Social Justice Warriors

Male Nurse Shares Thoughts On Hippies Blocking Ambulance

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I can’t breathe. Three simple words that mean different things to different people. I’m a male nurse in a local hospital and deal with every far flung corner of society. From the Clark Grad college sweetheart new parents who set off their child’s asthma because they smoked pot in the house, the little old lady from the local nursing home who has a pulmonary embolism and needs to be intubated, and the COPD’er who still smoked 2 packs of cigarettes a day. But now these 3 simple words have been perverted by a circle of people who have spent a large majority of their lives being able to do what ever they want, being able to breathe and using that breath to support criminals. 

As I sit at my desk with a glass of scotch and smoldering cigar (with the window open because the future Mrs. Turtlesnurse doesn’t like the smell) I can’t help but see comparisons between these protesters and the dregs of society that come in and treat us like scum. For anywhere from 8-16 hours I work in your friendly downtown Emergency Department, and hopefully these are some hot feminist family friendly takes from your local Male Nurse.
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The Emergency Department is the perfect cross section of any city, and it’s hard to understand that unless you work where boundaries don’t exist and lives hang in the balance more often than not. I want to go on record early, stating that nurses are on the side of the police. I’m not going to say our jobs are anything alike, but we find ourselves in some of the same situations. Making the decision to remove someone from life support and making the decision to pull the trigger on someone are very similar. Try telling me how either choice won’t keep you up at night either way. Worcester’s finest deal with the same cross section of people. They bring us in the drunks, the homeless, the psychotics. They respond to the 911 calls of the Clark grad newlyweds who fishbowl their 1 year old daughter and they safely bring in the cocaine fueled gangster whose “friend accidentally hit him with a car”.
We have to make the same decisions about force as the police do too. No, we don’t carry guns or batons or tasers. We don’t have bullet proof vests or a training to defend ourselves when attacked, and we get attacked on a nearly daily basis. We have to decide in a split second if someone can be talked down or they need to be sedated and restrained for their and our safety. Three days ago, one of my friends was was punched in the face and bitten by her patient.
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It will only be a matter of time before the protestors get tired of yelling and trying to provoke the police and turn on healthcare workers. People like Robert Blackwell-Gibbs and Sonya Connor come in all the time and play their victim cards. They protest the fact that I gave them Tylenol over Dilaudid, they Google their symptoms and tell the doctor, who has spent 10 years learning his or her craft, what’s wrong with them. These are the same people who are allergic to everything except opiate medication.  And these people have the audacity to block ambulance bays and roadways because they think some major offense has been caused to them. When I read the news the other day about the rich suburban white kids who thought the sitting in traffic with their arms in cement because they weren’t hugged enough as a child and majored in 18th century gender roles at 50,000 dollar a year private suburban college, I couldn’t help be disgusted, but then I heard the diverted ambulances and cancer patients missing treatments and became angry.
Boston is a world-wide destination for exceptional healthcare and its a miracle that no one died because of these selfish self-centered actions. If anyone died, or does die because of these actions, they should all be charged with murder. And then to scream at media members to get out your way because you have to go to the hospital because you have cuts on your arm from cementing your arm in a barrel? If I didn’t deal with these people on a daily basis, I would think it was a joke.
I hope that the girl who demanded to go to the hospital reads this. No seriously, I do, because I want you to know how much the nurses and the doctors laughed at you when you stormed in like the privileged girl you are, and demanded to be seen right away, while your equally white roommate, maybe even your girlfriend, harassed the over worked staff that now has to deal with your stupid ass, when the doctor is going to fix you. Honestly, we feel bad for you for how badly your parents raised you by keeping you in the best schools and raising you in Cambridge. How by sparing you no expense, they formed an unrealistic view of the world for you.
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We talk of the “Come To Jesus” moment in medicine. I guess it could be the drunks moment clarity, or as my wonderful mother calls it, the dope slap. It’s a moment where the fog clears and you realize what a fool you are. I’ve seen this in drunk college kids a lot. Mostly 19 year olds who go to WPI and think it’s a good idea to take 19 tequila shots for their birthday. Their cross eyed gaze clears, and they look at you with vomit caked to their face. Then they have to hear about how stupid they were, and how getting raped and killed were serious possibilities in the state they were in, and if it wasn’t for the police who brought them, who knows where’d they be or what would happen to them. Right now, the only protestor I have any respect for is Noah McKenna, the kid came out and talked to the press and looked like he began to realize he was nudnik. With any hope he’ll shave his dreadlocks and buy a suit.
In healthcare, just like life, all lives matter. I don’t need the Twitter machine to put a hashtag in front of that to make it true. Healthcare in this country is a right but you naniburger attention hounds do not have the right to impede people from that healthcare. You come through the doors to be treated, I will treat you like any other person. I will treat you with as much respect as you show me. The only way to make any change in this world is to all work together, not chain Grimace and the Hamburglar to oil cans and scream “I can’t breathe”. The day you can’t actually breathe, I’ll be there for you, just like how the police will still be there for you when you need them, no matter how disgusted they are with your actions

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31 Comment(s)
  • Turtle nurse
    January 21, 2015 at 2:37 pm

    jimbo- come spend a Friday night with me in the ED.

    • Jim-Brewertonsly
      January 24, 2015 at 4:34 pm

      Sorry “MALE NURSE”, done that. I know it’s stressful in a Little, or Big City ED. Just transfer to something less stressful for yourself. You’re NOT doing Your Patients, OR YOURSELF, any favors in your current “grind. Showering your pain with Scotch is simply not a good way to handle it.

      • TurtleNurse
        January 26, 2015 at 11:30 am

        Jim-

        What do you do for work? Nowhere in my article did I claim to be judge, jury, or police. If you’re biggest problem with me is that I enjoy a glass of scotch, you are disillusioned. Caring and compassion is sitting and talking with the drunks, the drug seekers, the angry. Clearly I need to write another blog to answer all your clown accusations

        • Finnish Goalie
          January 31, 2015 at 11:22 am

          Do it.

  • Jim-Brewertonsly
    January 21, 2015 at 2:14 pm

    I’d like to go “on record” and call BUSHA regarding Nurses “being on the side of the police”. Most Nurses I know are on the side of what’s Right, PERIOD. Quit drinking the Scotch, no different from the other Liquor you state the youngsters are drinking, and maybe you’ll remember why you got into the nursing field, if in fact you did it to help people. Sounds like you may need to think of early retirement or changing fields, you’ve def lost any empathy for folks needing help. Addicts, and those with mental diseases need the help, not jaded sarcasm and generalizations, of real medical professionals. I’d say you’re no longer thinking as, and are NOT, a professional. To state that a cop’s decision to shoot someone is similar to removing a patient from the ventilator is PURE BS. Are you one of those nurses that think they’re a doctor??? YOU, as a nurse, Have ABSOLUTELY NO SAY in that Decision! And if you’ve ever done it without allowing for proper legal procedure and authority to do such a thing, NOT INVOLVING YOUR THOUGHTS on the matter, YOU should be handcuffed, take the ride, be fingerprinted, and Put Away for a Very Long time. Help Humankind and Change jobs “dude”, You’re a Lousy excuse for, and a Stain on the Uniforms of ALL Professional Nurses.

    • Finnish Goalie
      January 21, 2015 at 3:57 pm

      Oh blow it out your ass.

      You know how many times I’ve heard stories of doctors who thought they knew procedure and proper diagnosis only be be schooled by veteran nurses who know the patient in question and actual rules better because they’re in the shit every day? I know multiple people working in the medical field of Worcester as nurses, they all have the same story, and would agree with this 100%. Guess they all just gotta get new jobs, eh?

      Seems you have an under appreciation of what nurses do, what they put up with, and what they know.

      • Turtle nurse
        January 21, 2015 at 4:26 pm

        He’s just another ignorant fool who watches too much House

        • techy911
          January 22, 2015 at 1:47 pm

          WAIT, House is not an accurate portrayal of the hospital life?!

        • Jim-Brewertonsly
          January 24, 2015 at 4:22 pm

          And, You, “MALE NURSE”, and your other supporters, the Alcoholics, substance abusing, condescending Frauds who are in a field where caring and empathy for folks in need is part of your credo, can eat raw salmo infected eggs for all I care.

          • Finnish Goalie
            January 31, 2015 at 11:21 am

            You have no clue, at all, man.

    • Non Sequitor
      January 21, 2015 at 4:26 pm

      Excuse me, ma’am, you are an idiot.

      As someone who knows first hand about giving taxi rides to ERs (with lights and siren) cut the shit about addicts and mental health victims. Addicts are now getting free passes to shoot up and rob again, courtesy of as much Narcan as the taxpayers can afford to pay for. And mental health? For every legit mental health issue (most of which don’t require an ambulance) there are 15 ‘boo-hoo my Mommy didn’t hug me’ types who call 911 every 3 days to “talk to someone.” That’s fact. That’s life in the street.

      And guess who have to deal with these ‘tards for hours? Nurses.

      Ask almost any ER nurse why the health care system is so fucked and most will say frequent flyers, those enabled by your idiotic “no one is guilty of anything and the system is racist” thinking. (The others will say overpaid administrators who know nothing about health care but thats a rant for another turtle spawning.)

      These ass-bags call 911 and the HAVE to be transported to the hospital. Even if they call because their prescription ran out and they don’t have a car or a license. Thats fact. So spare me the E is for empathy card.

      Save the empathy for the middle class taxpayers, those with insurance, who have to pay exorbitant rates for layabouts, addicts, mental health poseurs and college professors.

    • NurseOpenMind
      January 22, 2015 at 12:28 am

      Well said! He has no compassion. He’s one of those ER nurses that judge you the minute you walk in and will treat you entirely different based on his prejudices. Probably is the nurse that told a patient that was having a life threatening allergic reaction to a medication it was all in her head after asking why she had been prescribed the med and she told him possible bipolar disorder and has a panic disorder as well. Never had I seen a patient before treated the way she was, ignored for the most part, symptoms brushed off as anxiety, and “having mental health problems such as yours can make you believe there is something wrong when there is actually isn’t. So what do you want from me? What do you think we can do for you here? We can request a mental health consult.” (Turns out she WAS having a life threatening allergic reaction to that med and on top of it was also Dx with scarlett fever by her PCP a few days later) He is the kind of nurse that as a patient you can see his arrogance, feel his disconnect with you and makes you feel like your an inconvenience no matter what your there for. He DOES NOT speak for all nurses on this and I agree he needs to find a new job. One where he won’t have to interact with people. A therapist might say he’s got some unresolved issues from his life, maybe he was bullied, didn’t live up to Daddy’s expectations, Never was quite good enough, probably flunked out of med school, had to pay his own student loans, wasn’t invited to parties, not too successful with the ladies, had little to no social life and holds deep resentment because of it. Turtle go smoke a joint and relax.

      • Turtle nurse
        January 22, 2015 at 12:56 am

        Wrong on all accounts. It must be nice to sit in your comfy assignment all day. I actually feel bad for how hateful and judgemental you are, after accusing me of being judgemental.

      • Finnish Goalie
        January 22, 2015 at 8:02 am

        “Doesn’t speak for all nurses.”

        Well, seems the others so far on this page, and the ones I’ve been sharing this with in the greater Boston and Worcester area.

        Guess you just happen to the be exception to the rule so far. They all need new employment?

        So, what is your exact position?

        • Turtle nurse
          January 22, 2015 at 10:19 am

          She very clearly didn’t read the article.

      • Jim-Brewertonsly
        January 24, 2015 at 4:27 pm

        Exactly NOM. Dude needs a transfer at a minimum, probably an ass whippin’ by some former patients he’s supposedly “treated”. Nurses like “MALE NURSE” like to play Doctor, Police, Legislator, JUDGE AND JURY, when all they’re licensed to do is be a, hopefully GOOD, Nurse..

  • Julia_goolia
    January 21, 2015 at 10:01 am

    Great job turtle nurse! I too sharing with my fellow ER nurses in the Western MA area.

  • Berk
    January 21, 2015 at 9:32 am

    I’m a Providence RI, ER RN, and have been credited by my colleagues for being a voice of my profession on many occasions. We had similar highway blockades and ambulances and we all had the same sentiments. Really well said and very accurate.

  • Finnish Goalie
    January 21, 2015 at 8:04 am

    Well written. In fact, this is an article that I’m going to share with people unfamiliar with the blog who work in the local medical community. This is going to be shared, very much so.

  • Citygirl_58
    January 20, 2015 at 11:22 pm

    This is a great article! I enjoyed it immensely. For those who think that the medical staff always believes the police, you are wrong. I too work in emergency room. There are many times that police officers comes to the door as a patient, things we have to keep to ourselves, or we can lose our jobs. It’s called patient confidentiality.
    But there is also many times a police officer comes to a With a patient who is violent, who is kicking us, who is spitting at us, who just put a needle in their arm. We as medical staff, take care this person regardless of what they do to us. The police officer who took this person in chances are put them selfs in harms way with this person. Also our emergency medical services, Our paramedics,and the firefighters put their lives on the line every to help those who are unappreciative. There are many people who do thank us for doing a job. Thank you goes a long way. So all you people who are protesting, I hope you never have to gohome and find a family member in trouble, maybe they can’t breath, Maybe having a heart attack, and you need to call 911. If you do need to call for emergency services, a police officer will be at the door in minutes, an ambulance will be on their way as well. I hope that there’s not a lot of traffic so your love one can get to the hospital, you know what I’m talking about, people blocking the street and you can’t get by because you want to make a point, that they can’t breath. That would be a really hard lesson for you all to learn. Life is too valuable, stop wasting your time being stupid. If you want to protest, don’t block the road Protest if you need, but do it on the sidewalks, hold your signs, write your letters, have gatherings, just don’t be the one who will have a quilt feeling because a loved one died, and you could be the reason. Peace Out!

  • Turtlenurse
    January 20, 2015 at 7:20 pm

    I saw they let the ambulance through, but part of me feels that it was only because of the backlash from earlier in the week, and that that ambulance would of been held up otherwise. And no matter how you cut it, an emergency vehicle is an emergency vehicle. These fools need not protest in the streets. Go back to Lake Park and pretend you are making a difference.

  • Hippie non protestor
    January 20, 2015 at 7:04 pm

    Pretty good, enjoyed this one for the most part. Only problem is med professional side with the police even in cases they were wrong, in my experience. Just hope you give the Worcester protestors credit for letting the ambulance through.

    • Wabbitt
      wabbitt
      January 21, 2015 at 2:51 am

      I don’t give those idiots credit for anything.

      No. Wait. Not true. I give Sonya credit for having a hot, round dumper. And I invite her to fart in my mouth.

    • techy911
      January 22, 2015 at 1:40 pm

      Not always….. I am an e.d. tech, and sometimes there are cases where they are wrong, but us opening our mouths wont help the situation the prisoner is in one bit, it actually might make them more uncooperative.

  • What?
    January 20, 2015 at 4:44 pm

    Cool? You have a job and you have thoughts on the world? Congratulations nobody feels bad or pity for you and your generalizations. You insult the people who protests support systems, yet you’re and adult apparently more educated and better functioning than them and yet you’re still letting your life spoil by the action of other people.

    • Wow
      January 20, 2015 at 5:46 pm

      Apparently he’s a lot better educated than you are. He can write an entire post while you struggle to write a simple comment.

      “You insult the people who protests support systems, yet you’re and adult apparently more educated and better functioning than them and yet you’re still letting your life spoil by the action of other people.”

      This might be the most poorly constructed thought and sentence I’ve read this year. Next time put down the bong while you’re typing.

      • Wabbitt
        wabbitt
        January 21, 2015 at 2:48 am

        The year just began. I’m sure we’ll see some far more incomprehensible gibberish in the coming months.

      • Jim-Brewertonsly
        January 24, 2015 at 4:02 pm

        In reply to poster of “WOW” comment: Ever think it may be written by someone who’s native tongue IS NOT English? Probably a Better idea for YOU to Think, BEFORE you speak.

        • Finnish Goalie
          January 31, 2015 at 11:20 am

          Yeah, that’s the mostly likely answer.

    • Berk
      January 21, 2015 at 9:36 am

      First rule of responding to a thread….
      Make it literate.

      • Jim-Brewertonsly
        January 24, 2015 at 4:04 pm

        You can write in English very well, others might not be able to. Do you believe then that THEIR opinions and thoughts don’t count?

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