Welcome Cynthia!

I know there are some really stupid people in this world.. But they are not necessary all nurses.. Some are, but for the most part nursing is a great job. Think of the variety.. What other profession lets you choose what you want to do. Acute care, clinic care home care, long term care, surgery, etc. Damn it if you are unhappy with your life, who's fault is that? If WLS taught me anything it was I am responsible for my decisions. I had WLS in Aug 03 and in 9-03 I started to vomit, 20 -30- time a day. I couldn't stop. I ended up in the hospital for 17 days, on TPN and finally had my gallbladder removed after all that, The Md's were convienced that GB wasn't the problem, But when they finally took it out I got better. And stopped puking..... I learned alot about being a patient during that time and alot about guilt. After all I made the decision to have WLS and I had to live with the outcome. So in a round about way the mishap was my fault.. I though i would die from the guilt. or maybe I would just vomit all the life out of me.. hell i don't really know what i though.. But I did learn something. I learned that I too can be a non-compliant patient.. God don't let my old friends in the ER hear that. So when you start getting down on us nurses, please remember.. EDucation and EMpathy is what we need to practice. You can NEVER learn too much and YOU can always become a Patient...... I hope that my daughter will think about being a NURSE. but I don't know if she will. She is a senior in highschool and is a volunteer on the local fire dept. she has her first responder cert. But she thinks of nursing as BLOOD and GOre, and can't get pass that. Maybe someday.

Hello ya'll from Texas. Glad to have forund this site. I am having a heck of a time with my ins. They made me go to Houston from Austin to see a surgeon which is a 3 and 1/2 hour drive. That would have been tolerable but I found out fri that the surgeon and his hospital aren"t in my network. I work at a HCA facility and have First Health. I am so pizzed off that I could scream. Where do they hire those people?! If I did my job as proficiently as they, the funeral homes here would be stacked three deep with bodies. Oh well, just needed to vent. Thanks for the chance to do just that. Cyn

Where else can you make $40+/hour with only 2 years of college...

I read your post with sadness. Isn't hard to be a nurse now? I have to say, I received excellent care post op, and I have to attribute to possibly 2 things~ 1) the hospital I was in was union. All the RN's were in a union and the patient to nurse ratio was in a contract. My RN was in all the time to check me during my 4 night stay, and I was pleasantly surprised. 2) the floor I was on was strictly for bariatric patients only. It is too bad that it has to be a Union that sets ratios, why oh why, can it not be the states to say only so many patients to so many nurses!! Some day nurses will become empowered to change things!