses I've ever seen at UMC in Las Vegas (same hospital where Tipac died and the nearest hospital to the Vegas shooting last year). The doctors there are only so-so. But the nurses are world class level.

[quote] There was a very muscular male doctor who also made rounds wearing a tight shirt that emphasized his muscles and tight pants. Again no lab coat.

Was this him, R67?

No, but that guy's nice.

The one we had was bald and even more muscular than that guy in R78, and wore a tight pullover shirt, not a button shirt. Same general type of face as above, but that's not him. I won't post his name though.

Love a cape!

"World's hottest male nurse"

[quote]The ones i work with are definitely Trump supporters, marginally educated, and not in a union.

Where do you live? What state?

The "Call the Midwife" uniforms. ('50s-'60s London.)

R71 someone needs to shut the fuck up

And then there's China...That's a man, baby!

Well?

"General type of face."

Why are they called "nursing sisters" in the UK and Australia?

Nursing emerged from female religious orders. It was a religious calling before it became a science. My nursing school was in a former convent, which was fitting. I wouldn’t be surprised if nurses’ hats were evolved habits.

I feel better being treated by someone wearing a uniform than someone who could be a passerby on the street.

R41 is clearly retarded. What a shithead.

Nurses’ caps, white dresses, and white shoes are NEVER coming back, so all you elderly on here better just accept that.

Colored scrub shirts and pants, and clogs are the norm for all hospital nurses, male and female.

And everyone wears a badge with their position identified, so you know who’s who.

Or you could just ask.

Excuse me miss. Do you do the toilets or the pills?

Both! Here’s your valium in a bedpan, fish for it.

these whippersnappers don't get it.

on the other hand, maybe leopard prints. leopard prints for all nurses. make it happen.

Dearest mother appalled my grandparents by announcing that she was attending nursing school and entering hospital work. They howled in disapproval--they only wanted her to make an appropriate marriage. But mother was a top student in high school, rather ambitious, and felt a need for public service (at least until marriage). And it was far preferable to a life on the stage, as her uninhibited older sister (dear Auntie Helena!) had chosen.

Mother took her studies and professional duties seriously, but always appeared immaculate in her starched, snow-white uniform and impeccable hair and make-up. She felt her solid but soft and womanly presence calmed patients and complimented the masculine, intelligent resolve of doctors.

Of course, it was merely a matter of time until dear old Dad (St. Paul's/Dartmouth/Harvard Medical!) was utterly bewitched by her, and so swept her off her feet to enter a long and wonderful marriage and family life.

I suppose young women don't care about any of these standards or long for these rewards anymore. More's the pity.

Your mother sounds awesome R96. Why has Datalounge become the place for awesome parents?

[quote] As for the white uniform, unless you work in the ER or Surgery, the uniform is not going to see much blood, if any. I have no recollection of any bloody uniforms. As for the cap, two Bobby pins held it in place all day long. Easy

What an ignorant thing to say. As an RN, I've worked on medical and surgical floors where my uniform was splattered from body fluids. The care of patients are getting much harder, the people that are in hospitals are much sicker and nurses have to deal with a lot of body fluids everywhere in the hospital. No way is any nurse going back to white uniforms. When I wore a cap, it would always get caught in the curtains or something else, hindering my work.

Also, we are required by the law (maybe state law), to wear short fingernails to prevent spreading bacteria.

R96 mother worked as a nurse when patients were hospitalized for days getting a simple bunionectomy. Of course, she can always look pristine in her lovely white uniform. Nowadays, surgeries like bunioneictomies, even gallbladder surgery are one-day events, you're discharged home. The only people that are admitted to the hospitals are extremely sick, like almost about to die. So fuck off.

[quote]And everyone wears a badge with their position identified

Wow! That's great-- so you can tell if they're top, bottom or versatile?

I had a neighbor who was a nurse and she said white cotton uniforms are the easiest to clean of body fluids by just pouring some peroxide on the stain. It works like bleach and isn't a bad, but not a 100% sanitizer. Although she said you do have to be quick about it and get to the stain before it dries, once it does, it's set. I tried that when I was wearing a white cotton shirt while cutting tomatoes and cut my finger and got blood on the shirt. A quick bandaid and I went off to pour peroxide on my shirt and damned if it didn't take the blood stain out.

R101

Yes, peroxide will take out drops of blood on white or colored clothes. It also works to take out ballpoint ink.

Some of you don't realize how soaked our scrubs get. That's why the hospital provides scrubs. We have to strip off the contaminated scrubs & put on fresh during the shift.

Then we strip off before we leave, toss the scrubs in hampers & put on our street clothes before we leave..

Do you fet the same scrubs back, cleaned, or do you always get random scrubs?

get, not fet

The nurses in med surg and mother/baby seem to wear their own frauey nurse uniforms, white pants with with clogs and with a smocky looking top in bright colors, sometimes teddy bears or other cute things. They’re usually fat too, fat butts in particular. The nurses in the units (ICU, CCU, Step-down, ER, PACU) seem to be more scrub oriented, and seem to be thinner and more fit looking.

The nurses in infection control, risk, quality, discharge planning, etc seem to be much heavier. They were dress slacks, dress shoes, blouses, etc. The wear white lab coats but they weren’t the same kind that doctors or lab techs wear, these seem to be cut right at mid-ass level, and seem to be made of a blousier material. They even have a little sting of the same material that hands in a loop, I guess it’s a kind of belt. It’s a vestigial clinical coat, not functional. Did I mention they’re fat? Almost always. And btw, I’ve never seen a male nurse in a non patient care role doing utilization review, risk management, etc. The women get tired, clearly.

R41 is absolutely deranged.

R103

No you don't get the same scrubs back. The locker rooms have a huge metal rack with folded scrubs . You grab them in your size then throw them in hampers once you change.

What's MY specialty, DLers?

and I thought WE were cunty

Lots of silly nonsense. Diploma programs went the way of the dodo bird a long time ago. Some RNs have AAs but the profession has been working to make a BA the standard. Nurse Practitioners have graduate training. The uniform probably did evolve from nuns' orders, but it's probably never making a comeback.

I watched "Terms on Endearment" last night. I guess as late as 1983, when this movie was made, nurses were still dressing like this.

At what point did the sloppy "scrubs" make their first appearance. No one should be forced to dress uncomfortably for work, especially doctors and nurses, but come on, their has to be a middle ground between old school and the "I just finished scrubby my kids school's floors" look of today.

[QUOTE] Some RNs have AAs but the profession has been working to make a BA the standard.

Which of course has contributed to the shortage of nurses. If a student is going to submit themselves to a highly competitive admissions process and be held to a very tough academic standard, they might as well become PAs, physical therapists, or pharmacists. Back in the diploma days they churned out way more nurses. But then again the scope of the nurses practice has changed along with the acuity of the patients.

[quote]She felt her solid but soft and womanly presence calmed patients and complimented the masculine, intelligent resolve of doctors.

Plenty of doctors are women, and many nurses are men.

Time to step out of the 1950s.

[quote]Lots of silly nonsense. Diploma programs went the way of the dodo bird a long time ago.

Lots of diploma nursing programs still exist. There are 3 of them in my city alone that I know of, maybe more.

Oftentimes there graduates are better prepared than Bachelor’s nurses, because more of their time is spent taking care of actual patients, and not in useless university electives, like “modern intersectional feminist studies”.

Capping went away when hospital nursing schools were absorbed by colleges who offered degrees. St Vincent's in New York (1892-1999) , affiliated with the College of Mount St. Vincent.

In NYC many retired cops and firemen go into nursing.

…..,,

R96 so your mum worked until marriage and married a doctor.

What a sacrifice!

R98 hospital nurses are not allowed to use perfume or cologne.

My mom was a nurse. She loved the white uniform. She was almost military in its presentation. When she came home the uniform would go right in the bathroom sink full of bleach. She'd get the Sani-White shoe polish out and put a shine on those shoes so you could see your reflection. Then she'd have all her nursing pins and name tags put precisely on. She'd wear the cape during cool weather. All her nursing friends did the same. This was in the 70s to early 80s. They thought they were the shit man. Before or after work going out to eat together, stopping at a store, etc etc.... They all really did look gorgeous in those uniforms.

A highlight of the year was when the uniform catalog came out. Her and all of her friends were fit and trim so she always wore the dress uniform and not pants. She made it to the head of nursing for a hospital and maintained her wearing her whites until she retired in the early 90s. She hated the scrubs look.

[quote]The nurses in infection control, risk, quality, discharge planning, etc seem to be much heavier.

That’s because those those nurses sit behind a desk all day and never move their fat asses.

R124, hospitals don't want picture-taking.. Afraid of lawsuits. You might snap a friend in bed which shows a piece of equipment improperly connected.

Discharge planners do not sit behind desks all day. And I find the best ones have been the Social Workers.

[quote]hospitals don't want picture-taking.. Afraid of lawsuits. You might snap a friend in bed which shows a piece of equipment improperly connected.

I had a dumb nurse coworker who took a selfie at work and posted it on Facebook.

She didn’t realize that her computer screen was behind her in the shot, with a patient’s chart pulled up and identifying information visible in the picture.

She got fired.

My hospital fired all the social workers that did discharge planning. They decided RNs could do the job better, it was a bloodbath and the social work department was cut in half. Whoever remained work in the ambulatory clinic offsite, helping patients get on Medicaid and things like that.

In our hospital Case Managers (mostly RNs) handle the discharges.

^^^ That happened at a local hospital where I live also. But they ended up hiring Social Workers again three years later. Now RNs and SWs are in the same dept with RNs working with denials in payment and length of stay and SW doing everything else which is a better fit.

If you're in cardiac arrest, or you are bleeding out, do you seriously care about what I am wearing?

[quote]And everyone wears a badge with their position identified, so you know who’s who.

I've noticed that the majority of the time, the ID badges of hospital personnel are worn backward, so they can't be read. I don't know if this is accidental or deliberate. Does anyone know why this is?

I'm only 30 and I love the old nurse uniforms. Scrubs and crocs look terrible.

My hospital made double sided ID badges. There’s no excuse now, name and title is always visible and we’re required to wear it at eye level. No more clipping it on the belt.

Well, I mean close to eye level

Mine seems to flip around all the te. Double sided is a good idea.

[quote]I've noticed that the majority of the time, the ID badges of hospital personnel are worn backward, so they can't be read. I don't know if this is accidental or deliberate. Does anyone know why this is?

I think it’s mostly because they don’t want patients knowing their last names. Lots of drug-seekers and mentally ill patients they come into contact with on a daily basis.

[quote]I think it’s mostly because they don’t want patients knowing their last names. Lots of drug-seekers and mentally ill patients they come into contact with on a daily basis.

Thanks for the explanation. That makes perfect sense. I normally wouldn't have even noticed it, but it seems like the majority of times I encounter a medical worker, his/her ID tag is worn backwards.

R138 That's ridiculous.

As a RN I really don't give a rat's ass what you & others want me to wear.

It's my job to care for & advocate for my patients. It's not to be some sort of throwback "ideal" of how you want me to look.

Piss off!

[quote]Which of course has contributed to the shortage of nurses. If a student is going to submit themselves to a highly competitive admissions process and be held to a very tough academic standard, they might as well become PAs, physical therapists, or pharmacists.

I don't think expecting nurses to have a college degree is "very tough standards". To me it is embarrassing for the profession that you still have a lot of nurses that only have an associates degree. It doesn't make it seem like a professional field.

And being a PA, pharmacist of physical therapist requires a graduate degree after completing your bachelors. So no, there is still an incentive to get your BSN and get right to work.

In the metro NYC area RN programs are difficulty to get into, taking only a small amount of students and these students have to have gotten As on all their prerequisites like chemistry, physics, anatomy etc. Even then they’re not guaranteed a seat, there just aren’t as many since the big state hospitals all closed their nursing schools.

[QUOTE] To me it is embarrassing for the profession that you still have a lot of nurses that only have an associates degree. It doesn't make it seem like a professional field.

Define professional field?

[quote] In our hospital Case Managers (mostly RNs) handle the discharges.

The RNs handle that too in our HMO. It makes better sense as patients are much more sicker and/or they have chronic medical conditions like CHF or Diabetes. They may need certain equipments like an IV machine, or referrals to Home Health and referrals to the specialists, etc. It requires a clearer understanding of patients care, knowledge about chronic medical conditions such as diabetes, CHF or patients undergoing dialysis or chemotherapy or age-related diseases like dementia.

Health care is much more complicated than it was 30 years ago. People are being discharged sooner and those with chronic medical conditions are managed at home.

Social Workers do all that in our hospitals. And they have Masters degrees.

[quote] Social Workers do all that in our hospitals. And they have Masters degrees.

yes, but they don't understand how to manage chronic medical conditions like CHF, Diabetes or other chronic medical conditions. It's much more complicated than you think

Well they must know because they are doing that job. They all have their own floor with individual specialties. They are in charge of VADs, Dialysis, Maternity, the ED. They're not doing surgery. And there's a medical track in college just like there's a psych Social Worker track, and a Developmental Disorder track. You can learn a lot in college and internships when you follow a track for 6 years. More than 2 year RNs. It's book knowledge and interpersonal skills plus knowing all the community resources. They don't start IVs. Although they could learn that too I guess.

Here’s my opinion: RNs should wear their hair back, have trimmed nails, and not wear perfume. I agree with all of those points from one of the first comments upthread.

Also, female and I guess, now, male nurses, should go easy on the makeup. Keep it simple. You’re working in an environment where people are sick. Some are fighting for their lives, and others are literally being born. It’s not Studio 54, for Christ’s sake.

And don’t be fat, RNs!! Especially the white female ones in a community hospital, fatties!!!! Frau City!

R148

At my hospital the RNs who are in Case Management, Clinical Nurse Specialists & Nurse Managers all have to have a Masters or above.

R151, I am in Case Management with a specialty in Diabetes. I don't have a BSN or Masters, just an AA degree but I have 30 years experience. The fact is, I was really good with my diabetic patients, got a lot of people graduated to their target goal, actually more than the case manager at our clinic. They recognized my talent so I was promoted to Case Management. However, future RNs are all required to have a BSN but experience will also cover it.

Are you fat, R152?

No. BMI 24

This is the perfect way for RNs to dress and groom themselves.

The majority of nurses in the US are obese, so when designing suitable outfits for them, one must figure in their large girth.

R155 That was when nurses were slim and pretty and were preparing themselves to be doctor's wives, unlike the typical obese and tatooed nurses of today.

How can nurses do their work if they're obese? Nurses have to be on their feet and on the move all day (or night). How can they manage that carrying around a lot of blubber?

Nah, R158 they sit around and eat their high caloric snacks inside the nursing station and try to get you to buy highly priced poorly made trinkets from ponzi scheme companies that make a fortune from people like gullible nurses.

Nowadays there are low paid medical aides who do most of the heavy lifting and physical work. That is probably why most nurses are fatties.

[quote]I don't think expecting nurses to have a college degree is "very tough standards". To me it is embarrassing for the profession that you still have a lot of nurses that only have an associates degree. It doesn't make it seem like a professional field.

I’m an RN (NP now) and I agree. But, as other industries continue to collapse and nursing looks more and more attractive to more people, the standards will rise. At my last hospital job, all new RNs had to have a BSN. That was not the case when I was hired eight years earlier.

I am more concerned about the shoddy standards for NPs. You can get your NP online now, coordinating your own clinical experience in your training. It’s crazy. But it looks like a lot of those NPs are being left behind in hiring and end up being floor nurses anyway.

A lot of the RNs are young and slim, I think the older middle-age ones end up overweight if they are not in the hospital. Hospital work requires a lot of walking. There is a lot of generalization going around here. When I worked as an RN in the hospital , even though I had an LVN and Aides, I still did a lot of walking as I had to assess almost 15 patients and there were a lot of urgent medical issues to take care of. That's not true that we're in the Nurses Station, eating. That's ridiculous. Once I got out of the hospital, I gained more weight because I was not walking as much.

It's ridiculous to read the comments from idiots on this thread.

As a RN I'm certain I work harder in 12-13 hours than the majority of you disparaging us from your phones. I'm an ICU nurse who is on my feet my entire shift. More often than not I don't even get a dinner break. Even with that I rarely get off on time because once I report off to my replacement I need to catch up on charting what I couldn't get to earlier because I was running my ass off.

As if working my ass off to try & keep a critically ill patient alive I also have to support the family of my patient. Sobbing distraught people dealing with the worst time of their lives.

So fuck anyone who belittles my profession or anyone who expects us to wear shit that they deem appropriately.

I think we’re all in agreement that RNs on specialty units (ICU, CCU, ED, Stepdown) have a more intense work experience and probably run thinner than Ginny, the obese RN on med/surg whose car has a Trump sticker and who is flipping though the Pampered Chef catalogue before her next admission comes. She tried as hard as she could to divert the admission to another floor, but Admitting escalated it to the nursing supervisor so guess who won.

Nurses always seem to think so much of themselves.

Agreed R164., and I’m an RN. At the end of the day it’s just a job and a paycheck.

R163 where’s your point of reference? Alabama?

Yeah the best nurses are generally the ones found in the ICU and ER.

I know two guy who are nurses with DOCTORATES! nursing is like saying, "lawyer" - you can be a total paper pusher in some dried up office, or some glamorous prosecutor in a federal court. all are lawyers. Same with nurses, and more so

Nursing has been struggling to differentiate the various education and skill levels for many years. It is confusing to patients and the general public.

Do you remember the nurse who was the only mortal to put Endora in her place? Now she was fabulous.

My mother was thrilled when she got a job where she didn't have to wear the cap, and was happy that she never had to wear the cape either. The cap was a starched stiff material, as the RN above mentioned, but it also had a stripe that indicated something I can no longer remember, and the stripe was a ribbon that was attached to the cap. I remember mim deciding to clean it and being horrified to find all the stuff that was behind the ribbon, pins, and in the creases.

So, I don't care what your aesthetics are, I don't think wearing that cap is a good idea.

I also don't know why Datalounge obsessed with trolling about what women should wear and what they should look like. I thought we got over this back in like 2003, but apparently not.

Nurses are fucking AWESOME!!!

R172 posting from the nurse's station on her phone while the call lights go ignored.

When I rotated through ICU, the nursing was 1:1. The nurses had a desk and chair, where they sat quite a bit, charting. On the ICU, everything is charted so there is a lot of sitting and charting of vitals/ins and outs/etc.

Same with PACU, there is barely a nurse station because the nurses are usually parked at bedside documenting.

R174 Also, half of the ICU patients were over the age of 80, and it was just a holding place for them until their families gave the ok to stop the futile attempt to revive them. Not much action in the ICU - imagine that scene from Coma, all these bodies suspended. Only in movies are medical personnel dashing around the ICU. It is essentially a pre-mortuary pit stop.

Well, in some cases you got post-ops though, for intense cases? Like, spinal cases or whatnot?

It is a myth that ICU nurses are more elite because of the small patient ratios and whiz bang technology. Nurses on the floors manage more patients and more staff. These days, every patient in a hospital is very ill.

Nurses? A bunch of trollops out to snag themselves a handsome young doctor. And don't even get my started on those Student Nurses.

R179 needs a SSE

R179, my friend from nursing school said she only went there to earn her M.R.S.

R177 they go to the SICU where they are tended to by their surgeons, not ICU staff.

Doctors don't marry nurses anymore. Besides most nurses being tattooed and obese, they make far too little to interest doctors. Doctors don't make the big bucks like they used to. They engage in “positive assortative mating” - that is they marry from their socioeconomic level.

When I was in medical school/residency I knew of one doctor under the age of 50 married to a nurse, and he was a strange, introverted guy and his wife was a beautiful Persian nurse.

As for nurses in the cardiac unit - growing rate of nurses not responding to alarms. I know of hospital cases where the nurses TURNED OFF the cardiac monitors so as not to be bothered.

And now the nursing organizations have crafted a clinical term for ignoring alarms: "alarm fatigue". As a doctor if I ignore pages I get sued and sanctioned/fired by my hospital. For nurses, they are excused as they are suffering "alarm fatigue".

And never underestimate the nastiness of nurses.

While an intern at UCLA, a nurse accused me of not responding to a middle of the night page while I was on pediatrics. This was a lie and I knew it. I demanded UCLA investigate this and also said the parents of the very ill child needed to be informed of this. I also threatened the nurse and UCLA with a defamation lawsuit. To accuse me of such a thing was an incredibly serious matter - the nurse was attempting to destroy my clinical reputation.

Well, since UCLA knew there was no page sent to me, they told me they would remove the write up in my file and told me that nurse would never bother me again.

I learned to beware nurses as an intern.

I learned to beware of them as a patient.

R176

It boggles the mind the crap I'm reading here. ICUs are just holding patterns for people 80 and up. RUKM? And there's "not much action" in the ICUs? You are straight up clueless.

R171 the number of stripes meant RN or LPN, in some states an LVN (Licensed Vocational Nurse.))

R187 You prove your point that you have never worked anywhere near an ICU and gleaned your knowledge from TV dramas.

Well, R176 only rotated through ICU and maybe at his hospital it was true for that pt population, but as an ICU RN for over a decade, the ICUs I have worked in feature a mix of pts. Some are tele holds waiting on stepdown beds, some are there for observation following straightforward procedures, and then there are the train wrecks: pts who are bleeding, on mutliple pressors and paralytics, CRRT, ECMO, IABP, ARDS vent settings, etc. etc. Nurses in those rooms managing those pts are lucky to sit at all and Dr R176 would back away slowly if he were asked to step in to help or make a clinical decision regarding a pt like that.

[quote] "[R177] they go to the SICU where they are tended to by their surgeons, not ICU staff. —Anonymous"

Patient's are never "tended to by their surgeons," R182. Physicians do their thing and go. The "tending" in a hospital is done by the nursing staff. Anybody have a snapshot of a resident or a Chief of Staff holding a bedpan? I'd frame it.

[quote]And now the nursing organizations have crafted a clinical term for ignoring alarms: "alarm fatigue". As a doctor if I ignore pages I get sued and sanctioned/fired by my hospital. For nurses, they are excused as they are suffering "alarm fatigue".

This is really disingenuous. Alarm fatigue is never viewed as an “excuse,” it is a recognized phenomenon associated with an increase in technology in hospitals. It is a problem and defined as such so it can be addressed.

I’m an RN who worked with some really brilliant doctors and some really shitty ones. I can say the same thing as an NP. RNs love good doctors who know what they're doing and can manage people. If you’ve had problems with RNs, the problem is likely you.

Aren't nurses the biggest pill poppers?

Pharmacists and MDs are in that pool, too, R193.

Do they still limit the time you can work in the ER? My mom was an RN who loved working in ER. Yet they would make you rotate out so you didn't burnout. She didn't particularly care to work in any of the other areas. She found them boring.

The amount of ignorance in this thread is astounding, but it’s not surprising given how clueless the general public is about the healthcare system.