Tomorrow's the day! I work an 8 hour day and I don't have to worry about being "stalked" by a "buddy nurse" which drove me absolutely crazy!  For the most part all of my buddy nurses were great. They recognized that I am not a new nurse and that while I had been off for quite awhile, that I retained my skills and knowledge base and just let me be with the understanding that if I needed help with something, I would seek them out.  

During a back-to-work program, the role of a buddy nurse is just to be there in case I need to take an extra break or leave early and have to hand off my patients to someone.  Over the weekend I was paired up with one nurse who is relatively new to the profession and the ward and I don't think she really understood a back-to-work program because she was following behind me and checking what I was doing and reassessing my patients and just generally interfering with my job and getting in my way which I didn't appreciate. I tried explaining to her several times over 2 evenings but I just couldn't get through to her.

She kept telling me that they are her patients too, and that she's responsible for them. I tried to tell her that they aren't her patients, that they are my patients and that she has nothing to do with them unless I have to give them to her and leave early, and that I am responsible for them and working under my RN License, not her license as it would be with a Student Nurse.

I was so frustrated that on Sunday I decided that she could have her patients back and that I would just  finish up familiarizing myself with some of the documents and forms that we use there as well as help out as extra on the ward. She was okay with it but thought it better if I took an assignment because it was my last shift.  I came right out and told her that I did not like being paired up with that particular nurse and that I was frustrated and feeling "stalked".  

The charge nurse told me that she would "keep her busy" at the desk and give her an informal desk orientation.  So she told her that I am working autonomously and if I need any help that I would let her know, and in the meantime she would be helping out at the desk for that shift.

I must say that it was a pleasant evening!!

Quote - Where's the real live "House" when you need him? Doctors just don't seem to diagnose worth crap these days!

Yeah! No kidding!

Here is another article on Dysautonomia.

http://heartdisease.about.com/cs/womensissues/a/dysautonomia.htm

The following was certainly true in my case.  I knew there was something wrong, but test after test would show nothing and I swear that some doctors I went to were under the impression that I was faking things to remain off work:

Quote - The severity of the symptoms in people with dysautonomia are typically far out of proportion to any objective physical or laboratory findings (especially when the doctors don't know which findings to look for.) This lack of objective findings makes life very difficult. In modern medical practice, grounded as it is in the gathering and interpretation of objective data, when patients have the audacity to complain of symptoms without providing the objective medical findings to back them up, they are often written off as being hysterical.

Patients lucky enough to be taken seriously by their family doctors are likely to be referred to a specialist.

"It is good to see ourselves as others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to say." - Ghandi