Advice I read today

Published

1). The sharp end of anything ALWAYS goes

toward the patient.

2). If the patient is over 75 years of age and doesn't

respond to verbal or physical stimuli, they are

either deaf or dead.

3). You can't fi x dead, nor can you make it worse.

So, calm down!

4).There will be patients you don't like, relate to,

respect, etc. Carry those feelings in your heart,

not on your face.

Cynthia Peterson, MS, RN

Words of Wisdom: Nursing

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Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

Pretty good advice. I will pass on one that had a big impact this week at my hospital. When you are doing something unpleasant (ie: cleaning a fresh trach, cleaning up a huge poop, whatever)....always keep your expression neutral. Definitely don't be scrunching up your face in an "ewww" expression. Saw a student do that this week and it made the patient feel horrible.

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Thanks for the comment! Ive actually seen that type of incident before. It is very sad especially when the patient is neurologically compromised and they have no control. I will continue to post pearls on here. Happy St.Patricks Day

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here's the classic "fat man's laws of the house of god." "house of god" is a classic written by a boston psychiatrist (pseudonym samuel shem), a semifictionalized account of a first year of residency. sorry about the all-caps-- it comes that way.

gomers don't die.

gomers go to ground.

at a cardiac arrest, the first pulse to take is your own.

the patient is the one with the disease.

placement comes first.

there is no body cavity that cannot be reached with a #14 needle and a good strong arm.

age + bun = lasix dose.

they can always hurt you more.

the only good admission is a dead admission.

if you don't take a temperature, you can't find a fever.

show me a bms* who only triples my work and i will kiss his feet. * medical student from the "best medical school."

if the radiology resident and the bms* both see a lesion on the chest x-ray, there can be no lesion there.

the delivery of medical care is to do as much nothing as possible.

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LOL...These are very good! Green lettering for St.Patrick day

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Specializes in Med Tele, Gen Surgical.

For those of you with Netflix you can watch "The House of God" and see the "Fatman" in action. Very funny film, and you'll get more pearls of wisdom. ROOOOOOOOODLE! I have actually used his stethoscope trick for a LOL in NAD who was HOH. Really, it worked!

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bahahaha very cool. I have plenty of more quotes and wisdom to post!

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roooooooooooodle! ah, i had forgotten that. thanks, and i'm glad it's on netflix now, will go put in on my queue stat. i had heard they made a movie of it but it never played where i was living.

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(Just went to Netflix and I don't see it there...:crying2:)

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Specializes in Med Tele, Gen Surgical.

GrnTea :) I just searched, it shows up under my "instant queue" (no dvd option) and stars Tim Matheson. Did you try including "the" in the title? I'm not sure if it works since I searched under my account but here's the link......

http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/The_House_of_God/70147025?trkid=2361637

Here's hoping! I just got off a pretty rotten night shift for a new RN, so I think I might at least watch the Fat Man in the deli scene to find a few smiles before I take a snooze.

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thank you so much. alas, it doesn't show up in my search (with or without "the"), and when i used your link i got the review page but it is headed "unavailable." i wonder if it's because it's rated r, or because they don't have any good copies anymore?

i am just crushed. but i still have the book. :D

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Specializes in Med Tele, Gen Surgical.

Oh yes, I read the book after being tipped off to the movie, love it! I'm so sorry you can't get it (frownie face :( ) Now, to "un-hijack" the OP's original intent for the thread.....

Another tip/pearl I learned....my precepter gave me this idea when I said I had to think twice about which syringe was the flush and which contained the 2 mg or whatever IV push med I had prepared, oh and of course you can't find a sharpie! Use a sterile red cap (the kind to cap off an IV fluid when locking a pt) at the med prep cart on the med you just prepared. I swear, my nervous patients can SEE the red cap and then don't ask, "how do you know which of those is the medication?" Maybe wastefull, but then again I can't wipe off the writing on the syringe.....And I know the 2 mg of morphine is in the red top one....

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