Gorgeous, am I right? Clear skies, frost on the ground (it was -3), but it was 10 degrees during the day. No snow at all, in fact we had rain the other day and everyone was thrilled. A funny note: everyone up here laughs at us southerners when it snows. We get like an inch and go all to pieces. I found it a bit funny how rainy days are considered 'inside days' here - if we thought that way in Vancouver, we'd never leave the house.
So today, for the 2nd time I got taken out to lunch with my preceptor by a drug rep. We love drug reps. Free food in exchange for listening to their spiel, and I'm still green enough that I find their spiels fascinating. This one used to be a dietitian, and now works for a big insulin company. She gave me my very own insulin pen, with needles and a practice injection thing (that clear box has a skin-like covering in the middle that you inject the needle into), AND couple handouts for new diabetes patients (insulin logs, that sort of thing). All I'm thinking is 'TOYS!!'
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| Insulin pen and lid, box of needles with one out, and my injecty thing |
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| Cool handout on different types of insulin. There are so many kinds, but I'm starting to get the hang of it. |
Moving on to why you should always be nice to nurses.
A) They put up with a lot of crap, literally and figuratively. It's really crazy.
B) But mostly, they know things. There's one nurse at DCH who I'm completely in awe of. She has this way if making even the most cranky patient feel understood. I first noticed this when she came and grabbed me saying,' Give us a twirl, this lady just loves your hair.' And so I obliged and she oohed and aahed with her patient, who is absolutely entranced by my clothes and hair (she's in a hospital looking at scrubs and white walls all the time, curly hair must be reasonably interesting at this point. She's also a bit senile.) The greatest compliment I can give is that if I was sick, I would want this lady to look after me. She's an LPN, but seems to have a lot of the responsibilities of an RN, and I've seen her smooth back a crotchety patient's sweaty hair and tell them she wishes she had lovely eyes like them. And yet, she puts paid to difficult patients who are being difficult to be mean. Patients aren't just a job for her, they are people and she remembers the little things that people want, like seeing someone's hair or hearing that they look nice or eating dessert first, and she can tell the difference between patients being jerks for fun and patients being jerks because they hurt, either mentally or physically. It's absolutely inspiring.
That is an excellent reminder of why I wanted to work in health care.
Anyway, I had a patient who was doing interesting things, eating-wise. Nobody could quite figure out what was going on. Then this same nurse simply says, ' They have a rectal prolapse. If I was them, I wouldn't want to poop.' Holy cow, why didn't I THINK of that? People, if you're of a sound mind and strong stomach, look it up if you don't know what that is, otherwise move on to the next paragraph. For those of you brave enough, you will instantly see how that TOTALLY MAKES SENSE. Nurses work with and take care of their patients every day. Things we wouldn't even think of are just common sense to them. Of course, this condition might lead to some strange behaviour, since it's probably really uncomfortable. Duh.
So like the title say, be nice to nurses and drug reps. It's worth your while.
On a totally unrelated note, here is an example of corporate marketing schemes working ridiculously well on a very educated consumer:
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| Yes, I ate them all. In like 2 days, too. |
They are THE EXACT SAME with with Halloweeny names and wrappers. Of course, I had to have them. I love Halloween, and was very amused by 'Coffin Crisp', but seriously. This made an almost-dietitian buy and devour 3 chocolate bars. Nestle: 1, April : 3 *grin*
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