Loser!--Nurses have authority too

[Kyriakos]

I tried to find the story in sites i knew the names of, it seems they don't carry it so here is this link for it: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/11/...s-for-not-seeking-immunizations-for-baby-son/

Trevor and Katie Smart brought the boy Monday evening to Palmetto Health Children’s Hospital after he was injured while pulling himself up to walk.

When the baby was examined, medical personnel found that he had a 101-degree fever and doctors wrote him a prescription and ordered an X-ray.

Then a nurse came into the emergency room and left a note on the table that referenced their room number.

“Need to tx, fever, 0 immunizations, Loser!” the note read, along with a frown-faced caricature.

[...]

“The behavior of our team member in this situation does not reflect Palmetto Health’s standards of behavior, and we sincerely apologize for what happened,” said Tammie Epps, spokesperson for Palmetto Health, in an email statement.

A pic of that note:

Well, it seems even nurses have authority in the US, which i suppose means they are empowered.
Too bad it comes at the expence of the public.

In regards to the child's fever:

In most adults, an oral temperature above 100F (37.8C) or a rectal or ear temperature above 101F (38.3C) is considered a fever. A child has a fever when his or her rectal temperature is 100.4F (38C) or higher.

So i suppose 101 is a tiny bit over 38 Celcius, which is a fever, but not a life-threatening one, so it cannot be argued that the child's state could have caused such a reaction out of worry...

EDIT: To make the OP a bit clearer in regards to how the story was seen by myself:

Is it a good idea in your view that a nurse mocks the people who pay to use the hospital that pays her salary so that she can keep on being a moron? :/

EDITII: added the hospital's announcement of apology to the quoted part of the article.

 

[Arwon]

...

what is this thread about

 

[metatron]

Well, it seems even nurses have authority in the US, which i suppose means they are empowered.
Too bad it comes at the expence of the public.

Huh?
So it took her like 3 extra seconds to draw the face and write the word "loser".
What do nurses in the US make?
Shall i get the calculator out?

So i suppose 101 is a tiny bit over 38 Celcius, which is a fever, but not a life-threatening one, so it cannot be argued that the child's state could have caused such a reaction out of worry...

The nurse is mocking the parents for being anti-vaccine white trash.
On general principle - fever or not.
The fever is not a necessary condition for her judgement at all.

 

[Camikaze]

I don't understand what this thread is about, or what is has to do with authority...?

 

[Kyriakos]

The nurse is mocking the parents for being anti-vaccine white trash.
On general principle - fever or not.
The fever is not a necessary condition for her judgement at all.

^Indeed. Is it a good idea in your view that a nurse mocks the people who pay to use the hospital that pays her salary so that she can keep on being a moron? :/

(i will post this in the OP too, due to the topic not being rounded up that clearly ).

 

[metatron]

mocks the people who pay to use the hospital

They paid?

 

[Kyriakos]

They paid?

^AFAIK they were not on Obamacare and its 'free'-status, so they did pay Either through their own insurance program they bought, or their taxes. It's the US, afterall.

 

[sanabas]

^Indeed. Is it a good idea in your view that a nurse mocks the people who pay to use the hospital that pays her salary so that she can keep on being a moron? :/

(i will post this in the OP too, due to the topic not being rounded up that clearly ).

How is the nurse being a moron?

Katie Smart, who said she’d chosen not to vaccinate two of her three children after researching the ingredients of different vaccines, said she felt like the nurse was judging her.

Well yeah, of course the nurse was judging her. And her judgement seems pretty accurate. Though I'd have gone with 'idiots' instead of 'loser'.

 

[Kyriakos]

Hm, so you really think a nurse is just acting fine when labelling the people using the hospital as losers?
I think most people would agree that this nurse is an idiot herself, and has no sense of her place as a paid employee of an institution paid by taxpayers so as to help them. But if you honestly don't agree, i suppose the chasm is too vast for any leap to be ever made, unless you are Neo or something

 

[Arachnofiend]

Parents who refuse to immunize their children are a public menace. We've been getting epidemics of diseases that barely even exist at this point here in Texas because of these morons.

That being said, it's still not very bright on the nurse's part to go and draw frowny faces on a note. Hell hath no fury like a customer scorned.

 

[Kyriakos]

^That may be true (i have no view on the immunisation issue, i surely am not anti-immunisation but won't act like i did research on it either), however the thread is not about vaccines or not using them, but about the pitiful stance of a nurse against taxpaying citizens at a hospital that sustains her life with the salary given on the (one would hope) premise she is helping and of course respectful in her attitude towards the people who visit the hospital.

 

[sanabas]

Hm, so you really think a nurse is just acting fine when labelling the people using the hospital as losers?
I think most people would agree that this nurse is an idiot herself, and has no sense of her place as a paid employee of an institution paid by taxpayers so as to help them. But if you honestly don't agree, i suppose the chasm is too vast for any leap to be ever made, unless you are Neo or something

The nurse could have done a better job of making her point, sure. And the article neglects to mention whether this was just a note to inform whoever was dealing with the kid next that they were dealing with anti-vaccine idiots, or if it was a note actually meant for the parents to see. But the point itself wasn't wrong, and if you have idiots making a conscious decision to endanger the health of their kids and others, then I'm ok with a health professional informing them that they're idiots.

As for the bolded bit, I'm not quite sure what you're on about. If you are employed by a publicly funded institution, you should be subservient to those taxpayers that are clients, you should know your place when dealing with them? So nurses, doctors, teachers, they have no business being critical of idiotic parents?

 

[Kyriakos]

[...]

As for the bolded bit, I'm not quite sure what you're on about. If you are employed by a publicly funded institution, you should be subservient to those taxpayers that are clients, you should know your place when dealing with them? So nurses, doctors, teachers, they have no business being critical of idiotic parents?

Hm? A nurse is a part of the lower-skilled workforce of an institution specifically there so as to help those who come to use it for health reasons. A nurse is not an authority on any scientific matter, which is why the wage is low in relation to doctors with degrees in medicine working in the same environment. So yeah, a nurse should be the last to attempt (publicly) mocking any part of the people visiting the hospital.

That said, if a doctor had mocked them, i would have found it hideous as well, and in reality even more hideous, given that he is supposed to have taken an oath to do good and no harm, which does not include mocking patients or their parents. Given the parents did nothing illegal no one in the hospital was allowed to publicly mock them, let alone do anything worse.

 

[sanabas]

^That may be true (i have no view on the immunisation issue, i surely am not anti-immunisation but won't act like i did research on it either), however the thread is not about vaccines or not using them, but about the pitiful stance of a nurse against taxpaying citizens at a hospital that sustains her life with the salary given on the (one would hope) premise she is helping and of course respectful in her attitude towards the people who visit the hospital.

The customer is not always right, and the customer is not always deserving of respect. Especially customers like these parents. An E.D. nurse is there to treat patients, not to make the non-patients feel happier about their stupidity. As long as she's actually helping the patient, then no worries.

It'd be different if she'd informed the parents 'you clearly think the medical profession are all idiots, therefore you've got no business turning up here, so go away.'

 

[Kyriakos]

The customer is not always right, and the customer is not always deserving of respect. Especially customers like these parents. An E.D. nurse is there to treat patients, not to make the non-patients feel happier about their stupidity. As long as she's actually helping the patient, then no worries.

It'd be different if she'd informed the parents 'you clearly think the medical profession are all idiots, therefore you've got no business turning up here, so go away.'

I don't think you are right. And neither do those who run the hospital, given they made this announcement:

“The behavior of our team member in this situation does not reflect Palmetto Health’s standards of behavior, and we sincerely apologize for what happened,” said Tammie Epps, spokesperson for Palmetto Health, in an email statement.

 

[filli_noctus]

Hm? A nurse is a part of the lower-skilled workforce of an institution specifically there so as to help those who come to use it for health reasons. A nurse is not an authority on any scientific matter, which is why the wage is low in relation to doctors with degrees in medicine working in the same environment. So yeah, a nurse should be the last to attempt (publicly) mocking any part of the people visiting the hospital.

Lower-skilled? I can't speak for the US or Greece but as I'm good friends with a few nurses in the UK I can say with confidence that's bull. Nursing requires a four or five year bachelors degree and membership in a highly regarded professional body. Just because nurses are overworked and underpaid (much like teachers), doesn't mean they're "lower skilled", just that those skills are under-valued. Especially when it's nurses who take the brunt of abuse from patients.

 

[sanabas]

Hm? A nurse is a part of the lower-skilled workforce of an institution specifically there so as to help those who come to use it for health reasons. A nurse is not an authority on any scientific matter, which is why the wage is low in relation to doctors with degrees in medicine working in the same environment. So yeah, a nurse should be the last to attempt (publicly) mocking any part of the people visiting the hospital.

I know plenty of nurses, and I know the level of training they've had, and to imply they're unskilled and not an authority on anything scientific is blatantly wrong.

That said, if a doctor had mocked them, i would have found it hideous as well, and in reality even more hideous, given that he is supposed to have taken an oath to do good and no harm, which does not include mocking patients or their parents. Given the parents did nothing illegal no one in the hospital was allowed to publicly mock them, let alone do anything worse.

A blunt assessment of parenting skills as it relates to your child's health is not 'doing harm'. A doctor telling someone to pull their head out of their butt and do this helpful thing for their/their child's health may actually be doing good. I know I've had conversations with doctors like that, and I've read various things in my case notes that I could, if I wanted to, make an effort to get offended by, or decry it as too judgmental. But just because I might disagree with a health professional's judgment doesn't mean that said health professional has no business making it, no business conveying it to me, no business passing in on to the others who are treating me.

 

[Kyriakos]

Lower-skilled? I can't speak for the US or Greece but as I'm good friends with a few nurses in the UK I can say with confidence that's bull. Nursing requires a four or five year bachelors degree and membership in a highly regarded professional body. Just because nurses are overworked and underpaid (much like teachers), doesn't mean they're "lower skilled", just that those skills are under-valued. Especially when it's nurses who take the brunt of abuse from patients.

^The following paragraph in the very post you replied to should have made it clear that the issue was not about status in the hospital, but ludicrous abuse of the nurse's position in an action the hospital was held accountable for and seen in a negative light-that lead to their official statement of apology.

This is not a class issue

@Sanabas: doctors and nurses can make such comments. The hospital then has to apologise if someone makes a complaint.

 

[householder]

I think Kyriakos is correct in saying that the nurse was rude and unprofessional. On the other hand, the news article mentions that she has been suspended and is facing discipline. So she is being held to account for her unprofessional conduct and is likely to be punished.

Of course, she shouldn't have left the note, in what seems to be a deliberate insult to the parents. On the other hand, its not hard to see that she considers the parents to be negligent, even abusive, for denying their child routine vaccinations which may have prevented the fever.

If the parents think that most medical personnel do not judge them for being anti-vaccine "truthers," they need to wake up and smell the coffee. Most medical professionals are greatly frustrated, even angered, by the followers of this reckless and unscientific fad. It is one thing for an adult to risk their own health or life. However, it is quite another to put a child, who can not make decisions for himself, in such peril.

 

[Lone Wolf]

The note needed to be more detailed. After I read the OP, I was under impression that the nurse had called the kid a loser (ur kid hadn't been vaccinat'd, and now he's a total loser, lol) rather then the parents.