HollyHobby replied to Blackheartednurse's topic in Hospice
I cannot think of a time when I saw a patient referred to hospice too soon. I cannot count the times when I've seen patients referred to hospice too late. As an ICU nurse, I define my career as "torturing people to death". This is what I do: I tortur...
HollyHobby replied to ThePrincessBride's topic in Pre-Nursing
I went back to college when my youngest (of 3) was 2 months old. It was hard, but I really did appreciate school more and try harder than when I was fresh out of high school. All that being said, I strongly- STRONGLY- suggest you finish your degree a...
I think it is a totally wonderful thing for a male nurse to be a school nurse. One must be careful to avoid the appearance of misconduct, but this applies to everyone, everywhere. It's a great thing for kids to see that gender roles are not black an...
We do a head-to-toe assesment every four hours. If the patient goes to CT or surgery or some other procedure, there is an additional assessment when he gets back, even if his primary nurse is with him during that whole time. Doing an initial assessm...
HollyHobby replied to cerendipity, rn's topic in General Nursing
Safe staffing levels. Without this, nothing else matters. Then, make staffing good enough that nurses (and aides) can actually pee and take those legally mandated things called "breaks". After that, everything else is gravy. :) Without adequate staff...
I think that on pretty much any unit, there will be at least one nurse who is a report beast. A dear friend of mine is like this: she's a bit OCD and demands a rigorous, lengthy, detailed report. Heaven help the new grad who doesn't anticipate her qu...
I feel for you, OP. My first job was nightmarish and I usually cried before work. Due to limited options, I worked there for a total of 7 years. I thought my experience there was the norm. Eventually, I moved cross-country and now work at a place I l...
HollyHobby replied to IHeartPeds87's topic in General Nursing
ICU. I get to do a lot of patient/family teaching. When my patient is too gorked to be taught, there is family who benefit greatly from teaching. I really enjoy my interactions with them. I tend to see my patients as integral with their family/suppor...
When a nurse (or anyone else, really) is confronted with an error she's made, the natural reaction for many is to become defensive, or to try to blame someone else, or to minimize the error. It takes some courage to accept the situation and own up to...
Count me as another boring person. There's nothing wrong with that! However, your husband is giving you a huge red flag. It sounds like he has expectations that are not being met, and from there it is a short road to the D word. Communication is key....
I can totally relate to your experience. Fortunately, I now work at a place where the doctors are almost never abusive. Once in a while, a particular doc will be a jerk, but there is no screaming, throwing things, or physical assault. At my first hos...
I cannot imagine why the surgeon would be angry at you for not calling about the BP. First, the BP was fine on your shift. Did he really expect you to call normal BPs to him? At night? Second, since the surgeon wrote the labetolol order, he was obvio...
HollyHobby replied to HeatherGurl84's topic in General Nursing
You might want to check your hospital's holiday pay policy, too. I've worked in 3 hospitals, in 2 different states, and I've never received extra pay for working holidays.
HollyHobby replied to ~Mi Vida Loca~RN's topic in General Nursing
I work at a hospital where we have a wound care RN, phlebotomists, but no IV team. We used to not have phlebotomists and we drew all our own labs. I strongly support having a wound nurse. This is almost a separate field, where specialized knowledge ...