NURSES
Wed., October 28, 11:31 AM
In July, shortly before Husband got sick, he was complaining that he couldn’t find something — which means, of course, that U.D. or I must have taken it. (Believe me, no one took it; I figured he must have used it up.) In any case, while it seemed logical to look for it while he was in the hospital, when he was not likely to walk in and yell, “What are you doing to my stuff?” I never did find it, and I am quite certain he forgot that he finished it. That happens a lot.
I did find some other things, though nothing that I had hoped to discover. A good picture of his mother would be nice, because I believe Lila looks like her. There were several knitting needles and crochet hooks that I had put down “for a minute,” which evidently he had put away rather than wait for me to finish using them. I replaced them years ago, but I don’t mind having extras.
The find of the day was my old junior high autograph book. Reading through the good wishes of my friends so many years ago, I was surprised by the number of people who wished me luck in my nursing career. (Except for one boy who wrote, “I still think you should be a doctor.”) As you may remember, I never did become a nurse. Even though I had decided that I was more interested in the scientific side of nursing than the people aspect, I did not forget what I had already learned, and I retained an interest in the field as a whole.
Requirements for registered nurses vary from state to state, but fifty-plus years ago, when I was doing the research, there were two basic roads in Connecticut leading to an R.N. A girl could train through a hospital, not all that different from Sue Barton, Student Nurse, or she could attend a college or university that offered a degree in nursing, culminating in both an R.N and a B.S. One of the interesting things to me was that, in Connecticut, even the hospital students were required to complete six weeks of academic training (given at the University of Connecticut) before they began their hospital work. The college students did two years of liberal arts with an emphasis on medical-related work, with a summer at the hospital between freshman and sophomore year; after their sophomore year, they did two years of just hospital work. Some of my classmates, returning after their summer work at the hospital, told me they thought the girls going through the hospital-offered nursing programs were going to make better nurses.
That might or might not have been accurate; these girls might well have changed their methods when they were at the hospital full time. But it is true that not every nursing student will make a really good nurse in the old-fashioned sense — someone sympathetic who will do her best to make you feel better, who will take the time to listen to you and soothe your fears. I grant that nurses today have a lot more technical know-how, but you can still see differences among the men and women who do the job today. Given a choice between two excellent hospitals in this area, I tend to choose the one with the better nurses. Both Husband and I have experienced both hospitals; he agrees with me. And I have to point out that the nurses at the Veterans Hospital are superb.
That is very important, because the residents — who I am sure will be good doctors someday — still leave something to be desired. Of course, that was July; rotations change July first, so they were new at this. I found myself explaining a lot about Husband, because the doctors don’t yet know what questions to ask. One of them ordered a brain CT scan for Husband but did not know (didn’t she check?) that he had one a couple of years ago, so they could make a comparison. I seldom see the same doctor twice, and all they saw was an old man who can’t breathe. It took the intercession of nurses to get the doctor to adjust the biPAP so that it was less uncomfortable.
I did not ask anyone what medications he was getting; occasionally they chose to tell me that they were giving him an antibiotic or an extra dose of a water pill. Vitamins, especially B-12, extra fiber (oatmeal), co-enzyme Q — I kept him on those for years; but so many doctors will tell you, “he doesn’t need vitamins…” If they can get him to eat a well-balanced diet, I applaud them.
Now that Husband is permanently in the nursing home, he is under the care of their doctors and their pharmacy — even though they send him back to the VA hospital with every perceived emergency in his oxygen level. (I say perceived, because the VA can’t duplicate the readings.) I have not met the doctors, but here too, the nurses are wonderful. Their patience is amazing, and I am truly grateful for their care.
