swirlygirl

swirlygirl has 7 years experience.

Latest Activity

1. Why is nursing such a horrible job?

   swirlygirl replied to firstyearstudent's topic in General Nursing

   Because everything has become "customer service oriented." Nevermind that we don't have enough staff, or working medical equipment (such as BP cuffs or bladder scanner) but have you seen our brand new cafe with WIFI, marble floors in the newly renova...

2. "I'll Tell The Nurse" (vent)

   swirlygirl replied to StNeotser's topic in General Nursing

   One of the charge nurses on my floor had a surgeon call our floor (the post-surgical floor) from the OR telling her that his pager battery had died. The nurse told him that we don't have batteries for his pager on our floor. He started yelling at her...

3. did your job give you a holiday gift??

   swirlygirl replied to ohmeowzer RN's topic in General Nursing

   We got nothing. Same as every other year. One of the surgeons asked one of the nurses on my floor if she was expecting a nice bonus this year and she just about died laughing. He felt bad and bought lunch for the nurses on our floor. Actually, I've ...

4. How long did you work for while your were pregnant?

   swirlygirl replied to MaraG.'s topic in General Nursing

   With my first pregnancy, I worked until I was about 18 weeks along. My OB found on my ultrasound that I had placenta previa and did not want me lifting. When I gave my employer my lifting restriction, I was told I wasn't allowed to work unless I coul...

5. Did I handle this incorrectly?

   swirlygirl replied to swirlygirl's topic in General Nursing

   thanks for the quick response!! i did page him again, but he didn't answer his page. that's why i called the second rapid response.

6. Did I handle this incorrectly?

   swirlygirl posted a topic in General Nursing

   I recently had a situation at work that I feel was handled correctly, but was told that the House MD and the critical care intensivist thought I handled badly. What would you guys have done differently? Little background - I work nights on a post-op/...

7. Middle aged men are such babies!!

   swirlygirl replied to Tait's topic in General Nursing

   I also love the docs that keep the patient on a dilaudid PCA for 3 days after a lap appy. Yep, we've had that. I still can't figure out why that patient developed an ileus. I recently had a guy that had a lap chole and he was rating his pain 2 out of...

8. A jaded nurse who cried last night and was renewed as a nurse

   swirlygirl replied to Zookeeper3's topic in General Nursing

   Thank you so much for sharing. That family was so lucky to have you and I'm sure they will never forget you.

9. how do you give morphine on a pump bedside?

   swirlygirl replied to ivy2009's topic in General Nursing

   When we have patients on morphine drips we put the bag of morphine in a locked plastic box and hang the box on the IV pump. And our IV pumps have a lockout code that needs punched in before the pump is able to be used. Only the nurses have the code a...

10. help!! very frustrated

    swirlygirl replied to grlsct37's topic in General Nursing

    You'd be amazed at what patient's can't do on their own. I think about 75% of patients lose the ability to use their arms and legs just by entering the hospital doors. I work on a post-surgical floor so we have to encourage patients to get up and do...

11. Question for Philadelphia nurses

    swirlygirl posted a topic in Pennsylvania

    My husband is possibly being transferred to Philadelphia in the near future and I was just looking for some information on hospitals out that way. I currently work at a small community hospital in the suburbs of Pittsburgh and I would like to stay in...

12. How to stay organized?

    swirlygirl replied to L8RRN's topic in General Nursing

    I use a sheet that I made up using Excel. It is pretty specific to post-op patients, but you could add or remove sections according to your specialty. I also use highlighters to flag stuff that I want to stand out on the page, such as what time a fol...

13. How long before you were a charge nurse?

    swirlygirl replied to SoundofMusic's topic in General Nursing

    This is how our floor does it too. It's a pain in the butt. But our manager doesn't wait a certain amount of time before orienting to charge. Some nurses have been on the floor for 5-6 years and have never been in charge and some are new grads that a...

14. threatened at work

    swirlygirl replied to gonzo1's topic in General Nursing

    I used to work on a drug and alcohol detox floor. We also had quite a few psych patients. We asked multiple times if our unit (as well as psych and ER) could have special privileges about making our names visible to the patients due to the types of p...

15. Placed on medical leave...so why do I feel guilty?

    swirlygirl replied to jessiern's topic in General Nursing

    I felt guilty when I was placed on early leave during my pregnancy as well. I went in for my 18 week ultrasound and found out that I had placentia previa and was given heavy lifting restrictions. And according to my employer (not my OB) if you can't ...