Your future nurses of America

My instructor this quarter loves to have class discussions. Many of us agree on most issues, but there are a few issues that will always bring about controversy. One day, she asked us about euthanasia. This brought about some very emotional responses from people. I'm not the type that usually speaks up in class. But, that day I did.

We have a few classmates who have made it known from the start that they are Christians and they are proud. That's fine. What bothers me about them is that they can't see past the noses on their faces. Many of us agreed that euthanasia is not an issue we can decide upon for someone else, but we felt that it should be made available. After all, we are humane enough to put our animals to sleep when they are suffering. Why are so many people willing to allow a fellow human to suffer?

This really upset the Christian girls. They kept stammering... but, it's a human life. We tried to explain our point of view to them in many different ways, but it was incomprehensible to them. I value all life. The fact that life exists is amazing! But, we should not allow suffering in the name of life. I think these girls were so caught up in the belief that people are so special, they just didn't understand what we were trying to say. The conversation was quite frustrating because these girls just would not listen to another point of view.


Then, a couple of days later, a woman who sits next to me blurts, "Vaccine's don't work", out of the blue! She is a bit odd anyway, but this caught me totally off guard.
First of all, considering the prerequisites we had for nursing school (Anatomy Physiology, Microbiology, Biology, Chemistry, etc.) I assumed there would be a basic understanding of science.(Although, my instructor has made a few mistakes in regards to science. Ex: using the words theory & hypothesis interchangeably) However, I found myself explaining to her exactly how vaccines work. I also pointed out that polio has been eradicated from the US and most of the illnesses we use vaccines for have much lower incidences now.

It turns out that she had seen a video about vaccines and it claimed they were ineffective. Supposedly there was a doctor interviewed who proclaimed that he would not allow his children to be vaccinated. So I asked her, Do you believe everything you see on TV? Well, no of course not. Then I asked How do you know that man was really a doctor? Also, were their other doctors who were interviewed? Did they show any type of evidence for the claims they were making? I guess these questions had not occurred to her.

The scariest thing is that she has a sister with a one month old baby. My bet is that this baby has not been receiving his vaccinations. It is disgusting that people will risk the lives of their children instead of doing proper research to find if a claim is true! I hope I made her think about a few things and possibly reconsider her statement.

You know what's even scarier.....She's going to be a nurse next year!!! (It will be interesting to see how she responds when she is asked to give a newborn its first HepB shot in the second half of the quarter.)