No patience/patients

Okay, it seems to be a strange twist of fate that I often find myself working with nurses that do not care for patients. I understand. Truly I do. Patients can be irritating, rude, pushy, whiny, hateful, clingy, and desperate. Patients often come to nurses at their worst.

I have to laugh and be a little ill at the same time at the beautiful patients on TV. The nurses and the doctors carry on affairs with patients on TV. This would never happen in real life. The nurse fantasy is truly relegated to the fantasy realm.

Sorry guys, when you come into the hospital with your hair all matted and your face pinched from whining in the car, then you put on that oh-so-hot hospital gown that ties in the back, and ask me for pain meds because your splinter hurts sooo much, I just don't find you remotely attractive.

Nurses aren't there to fulfill fantasies. They are, however, there to care. So, when someone tells me that they left a patient waiting for hours because they were busy or that they are going to tell off a patient for not understanding that they have other things to do, I want to scream at them. They make all nurses look bad.

We are there to care. Try doing a New York Times crossword puzzle sometime. The answer to anything involving nurses is "TLC." Nurses care. Not one of us went into nursing because, "God, I just love counting narcotics at the end of a shift." We didn't go into it for the money, no matter what lies are spawned because California nurses are unionized. The rest of the nation isn't buying a Lexus on a nurse's pay. We went into nursing to care for people.

Honestly, I don't even much like people. As a species, we are dirty and irritating. But, when a woman's husband just died in my ER, I am going to sit with her for 2 hours and hug her, hand her tissues, and try to avoid answering "why" until her family gets there. Yes, the entire time I may wish that I was anywhere else, but then I will remember that she wished she was anywhere else far more than me and I will stay and hug her even tighter.

If a nurse doesn't care, who will? In this world, we are all so separated. Families are long-distance. Relationships happen on the computer. Friendships exist on the cell phone. In your worst moments, who will hold your hand and be kind if not your nurse?

I am not the most social person. Nothing drives me crazy faster than a person trying to talk to me on a plane. If you interrupt my reading-a-book time, you may get injured. But, when I am working, I am there for my patients. There is nothing more important.

So, when people act like their patients are in their way or taking their precious time, I just want to scream, "what do you think you do for a living?" There are plenty of jobs out there where you don't really have to deal with people at all. Go find one. But, if you are going to show up for work as a nurse, you better be ready to comfort, assist, and care. After all, if you were all alone, if it was you in that bed, if you were in pain, if you were scared, wouldn't you want someone to care?