How my negatives notions about nurses were validated.

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I was riding the commuter train the other day, and a small group of middle-aged women and one guy in his late forties/early fifties sat a few seats away from me. They were all dressed up, possibly heading towards the city for a night out in town. Listening to their jokes/conversations, I soon learned that these individuals were nurses. They were so loud and unpleasant, I never suspected they were professionals. Between the noise and the laughter, the guy begun telling a story about a patient who had come to the clinic wanting him to believe a theory about the cause of his affliction, even though the patient "did not have the mental capacity to articulate a coherent sentence." When the guy finished telling his story, the other nurses exploded in laughter. A few moments later some of the female nurses started joking about how they know better than to trust patients who self-diagnose with illnesses they read about on the internet. Again, there was more noise and laughter from the other nurses. At one point, one of the nurses quipped that she could not understand why some patients refused to take a pill that would make them "feel happy." The guy replied, in a very philosophical tone of voice, "after all these years, I still don't get it. I still don't get it."

At that point I felt so upset I stood up from my seat and begun walking towards the other end of the train. In a strange way, I also felt redeemed, because these folks validated a lot of the negative notions I had about nurses.

What would you have done if you had been in my shoes? And, how would your perception of nurses have changed after this experience?

Well, cosole yourself with the knowledge that those nurses are there to mop up vomit, wipe asses and do what the doctors tell them to do. They're not trained to diagnose nor prescribe medication.

At the end of the day, nurses are people too, including all the stupid ideas about other people. You sure they weren't nursing assistants? If I were you, I would stop eavesdropping on other conversations if I didn't like what they were saying - they're stupid people, let them be stupid.

While they may have been annoying that doesn't mean that they are not competent. I know a few nurses and a flight emt( the people that go with the med evac helicopters) and all of them say some pretty callous stuff about patients. The only one of the three that doesn't say alot of degrading or downright disturbing stuff is the only one that i would rather not have treating me. People that spend alot of time doing things like this get used to it, just like any other job, and they will joke about it. If they don't then they may not be comfortable in these situations, which has been my experience.

There are some comments on this board about NTs which were said in a joking manner but if a NT read them then it would be rather annoying. I'm sure they would react to these comments by reinforcing their own negative stereotypes of people with autism and AS, if not just grouping it all together with 'weirdos'.

Are those particular nurses annoying? Absolutely
Are all nurses like that? no


However I should point out that when someone deals with sick people day in and day out they naturally get desensitized to all of that, eventually to the point that they'll joke about it. That doesn't make it right, it's just how it is.

You'll like this Mw99:

For the nurses' point of view www.mentalnurse.org.uk . The ones blogging here seem pretty sound.

As someone who has worked in nursing for a while, I think they are just like anyone else, except that they work a lot harder than the average worker. Yes, some are dumb, some are brilliant and some are average. Some are mean, some are the nicest people you have ever met. Why torture yourself with prejudice?

I think I know how you feel, Mw99. It's not their opinions that intimidate me-- well, yeah, a little, but what worries me is that they have a BIT of influence over others' treatment or at least how THEY treat others, and how they might act, what they might do. Like if that one who talked about the antidepressants is a psych nurse...

How I Nearly Became a Nurse

My dad made a concerted effort to get me to become a nurse. He emphasized that he had a friend on the faculty of a nursing program at a prestigious university. He said that nursing would be a good career for me because it is in high demand and it has to do with biology, which I have always loved.

I had to explain over and over that I am basically the opposite of what nursing calls for. Nurses have to be very social and leave the important decisions to the doctors. In other words, I suspect that a good nurse is an extrovert who prefers socialization to reading and reasoning.

If I were a nurse, I would want to hide from the patients instead of helping them. I would want to make all the decisions that doctors are supposed to make. I would probably argue with the doctors about their conclusions.

"Oh, but you could get a PhD in nursing and study the profession from a scientific standpoint," my dad said. Somehow, I doubt one could get a PhD in nursing without some actual nursing experience. Not for me. Fortunately, my dad gave up after a few years.

I heard an IDIOT once talking to another idiot and he said (I am paraphrasing here, but this is VERY close to what he said) "Yeah, they will SAY they are in a hurry to have lunch, and have to be seated but, after having waited 30 minutes, they leave, and you KNOW they just go someplace else and eat!". I LOST it and said "NO!! !! !! I have been there! I have only so much time for lunch! When that happens to me, I STARVE for the rest of the day!! !!"! After all, I can't just take the day off. BTW BOTH of those people were low wage workers that generally delivered pizzas.

Some people just don't take their job seriously, and even JOKE, etc... and they figure it is ok, because "Everyone else does it"!

The idea is SUPPOSED to be that you do your task in an efficient and caring way, and you get paid for THAT! Too many just wait to get paid IN SPITE of what they do or don't do!