r/interesting • u/tyrion2024 • 10h ago

MISC. A Virginia man inadvertently left his phone recording while he was under anesthesia for a colonoscopy, which captured audio of the doctors: mocking him, instructing a medical assistant to lie to him, and discussing giving him a false diagnosis of hemorrhoids. In 2015, a jury awarded him $500,000.

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u/Professional_Dare_80 8h ago

Nurses seem to be on the extreme end of the spectrum many times. Either they are absolute angels or just some of the most awful people imaginable.

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u/Azirtec 8h ago

Worked in a hospital for a while. Even a lot of those perceived angels aren't the best people. There was a whole trope about "mean girls" becoming nurses, and my experiences have somewhat lived up to this. There are certainly some excellent nurses, but unfortunately healthcare also has a way of sapping & demotivating people into husks.

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u/Professional_Dare_80 8h ago

I can relate to that. Education does the same thing to teachers.

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u/op_is_not_available 7h ago

I JUST commented (in this thread) about how many nurses were the mean girls in middle/high school.

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u/Sir_UlrichVonL 4h ago

Yep. Of my daughter’s 3 bullies in high school (situation ended up involving police), 2 are nurses now.

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u/MaritMonkey 5h ago

sapping & demotivating people into husks.

Something I only learned after my mom donated her body to education is how much effort (some?) programs put into that line between not getting emotionally drained by every patient and still seeing them as people.

Shout out to the Miller School of Medicine for the wonderful ceremony they had for their "patient teachers" (the pun in that they are also "patient" because the students can take their time is intentional :D) at the end of the school year and for everybody I spoke to about my mom during the process referring to her as if she was a teacher (e.g. "her class is going to end on <x date>").

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u/PaddlingDingo 1h ago

I used to work in a neurology office and there were so many mean girl nurses. One of the very nice nurses there died under what was framed as suspicious circumstances. I ended up talking to her mother who cryptically said that she was glad I got out of that clinic before it was too late and that she wished her daughter had done the same.

Never really left me because I watched one of the nurses bully this woman.

That being said, there were a lot of nurses in the rest of the medical center that were the first to notice when I was looking exhausted, and they found ways to keep me in their section so I could sit down without my management noticing. Those nurses taught me a lot about taking care of people. I’m grateful even 29 years later for those ones!

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u/Domin_ae 1h ago

My ex-aunt was a nurse, and probably still is. Used to think she was heaven sent until she did a 180 and revealed who she actually was.

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u/Equivalent-Shine5742 8h ago

That's fair assessment. My friend was a nurse's assistant and was amazed at the dedication and kindness of certain nurses, and she also personally reported two nurses who literally laughed and said things like "oh well not my problem" on fucking up a patients meds or something.

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u/Solarven987 7h ago

My boyfriend has compared nurses to cops. More specifically, nurses are an expected position of authority for cis-het women. It’s a position of trust and supposed “good” standing. They view themselves as their position, and due to the top down hierarchy cliques naturally form. That reinforces mean girl behavior and a sense of authority over those below and those they have been given some sort of charge of.

Also from personal experience as a unit clerk, nurses and clinical associates have a whole set of hazing rituals and overstep boundaries constantly. I had a nurse yesterday say to me, “I know you’re a homosexual, but are you a Christian?” The conversation went somewhat better but still awful. Also unprompted talk about the nurse’s sex lives cause of course I want to hear about that…

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u/MaritMonkey 5h ago

compared nurses to cops

See also: when most of the people you interact with are having some of the worst days of their lives it pretty quickly becomes difficult to maintain a level of empathy that fosters compassion but also doesn't burn you the fuck out.

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u/Solarven987 5h ago

Yeah, I find myself quoting the whole Tress quote regarding empathy more and more, and I’m just the person who filters phone calls and gets nurses/aides from point A to point B.

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u/Carcinogiffic 7h ago

I know a nurse with the license plate "H8EVRY1"

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u/Professional_Dare_80 7h ago

That’s crazy.

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u/JustALittleScamp 6h ago

The most insane person I know is considered an excellent nurse. He cant stay in the same town for more than a year without the mask slipping. Hospitals are desperate, so he keeps getting hired despite the concerning number of moves. Oh well.

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u/Professional_Dare_80 6h ago

Yep. My wife has a family member who are/were nurses and are certified psychopaths/sociopaths. They betray/steal from people in every job they have ever worked. They have been arrested for embezzlement from churches. The only thing that kept them out of prison was family connections.

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u/JustALittleScamp 6h ago

About a decade ago, this dude sent me a picture of an elderly patient who was passed out in a hospital bed with the caption, "Guessing game: alive or dead?" Now, I would report him in a heartbeat. At the time, I was too shocked to know how to respond.

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u/Valturia 6h ago

I've never met a nice nurse at a hospital. At my pcp office though they're extremely caring and sweet.

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u/Minute_Ideal_6087 1h ago

Becoming a nurse right now - can 100% agree, a lot of horrible people are becoming nurses. It's disheartening

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u/zebrasareneat 46m ago

I view it like the trades. Trades are primarily men and nursing is primarily women. And in both industries you do find absolute gems of humans who are smart, know their craft very well, and love the work. But both industries are also the catch all. Don’t know what to do with your life we’ll just get into nursing or the trades. Both pay decently and both are in demand so plenty of jobs available. So this means you also run into plenty of people who are just absolute trash too. 

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u/op_is_not_available 7h ago

Yes - many nurses were the mean girls in middle/high school. Even so, I still think they’re just as important as doctors in hospitals and there are many many kind and wonderful nurses, as well.

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u/Digital_Disimpaction 4h ago

No, it's just that there's nothing to say about mediocre, average nurses so no one talks about them.