blondie

blondie

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About blondie

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  1. T-tube flush

    For clarification, it's a t-tube for biliary drainage. I asked a couple of other nurses last night, and there was some confusion. The frst nurse said she didn't know, and the second nurse said she flushes toward the patient because that's what she ...
  2. T-tube flush

    Please help. Tomorrow I will be assigned to a patient with orders to flush the T-tube with 5 cc normal saline. The order reads "flush forward only." Forward? Which direction is this? After I unscrew the two parts of the drainage tube, do I flush...
  3. Management question

    Thanks for all of your responses. The best suggestion seems to be the verbal warning; written warning; termination--all done with fairness and consistency. The aides do have a tough job, and there are plenty of good, underpaid, underappreciated ones...
  4. Management question

    The supervisors at my long-term care facility are getting rather frustrated with the lack of respect given their authority by the Certified Nurses Aides. A supervisor will tell an aide she needs to float to another unit to help out, and the aide wil...
  5. Let's talk about LTC

    Ditto to everything said by cargal. I am the one RN for 40-45 residents, no LPN to assist. On top of this, our aides are so used to seeing only one nurse on the unit, I think some of them see it as normal. I recently had one say to me, "Maybe if y...
  6. Motivation

    Thanks! Coming from the perspectives of both diabetic and nurse, your letter is particularly helpful. I didn't realize the correlation between diabetes and depression. I've done some research and discovered that there is a five times higher incide...
  7. A half-hour is automatically deducted for a meal. If I only get to take 15 minutes or so, I let it slide. Comes with the job. I believe none of the nurses at my facility take the full half-hour. However, if I don't get to take a meal at all, I no...
  8. Motivation

    What strategies do you employ to motivate a diabetic who does not adhere to the prescribed treatment regimen of daily fingersticks? The diabetic in this case is an educated young adult who feels that as long as there is "nothing wrong with me" other...
  9. How many RN's have left?

    I have worked in LTC for over a year. I truly enjoy the people. I would love to be able to stay long enough to become "an experienced nurse." However, the working conditions are appalling. When I interviewed for the job, I was told that there woul...
  10. Agency CNAs?

    I work as an RN in LTC. Staffing at my facility has become so nonexistent, I'm wondering how much longer we can continue. Giant holes in the schedule are filled not only by mandating nurses, but supervisors as well. The other day I went in to chec...
  11. Frequency of Mandating

    I work in a nursing home. We are very short-staffed. There are serious holes in the schedule. Mandating has become the norm, not the exception. For example, when it is my weekend to work, I know I will wind up working a double on Saturday (7A-11P)...
  12. Medical Costs

    Thanks for all your help. Should count my blessings my family has been relatively healthy. Can't get over the cost of having a baby these days. When I was pregnant 20 years ago, the package deal from the MD for a vaginal birth was $800 or $1200, I ...
  13. Medical Costs

    I'm working toward my BSN. A young college student in my Statistics class said today he doesn't believe health insurance is the right way to go for someone his age. He believes he's better off just saving his money, and paying for any bill himself ...
  14. Terminology?

    This term was used by one particular instructor on several different occasions during preconference--Mrs. Smith has such-and-such disorder, is on O2 at 2L, with a Vicra in the left forearm. Then when she started calling it a heplock, I questioned he...
  15. Terminology?

    A few years ago, while I was still in nursing school, one of my instructors referred to a heplock as a "Vicra." She said that's what they used to be called, but it's not really proper terminology since it's a brand name. When I recently mentioned t...