Cards Nurses Play

TGN Supports Nurses Playing Cards…

Throughout the drama caused by the insensitive statements from Senator Walsh, nurses nationwide have found a way to have a little fun. From the hundreds of memes created to some fun card games, only nurses can understand.

Here are some Cards that Nurses Play

The following is modified from a public facebook post by: Misty Collins BSN, RN

Go Fish (for Nurses)

Nurses fish for multiple things such as and are not limited to: supplies, veins, meds from the pharmacy, staffing, time for lunch and bathroom breaks, and typically our sanity by the end of the day or night.

Poker: What do you have in your nurses hand this shift?

• Having 5:1 nursing ratios = FULL HOUSE
• having a pocketful of saline = flush
• Working 16 STRAIGHT hours or work 14 STRAIGHT days to provide patient continuity = Straight
• Admissions placed on appropriate units for nurses with an experience tailored to their specific needs = 4 of a Kind

Crazy 8’s (only in Nursing)

Many crazy things I can list here, but none as crazy as the SHB 8hr shift amendment!!!!! 

War (for patient advocacy)

The war nurses fight when advocating for our patients in a political world that puts money and power over patient safety. The war of stress us nurses fight through every day we swipe the time clock. ??

Blackjack (building those strategy skills)

Strategizing to beat the dealer has so many correlations here

• Every shift, we strategize when we use critical thinking to prioritize every patient we see.
• Strategizing how to educate and care for complicated patients with a variety of barriers.
• Strategizing through a code to save the patient!
• Strategizing how to handle the mental stress and emotional toll when you go from holding the hand of a dying man (which is a privilege, and not a complaint) who has no family or friends by his side during his final hours to….caring for your patient who you’re trying to keep alive and out of CCU bc their vitals are tanking d/t severe septic shock…then on to your 3 or 4 other patients who your charge nurse and fellow peers are thankfully looking over!
• Strategizing how to tell your children you won’t be home from work because you’ve decided to clock out after the end of shift and do the right thing by sitting at the bedside with a 90+ yr old WWII POW. After all, he has night terrors, and there’s no ava staff to sit 1:1 with him till morning.

The dealer has many faces. Senator Walsh and nurses strategize every day, all day/night long, and often we go above and beyond to provide the best care humanly possible….because that’s what we do. We’re nurses. ❤️

Card games for nurses:

The following is taken and modified from a public Facebook post by: Cindy Hudson Mullins

Nurses are Dealing

1. Nurses have to DEAL with a lot of Drama, sadness, death, heartache!  
2. Nurses DEAL with grieving parents, children, and families when their loved ones die unexpectedly and plan. 
3. Nurses DEAL with being short-staffed, not having the supplies we need to do our job, and not spending time with our families!
4. Nurses DEAL with having poop thrown at us, being spit on, urinated, and puked on. We DEAL with being cussed out, objects were thrown at us, and being physically attacked!
5. Nurses DEAL with the grieving parents who just lost their child to suicide, a car wreck, a school shooting.
6. Nurses DEAL watching the life drain out of someone, and they turn white as a ghost as they lost their spouse, child, parents to the death angel. 

How Nurses Shuffle

1. Nurses SHUFFLE our bathroom breaks, our lunches, and even sitting down for 5 minutes!
2. Nurses SHUFFLE our home life to fit around our “work-life.”
3. Nurses SHUFFLE our children around to others because the nurse on the next shift is sick or has a family death. 
4. Nurses SHUFFLE our feet because we have stood on them for 14 plus hours, and our ankles are swollen over top of our shoes!

Nurses “got to know when to hold ’em” and know when to “call” and deal with the “hand” we are dealt.

• Sometimes nurses have to CALL family members to tell them their loved one passed away. 
• Nurses CALL our families to tell them to go on to bed or eat without us because there was an emergency at the hospital and we have to work overtime.
• The HAND we are dealt with In nursing is not always a fair one. We have doctors cuss us out as well as family members. We let our families down as we pick a stranger’s family up off the floor and hold them as they cry.
• Nurses HAND out bad news daily. I’m sorry, but you have cancer. I’m sorry, but cancer has spread. I’m sorry, but your child didn’t make it thru surgery.  
• God forbid there is a FULL HOUSE at the hospital. No breaks, no lunches, no potty breaks! 
• And when we do get to go home, we FOLD up into a ball and cry or try to sleep and not think about the “one we lost” today.

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• Nurses FOLD our hands in prayers for the patients, our co-workers, and our family!
• Nurses go in a RUN to the code blue they just called. We RUN and cram a bite of food down our throats so we don’t pass out.
• We RUN to get our patients drinks, medications, food, warm blankets!
  Nurses PASS on family get-togethers, our children’s school functions, their sporting events because we take care of your loved ones. 
  
• Nurses know when to HOLD a patient’s hand instead of getting the patient in another room an extra pillow or sandwich.
  
• Nurses understand medications well enough to know when to HOLD the next dose for fear of over-sedation.

Nurses, Please continue playing the cards that you play. Our healthcare system NEEDS you. You are the backbone of healthcare and deserve nothing but respect. #cardsnursesplay

Candy Treft, RN Founder of TheGypsyNurse.com

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