1. Your cat has a large burn from a car fan belt from it's abdomen to it's armpit. It's black and hard and he's been licking at it. It did not "happen 24 hours earlier."
2. Think 7 days earlier.
3. It hasn't been vaccinated in 5 years.
4. The surgery to remove the eschar went well.
5. Skipping your appointment to remove the sutures and recheck the cat? Classy.
6. I'm sure you removed the sutures yourself. After all, you "are a nurse."
7. Which you inform me of at every opportunity.
8. I hope you also tell the police officers who show up to do a well-check on your neglected cat.
9. Bitch.
Dr. Not A Nurse
Why, oh why, are the human medicine people the worst clients ever? They self-medicate their patients, they always think they can diagnose everything, and they never want to pay for anything. It really makes me hate going to see them in their own practices, because I shudder to think what they'll do to me.
ReplyDeleteThe MDs will take real good care of you because the insurance company will reimburse them handsomely to do so.
ReplyDeleteI guess you don't know if the cat was OK, since they never showed for the follow-up appt. This is one of the main reasons I didn't go into vet med, which I had planned to do when I started my undergrad. I couldn't deal with people who just don't seem to care about their own pets' suffering. How do you keep from stealing their pets away in the night for their own good?
ReplyDeleteThe worst thing is when you get a client presenting a pet for euthanasia that you KNOW you can treat. I tried to get them to sign the nice cat over to me and they flatly REFUSED and demanded to be present and witness the euthanasia.
ReplyDeleteSome people just shouldn't own pets. Or steal my O2.
She might not really be a nurse. I have had a big problem with patients/family/friends saying they are a nurse. Careful use of terms usually reveals they are actually an aide/CNA/MA/receptionist at a doctors office/have a distant relative who is a nurse.
ReplyDeleteAs a honest to god, real nurse with a licence and degree and all that, I love my cat and wouldn't never, ever do any of the above. I would never medicate my cat without talking to the vet first.
Sorry this person is such a wench. I hope she doesn't treat her human patients as such (assuming she really is a nurse)
Unfortunately she is an RN, but I can't get her to tell me where she works. My wife is also an RN, working on her NP, and I know this is not the norm. My RN clients are either very very good or very very bad with no "in between."
ReplyDeleteHoly fuck.
ReplyDeletedoctorrich: Yup, nurse clients are either very good, or really terrible. Not all of my nurse clients are awful, but I'd say seven of my absolute worst clients of all time are nurses. They torture their animals, treat with whatever meds they can scavenge, then blame me for not being capable of resurrecting the half-dead. Combine that with complete ignorance of sterile bandaging technique and a tendency to argue over estimates and bills, and we have a group of winners.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite clients? Attorneys, believe it or not. They're smart, give me the facts in logical order, and tend to pay their bills.
I don't know who you VBBs are... but I MUST work with you. Please. Tell me where you are, and I will show up. I've been a tech for almost 15 years and I was thinking about setting up a vent blog recently myself. But you've pretty much covered it all here. Love your blog. Thank you so much for writing.
ReplyDeleteMaybe she is just a bad person. The world has lots of them and I am quite sure it is not because she is an RN. Being an RN myself, having become one not to get rich but because I love my patients and take excellent care of them, I am very offended by some of what has been said here. The statement that we are either very good or really terrible is just downright rotten. I work with 300 nurses on an OB unit and they are amazing people. Women and men who work long hours for not-a-lot of money, drop everything to fly off and volunteer at disasters worldwide at their expense Katrina, Haiti, etc. Have their own healthcare cut, pensions taken while taking more patients without breaks or lunches. Yes nurses are real villains. We hold the hands of those whose family "can't be there" while they die. Smile and refuse to pass judgement on the gravida 9 para 9 who we have to start an IJ on because she has no veins left due to substance abuse since she was 12 and does not have custody of any of them. We treat any and all patients with dignity.I am shocked at the meanness of the comments directed toward those who are in a profession of compassion. I have many pets and take excellent care of them as well. My fellow nurses talk incessantly about their pets and show photos and videos daily of their sweet "rescues" and furry children. We cry during the ASPCA commercials, and most give regularly to it. I think nurses, like vets have huge hearts. I am sad to hear you say your favorite clients are Attorneys, personally my least favorite. They are terrible patient's and make everyone afraid to care for them, questioning everything and taking notes while you care for their wives or daughters. We may struggle to pay our bills to you but it is because we do not bill at $500/hour. Many of us are single parents. I sleep well at night knowing I am doing good in the world. Jenna, I wonder if your favorite clients do too.
ReplyDeleteWorse thing a client can say "I'm a nurse". Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of nurse friends and they're great people but as clients. . .
ReplyDeleteIt's notthe nurses job that is being criticized here, but some nurses feelings that because they have medical knowledge of people this translates to animals.none is poo pooing on the invaluable service nurses provide tutti HUMAN patients.focus at often guilty of the same thing. Basically, all w ask is you treat your species and we ll treat ours.
ReplyDeleteSome nurses are good and some are bad because at the end of the day we are all human. Not a nurse thing. Just a people thing. No need for offense.
ReplyDeleteNow having said that, I admit I cringe when I hear " I'm a nurse" therefore it really is that many people who come in claiming nursing as a profession have some of the worse taken care of pets and do not listen because they are so busy bragging about being a nurse.
I also try to find out where they work, in case I get hit by a car, I'd rather be transported clear across town....
Some nurses are good and some are bad because at the end of the day we are all human. Not a nurse thing. Just a people thing. No need for offense.
ReplyDeleteNow having said that, I admit I cringe when I hear " I'm a nurse" therefore it really is that many people who come in claiming nursing as a profession have some of the worse taken care of pets and do not listen because they are so busy bragging about being a nurse.
I also try to find out where they work, in case I get hit by a car, I'd rather be transported clear across town....
I have been a tech for ten years, and I am also a RN. As a tech I worked at an emergency clinic, and I can tell you that in general nurses do make bad clients. But so do human doctors, and any person that has ever been in the animal field of work, such as cashier at petsmart, sister of a breeder, kennel tech 20 years ago while in high school, etc.
ReplyDeleteI decided to go to nursing school because of the money. I was working my ass off as a tech and not making enough money to support myself. My skills and knowledge as a tech helped me immensely in nursing, and vice versa. But while I was in school no one really took my previous medical training seriously until they realized what I did was more then "taking care of puppies." I like to think that many nurses learned to take veterinary medicine more seriously because of me lol. I was also able to take what I learned as a nurse and apply it to being a technician.
Once I graduated I continued to work as a tech prn. My boss was proud that I was a nurse and would tell clients that he had an RN on staff. Most people can't understand why I choose to continue to be a technician, but it is what I love. I just can't make a decent living from it.
When we get clients in that are nurses they don't hesitate to make it known. Which is fine, I do the same thing when I go to a doctor's appointment because that way they can talk to me in medical terminology and give me full details instead of making it easy to understand. Plus I'm proud that I'm a nurse. But anyways it becomes painfully obvious after speaking to "nurse" client for more then two minutes that something isn't quite right. That is when I tell them I am a nurse too, and ask where they work and what kind of nursing they do. That is when I'd say 80% of them turn out to CNAs, phlebotomist, even hospital floor secretaries.
So whenever I hear people complain about nurse clients I always like to find out what they really are. Because there is a big difference between a CNA and a RN. That being said the RNs do tend to self medicate their pets, or wait too long for their pets to be seen. I don't know why that is. I've had nurses take IV catheters home from work and give their 20# dog a liter of fluids then not understand why the dog is dying/dead. Also, at least in my experience, a lot of nurses are grumpy and entitled. They treat technicians as if we are idiots, not understanding that most of us went to the same amount of school as they did. I wish it wasn't this way but it is. Please keep in mind a lot of my friends are nurses.
I'm sorry this comment turned into a huge story, obviously this is a very touchy subject for me.
I wish the doctor's at my hospital would get it right and say what they should say....like, DON'T EVER DIAGNOSE YOUR OWN PET YOU ARE NOT A VETERINARIAN!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm an RN, but I totally trust my vet when it comes to caring for my dog. Not my place to diagnose my dog when he's sick. Hello! That's why my vet is there! I don't tell the vet that I'm an RN. But most of them figure it out when I ask very educated questions regarding their recommendations for diagnostic testing and treatment.
ReplyDelete@atyourcervix Hi there! So glad to hear you have a good relationship with your vet. I'm sure it's frustrating when people generalize about your profession based on the actions of only some members (see: vets don't wear gloves in surgery b/c I saw Dr. Pol on TV and he didn't wear gloves...) but hopefully you understand that while we may bitch and moan about the people we have problems with, we are aware of and appreciate the ones who truly care about their pets and let us do our jobs!
ReplyDeleteYes, I can definitely relate to how some people may generalize certain professions.
ReplyDelete