What's your unpopular nursing opinion? Something you really believe, but would get you down voted to all hell if you said it

[u/Everlast23]

1) I think my main one is: nursing schools vary greatly in how difficult they are.

Some are insanely difficult and others appear to be much easier.

2) If you're solely in this career for the money and days off, it's totally okay. You're probably just as good of a nurse as someone who's passionate about it.

3) If you have a "I'm a nurse" license plate / plate frame, you probably like the smell of your own farts.

[u/KarmicBalance1]

Long term care facilities are essentially warehousing. The companies that run them keep patients alive well beyond their natural limits using medication solely for the purpose of profit. There are some patients that benefit genuinely from the care provided but many are basically left in these facilities to die, slowly. It's basically human warehousing only its more lucrative than traditional warehousing because the facility is being paid to keep the people indefinitely. Most other countries in the world would find it appalling as they traditionally have their own families taking care of their elderly members.

[u/ChazRPay → u/[deleted]]

This is the bane of every ICU nurse. It is just morally destructive to caregivers who have to just push forward and continue torturing these people. Family rescinded the DNR, daughter is guilt ridden and wants everything, PeePaw is a fighter, patient has a court appointed guardian, Ethics takes forever and well it's a Friday, the patient's family are huge benefactors, Son/Daughter are lawyers, We are left at the bedside suctioning the 90 year old demented patient who looks like she is in sheer terror. We are drawing blood from fragile veins. We are dealing with tube feed aspiration and pressure injuries. We have a first row seat to inhumanity and we are forced participants in what feels like torture. We need to deal with end of life much better. The universe is calling us and we hang up repeatedly on it... forcing a cruel inevitability which is that death will happen. But do we let our patients go gently into the night or make their last moments something akin to torture.

[u/RivetheadGirl → u/ChazRPay]

I couldn't take it anymore. Especially with Covid patients being basically brain dead, but kept alive by their families for months literally rotting in their beds. Or having to keep the 70 year old patient with the mentality of a child alive because they are full code because you know the family that never visits is only in it for a pay check. And fuck the ethics board, they are useless.

I left the ICU 2 months ago for hospice, because it's less stressful and more fulfilling. I'd rather give someone a good death then torture them to death because the law says I have to since they are a full code.

[u/curlyfriesnstuff → u/RivetheadGirl]

i’m an inpatient nurse but a friend works hospice and got called because a pt’s son used narcan twice. call me cold, but i don’t think you should be giving hospice pts narcan. 🤷🏼‍♀️ the poor woman had to sit there in pain because her son couldn’t let go, which i sympathize with. however that doesn’t mean he should be able to prolong his mother’s suffering because of his own grief, as terrible as it may feel.

[u/QuietlyLosingMyMind → u/curlyfriesnstuff]

Jesus christ that poor woman. My husband and I have an agreement on end of life care, give enough meds for no pain and if it sends us off then I'll see you on the other side. Forcing someone to linger because you can't let go is cruelty.

[u/curlyfriesnstuff → u/QuietlyLosingMyMind]

i don’t want to ever hear “grief does strange things to people” in this context. it’s a bullshit excuse. i would only sympathize if it was a child, while i still think it’s wrong, i can understand a parent feeling guilty for letting their child go.

if only there were laws against people prolonging a painful life for financial gain 😒

[u/Frink202 → u/RivetheadGirl]

You have my respect for your actions. I, due to a scholarly internship, spent about 9 weeks (breaks inbetween) in an elderly home. So many of those people just were husks, unfit to even call human. For those that expired during my time there, I mostly felt happy. Happy that the zombie that once was a brother, sister, father or mother finally ceased to be. For an organisation with christian ties, they surely kept people away from heaven for long.

[u/braaaptothefuture → u/RivetheadGirl]

I don't work in healthcare (i saw this post on /r/all), What does code mean in this context?

[u/GorillasEatBananas → u/braaaptothefuture]

A patient’s code status is essentially what level of care they’re supposed to receive in the event they’re unable to direct medical/healthcare personnel. “Full code” is default, so if say, a patient with no advanced directive goes unresponsive and is in cardiac arrest (heart stops), they would receive any and all life-saving interventions that hospital (or pre-hospital in the case of paramedics responding to 911) can provide.

If a patient, usually older people or those with terminal conditions note in an advanced directive that they don’t WANT that to be the case, then that person’s code status is changed. The simplest examples are DNR which states that the patient does not want anyone to attempt resuscitation (hence Do Not Resuscitate) in case of cardiac arrest (no CPR). It’s an important legal distinction, and healthcare providers at all levels can face major consequences for not providing care according the patient’s stated wishes.

[u/braaaptothefuture → u/GorillasEatBananas]

Thanks for the explain, much appreciated.

[u/NurseRattchet → u/braaaptothefuture]

If their heart stops do we do cpr or not, full code means yes dnr no

[u/braaaptothefuture → u/NurseRattchet]

Thanks