Time To Take Your Evening Memes! 15 Funny Medical Memes

What Happens To Nurses When Patients Omit Information?

Depending on who you ask, one of the best things and the worst things about being a nurse is all the questions you get asked. Not a day passes that someone doesn’t text me a photo of some body part asking “Does this look infected?” “Do you think this is strep?” “Does this sourdough bread have gluten?” (BTW Aunt Marge, yes. Stop eating bread. You have celiac disease.) It’s like that stupid radio commercial “Now, you have a friend in the diamond business.” Except it’s the medical business. And, for the most part, I am thrilled to zoom in on that photo of your kid’s tonsils or take a look at that cut on your knee. I am happy to lend you the benefit of my experience and prevent you from getting yourself into a situation that could damage you permanently. And I’d like to think that everyone out there would do the same for me, not just my friends, but my patients as well.

But, the year is 2020 and everyone has lost their EVERLOVING MINDS. We don’t have enough PPE, we don’t have enough time and we are still asking patients if they’ve traveled outside the US in our COVID questionnaires, as if the US isn’t a freaking hotbed of infection. Who is even writing these things? I mean, really, Americans can’t even travel into many countries currently. We are one of the main ones spreading disease now. 14-day quarantines are mandatory all over the place and Canada has flat out said “No thanks.” to Americans crossing the border. Yeah- so I don’t really feel very protected as a healthcare professional if you tell me you haven’t traveled outside the US recently.

Here is the deal- we know, as nurses, that we accept a great deal of risk when we take the Nightingale Pledge and put your health, safety, and comfort above our own. We really don’t ask for much from our patients. Do you need a sponge bath? Sure- it won’t be like that Cinemax special you saw in 1987, but we’ll get you cleaned up, for sure. Do you need help getting to the bathroom? My pleasure. I’ll even turn my head so you can go in comfort. You get the picture, we don’t say no to much and we aren’t grossed out by anything. So, what will help us feel protected? Honesty. That’s right people. Just tell us the truth.

If you call the triage line and they go through that ridiculous COVID-19 questionnaire, answer the questions honestly. Don’t tell me you don’t have a fever and then practically OD on NSAIDS so you can stroll into the appointment fever-free. Don’t tell me you haven’t been coughing or had a sore throat and then practically cough a lung into my lap while I do your assessment. Don’t tell me you have been social distancing, as recommended by the CDC, but post a photo of yourself at a graduation party with 400 people and zero masks. This is the kind of stuff that drives us nurses crazy. This says “I don’t care about your health because I’m too worried about making sure I’m okay and can have a good time.” SELFISH. And stupid because, guess what, WE WILL SEE YOU ANYWAY. There you have it. The secret. We have a legal and moral obligation to see a patient who is sick. Even sick with COVID-19. But if I know you’re coming into my office and are a possible point of infection- I will be able to protect myself better. By lying, you take my options away and, at some point, a nurse gets sick and that’s one less person to care for your selfish butt.

Wear a mask, people. The virus doesn’t care about you. It’s not going to skip you because you are young, healthy, a Democrat, a Republican, a Jesus loving, cookie baking, apron-wearing Grandmother. The virus doesn’t care. And if you do get sick, tell the truth. Stop hurting people. Stop being the source of misinformation. Help us help you. It’s why we became nurses. To help you.

Nurses Being Supported Is A Thing Of The Past

I never in my wildest dreams would have predicted what this year had in store for us as healthcare professionals. I am in utter shock and disbelief at what I have witnessed in the last 8 months. I can easily look back to last winter and remember how odd it was to see other nurses having to wear a face mask because the refused to take the flu shot. There wasn’t many of them, but there was always a select few each year that wouldn’t take the vaccine based on allergies, beliefs, or maybe even a fear on needles. Every time I would see one of my coworkers having to wear a face mask the entire shift for several months in a row, I immediately felt horrible for them. I wondered how uncomfortable it must have felt for them having to wear a face covering for 12 hours at a time. I often times imagined that they must have felt like the were being smothered. I had no clue back then where we would all be in a few months.

When this pandemic began, I completely understood why I needed to wear a face mask all day long at work. I had all of a sudden became one of them, (the flu shot refusal people) lol. Only I hadn’t refused anything. We were facing a global pandemic and starting our battle against a mean and ugly virus. We all jumped in feet first and did what we had to do. We showed up, we cared for our patients, and we fought and keep fighting.

What upsets me the most is what has happened to all of us in these last 8 months. Or should I say what has not happened to us. Where is the support that I had envisioned that we would all have. Let me see if I can explain this a little bit better. Before all of this started if we had to enter an isolation room, we had what we needed. We has gowns, gloves, hats, face shields, N95’s, anything you could possibly need was readily available. We could toss them out in the trash and we knew for 100 % that there was always more. Now I know what most of you are thinking right now. It’s not the hospitals fault that we entered a global pandemic and ran out of supplies quicker than you could blink and eye. Maybe it is their fault, maybe it isn’t… What is their fault is the lack of true support.

Imagine again back to last year. Let’s say for example you had a patient who had c diff and you had to gown up appropriately each time you went in and out of the room. Let’s say your manager saw you taking off the gown at not exactly the specifically deemed area as you exited the room. You may have gotten verbally scolded or even written up at this minor mistake. Now flash forward again to where we have been this year without appropriate PPE. All of a sudden now the rules can change for convenience. Since there was not adequate PPE available, it was all of a sudden okay to keep that same mask on all day. It was also okay to often time reuse paper gowns, gloves, and face shields. Last year this would have been seen as blasphemy. This entire year was spent with management creating a new policy and procedures on almost a daily basis in order to fit their needs.

Nurses all over the country have been scared. Nothing has made much sense to us since this whole thing started. We have been worried and afraid. Yet we all have continued to show up for work and do what we have to do. In most places if you even question any of these new crazy policies you are told that you just have to do it that way. When does anyone worry about us? When does management even begin to start caring? It isn’t just this Coronavirus. It is a million things that we aren’t supported on. When will things change? Will this ever stop? I don’t think that it will. At least not until we scream loud enough to actually be heard.