Category: Health and Wellness
Hi everyone, I've thought long and hard about what I'd like to do in the world that would render some real service. Are there any blind nurses here who could tell me about the training they went through and how they handle their job?I'd like to be a cnm or lpn who works for a birthing center or a private holistic fractice. Hospiss interests me as well. I just need to know if it's possible. Aunt is helping me build a basic medical bag and going over some basic first aid. I'll be taking a cpr course this summer as well. I hope I'm heading in the right dirrection. Thanks all. Tiffany
really a blind nurse or C N A, wouldn't work out. It would be to dangerous for the patient or even yourself. I was a C N A and planning on attending nursing school before i went blind. So I'm speaking from experience. Say you walk into a room doing a bed check, as your supposed to. your doing this at night, so you don't want to wake the patient. He or she has slipped into a coma. how are you as a blind person going to identify this? Don't say get them to talk to you, because your doing a bed check every two hours, your not ment to wake the patient. or say your doing a skin assessment , how are you going to do this, unless you rub the person down completely. And That is invading there privacy. Food, your patient is on a strict diet, how are you going to know exactly what food they are given ? Charts, you have to read, how do you plan to do this? Transferring a patient, you have to be able to move them from bed to chair, or into a car or whatever. how are you going to know if your going to hit them on something? So say you do, how are you going to know if they have a skin tear? how you going to chart the color of there skin? say a patient is choking , there turning blue, how you going to know to help them? don't say by noise, they don't always make a noise. how you going to chart the amount of urine output? when emptying there catheter? Wow, I could go on and on. It would be way to dangerous for the patient, and even yourself. One last thing. this happens quite often. A patient at the nursing home, or wherever our working gets out the door, your ment to go looking for them. How do you expect to do this? or even, how are you going to know one patient from another? In nursing homes they don't wear bracelets. And even at the hospitals they may have them on, not in braille mind you. And not always correct either. So yeah, I'll stop now. I loved my job and my residents. I would love to go back if i could, but it just wouldn't work out for any of us.
in saying all this, if you really want to work with elderly or sick people. look into something like activities. Where you just go and sit and chat with them, or play games with them. That's still helping them out.
You could use all these examples in any place you plan to work as a c n a or L P N.
Shana
I have to admit, I've never heard of ablind person being a nurse, and don't see how that would work. I don't know as we could do it safely and effectively. But, I'd love to be proven wrong.
As a frequent hospital patient over the past few years, I have to say I'd be nervous having a blind nurse walk into my room. Even if you did get the training and got hired, I'd be willing to bet a lot of patients would complain long and loud about a blind nurse.
well: there is a blind Doctor, so who knows.
i'm sorry, but a blind nurse would be unable to do the job well due to health and safety concerns. i think no country would allow it.
I'm wondering about the blind doctor myself. How did he get round all the concerns mensioned here? Unless he has a sighted assistant every minute of his shift I don't see this working out too well, then again he's a supergenius. According to the newspaper article at anyrate. Articles like that have always bugged me being that he and only he found a way around these odds. I'm skeptical and I don't mind saying so. I don't think a blind veteranarian would work too well either. Ah well. Tiffany
I wonder if you could be, like, a midwife assistant? You can sit and comfort the laboring woman by massage or guided meditation. Help her breath, fetch water or other needed supplies, type up patient and baby's information to send in for records. There's gotta be something that doesn't allow you to be in a lot of real danger, but still allows you to do something worthwhile than just chatting and reading with the patients. If you are assisting a midwife persay, this person would be in the same room with you, doing the more medically inclined stuff, whileyou are theoretically a labor coach. I would be way more skeptical if you walked in to my housi/room to help deliver my baby as a blind nurse than as a blind midwife assistant or birthing coach.
And to get started, you could still take the CPR classes. If you're interested in becoming a birthing coach, there's gotta be some resources out there for you. But I would recommend you get in to some massage therapy and learn about the more hollistic methods of helping a mother successfully deliver a healthy baby.
Hmmm, that's a good idea, Brandi. I hadnt' thought of that before.
there is a book, about the blind doctor, and I'll find the title and repost it.
Doctores, i'm afraid, are a whole different ball game to nurses. I am a physiotherapist, so have a lot of experience with all levels of staff in hospitals. Consultants never empty catheters, do not stitch wounds, don't bother with charting things like skin colour, usually call a nurse if the patient it choking, and only in extreme cases perform CPR. There are many fields that the blind doctor could work in where touch alone would be enough to see him through, as well as regular, yet not constant, support from a sighted assistant.
I have to agree with the other posters. nursing is not a viable option for a totally blind person. As well as all the other examples mentioned, allow me to pose two more very serious, yet routine ones. How do you administer drugs? When you perform a drug round, how will you tell out of the myriad tablets in your trolley which are for which patient? More to the point, how will you know if they've taken them? Even sighted nurses sometimes don't see the troublesome patient spit them down the toilet.
Secondly, IV lines. How will you find the vein to slip the venflon catheter into to administer the IV?
Now, i'm not saying that you can't go medical. How could I when i'm medical myself? But nursing is definitely not the way forward.
FM
a birthing assistant sounds so cool. I'm in no way, licensed to do anything like that, but I plan on being there when a friend of mine has her baby.
what is a counsultant, as you put it? Why in the heck would they leave a choking patient to go find a nurse? That makes no sence to me. . i was a c n a, certified nurses assistant if that's what your refering to, i sure know i wouldn't leave a choking patient to find a nurse! lol, you would lose your license if you did. We also emptied catheters, charted, and if it's in a hospital, even did iv's and all that fun stuff. it just depend what your trained in, and where you work. i still stick with the fact that being a blind nurse, or c n a is way to dangerous for yourself and your patient.
Lucky you, Joanne. I was supposed to be there when my sister had her baby, but circumstances didn't allow it. I can't imagine how...very incredible it would be to witness a birth.
I think there are plenty of avenues in natural medicine. I don't see why a good dose of practical nursing skill could hurt. I did a bit of poking and the nfb has a good deal of literature on blind people in the medical field. I was surprised to learn there are trained blind nurses, they have a harder time finding employment than the doctors. I know one blind woman who teaches childbirth classes and works as a midwife assistant as well. Listening to the laboring woman has helped her midwife make quick decisions that in a few cases have saved both mother and baby. I think especially in this field you have to find your blossom, being a nurse is a calling. I always dread it when a nurse I'm talking to says "Oh we all went in to nursing." Aunt was a nurse for 23 years and worked 15 of those years in the hospiss unit. She was known for making every effort for her patients well-being and called fellow nurses on it when they didn't. If a patient wanted to die at home she made damn sure that person got the best homecare nurse possible. With many of the blind md's and nurses they became blind after they received training and fought to remain employed.Shea I understand why you feel as you do. I'm not planning on becoming an lpn. I'm still a greenhorn in the family raising department so the midwifery will probably come after my kids are grown. I think I need to have a few of my own before I help someone else have a baby. I believe natural and allopathic medicine can and should work together. There needs to be better funding for doctors and nurses to receive holistic training. I'm a skeptical optimist so perhaps the field will be a bit safer once I step in to help. The nfb isn't always right and I still wonder about wonderboy Tim Cords. Not that there's any law against blind-guy overachievers. Tiffany
I know there are lots of risks with being totally blind and a nurse/doctor, but here in the UK, they're not allowed to say someone can't do a job just because they're blind, unless of course it was in the armed forces where apparently you're not even allowed in if you have to wear glasses, so ... There must be some chance for you. By the way, the title of that book by the blind doctor is something like: "The Doctor Will Not See You Now". I think I read a review of it, but it was a couple of years ago in a magazine.
Wow. Interesting title. Lol. I've actually heard of a blind doctor but she did a lot of research stuff. It was an article on how she used a Mobile device to do her field work and research.
A consultant is a doctor; a high level, specialised doctor. They refuse to see a patient without a gaggle of nurses/junior doctors present, so never deal with a choking patient.
Harmony, that law in the UK also means that a totally blind person can be a pilot. Need I say more?
FM
There is some things blind people just absolutely can not do, and this is definitely one of them.
I know, if I were sighted, i'd love to do nursing, but unfortunately I will have to just accept that it will never be the case for me.
the DDA does not make it possible for a blind person to become a pilot. the DDA just does not work like that. the company/employer only have to make, reasonable, adjustments to accomodate disabled people, which means giving interview papers in accessible format etc. i don't think it would stretch so far as to make the medical workplace so accessible as to make a blind nurse's job a practicle reality. then, if they could proove a health and safety case, that law overarches all DDA concerns.
why could a blind woman not be a doula? I guess that is the same as a child birth assistant. Also, I think a blind person could be one of the nurses they have in our health insurance. they work in the evenings when doctors are not open. they perform triage, spelling, to see if you should go to the hospital and give you medical advice and information.
medical advise and info is diffrent, they are advisors, hands off operators, that would be okay, as they are not dealing with drugs etc, i think in that case yes, but it would be difficult to be a blind nurse in a clinical or other front line situation.
But if you are hoping for a more positive response,just ask someone from the NFB! They are never negative about anything!
To post 24 There also unrealistic. If your smart become a blind doctor and do research.
I too see nothing wrong with a blind triage nurse or a doula. There's a nurse where I go for referral type services for my prenatal care and she's a lactation consultant and she teaches childbirth class. She's sighted, but the things she does are, to me, fasrly straight forward and don't require a lot of vision.
Well, can't comment much on that. Have to see how they perform in real life, but was just trying to help her.
Right now, it seems impossible to be a nurse, though, a blind person can be a caregiver, as i'm totally blind, and I've been one. but, if you are able to find a way to make your dream come true, that is awesome. There are many, many things that were thought to be impossible to do, but we as a blind community have overcome. I just personally think it is impossible to be a nurse and being totally blind, but if anyone can prove me wrong, that is wonderful.
Now, if you've thought of being a caregiver, I'd have to say that from personal experience, it would not work too well in a public setting, let's say in a hospital or nursing home. Caregiving is best done out of your home in a private setting, where you are able to regulate things better, put the meds in Braille, come up with a system that works, and so forth. I'm totally blind and both first-aid certified and med certified by the state of MD, and yes, a blind person can administer meds. Blind people can also transfer a patient from one place to another safely. It is called making sure anything that could cause injury is out of the way and have only the chair and bed present. I've never done IVs or Catheters, as it would be impossible. I just had a nurse come in for that; however, there is no problem with changing diapers, bathing, and other practical things. I've done all of those things. I've cared for a few people who were my good friends who are all dead now by the way, and I'd say I did a pretty darn good job. i have no regrets.
If you want to talk to a blind caregiver who has experience, feel free. I will try to answer any questions you have. I also did a podcast on Blind Cool Tech about how blind people can be caregivers, and it got some good responses. You can also check out my caregiver's blog at www.keepthemhome.blogspot.com There, I share some personal experience and give tips. Hope this helps.
Did you go through the Hospice program, or did you just care for these people privately? There are all different aspects of Hospice type services you can be apart of: reading to the patient, massage, talking them through some of teir emotions surrounding their death, just basically finding ways for them to feel at peace. I've often thought of volunteering forhospice and doing some of these such things. Some people might be interested in becoming a hospital chaplain. I see no reason why a blind person couldn't do that. I also don't see why a blind person couldn't be a doula either, although you may want to have backup support for that. Blind people can certainly do massage therapy and I've thought about that too. I just have a hard time touching people, and I have to get overmy squeamishness before I can honestly say I'd do it.
I'm afraid I have to agree with all the prior posts. I wouldn't feel comfortable having a blind nurse. However, there are always options like physical therapist, speech therapist, massage therapist, medical transcriptionist, psychologist or even professor of medicine. You might also consider becoming an ND, doctor of naturopathic medicine. I believe there are four schools in the United States where you could obtain this degree. Unfortunately, only a handful of states give NDs licenses but you could always practise in those that don't without the use of the word doctor. You could probably have an aid or nurse to help you with the more visual aspects, but basically, nds are more concerned with speaking to the patient, learning about his/her life style and other social indicators and advising the use of natural remedies where appropriate. Whatever you do, good luck.
I've cared for them all privately. I've never tried going through a hospice service, as I'd probably be discriminated against. If i wanted to go into business caring for people, I'd more than like start my own, just as I've done with everything else, so I dont have to worry about fighting and will have control of what I can and cannot do.
Also, I will soon be going to school to be an MD. I have the support of my entire family and the NFB. I've always had a love and fascination for anything medical related, and being a doctor is something I always wanted to do. The nurse would be doing all of the things that are visual and that MD's do not do, such as shots and the like. I'm finishing up my English major, and I'm going to go onto Harvard to practice Law and Medicine.
Can a blind person be a doctor? Absolutely. A nurse? No.