Cap-tivated!

Truth be told, I became a nurse so that I could wear THE CAP!

Oh, how I wanted that cap.

I would make one out of paper and pin it to my head, posing in front of the bathroom mirror with a towel around my shoulders for my cape.

I never did have a cape, but I definitely wore that little piece of starched white fabric. Our caps had green and gold ribbons arching across the top. I may have been your average Jane, but I felt like Miss America when it was on my head.

******************************

Of course, I graduated in 1978 (at the ripe old age of 20!), and with the expansion of nursing care came the end of the cap-wearing tradition.

I wore mine for about 6 months. Years of nursing fantasies, based in the 1940s world of Cherry Ames, were quickly supplanted by the reality of the profession.

My cap was the first casualty.

Fast forward to 2000.

I was working night shift in an emergency department when my colleagues and I decided to celebrate National Nurses’ Day by wearing classic white uniforms with our caps!

Yeah, baby!

Now, the last time I had actually seen my cap had been in 1979, carefully preserved in a halo of dust under the front seat of an old green Volkswagon bug I no longer owned.

Where on earth would I find another one - specifically one that looked like my nursing school cap. I mean, you can’t just wear any cap, you have to wear your school cap!

I was determined to find it.

I found it.

At a uniform shop located in a tiny trailer in a small parking lot in the next town sat an exact replica of my cap.

I carefully glued the forest green and gold grograin ribbons to the top, pinned the cap to my head and posed in front of the bathroom mirror. Only this time I didn’t wear a towel for a cape; it was the 21st century, after all, and I was more like a middle-aged Mrs. America.

The old thrill was still there.

The next night we faced the patients in traditional white uniforms with caps carefully anchored.

******************************

One younger doctor commented that I looked like his mother did when she was a nurse (uh….thanks?) and another revealed that he always had a fetish for women in white (o……kay).

The older docs loved it. The PM shift made fun of us (Nancy Nurse? Excuse me, my name is Ames…..Cherry Ames…..).

But, the patients! The patients respected us!

Their behavior was astounding. They spoke to us in lower tones. They spoke to us respectfully. They addressed us as “Nurse” and not “hey you” or “uh…where’s the doc?”

The age of the patient didn’t matter, even teenagers who probably never even knew that RNs wore caps mentioned them. The change in demeanor was so dramatic from our normal experience that I thought perhaps the nursing staff was acting differently while wearing the caps.

I decided to try an experiment and perhaps write a column on our experiences.

While my colleagues went back to their normal scrub uniforms, I worked in white, with my cap for a week.

We noticed that I was the go-to person if the patients had a question because I was easily identifiable as a nurse. The deferential attitude of the patients persisted.

I then went back to wearing whatever color scrubs I wanted, but always with the cap. In fact, I got so used to having it on that I would forget I was wearing it, so there was no impact on my behavior by this time.

The patient behavior did not change! I was treated differently when I wore the cap; the patients respected what the cap stood for.

I was floored.

Patients are bombarded with so many different personnel when they are in the ER, it’s often hard to keep track of who is a nurse vs. a lab tech vs. a housekeeper vs. the doctor.

Wearing a nursing cap gave my patients an anchor, a visual reminder of who I was and what my responsibilities were. However increasing number of male nurses entering the profession render nursing caps inappropriate. They say caps were a magnet for infection. They would get pulled off in the ICU. Caps weren’t practical.

Of course, all that is true.

But I sure loved wearing it.

(Addendum: I continued to wear the cap until I changed jobs soon after the experiment. The cap again found its way under the front seat, this time of my Saturn. And the column I never wrote? It turned into a blog!)

Read »

Circadian Rhythm Caper

“Department Store Nurse”???

You mean I could have worked for Nordstroms? Saks Fifth Avenue? Neiman Marcus?

All these years I’ve missed out on employee discounts?

What on earth would the job description say?

“Wanted: young, beautiful RN to standby in case someone faints in Hosiery. Ability to pose in white uniform and cap so that doorman can administer side-long ogles a plus. Advanced training in analgesia for headaches secondary to over-enthusiastic fragrance sprayers required”.

I bet she even got to park up front…..

******************************

I am so exhausted I can’t feel my fingers on the keyboard.

Why, you ask? Another emotionally exhausting day saving lives? A whirlwind of one emergency after another, juggling critical patient after critical patient with nary a thought for myself, doctors requesting my expertise at every turn and patients clinging to my arm, thanking me for just….being?

Nope.

I worked a day shift.

Let’s get one thing clear right off the bat.

I am what is known as a night owl, a vampire, a creature of the dark. To me, 0700 is the middle of the night! I don’t even go to bed until 0300 and that’s only if I’m ill. I have not voluntarily worked a day shift in years. It’s easier for me to STAY up until sunrise than to GET up at sunrise. You get the picture. So… when my sick colleague called to ask if I would work a twelve-hour-shift commencing at 0700 this morning I said, “what the heck”!

He’s pitched in for me a few times and it’s so hard to find coverage when you need a day off. I could do this favor.

I thought.

*****

Had I been able to get any sleep, it might have worked.

Early to rise means early to bed, and being the holistic-homeopathic-earth-nature-mother that I am, I decided to dope myself up to high heaven with my drug of choice, Benadryl! Fifty freakin’ milligrams down the hatch.

Nothing. Wide awake. 11:00. Have to get up in four hours. This called for drastic measures. Yes, I went for the Melatonin. Figured “Mel” would meet “Ben” and I’d be comatose.

Nothing. Up to the couch. Two episodes of “Aqua-Teen Hunger Force” on the Cartoon Network. Ever seen that cartoon? It’s a milkshake, a meatball and a large order of fries (with a goatee) who live together. See what you miss going to bed early? Finally, the faint stirrings of fatigue floated into consciousness. I was asleep.

*****

Four hours later I was jolted awake by an alarm playing “Wake Up Little Susie”. Staggered to the mirror. Hair not sticking up. Good. A quick fluff with the blow dryer and I’m outta here. No make up. They’re lucky I put on clothes.

No traffic. Thank god. Too early for rock and roll. Too early for talk radio. Too early for sound.

I dragged my senseless self into my department. Only one patient and she’s ready to admit. Big sigh - time for some coffee to start the day. It is then that I discovered I was scheduled to work with Miss Susie Sunshine, RN! Bright, cheery, energetic, caring, compassionate, competent. She is the sweetest woman I know.

I wanted to wring her neck.

I’ve seen methamphetamine addicts with less energy.

*****

I never did recover.

My patients were great; I only had a few as it was not busy. Spent 90 minutes in a class on JACHO accreditation. Stimulating.

Not.

Then my very own Florence Nightengale arrived to take over at 4:00 pm. Bless her everloving heart. I didn’t have to do twelve hours after all. I was released. I was exhausted.

In retrospect, my day was very productive.

I made the decision that I will never, ever do a day shift again.

Ever.

I learned that you can take the nurse off the night shift, but you can’t take the innate circadian rhythm out of the nurse. I’ll stick to PMs and Nights.

Oh, and I’ll take vacation during JACHO accreditation.

Read »

Entering the Blogosphere

Welcome to my blog! Specifically, welcome to Emergiblog! Initially envisioned as a place for ventilating, commiserating and celebrating with other ED nurses, it has evolved into a forum for anyone who has ever been in an emergency room, on either side of the gurney.

Some of the topics that will be discussed include “Emergency Room Etiquette”, “The Top Ten Ways to NOT Get Seen Immediately”, or “Privacy Privations: How to Cover Your Rear When the Gown Opens in the Back”. And we’ve all met one of these: “Emergency Nurses From Hell: How to Alienate Your Patient on Contact”. Another topic could be ” ‘I’ve Been Waiting for Hours’: The Effect of the Emergency Department on the Space-Time Continuum”. This is only the beginning!

Read »