Old Nurse-Bet Me!

Please send me the address when you get it. I want to sit on a porch in a rocker with a (sugar-free) lemonade in my hand....!

Well, it is so far a dream/soon to be reality probably in Oregon. You are most welcome because the plan is to have a big wrap around porch for lot's of rocking chairs to watch the sunsets and horses run. Choice of beverage will be optional, view is free.

I'll have to join you, then....I live in Oregon myself, and can SO relate to your experiences and challenges as an older nurse.

Wow, I am high desert bound...miss my horse. Need to put these tired old legs up/relax, not just stop and smell the coffee - actually enjoy it!

I love your dream. It makes my elderly mind wander to brighter days. Thank you. From a disabled, 67 year old nurse who loves the picture you painted.:redpinkhe

Thank You so much for sharing this! I needed to see a brighter picture than what I have been. As a older nurse and one that has been going through the ringer the last year, I really needed to see that somewhere out there, there is a better place to be. Right now I am unemployed and I really am considering not going back into nursing. I love taking care of people and doing what I know is right but really can't deal with all the attitudes, disrespect that also comes with the job. You put a smile on my face and I really appreciate that! I would love to have the dream that you have, it sounds so peaceful!

Please, you are most welcome. Always remember that you have helped, cared for and brought smiles to many a patient through your career..not to mention relieved their pain, gave comfort etc. all the things nurses do. I cope by coming to work remembering my "special friends" who brighten my day-usually demented (today I am Mary Ellen)-or in the case of my article "Beware A Patient May Steal Your Heart" written some time ago. Mikey makes me realize what is important in life. Old or otherwise we are experienced, valuable, smart women who have something to share...maybe mentor students? Just a thought? Haveto share there are days when I have to take a ride, go sit in my truck, or maybeget fast food...because an attitude makes me want to be unprofessional to aclueless co-worker.

Thank God for all of you wonderful experienced nurses! I am a first year student, and I am one of many in my class who realize how much we have to learn, and that only a small amount of the knowledge will come from our program. The rest of what we need to know will come from experience, and watching those of you who already know. In case no one has thanked you lately-Thank you!

What a nice posting......and I won't be 67 til later this year.

May your retirement dream come true for you whenever you are ready for it. Bless you and all you have done and will do.

What a refreshing post! Cheers to our "sisterhood"! We're family...ALL IN!

I love this. My mother and myself are both nurses. She retired from a large hospital and started working prn at a smaller hospital where I also work. Her hips hurt her and so walking long halls was not an option, so this worked out good for her to work at a smaller hospital. However, after over 25 years as an ICU nurse in the large hospital coming to a small hospital unit was like working a step down unit at a big hospital. Most pt that are to critical are sent out to a larger hospital.She is having some problems with the younger nurses and it makes me so mad, but out of professionalism I keep my thoughts because I know it is not right for me to interfere. The staff that she works with want to call her incompetent, and these are much younger nurses but have been nurses for at least 6 years. Some of those nurses would not even have a clue how to deal with trauma and neuro and the very critcally ill pt., but she does. She had a hard time adjusting to the computer charting as the hospital she came from had not yet switched over. Well at 67 learning a computer was new. Then just as she started to learn this system on the computer they changed it. Now, she is PRN so it is not like she got to work on it everyday. The younger nurses began to complain because they had to show her things fairly often until she learned it. SOme of the nurses though thought this to be a real pain.She rarely ask them for any help at all with her patients, because working with these pt's was a walk in the park compared to what she was used to. This small hospital offered very little in the way of equipment and supplies she was used to,but she does her job and does it well and has been very versatile and has adjusted to this. She comes home upset some days because she sees these young nurses do things that are just wrong and is unsure how they have made it all this time doing procedures wrong and saying " Well this is how we do it here" when she tries to tell them. She has just learned to go in and do her own job and go home. But still this seems to be an issue for the younger nurses or at least a few of them. Her knowledge is more than they know what to do with. Two of these nurses that are the main problem have worked only at this hospital and never anywhere else and have no clue about anything else. They truely believe they are the greatest nurses in that hospital. God forbid they ever worked a REAL ICU they would be clueless. Now I know I have rambled on so I will get to my problem. They call her incompetent and gossip to other nurses to try to convience them the same. Well as with any small work place-it got back to me. Now I work CCU too but I work PCCU when she works. I also worked under her years ago when that was exceptable. I learned all I know from her. She is so good. There are times that she has problems getting those small veins to and shows some of the even younger nurses how and where to stick for an IV.She once was so good at putting in IV's she was sometimes called to other floors when one was difficult to be obtained by other nurses. But if computers and iv's are the only problem she has they should be proud to have her. While they are looking up drips she is quoting the drips off the top of her head. She has a great repore with the physicians. This hospital does not have a hospitalist and has 2 internest and cardiology comes in 3 times a week from another hospital. She offers the physicians a lot of information, and they listen. She feels the tension. She is given the worst assignments possible. She sometimes has to float out to the PCCU unit because they try to use seniority as an excuse to push her out versus them going. She over heard one nurse say "if she can't walk those halls and work out there then she don't need to be working and just needs to retire and go on". But she goes on and does her job and does not complain and sucks up the pain. She gives great care. All her patients love her. The doctors love her. The nurses on PCCU love her. And guess what, unlike the nurses giving her problems--she has never had to go to court.I have been a nurse 18 years. In all my years I have heard over and over how older nurses eat their young. But times are changing and these know-it-all nurses are taking over and to be honest, they are the ones incometent. I have worked with these same nurses. They are smart and do a fairly good job, and they are a source of basic information on some issues, but they are far from being able to call an older, more experienced nurse incompetent. She has so much to offer if they would just listen. I guess they are just intimidated. I am not sure what to do for her situation. She knows what they are saying and it has really affected her to the point of depression. However, she can not afford to stop working right now. I guess in a few years I wll be there and they will treat me that way too. Well good luck to them. Hope they can stay out of court and justify the things they do.