Nurse for 40 years. Now in Coronary Care / Cardiac areas. Worked in Intensive Care Units for about 15 years, taught courses etc. Been involved in Universities (started as tutor, finished as a Professor... left because education system had been dumbed down so much that having straight A's at school or Uni had come to mean nothing and Uni's had become very political). More letters after my name than in my name.
Now enjoying clinical work again. It pays the bills and lets me go on the wallaby once or twice a year and I don't go home to rude and aggressive midnight phone calls from spoilt Uni students crying because they didn't get an A for their crap essay.
Patients now fatter (biggest I have seen was 285kg....you read it right!! Had to piss standing over a bucket because he couldn't find his dick in all the rolls of fat) and sicker and ruder. Their relatives, too. More aggression as well. Nurses, world wide, endure more aggression than police officers on a daily basis.
Much more required from nurses now than in the old days. Nurses r the first interceptors of patient deterioration and the really experienced and knowledgeable ones (not many now) r worth their weight in gold... can and do teach a lot to young doctors and pull them out of the shit many times in a day.
I still enjoy my work and will keep doing it while I feel I make a difference to some one each day and I still enjoy teaching and helping the younger ones. Still, I wouldn't mind next time round becoming a chippy or a welder or even a mechanic...
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