12/19 What I Learned This Week: night shift with Macaulay and polio

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in critical care.

The thing that has me the most wound up this week? Polio. I may be the last idiot to learn this, but our CIA used a vaccination campaign in Pakistan to collect DNA from Pakistani children, trying to find the children of bin Laden. Vaccination rates there have plummeted as a result, making a nearly eradicated disease remain a current threat.

I've been totally over this Christmas since last Christmas.

It sucks when you have an elderly, full blown dementia patient who is both violent and a screamer, and your hands are tied to say what's going on when one of your other patients is deeply bothered by it, saying, "why can't they just leave that poor man alone?"

A man who wants to die will not tell you when his chest pain is 10/10. He's only there because his daughters made him come.

Never remove an African American woman's wig.

Even nurses might not realize ischemic strokes don't kill you. Skipping anticoagulants might have worse outcomes than death.

Ensuring long blocks of days off on a regular basis seriously is crucial to recharging batteries.

I am still very much baffled by the fact that some respiratory therapists choose to smoke. Nurses, too. Look, I love you all, but if you've worked on a unit that gets bipap dependent or vented patients, surely you have some inspiration to quit? I'm not judging, as a former smoker myself, and I know how hard it is to stop. I just don't understand.

I really hate having to adjust to being awake in the AM after working nights, and I am so incredibly glad my husband is switching his hours to daylight so I don't HAVE to adjust my hours by much.

Hospitals are being fined millions because multiple patients were admitted for what Medicare feels should have been outpatient procedures. I'm annoyed by this. Perhaps they didn't require admission. Or, perhaps they were high risk for complications. I really don't know and wouldn't fault a legitimately applied fine. The problem is these massive sweeping fines make our MDs hesitate when they shouldn't.

Obama is a lefty.

The problem with being open minded is struggling to have actual opinions.

In spite of the night shift hangover, it feels so good to be back on night shift.

A video -

(And for those of you who do not get offended by pretty much anything, get on YouTube and check out the new Macaulay Culkin dryvrs video.)

Did you learn anything good?

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Not yet. I work today, hopefully I'll have some fodder when I return.

I do have to say, what in the world possessed you to remove that wig? And is there video?

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Ixchel, I enjoyed your run down and relate to "open mind" sometimes resulting in struggling with real opinions.

This week I learned that when you have good health insurance and are established with a specialist, you may be seen the same day for a problem (I seriously did not think it is possible because in my area appointments are usually booked out for weeks..)

Also, people who worked hard their whole life and accumulated some kind of assets will rather continue to struggle when getting older and in need of care as opposed to spending some of their money on their own care. Families are not as involved anymore and responsibility shifts more and more towards the health care system.

I talk about goals of care and end of life every single day but nowadays I also have to know a lot about how the health care system works and what insurances cover and how they operate...

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Oh I saw the Culkin video! It was not what I was expecting.

I got my final grade and was pleased to see a 90! I had failed the first two tests in that class and was scrambling the entire semester to get that grade back up. On a side note, I learned which study methods do and do not work for me. Flashcards=bad.

Also, I learned that Quizlet can be a little sketchy--just a heads up for fellow students. I always used it to make my own flashcards, then discovered that I could use other people's flashcards too. Well, it turns out there are test bank questions in there, and there is no possible way to know if you're viewing a test bank question or not. Luckily nobody got in trouble (as my whole class used Quizlet) because the instructor was made aware. But in my opinion it is not worth the risk of cheating allegations.

I learned that there are a few horrible people in my class that i just cannot see as nurses. Moral integrity and hard work is apparently too much to ask. But, I think my study buddies are going to be "my people" for decades to come, and that makes me happy.

I've missed these threads!

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(((((Purp)))))

I'm still friends with my core nursing school friends. "My people" indeed!

Congrats on killing it in school, not that I doubted you.

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

I learned that the field of case management is filled with thousands of acronyms and many more regulations. I hope I can rise to the occasion and become a competent case management nurse sooner rather than later.

I learned that earning a 4.0 grade point average in my first semester of graduate school can be fulfilling and vindicating at the same time. It provides a personal affirmation that I am not the stupid person that certain people insisted I was.

Never remove an African American woman's wig.
No, don't do that. Due to negative historical connotations, we can be very sensitive about our hair, natural or synthetic.
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(((((Purp)))))

I'm still friends with my core nursing school friends. "My people" indeed!

Congrats on killing it in school, not that I doubted you.

Awe Thanks :inlove: I've missed you!

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This week, I learned:

Finishing OB/Peds is a relief. Finding out that people who clearly don't pay attention during class and skip several lectures score higher than me on exams is depressing. I sometimes wonder if they're using Quizlet for test banks, since they do use Quizlet frequently. My ego might be hurt, just a little.

Don't give rubella to a woman who is planning to become, or is, pregnant.

Papanicolau's smear is used to screen cervical neoplasia.

I have a love-hate relationships with TV shows that kill off its main characters.

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Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.

That the single most satisfying thing in the entire week was the peds intensivist telling me "You were right- he was just dry" EIGHT HOURS after I floated the idea. Because you cannot get flow through a BT shunt if your blood is thick. And the only reasonable explanation for a kids sat being in the 40s while exhibiting no signs of distress is no flow through the shunt.

You're welcome Dr. H!

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.
I've been totally over this Christmas since last Christmas.

I've been over this Christmas since about 3 Christmases ago. Second year in a row I haven't bothered with a tree.

Ensuring long blocks of days off on a regular basis seriously is crucial to recharging batteries.

I've found that long weekends help too for those times when either the PTO bank is a little low or you just can't get time off.

I am still very much baffled by the fact that some respiratory therapists choose to smoke. Nurses, too. Look, I love you all, but if you've worked on a unit that gets bipap dependent or vented patients, surely you have some inspiration to quit? I'm not judging, as a former smoker myself, and I know how hard it is to stop. I just don't understand.

I work cardiothoracic surgery. We see exactly how lung lobes or full lungs get removed from the thoracic cavity when biopsies come back positive for cancer. Hasn't been a deterrent for a few coworkers who still smoke, which I sure as heck don't understand.

Hospitals are being fined millions because multiple patients were admitted for what Medicare feels should have been outpatient procedures. I'm annoyed by this. Perhaps they didn't require admission. Or, perhaps they were high risk for complications. I really don't know and wouldn't fault a legitimately applied fine. The problem is these massive sweeping fines make our MDs hesitate when they shouldn't.

People were worried about "death panels" when the ACA was introduced. They fail to realize that we indeed have health care rationing in the US. It's just done by what the insurance companies and government programs dictate can and can't be done.

I've (re)learned that I hate it when I have to be in charge because I'm the only one working who fills in. The black cloud made its presence known this past week with emergencies and backordered supplies.

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Specializes in ORTHO, PCU, ED.

Hey I made it in the top 10 threads! Haha! I feel like I'm with the "big" girls now!

Ive learned

-There's really not a lot of people in this world you can REALLY trust. I only have a handful in my life that I can say that about.

-chic-fil-a has the most fantastic milk shakes. I'm sipping one right now *slurp*

-my maternity leave is over almost and I have mixed feelings, well more like torn up feelings leaving baby for a whole 14 hrs since I drive so far

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Hi everyone!

I learned that I feel like a creeper reading this thread, laughing, and not posting.

I learned that sometimes death is a blessing.

Sometimes what feels like the worst decision you've ever made (moving to a new state for a job in a specialty you wanted to do since before nursing school) can actually lead to a wonderful place (a specialty I never thought I wanted with coworkers that actually make me feel supported).

I feel like I'm starting to get my feet underneath me in my current job, and I am enjoying the challenge. This one might actually stick!

Night shift is terrible, but day shift is worse.

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