November 19, 2003
Brain Freeze
Romanians are really nice people -- the ones I met and talked to, anyhow -- and they have the saddest stories to tell. One of those stories I just heard this morning, from the nurse at our family doctor's office (yes, we have one now).
She's a charming woman, looks a bit like a pixie with blonde hair and a sparkle in her eyes. Her English is excellent and fluent. So I asked her how she came to speak so well.
Well. She had a scholarship for a nursing school in Dallas, TX, and got her degree there. She was full of high hopes and daring dreams when she came back to Romania with her newly minted degree as a scrub nurse.
The first setback came when she had to realize that the Romanian Medical Board doesn't recognize the professional title of a "scrub nurse". Her diploma was not accepted.
She bit her way through somehow (mind you, all the while she was telling me this story, she poked needles into me; skillfully but they were needles), and got to work at the Floreasca Emergency Hospital. She came to be responsible for all the surgery rooms and was to teach the other nurses how to scrub in. More walls: the nurses didn't want to do such a lowly job. She failed yet again.
Then, she and some of her friends from the nursing school in Dallas (I think it was Baylor) had the idea of founding a nursing school here in Romania. Well, that one went down the drain because this time the doctors didn't like the idea. Nurse practioners, eh. The doctors didn't want any competition.
She tried various other projects and ran smack against walls, yet she is still full of ideas. She works with orphanages -- donates her vacation time to work there -- and is still thinking of getting some form of advanced degree.
How is Romania ever to get out of the swamp if she constantly builds up walls for her brightest and most ambitious people to run against?
Posted by claudia at November 19, 2003 09:20 PMOur diplomas are not accepted in almost any other country.. so I guess it is normal not to recognize diplomas from those countries.
Of course, it is not good for people.. but it is happening.
By the way.. what is a scrub nurse doing?
Have a nice day!
Anca
About the reciprocity of not accepting degrees - I have to say this is silly.
Now, I don't know anything about the quality of education in Romania. However, the fact that over half a million international students are enrolled in US schools every year suggests something about the quality of education in the US. (Okay, that's a can of worms right there, but bear with me.)
Romania cuts herself off from a large pool of bright and very well educated people if she doesn't accept degrees from the US - or Europe, for that matter. Mind you, it's not that no degrees are accepted. Doctors educated in the States seem to be able to work here just fine. This doesn't seem to apply for some other specialties and professions, though.
It's just another case of bureaucratic red tape that needs to be cut through if Romania wants to, hm, succeed.
As to your question about what is a scrub nurse:
" The scrub nurse or tech prepares the sterile field, surgical supplies and equipment. During surgery, the scrub nurse or tech assists the surgeon and physician assistant by passing instruments, suctioning blood, and maintaining the sterile field. Scrub nurses and techs work closely with the operating room team making sure that everything goes smoothly. After surgery the scrub nurse or tech washes the "specials," which are instruments that personally belong to the open heart surgeon. They are kept near the operating room so that they can be used for the next surgery.
"Preparing for the job: Scrub nurses have a two- or four-year nursing degree and a scrub tech has a degree in surgical technology."
Courtesy of www.waycoolsurgery.com. Google is your friend.
Posted by: claudia at November 20, 2003 11:39 AM