Just a rant

Published

One of the nurses held Lantus for a blood glucose of 93 :eek: By dinner the residents acucheck was pushing 600!

I had to stop a nurse from giving an IM injection in a sub-Q site.

Then when reporting on a hospice residents who will not keep their oxygen on (confused) and had O2 sats in the 60's the nurse interrupts me and says "well the resident has stage IV lung cancer....they are going to be de-sating". I, as sweetly as I could muster, smiled and told this nurse I had this resident on one-one care (residents family came for a bit, and we had an extra CNA) and when the resident did keep their oxygen on sats were in the low 90's, and that just because this resident was on hospice I didn't intend to let them suffocate because they were to confused to keep their oxygen on. I contacted the physician and we tweaked the meds and the resident has been doing fine since.

This same nurse one time wondered out loud why in the world a hospice resident was receiving antibiotics for a UTI.

This was all a few days ago but I have still been ruminating on this.......

That was just a really long day:yawn:

Thanks for letting me get that all off my chest.

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Sounds like you are supervisor/charge/head nurse? In our world, sometimes everyone can only see it from their point of view and some are completely unable to see the "big picture". Find out which ones are just green, or behind in their skills and willing to listen, and educate them. Explain to them (sweetly lol) and maybe they will understand and you will end up with a better floor nurse in the future. Maybe they just dont understand (even though they should)

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Seriously?? Just because someone is "hospice" doesn't mean EVERYTHING stops being treated or NO medications are given! That nurse obviously doesn't understand what HOSPICE is or does!!! Wow... scary. Thank goodness you were there as well, who knows what else that resident would have to go through if she was the main/only caregiver! Good Lord, that is still a person lying in that bed in pain/discomfort that deserves to be treated like a human being!

and the Lantus issue... sounds like someone didn't memorize their insulin chart lol

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ARRRRRGH Same nurse as mentioned above today refused to give a man with a fever Tylenol because "he is dying....people get fevers when they are dying and he is on hospice"

What do I do with this woman?!?!

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I think that you need to explain to her the difference between stopping cancer treatment and stopping basic care and comfort measures.

Maybe she needs to learn the concept of palliation and support and get some shades of gray between the black and the white extremes.

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Wow. A reminder that "Do not resuscitate" is not the same thing as "Do not treat" seems to be in order. Sit her down and calmly educated her on what hospice care is.

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