"I will stand by and watch her die," said the Nurse

[Econoline]

The woman in that phone call called herself a "nurse", and it's unclear exactly what she meant by that and what, if any, nursing credentials she held. I would be willing to bet that she's not an RN, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if she was an LPN or even a CNA trying to inflate her own importance.

[Lord Jim]

It's true that "nurse" is a fairly generic term that can be applied to a wide range of expertise, education, and professional credentialing, (@W can probably help us out with this...)

Though it should be pointed out that "nurse" is not quite as generic a term as "scientist"...

Which requires no professional credentialing whatsoever to claim the title; anyone who "does science" or engages in "scientific analysis" can with full legitimacy claim to be a "scientist"; ( it's not like a Doctor of Medicine, or an attorney, or even a Certified Public Accountant... it's more like the title "philosopher")...any 10 year old with a chemistry set, or microscope or telescope, or high school sophomore dissecting a frog can rightly proclaim themselves a "scientist"....

Or even a part time lab/research assistant at an R&D company...(to give a hypothetical example....)

[rubato]

The described facility is unlikely to have paid for a professional nurse (RN) and the behavior of the person on the phone is not that of a professional nurse (RN) .


yrs,
rubato

[Lord Jim]

Rube is quite correct, re RN requirements:

Registered Nurse Requirements

Registered nurses work alongside physicians in hospitals or other medical settings to treat patients in need of medical assistance. Education for this career is obtained by completing an associate's or bachelor's degree program. The final requirement to become a registered nurse is passing a licensing examination. (Most good colleges have a three year "Nursing School Program"...)

http://education-portal.com/registered_ ... ments.html

Again, unlike the claim to be a "scientist"...

Which has as much (or as little) significance as the claim to be an "Ancient Astronaut Theorist"...

[dales]

Rube is quite correct....

Why yes he is, once every eon.

[Lord Jim]

Why yes he is, once every eon.

No, that's not fair...

In point of fact, rube has, over the past 14 years, managed to get the right end of the stick on average, about once a week...

There have been times where he managed to find an acorn twice in one day, and even a couple of occasions, (they stand out in my mind because they were so rare) when he was actually right about something three times in a single day...

But then of course he made up for it by being completely wrong about everything for several months...

Bringing him back to the average of being right about once a week...

And of course being right once a week, rube has 1/14th the accuracy of a stopped clock....

(Rube, someone else will have to explain that to you...

Life is too short to try to explain basic math to a guy who thinks 46 is 1/4 of 80.... : )

[MajGenl.Meade]

And of course being right once a week, rube has 1/14th the accuracy of a stopped clock....

...unless of course it shows what was once quaintly referred to as military time and was stopped at (say) 14:35. Then your claim is that his average goes to 1/7th of a stopped clock. Now if it's a digital clock, powered by electrickery in some form or other, then it probably doesn't show any time at all in which case he's (infinitely?) more accurate.

A more difficult challenge would be a sundial in Seattle which I'm given to understand never works at all - so has it "stopped" when in fact it never "started"?

The question remains open in the case of my DVD player which flashes "12:00" and has definitely stopped being informative about the passage of time. It may be correct once a day (since it is on military time) or twice a day if we just say that "12:00" repeated does not prove that it is on military time. However, the odds are that since the real noon (or midnight) exists for only a nano-second (well something teeny), how often does my DVD clock actually flash "12:00" at exactly 12:00? It may miss by fractions of a second any number of times. Therefore I feel it necessary to indicate that rubato is probably more accurate than my improperly functioning DVD player clock.

On the subject of nurses, it used to be the norm for public schools in England (and even my beloved Dover Grammar School for Boys) to have a "nurse" on duty. While Mr Chips may have been rubbing elbows with an RN, I know that our own "nurse" was not qualified as an RN - her job was to issue an aspirin and tell a boy to sit still until he had no more complaints. That failing, call 999 and whistle up the ambulance.

Nurse in fact is a word used of anyone caring for another in various contexts, not just medical. This lady should have taken the moral high ground and attempted CPR regardless of the "rules" - but its so easy to talk about moral high ground when we're still in the valley isn't it?

Meade

[oldr_n_wsr]

My aunt the RN (with the license thingy) was a school nurse at a high school for quite a few years before she retired and was not allowed to adminsiter aspirin.
She said her biggest student problems were infections due to poorly maintained/cleaned/done piercings.

[TPFKA@W]

Such ignorance yet so little time.

No, not even going to bother. As you were.

[rubato]

In California a licensed RN can take a stand-alone 3-year nursing program, can take a bachelor's degree which includes and RN program or can complete a bachelors followed by a nursing program. RNs who have a BA/BS have career options not open to an RN-only program; becoming a nurse-anesthetist for example. There are also MA and Phd programs in nursing. theresag at cafe dartre was completing a Phd at Oregon Health Sciences.

The degree of autonomy which RNs have is different state-by-state (which makes sense since they are licensed by each state). When my wife worked in Ore. and Wash. RN-midwives were allowed to prescribe scheduled drugs which they cannot in Calif.


yrs,
rubato