Medical professionals! To me!

[Antisocial_Worker]

Speaking as a disabled person; that most definitely IS nursing!

It may not be the branch of nursing he wants to go into, but if I didn't have my physically-healthy family caring for me, I'd be needing personal care assistance. (Thankfully not diaper changing, but yes I'd need someone to wash my hair for me.)

Another member of my family would need someone to track her medications for her (we do it), and ensure she gets the right ones at the right times.

In essence, societies have three choices for people like me.
* providing nurses and carers to keep us alive-and-functional. (These may be family members, for those who have sufficient family.)
* not providing nurses/carers, but leaving us as beggers or in leper colonies with our condition worsening due to lack of care.
* killing us.

When 'diaper changing' gets him down, remind him of the alternative options societies have.

Yes, the 'personal care' level of nursing isn't the highly-skilled, highly-medical level. But it absolutely requires the human touch, and the inherent humanity and bedside manner, that characterises a great nurse.

I keep telling him this, and I'm proud to report that he does have the inherent humanity to make a great nurse... A couple of weeks ago he personally oversaw all that it took to bring a lady's senile husband in to visit her. She needed the hospital, while he was just so far gone that there was no choice but to put him in the hospital as well because there was no one else to care for him. It actually involved some logistics to work it all out, and he didn't have time but he did it anyway.

Another time he took time out to console an elderly lady who was in tears because she was just so scared and feeling alone. He's gone in to calm down people who've gone completely off their rockers, such as one particular schizophrenic young man.

[Seshat]

Then he most definitely, absolutely, IS a nurse. Just not in the specific field of nursing he would prefer to be in.

And he is a valuable, wonderful, amazing human being on top of that.

Stay proud of him.



Edit to add:

I could tell stories of so many nursing-failures. Nurses who have failed to provide Anna the right meds, or the meds on time, or who have relied on asking mental patients what meds they are supposed to have. Nurses or "professional carers" who have handled personal care charges roughly. Nurses who have mishandled wound care. One 'nurse' who left a friend of mine lying on the floor because he insisted she could get up by herself. (Obviously he hadn't properly read her chart!)

While I wish him well in his attempt to get into the field of nursing he wants to be in; I also hope that he comes to value and respect some of the more mundane, less 'elbow deep in entrails' parts of nursing. People like me need people like him.

[Antisocial_Worker]

An update -- of sorts.

The other day my boyfriend got a call from a small hospital an hour away from where we live, wanting to interview him for an ER position out there. He interviews at his hospital on Wednesday, and at the hospital way the hell over there on Thursday.

[Antisocial_Worker]

Update!

This was a triumph... I'm making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS. It's hard to overstate my satisfaction... (*boyfriend's*) Hospital System -- "We do what we must, because we can." -- for the good of all of us except the ones who are dead.

Further update!

This was a triumph... I'm making a note here: SMALL SUCCESS. It's hard to overstate my satisfaction... (*rural*) Hospital System -- "We do what we must, because we can." -- for the good of all of us except the ones who are dead.

Yes! Boyfriend, my very own Rasta Nurse, was offered two -- count 'em! -- two ER positions today. His own large regional hospital called him the day after his interview, after telling him it would take up to two weeks to reach a decision, and the small rural hospital an hour away where we went this morning offered him a job on the spot.

I'm still in the elation phase, while he's skipped straight to the terror of change phase, and working out the logistics. But nevertheless... I'm so proud of him!

[morgana]

Yay, boyfriend!

[teh_blumchenkinder]

excellent use of Portal references. And congratulations! May it go smoothly!

[Seshat]

Yes! Boyfriend, my very own Rasta Nurse, was offered two -- count 'em! -- two ER positions today.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!


That's wonderful!

[Der Cute]

w00t w00t!!

High five from me, who has had chronic illnesses all my life - keepin yalls busy. Hugs, high five and *virtual chocolate coffee*...super cool.

[Mishi]

Yay! Congrats Mr Rasta Nurse!

[Sapphire Silk]

Congrats on the job offers! Very happy to hear the news!

Which one is he going to take?

[Antisocial_Worker]

Congrats on the job offers! Very happy to hear the news!

Which one is he going to take?

He'll be taking both. The job an hour away is PRN, so he only has to work one shift out there every two weeks. Oddly enough, that job pays considerably more an hour than his job at the big hospital, so it's worth it to commute out there every couple of weeks. He's planning to use all the money to buy an SUV to get out there more easily in the winter.

Thanks to you and to everyone else for your congratulations! Rasta Nurse sends his thanks as well.

[Rapscallion]

Sounds like the cake wasn't a lie!

Rapscallion

[Antisocial_Worker]

Sounds like the cake wasn't a lie!

Rapscallion

If you want some irony, he and I went to a fancy restaurant downtown to have a celebration lunch. You could tell it was fancy because it offered a crabmeat and mushroom cheesecake. It most definitely wasn't a lie. Two doses of Tums couldn't kill it. It was with me all the rest of the afternoon. Tasted damn good though.

[fireheart]

First off Congrats.

And secondly, Panacea, an LPN nurse is referred to as an Enrolled Nurse down under. My auntie is an enrolled nurse although she works in aged-care facilities. She's not a carer, just a nurse. And she does an awesome job. She's also our first port-of-call for health info in the family

ETA: OK, turns out she's actually an RN not an EN. (I had to ask a friend of the boyfriend about this, said friend is studying to either do aged care work, disability work or in-home care work.)

[Sapphire Silk]

First off Congrats.

And secondly, Panacea, an LPN nurse is referred to as an Enrolled Nurse down under. My auntie is an enrolled nurse although she works in aged-care facilities. She's not a carer, just a nurse. And she does an awesome job. She's also our first port-of-call for health info in the family

Of course, anything I say about professional credentials applies only to the US since that's where I live