Ah, you’ve come my pretties.  Welcome, and don’t look away!  Feast your eyes on the gruesome posts submitted for the Halloween edition of Change of Shift, themed:   “What’s So Scary About Health Care?”

I was awakened from my crypt by Cackling Kim, the Indescribable…..Indestructible….and Nothing Can Stop Her!, creator of The Emergiblob.  She summoned me from my slumber to rally her band of minions to do her bidding.  Her bidding is to blog, and her wish is my command.  Health Care is scary, and these bloggers have no trouble spewing the horrific details of it all.  So sit back, don’t relax, and let me walk you through the dark side.

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Fresh Blood

Oh yes, fresh blood, a new blogger I have found, Pee and Sorcery: Terrifying Stories from an RN.  This novice blogger is refreshingly blunt and to the point in The-ER-is-a-scary-place-to work, sort of way.  It is also very humorous.  Check him out but watch your mouth, and read:  May I have another peesh please.

What’s this I smell?  More new blood!  How lucky.  Here is Jennie over at Monstertrauma, describing how scary and exhilarating being a new ER nurse can be:  Whirlwind Med Surg Training.  To me, ER nursing sounds way more scary than exhilarating.  Jennie proves this to me in her second post:  ER At Last

As sweet and innocent as Chucky, is this next newbie blogger.  Nurse “Carvin’ em up” Karin, knows that there is nothing more horrifying than a “Code Brown.”  Life as a new ICU nurse can pit the angel against the devil on your shoulder during the stress of caring for patients.  Who will overcome?  Find out at:  Why did you let yourself get heavy?.

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Nightmare Nurses

Over at Severing Jane Nurse, Jane describes in horror like detail, the drama of drowning nurses and competent radiologists dictating reports in dark and lonely basement rooms.   Is it a dream or a nightmare?  Find out: Dictation Dream.

Mad Max E Nurse shows a rather frightening image of a Dora the Explorer makeover, (which I can’t get out of my head, thanks Max).  Mad Max E Nurse , an NP with a good sense of humor, has been called a lot of crazy things by his patients, as explained in You Called Your Nurse Practitioner What? I wonder if Mad Max E Nurse has ever been called “Mad Max E Nurse?”  hmmmm?  Find out at It Shouldn’t Happen in Healthcare.

Loathsome Lisa describes a very frightening topic on a lot of minds lately (think Death Panels) on her blog Exorcisms of an ICU Nurse.  Nurse Lisa goes into some in your face detail of what Advanced Directives are, and what they should be.  Take a peek here at :  Don’t Love Me Too Much.

Along the same line as Advanced Directives, I can’t think of anything more frightening than having the person you choose to make medical decisions regarding your care, not follow your wishes.  Corpseblog writes about this very thing in her eloquent, and real-life scary (and sad)  post:  Choose Wisely.

Eerie ER Murse discusses a topic that should leave all nurses (and patients) shaking in their boots……  nursing strikes.  Will it happen in California?  Find out:  Halloween Strike for California Catholic Hospitals.

New Nurse Insanity-Frankenstein Chop!, has a scarily eloquent and beautiful post about not being afraid of death.  Read the post:  Ready To Go, for a touching story of a man who is not afraid to die, and be with the love of his life.

Visiting hours can be vicious, both on nurses, and on families.  Nefarious Nurse PTO brings up the touchy topic of just what visiting hours should be in high intense areas like the ICU:  Visiting Times in the ICU – Are They Necessary?.

Let’s face it, nurses can be rude, and detached, and unfriendly.  No matter why a patient ends up in a hospital, they are almost all universally SCARED.  Lurkin’ Large makes the point of how a little kindness with patients can go along way to touch lives.  Read it here:  It Only Takes Five Minutes.

You ever wonder what is scary to mainstream media?  Mother “Jeepers Creepers” Jones of Nurse Ratched’s Place knows what scares em’……BLOGGERS!  AHHHHHHHHHHHH!  After the whole “Balloon Boy” fiasco, Nurse Ratched has some scary words for the mainstream media at:  Your Byline Has Blogger Envy. Nurse Ratched’s Place is also announcing the winner of the Scrubs Gallery, “You’ve Come a Long Way Baby,” writing contest.  The Winner is……Frosty Nurse (from Canada, who has no blog yet.  Why not Frosty?)  Check out the info here:  And the Envelope Please……

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MedScreamers

Is there anything more horrifying to a blogger than writing a controversial post, and then…….(wait for it, don’t look away!)………reading the comments?  (cue screaming).   Nurse Practitioner Beka Serdans bravely delves into controversy over at the nursing Medscream blog.  Read her post entitled:  English Only?-Nursing Shift Report, to see what all the fuss is about.

Another Medscream blogger, Boobara Olson, aka Safety Nurse, knows all to well that medical errors are more than frightening, they are real and……avoidable.  Boobara backs up her knowledge with this great post and resource:  Here’s the Beef: A Resource for Mistake-Proofing.  (side note….I also found the “Where’s the Beef!” commericials oddly frightening.  But that’s just me)

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Bone Chilling Births

The world of birth can be scary indeed.  Werewolf to Werewolf Childbirth Education has a great list of scare tactics used on laboring women to be compliant.  Yes I am biased towards birth and baby bloggers, so I looove this post:  Ooo…..Scary.  Don’t be scared ladies, be empowered!

Along the same theme of how to scare a woman, the Enjoy Banshees blog, not only knows what tactics are used to scare mothers, she sings about in:  50 Ways to Scare a Mother.  Time to howl ladies!

Monster Nurse Diaries is a blogger who is not yet a nurse, but has personal first hand experience with the health care environment.  Birth, and health care does not have to be scary, as he writes in What’s So Scary About Health Care? Putting Strangers in Charge of Yours.  A little personal attention and INFORMED CONSENT is like garlic to vampires…it takes the scare, and bite away.

Ravenous Rixa, renowned birth blogger of Stand and Devour,  spins a veritable Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde tale of how different two doctors can be, when caring for the exact same problem.  In A Tale of Two Doctors, Rixa examines and eviscerates the different plans of care, some very scary indeed, given to her own medical issue.

Jeering Jill of I ♥ Cesarean Sections (is that muffled screaming I hear?), writes a terrifying post on birth fetishes (no not that kind, get your mind out of the gutter), with visuals included.  Check out Wordless Wednesday, and see if it reminds you of the 1970’s-ish, made for TV movie “Trilogy of Terror,” starring Karen “strabismus” Black.

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Drs. Demented

This past summer has shown us that one of the most terrifying things in the minds of many Americans is Health Care Reform (aaaah, run away, run away!).  Dr. Rampaging Rich over at the Covert Retching Blog, writes a terrifying post on this very topic called:  Has the Insurance Industry Really Turned Against Reform?.  Read it and wonder, just what the hell is going on behind the closed doors of the powers that be.  It certainly sounds covert……. and hellish.

Did you know that Coronas with lime can turn into a witches brew under certain conditions?  (I had NO clue.)  Don’t remain clueless.  Read what Dr. Charles has to say in the The Exhuming em’ Room of Dr. Charles, where he goes into terrifying detail of this witches brew at:  Corona beer commercial: Don’t try this at home.

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Nevermore

Oh NO!  The sun is rising and I must get back to my crypt.  But before I leave, I will leave you with this creepy masterpiece from Garlic Makes Me Nervous.  Edgar Allen Poe had nothing on an emergency room nurse!

Once upon a midnight dreary, while my back ached, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious patient at the triage door.
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of someone rudely rapping, rapping at my triage door.
“‘Tis no drunkard,” I muttered, “tapping at my triage door–
A well man and nothing more.”

Read the rest here at:  Had Edgar Allen Poe been an emerg nurse.

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Cast of Creatures

Cackling Kim of The Emergiblob = Kim of Emergiblog

Pee and Sorcery:  Terrifying Stories from an RN = Pee and Sympathy: True Stories from an RN

Monstertrauma =   Mamatrauma

Nurse “Carvin’ em up” Karin =  Nurse Karin

Severing Jane Nurse =  See Jane Nurse

Mad Max E Nurs =  It Shouldn’t Happen in Healthcare (by Max E Nurse)

Loathsome Lisa (Exorcisms of an ICU Nurse) =  Experiences of an ICU Nurse (By Lisa)

Corpseblog  = Codeblog

Eerie Er Murse = ER Murse

New Nurse Insanity-Frankenstein Chop = New Nurse Insanity-Fundas Chop

Nefarious Nurse PTO = Nurse PTO

Lurkin’ Large = Livin’ Large

Mother “Jeeper Creepers” Jones =  Mother Jones of Nurse Ratched’s Place

Medscream Nursing blog = Medscape nursing blogs

Boobara Olson, Medscream Nursing blog = Barbara Olson at Medscape Nursing blogs: On Your Meds:Straight Talk about Medication Safety

Dr. Rampaging Rich (Covert Retching Blog) = Covert Rationing Blog (by Dr. Rich)

The Exhuming em’ Room of Dr. Charles =  The Examining Room of Dr. Charles

Werewolf to Werewolf Childbirth Education = Woman to Woman Childbirth Education

Enjoy Banshees blog = Enjoy Birth blog

Monster Nurse Diaries = Man Nurse Diaries

Ravenous Rixa (Stand and Devour) = Rixa of Stand and Deliver

Jeering Jill ( I ♥ Cesarean Sections) = Jill of The Unnecesarean

Garlic Makes Me Nervous = Call Bells Make Me Nervous

*I received a ton of spam, spam, spam, spam, spam (sing along now!) submissions for this carnival.  If I accidentally did not include a post that was sent to me because it got caught up in all the spam, spam, spam, spam, spam (are you singing yet?), I apologize profusely.*

Loathe,

Retched Reality Rounds.