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The Long Term Danger of Being a Nurse…
…at least it was for me.
I was an RN from 1968 to 2010. I worked in a hospital on acute care units and then Rehab. I also worked in home care and in long term care, retiring with the dubious honor of being the VP of nursing for a company that managed nursing homes. You would think that a “desk” job would be easy but it was even more difficult for I was always found to be butting heads with TPTB.
For most of the years I worked, I had low back pain — bad low back pain. And in the age of no CT Scans or MRIs I was told to suck it up and take the aspirin and, oh, yeah, get that 300 pound patient out of bed three times on your shift.
During the hospital days, on a weekend, I would be the charge nurse, the med nurse and the nurse aide. You would find me pushing the med cart while pulling a metal cart of fresh water pitchers, a clipboard of problems on top of one of them as I tried to scurry from room to room, checking on patients, giving them fresh water and their meds.
“You have myositis,” the orthopedic surgeon said. “It’s known as ‘The Malingerer’s Disease.” He looked at me, waiting for a reaction. Maybe he thought I didn’t know the meaning of the word. But I did.
Then there was a day post op. The ortho surgeon had decided to put me through surgery to determine what was really…
