When talking to him it became very clear that he loved his job. His face lit up when he spoke about his role in the Ambulance Service, the kinds of people he works with and the good vs. bad about his patients. I want that feeling.
I want to be able to talk about my job and actually 'Love' it. Don't get me wrong, I love nursing and all the ups and downs that come with it but I am not getting that 100% satisfied feeling any more. I'm not too sure why, I can only presume its because i'm still a student who is not appreciated and has no moral standing on the ward what-so-ever. For example;
I have a thing about unnecessary blood transfusions. My patient had a Hb of *7, so my mentor forced the Dr to prescribe 2 units of blood. In my opinion, and what I have been taught is, make the Dr's aware of the decrease in Hb but you need to assess if the patient is symptomatic or not. If the patient is suffering symptomatic anaemia then go right ahead and get the blood, but if not why waste it? Blood costs over £200 a bag! Needless to say, when I brought up this point I was just shrugged off and told it was some far out policy somewhere in the abyss of the NHS that I should reacquaint myself with. Poor excuse in my opinion.
I hate not being able to have my say about these patients. As a student you spend as much time with them as the staff nurses do and yet what you have to say apparently doesn't count. The Dr's only want you to make up their equipment trolleys and tidy them away once they are finished and the senior nurses don't even have the common decency to remember your name.
I guess its the kind of things I have to suffer until I recieve my pin, which hopefully will not get lost in the 'Great postal strike of 2011'!!
;o)
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* Hb - Hemoglobin. The normal range for Hb is 12 - 18. However there are variants according to gender and Age
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