Nurses

How is it that nurses seem to be the worst caregivers when they are dealing with their families?  I can see how it would be hard to be objective when someone you love is feeling less than stellar, but all out hysteria?  I just don't get it.

Nurse A has a small child at home.  I think the child is around 2 or 3 years old.  The child has been to the ER no less than 4 times in the last 4 months.  And none of those visits were for life threatening illness.  I do understand that a young child that is very sick can be terrifying.  I've been there myself.  As a mother, you worry.  You think the absolute worst is going to happen.  But you would think with a nursing background you could see the signs.  Look at the symptoms and know it's just a bad cold or possibly even a bacterial infection.  Both of which could be cared for in a sick appointment at the pediatrician.  Or worse case, the urgent care clinic.  But no, she ran the kid to the ER each time.

Nurse B also has a small child but this one is 5 years old.  A few weeks ago she called in to work because her kid was sick.  That's fine.  I get that.  You need to take care of your family.  Come to find out, the kid puked ONCE the night before and had NO OTHER SYMPTOMS.  None.  But she kept her home from school and called off of work because she deemed that her child had the flu.

Nurse C has two grown adult children who both still live at home.  The older of the two had her wisdom teeth pulled about 2 months ago.  Nurse B had to run home during her lunch to care for the adult child because she was in so much pain and the child's father (who was with her) just couldn't handle it.  Yesterday, Nurse B had to race home because her other child had thrown up 3 times in a row.  She determined that the adult child needed to go to the emergency room for this.  He was released with the diagnosis of the flu and sent home.  Nurse B set her alarm and got up through the night to give her adult child his medicine.  He was fine this morning.  Then a short while later, she bolted out of work because her older adult child called and said she called 911 because the son was not feeling well.  They are back at the ER.

As people that work in healthcare, you would think they would consider their actions.  Of course if you feel your family member is seriously ill you should go to the ER.  No question.  But as a healthcare provider, to flood the ER with cases of the flu?  And then complain about how insurance won't cover things for the regular patients you see?  Don't you realize that YOU are the ones that are contributing to this problem?  What's the point of going to nursing school if you can't even use that knowledge on your own family?