In International Support

[madshutterbug]

The link on the Google page is headed with 'Reuter's Oddly Enough', but to me this is not Odd at all. It's something much in need in the place and time:

China Provides Embattled Nurses with Bill of Rights ... link should open in a new window.

Comments

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

I'm in favor of such a Bill of Rights.

However, because I'm also one to immediately look at edge cases, I hope that "impeding a nurse in the performance of his/her duties" will not be used to criminally charge people who are in an altered state of consciousness due to pain, shock, trauma, mental illness, etc. and are therefore flailing or uncommunicative or whatever.

[madshutterbug.livejournal.com]

I truly can not speak to the actuality of this happening in another country. I can to it happening here, and Nurses in particular and Health Care in general are very aware of the differences in behaviour due to health status, and behaviour which comes from another source. Still, as an object lesson from personal experience, one surgeon's abusive behaviour in the surgical theatre, brought to consideration by complaints by the nurses subjected to this behaviour, also brought to light that part of the cause of the behaviour was a previously undiagnosed health condition.

The differences once that condition came under control are remarkable. Would this be diagnosed as soon as it was were the environment one which held to the attitude, 'They're just nurses, they're supposed to be abused?'

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

Valid points. And I certainly didn't mean to suggest that I thought nurses (or anyone!) should just expect to be abused, or just accept it.

[madshutterbug.livejournal.com]

Nor did I think you were suggesting that. As Nurses, we are often rated in public opinion polls (conducted by educational institutions, government agencies, and even Gallup) as trusted and respected. There is only one year in which Registered Nurses did not come in first place in most of these polls, which was 2001 when firefighters topped us out.

We also may be the first ones to face frustration and anger on the part of patients and/or family (not really much difference in such situations) related either to the experience in the 'System' itself, or with an unpleasant (undesirable/unexpected) outcome. We take that as a given, and learning how to deal with it is, or should be, a component of nursing education. We do not take as a given that abusive expression of such anger is justifiable, which is why being able to tell the difference between such abuse, and health care condition induced behaviour, is as important as you state.