Sunday, April 15, 2007

A real ophthalmological nurse

Mother Jones at Nurse Ratched's Place has tagged me with a meme. It's 'what makes a real nurse?' I'm going to refine it to my specialty, so here's my take on the meme.
What makes a real ophthalmic nurse?
  1. You automatically remember to spell ophthalmology with an 'h' after the 'p' and an 'l' before the 'm'.
  2. You can hold eyelids open with your ring finger while your thumb and forefinger are squeezing a drop bottle.
  3. Your 'yuck' reflex evaporated ten minutes after starting work in an eye ward.
  4. You loathe and detest iridologists.
  5. You're not too fond of people offering laser corrective surgery either.

Okay, that's it. You only need five statements. I tag Dead Nurse Walking and Intelinurse. Have fun guys.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Out of curiosity, what is wrong with laser surgery? I know several people who have had it done and who seem happy with the results.

Having said that although I do wear glasses I don't think I fancy the idea of laser surgery myself...

Deacon Barry said...

The front of the cornea is only half a millimetre thick and it thins as you get older. Laser surgery reshapes the front of the cornea by removing some of the corneal tissue. When people who've had the surgery get older, they may be at risk of corneal perforation. That's why you won't find any ophthalmologists or ophthalmological nurses willing to undergo it. We're not keen on contact lenses either.

Interrobang said...

I'm not keen on contact lenses, either, but that's because even you wouldn't be able to get around my beautiful phobic response when someone tries to put something more solid than liquid into my eyes. It's really a textbook case; you should see it. If ophthalmic examination chairs didn't have deep backs and arms, I would jump halfway across the room (and then probably fall on my head, like as not).

As far as I know, I'm not a contender for laser surgery, since most of my hyperopia left when I went through what my personal eye vet called "the post-adolescent neaersighted phase." I'll get glasses again when my arms get too short; not before.