The nurse's view.....

Patient goes to doctor's office.
Doctor: You have high blood pressure. Take these tablets and see me in a month.

Nurse: Oh, you have high blood pressure. Have you always had high blood pressure? Are you under any stress? Do you have pain? What about your family, do they have high blood pressure? Hmmm, you're a little overweight, do you exercise? What about your diet? Have you had a medication review lately? Can I refer you to someone to help with *any and all of the above*?

Now, I know this isn't true of everyone, but a recent conversation with a colleague highlighted that yes, this does happen! Doctor's tend to be diagnosis focussed, identifying the immediate problem and trying to fix it - and this is not a bad thing. We go to them when something is wrong, and we want it fixed right now, we don't think about why we had the problem in the first place. Of course, we don't want to hear that it MIGHT be our own fault! Society is like that these days. We want to just take a pill and be done with it.

Nurses tend to be more holistic, interested in the bigger picture. We assess, refer and follow up. Bear in mind that it's often our information that the doctor relies on (in a hospital or aged care setting at least) so it's in our patient's interest for us to dig up the full story. We aren't interested in your excuses, because we've heard them all before. We want the whole story, so we can give you the best care. You can't hide anything from us! Ha!

And here's another interesting conversation I had - things that are supposed to make our life easier. Take gloves for example. If you are allergic to latex like me, the night mare starts when you can't find anything but latex gloves in the place. I don't know about you, but having itchy hands all day is not what I would call pleasant. Then, when you find the blue ones, you try to pull out a pair of gloves, and fifteen fall out - maybe onto the floor, maybe in the sink, maybe into whatever procedure setup you happen to be carrying. This is seriously annoying, not to mention wasteful (you have to throw them out) and time consuming because you have to pick them all up!

Then there's hand gel - useful to save time when handwashing, yes? Well, mostly. (We'll ignore the fact that some patients have been known to drink the stuff!) Once you get about halfway through the bottle of stuff, the nozzle starts to clog, so when you try to pump some out, it squirts in every direction BUT onto your hands. My shirts have been gelled that many times I don't think any bugs could even try to live on them. Not to mention my shoes, and the floor! I've even squirted a few patients with it. Luckily nowhere near any eyes but the potential is there I suppose. Then once you get the nozzle issue sorted out, there's the problem of when you get about three quarters through, and it just doesn't come out any more. You can pump and pump and pump, and all you get is a piddly little squirt that barely covers your index finger. Some of the full bottles have these fail pumps too.

So, share your items that are supposed to make life easier, but drive you nuts instead!