Our Sister Profession....

So myth or not, its been said in the past that nurses and police officers...well, we are sort of a sister profession. Although, yes- Our jobs differ immensely in certain aspects, we are similar in that:

• We help people. We both take an oath to always serve and protect, to do no harm.
• we both work really long, grueling, weird, crazy timed shifts
• We both know what each others job is like- We are both in the position to be professionals- to be calm and stern and not punch someone in the face when they really deserve it.
• We both know how to lay down the law and stand up for whats moral.

And, most important and most similar:

• We both deal exceedingly high amounts of bullshit on a daily basis. And still come back to work the next day.

It's been said that a sort of unwritten rule exists between nurses and cops that when we cross paths in an unfortunate situation (a nurse gets pulled over in her scrubs, or a cop ends up as a patient) we always "look out for each other", or help each other out more so than the average joe. Even so, that doesn't give nurses the free pass to do 100mph down the highway!


Anyway, the other night at work I received an admission- the patient was from the county jail, and whenever we get a patient from a jail- they are accompanied at all times by a police officer. This means the police officer has to stay in the room at all times with the patient. In the bathroom. At the bedside.


That being said, this patient happened to come up with two police officers, both young and muscular.  So even though we have known to be "Sister professions", we can be ever so brotherly. Me and the ER aide have to transfer the patient from the stretcher to the bed, and we're both rather tiny. And who's watching, but the two  cops, leaning against the heating unit? I totally called them out on it and threw gloves at them and they got my drift.


So I go through with my entire patient system assessment. The patient was admitted with a small bowel obstruction, and had an NGT tube (this means bile/food/poop is being drained out of his stomach through a tube and going to a little container). So I explained to the police officer what that was and how important it was that the patient didn't touch it. Then I noticed he started getting a little pale (the cop, not the patient). I smiled and continued on.

Then, when rolling the patient on his side- he (unexpectedly) let out the biggest, longest, wettest, loudest set of multiple bouts of "flatulence" ( to say it nicely). It was at this point that the police officer lost it and left the room.

He came back with "smell begone" spray, lol.


The whole situation oddly tickled my funny bone. :-)




~WNB



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