Aibu to wonder how a nurse can get this wrong?

[Graphista]

Watching £100k drop on catch up.

I'm an ex nurse haven't practised for almost 2 decades but still remember the basics (I hope)

Answers:

Lacrimal
Parotid
Sebaceous

Q tears are produced from which gland in the body?

The only one she even recognised as a gland was sebaceous and that's what she put ALL their money on.

Nurses and ex-nurses can you answer this

A without googling
B knowing what the other glands do and where they are?

I knew it instantly and I'm quite shocked a currently practising, probably fairly recently qualified nurse didn't know this! Surely it's basic A&P?!

Not even my area of expertise.

I'm a radiographer and we learnt this in training , so yes I could answer that one

Vet nurse. I know the answer!

I'm a nursery nurse. I have never heard of parotid but I do know lacrimal is tears and sebaceous is oil on the skin and blocked ones cause spots

I’m a student midwife and knew that. At our uni and hospital we’re all expected to do quite an tough a&p course in the first year, covers all the major systems and can be examined on anything, not just what might be considered midwifery related.
Rationale being that a pregnant woman can present with both the full range of medical conditions that any child bearing age woman can have as well as those conditions specifically related to pregnancy etc.

You have to have a solid understanding of normal a&p before you can understand the changes that occur in pregnancy and general illness so you can quickly spot deviations from the norm and escalating appropriately.

I don’t know a lot about nursing training but when I did my general nursing rounds the nurses I worked with all seemed very well versed in a&p.

Also in terms of infection control this is huge in midwifery and we get a lot of training. If it’s not being followed that might be more to do with the unit culture. Strictly hair up and off collar, no jewellery at all, short bare nails, no long sleeves etc in clinics and we can’t wear uniform to/from hospital. I think same for the nurses I’ve worked with.

I have to say the tear duct is quite obscure I suppose in terms of how often it might be used in practice. Perhaps it was just nerves?

*a not an tough course sorry. Post long day shift!

Not a nurse- lacrimal.

The balance of these responses give rise to concern for whenever one might end up in the clutches of NHS nurses.

Quite frightening really.
Please convince me otherwise.

I'm not a nurse but would have guessed it because lagrimas = tears in Spanish

Actually I tell a lie we did do some glands but there were the main endocrine ones.

I'm not a nurse but know it's not Sabaceous, I would have split the money between the other two.

Lacrimal, but that's nothing to do with knowing about glands; just that I did Latin at school.

(I know what sebaceous glands do too, but that's only because I had to have a sebaceous cyst removed. Haven't a scooby about the other one.)

I only know the answer because it's a pub quiz favourite

Not a nurse but lacrimose (or lachrymose) means tearful so...agree with ep that people call themselves nurses, teachers etc when they are nothing of the kind. Princess Di was called 'a nursery teacher' when she helped out at a private childcare place with no qualifications at all.

Weird thread Just a lame excuse to bash nurses
Nursing 25 years, ICU 18 years. Guessed the right answer but never formally taught about it - more bothered about picking up sepsis symptoms and stuff like that.
As a nurse you might notice inflammation or redness to the eye, abnormal movements, pupil responses etc and duly report it to the docs but being able to name the specific gland is neither here nor there

Myrnafoy totally agree, I know A&P in relation to my speciality and know it well, what is more important is that I know what can go wrong, what to look for and what I'm going to do to fix it, I only knew it was lacrimal as back when I worked in dental we had to learn the bones of the skull!

This thread mustn’t turn into a nurse bashing arena. I would just assume, as a health professional, that she’d have known.

I would also add as a biology grad, you may have a question on an exam paper, ie name the gland that secretes tears. It would be a 1 point answer, then you would have a twelve point question on the function of the hypothalamus and it roles in regulating bodily functions. You can be very good at biology and not know the names of everything. In terms of vocabulary it’s another language in itself, even the enzymes have different names.
Having studied both, nursing is very different from biology as well. Not knowing the name of the gland would not stop her being an excellent nurse.

Currently 2nd year student nurse. I got it right with an educated guess, but didn't know where parotid gland was. We do A&P but apparently not this! We spend more time doing stuff that seems totally irrelevant...

Also agree with myrnafoy that there's more important things we need to know than the name of a gland. We aren't doctors, after all. I will likely never come across these terms unless working in eye clinic for Lacrimal or dermatology for sebaceous. We have enough to learn as it is!

"Recently qualified nurse, we were not taught any of the glands at all. Very little AP and almost zero pharmacology. Lots of sociology though" that's crazy!

Thank you for posting. This is ridiculous. If anything in light of what other pps have said about it being way worse now than the 90's (and THAT was bad!) is even more reason for the training to be focused correctly!

"You have to have a solid understanding of normal a&p before you can understand the changes that occur in pregnancy and general illness so you can quickly spot deviations from the norm and escalating appropriately." That's how I was taught - you need a good understanding of the baseline to spot the subtle abnormalities soon BEFORE patient reaches a crisis! I can still spot among the general public eg if I'm out and about shopping -

People with

Anaemia
Various other nutrient deficiencies
Dehydrated
Developing oedema
High bp
Slight facial palsy prob from tia

Re hygiene/unit culture possibly but I've observed dreadful filthy ward conditions & poor infection control practice in 5 separate hospitals in 3 different nhs regions over last 15 years alone.

Absolutely do not want to bash nurses. Any problems in practice I'm noting are mainly down, I believe, to poor training/mentoring post training and nurses being under far too much pressure and under resourced.

Eg I can well remember not getting my break till near end of shift but still getting it, sometimes only 10 mins when it was supposed to be 30, but now I'm hearing from friends still in practice on wards that they're not even getting time to visit loo!! Let alone get food & drink.

Which while dreadful for the nurses is even more concerning for patients because - ironic eh, as nurses - we know that cognitive function is impaired by dehydration, poor nutrition low blood sugar, fatigue etc and that not peeing when needed increases risk of uti's! That's going to have DIRECT NEGATIVE effects on patient care too!!!

"We spend more time doing stuff that seems totally irrelevant..." Can I ask you to expand on this please?

It is worrying that so many posting here feel they haven’t been taught well enough in a number of areas.

I often feel 3 years isn’t long enough for all the things we are told we are supposed to know though.

There are very high expectations and I have to say to meet them requires many more hours work than you are officially supposed to do in your own time.

We are always told it’s your pin in the end so you are responsible for basing your practice on the correct knowledge and evidence base so it’s a personal responsibility to know it. Definitely didn’t feel I got physically taught all I needed but spend pretty much all of my spare time doing this sort of study on top of actual assignments/reading exams.

So on reflection I do feel we could do with less of is art/sociology type lectures when there is not enough classroom time to teach the standard of stuff they say we should know when on placement. These are valuable subjects but not often related to knowledge or physical skills required for clinical areas. However there was a push of ethos to be included as previously students were seen as too clinically minded I believe.

I agree about the sociology lectures. Most of nursing these days is post registration.
Nursing, adult branch, should be mainly clinical. Mental health branches less so.
Needing to do further training post qualification just to do drips and catheters is ridiculous-these should be taught.

The reason why the more scientific part of nursing is not taught well is because in my uni at least they use nurses as lecturers, many who have been out of practice for a while, maybe weren’t taught physiology well themselves and are not confident teaching so concentrate on areas they are confident with. Some of our lecturers didn’t even have PHDs . This wouldn’t happen in other subjects

Maybe the physiology part should be taught by doctors.

I've not had any medical training but knew what the three terms meant from general knowledge. I'm rather shocked that a nurse wouldn't know them.