the no-nonsense nurse

[beachrescue]

As well as working as an emt i also volunteer at the local childrens hospital. On this particular day i was in the room of an 11 year old boy with cancer. He knew he was about to get a shot and thus was giving the nurses, volunteers and his mother a very hard time by kicking and screaming. We tried very hard to calm him down to get the medication into him but he was moving to much.. then all of a sudden he stopped moving, stopped crying stopped screaming ect. everyone in the room went into first gear getting oxygen and checking vitals. After a thorough check we found nothing wrong with him and figured he was faking. I figured the nurses would use smelling salts and he would "wake up" but no, the nurse motioned for us to folllow her out of the room. She told us, go along with this and he will wake up. we walk back in the room and the nurse fooled around with the ekg moniter. The screen showed flat line. She then takes the bed sheet and covers the boy up and looks at the mon with a face that looked very serious and she says "ma'm i am so sorry but I think we have lost your son. The boy all of a sudden jumps up and screams, no mommy no I am alive mommy. After a stern talking to he promised he would never do it again and we were able to give the medication. I think he learned his lesson.

[mobey]

eek.....

Not so sure that was appropriate for a cancer patient.... especially a child.

Not for me

[Just Plain Ruff]

I'm not ok with this either. If it was my son and they did this to him, We'd be finding a new hospital.

[lorilily]

As an EMT-B with cancer, I didn't find this funny at all. The kid is old enough to remember that and it may give the medical profession a bad name as far as he goes. I can't believe his mother and the other professionals in the room went along with it. I would have written her up so fast it isn't funny.

[Richard B the EMT]

As an EMT-B with cancer, I didn't find this funny at all. The kid is old enough to remember that and it may give the medical profession a bad name as far as he goes. I can't believe his mother and the other professionals in the room went along with it. I would have written her up so fast it isn't funny.

I'm an EMT-B who doesn't have Cancer, and I agree with you on this one. Malpractice for the nurses involved for allowing this, and a call to the child welfare board for the parents for allowing it, an act of mental cruelty.

[Just Plain Ruff]

So my question is posed to BeachRescue - did you have a problem with what they did?

[Don1977]

Wow..unreal...I would have some nurse's ass over that.

[Jeepluv77]

Between the OP's screen name and the situation I can't help but think this may be in my area. Unfortunately, a lot of people in the medical field here are deplorable at best. But they get the job done at least to a minimum level and patients(or families) often are afraid to speak up for fear of retribution. Few, if any, nurses would be fired for this around here. The good nurses tend to get burned out quickly picking up the slack and don't typical last long in the acute care or inpatient setting. The nurse in question would most likely be given a "stern reprimand" and that'd be the end of it. I don't think that this belongs in "Funny Stuff"! Would have been far more appropriate to place it in "Patient Care" perhaps to discuss ways of fighting against this type of mistreatment of patients.

Years ago my then 13 month old son had just been stepped down from PICU to Peds Ward after having been overdosed to bring him out of status epilepticus. His second day there he went back into seizures. I pull the nurse call cord. No one comes in or answers. The monitors are going nuts, his SPO2 reading drops to 24, I'm trying to keep his arms from wrapping through the crib bars while he's turning blue, and no one comes in. So I run out to the nurse's station. The only nurse in sight is on the phone and I ask her to please hurry. Told her my son is having a seizure and needs help. Her response? "Oh, he'll be okay. They always turn blue. This is an important call but I'll be there in a minute". I had to stand in the middle of the hallway and scream for help before anyone came. He ended up being overdosed again and sent back to PICU. I filed a complaint. I never recieved any follow up calls on it and was told they "couldn't release her private information" when I called back about it. Two months later he was readmitted. The same nurse was still there. As was his assigned nurse from that day, the charge nurse, and his doctor. They had all been on the ward when it happened. This is just one example of the terrible standards medical staff around here are held to. I've seen similar and worse cases time and time again during clinical and field shifts in all of the hospitals in the area that I've been at.

[HERBIE1]

This isn't even remotely funny as a joke, and despicable if actually true.

If that was my child, I would not rest until that nurse was fired.

[emtannie]

To beachrescue, I have a couple of questions. You posted the story, but you didn't tell how you felt about it - do you feel the actions of the nurse were acceptable? If so, why?

As someone else mentioned, this is in the "funny" section, but I don't find it funny.

An 11 year old child with cancer is a very sad thing... and to have a nurse, even jokingly, act like he was dead is completely inappropriate. How were her actions in the best interest of patient care? Consider the child for a moment - he probably gets poked and prodded all day long.. he is constantly monitored, whether it is his respirations, cardiac monitoring, SpO2, and even urine output and bowel movements (which is embarassing enough for most adults, let alone a child). He isn't outside playing with his buddies and going back to school with his friends. He is probably sick and tired of being sick and tired.

Yeah, he acted up when he was to get an injection... HE IS 11! He has probably had so many injections that his arms and legs are sore.. and some nurses (and doctors, and medics) are not good at giving injections, and they hurt.

Instead of reassuring this patient, and trying to find a way to make this as painless as possible, the actions of the staff made his day even more miserable. They should be ashamed of themselves.