I’ve been watching Grey’s Anatomy to relax in my few hours of freedom per day, and I must say, nurses totally get the shaft on the show. Addison is always rooming patients in the ER, checking vitals, and hanging fluids, as if the physicians on the show are these solo practitioners who can do everything for everyone (surgical interns staffing a free clinic, ha!)

ER nurses can laugh with the best of them, and are incredibly fun to work with when the patients are stable. They’re even more amazing to watch when patients go bad. One patient went from looking mildly uncomfortable to coding (needing CPR) in the span of about 3 or 4 minutes, and just like a switch was flipped on, the nurses swooped in and knew exactly what to do. Two secured IVs, another started documenting, and a fourth was pulling meds. I’ve seen the phenomenon a number of times now, and it’s really, really impressive. The teamwork is fantastic. One of the reasons I love the ER.

I remember a patient once asking a Peds nurse why he went into nursing. His reply: “I wanted to help patients. Doctors diagnose patients, but it’s the nurses that actually treat them.”

My hat is off!

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