Dr. Phil and Nadya Sulemon

Kathleen - posted on 03/26/2009

Okay, I'm back. I researched a little and my views regarding the role of the nurses from Angels in Waiting in the Suleman situation have not changed. However, I tuned in to Dr. Phil just moments ago and found that he has the same players BACK AGAIN today and I was so disgusted I flipped it off. I can't decide who disgusts me more at this point: Gloria Allred, Angels in Waiting nurse, the lawyer guy, Dr. Phil, audience members, and on and on............... YUK.

Kathleen - posted on 03/26/2009

I only saw yesterday's show where Dr. Phil ended by asking all media to back off (duh, now that he's had HIS fill/phil) and I missed a few bits. I'm actually of many minds about the whole ugly mess and I don't know that much about Angels in Waiting USA but to be brutally honest, I felt that the Angels in Waiting representatives came off badly - if for no other reason than their findings don't belong on national television. My understanding is that they were in the Suleman home to support the family which includes babes and mom. Babes and mom may have very different issues (again, duh) but we all know that regardless of that, they're a package when it comes to providing decent care. I am an RN but I work strictly in the area of behavioral health these days so I feel pretty strongly that any further public flaying of mom is making everything a lot worse. PLEASE don't assume that I condone mom's actions that caused this all to come about BUT surely we as a society have to acknowledge that by worshiping the likes of Jon & Kate + 8 and others like them, there is a pretty strong likelihood that some poor individual who is already predisposed to mental health issues, is going to feel compelled to emulate those celebs in some half baked way. Most nurses do not work in behavioral health but surely we all remember from school that the most frequently seen hallmarks of mental illness ARE lack of foresight/understanding of consequences and lack of empathy. With that in mind, seeing nurses on TV voicing their criticism of mom's poor parenting skills, poor communications skills, lack of compassion toward her children, etc. was pretty distressing - unethical to say the least. I'm inclined to believe that their observations are probably pretty right on I just don't believe that those observations belong on TV along with the nurse's eye rolling I saw when mom's lawyer was defending/refuting or whatever. In my own practice, I put a LOT of effort into establishing and maintaining trust and rapport, sometimes with people I don't particularly like or who scare me but the point is that trust is essential if I'm going to do my job and work toward the most beneficial outcome for all involved. Isn't that true for most of us nurses regardless of our area of practice? Okay, so now that I've stuck my foot in it, I'm going to go and research Angels in Waiting USA and see if that changes my views at all. If so, I promise to come back and tell. What are YOUR thoughts on them?