Working in an emergency room can be really interesting some days. I'm not a nurse, so I don't deal with patients, unless they call on the phone, but even then, I transfer them to an individual that can meet their needs. One good thing about my job is the fact that I am in the center of the action. I hear almost everything that goes on around me, whether it is doctors talking about patients, nurses talking to patients or the usual gossip that happens when we have a quiet morning, I hear pretty much everything.
I heard a conversation today that I had been hearing on and off for many years. What was interesting about it is the fact that I can relate it to the things I am learning in my pre-service teaching program.
Teachers and nurses aren't really that different. They get into their jobs because they care about people. Teachers want to educate the world, while nurses want to make sure the people in the world are healthy. Both work their butts off for hours on end to make sure that the people they care about are taken care of. The pay is crappy, the hours are crappy and sometimes the people you are doing the job for just don't seem to care. A cranky patient can ruin a nurse's day just like a rude parent can ruin a teacher's day.
Going back to the conversation I heard earlier, another connection can be made between these two careers. Each has a higher up that control everything, they even try to control things that really can not be controlled. Administrators are constantly trying to control every aspect of what happens in the... let's call them "care areas" (classrooms, patient areas, etc).
They seem to care more about numbers and money than they do about the people that come to these places, patients and students.
The ER has time constraints, if these numbers aren't met the nurses get in trouble. It doesn't matter if a patient needed extra time and care or if a patient's discharge was delayed because there was a coding patient in the next room. Wait times are all that matters.
The SOLs are what keep teacher's on edge. They are forced to teach to a test and it doesn't matter if their students are engaged and having fun. Test scores are all that matter.
I understand that administration is important when it comes to keeping order, but it would be nice if they understood what goes on in the "care areas" and know that the people they have running them know what they are doing and to stop restricting them because of numbers and statistics.
I guess what I'm trying to say with all this is that nurses and teachers are awesome. I have been lucky to have had this experience in the ER for the past six years. Though I hate it some days. It is awesome to work with such dedicated hard-working people. I am glad I decided to become a teacher, because then I'll be on the front-lines instead of being on the outside listening in on what is going on around me.
Maybe, just maybe my experience here will help me make a difference.
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