Community Chat

[151949]

On 1/21/2014 forrestwolf said:

I have been an RN for 33 years now, and I did grow up in a time before EMT's and Paramedics (as stated earlier, PLEASE do no call them an ambulance driver).......And the transport to the hospital was called "load and go", as the local funeral homes came to a call (no 911 either), and they loaded you, and went to the hospital....Then came the time of EMT"S who had more training, and in the rural South.....that is what you got......and they COULD save your life....... Then the Paramedics came along....and so much more schooling and such, and they could bring in medications prior to the hospital......and rescue and recovery became where more lives were saved.......I was a transport nurse for many years in my small county, where the county hospital was the only hospital in 7 counties.....Now, I can not do that, as state laws have changed to where an RN can no longer ride in the back of an ambulance, without at least a basic EMT certification.......Then came the issue where most hospitals went to scrub suits as daily attire, and the difference between a nurse, and say housekeeping was that nurses wore white hose, and housekeeping did not........but patients saw the same people day in and day out, and felt that seeing the housekeeping department was seen more often than the nurse (yes agree....this should not be.........but it is.....), that patients talked to housekeeping about their medical problems, thinking they were talking to a nurse.......It is amazing how medical care has changed, and the perception of patients........I currently work in a prison, and I do all of the sick calls for the prisoners, but they will say "why can't I have the blonde nurse see me", and they do not understand that only an RN can do sick calls, and she is an LPN........We all dress alike now.....not so in the older days........but we all have special training, just as in the EMT's and Paramedics.....just some of us have more "specialized" training, and John Q public does not have any idea who has what......unless we show our license to each and every one...........

isn't that the point of staff wearing a name tag? Our name tags stated our credentials -such as RN, BSN , CCRN. the patients knew we were a RN and the docs and other staff knew we were or were not certified for critical care. The housekeepers tag said Housekeeping.

[tansy]

On 1/21/2014 brii said:

I called 911 because my daughter (she was maybe 6 or 7) was stuck in the couch. Her leg slipped down between the arm rest and the cushion. There was a giant nail or something poking her ankle. I was afraid to pull her out.

When the paramedics walked into the house, they said "She really is stuck in the couch." We laugh about it now, but it wasn't funny at the time.

That must have been embarrassing, brii.

[brii]

On 1/21/2014 tansy said:

On 1/21/2014 brii said:

I called 911 because my daughter (she was maybe 6 or 7) was stuck in the couch. Her leg slipped down between the arm rest and the cushion. There was a giant nail or something poking her ankle. I was afraid to pull her out.

When the paramedics walked into the house, they said "She really is stuck in the couch." We laugh about it now, but it wasn't funny at the time.

That must have been embarrassing, brii.

I wasn't embarrassed. I was so scared. There was a nail sticking into her leg.