Speaking of old friends, while dining tonight at Logan's in Garner, I ran into one of our former ER nurses, Bobbie. She worked for over 20 years as an ER nurse, and after an accident, now works in another arena of nursing. Most of those 20 years was spent in the JMH ER. I remember well how she helped me to improve my IV technique and gave me the confidence to use large bore catheters. I'll never forget her handing me a 14 guage IV catheter and telling me to insert it into a dying trauma patient's arm while he was awaiting transfer to a trauma center. I started that IV successfully with her at my side and I'll never forget that one moment in my career.
She was from the era when nurses were heavily involved in local ALS programs. They were our instructors in the classroom and our preceptors in the ER. They were MICN's and came out to ride on the trucks with us. We gained so much from our working relationship then. I'm so glad to have run into Bobbie tonight. It brought back wonderful memories talking to her. It also made me sad that those times are long gone. Thanks Bobbie, Lee, Karen (Sugar), Ladon (rest in peace), Karen E, Billy, Jimmy, and to every other nurse who helped me along the way. I have never forgot any of your lessons, and I continue to pass them on daily through my new adventure in mentoring a young paramedic student.
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You know, Jason, you have hit on something that I think really has affected EMS, and not for the better. Back in the day, the RNs at the EDs provided a certain amount of experience to us we could not get elsewhere (I'll hit that in my blog) and is not available to us today.
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