dharlow

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1. Only Crusty Old Bats will remember..

   dharlow replied to Pepper The Cat's topic in General Nursing

   I was an Indian Health Service scholarship recipient way back when and I had to do my payback at an IHS hospital/clinic. This was in the mid-late-90s. I found stuff that had been expired from when I was in high school in the 80s! as stock meds. SMH S...

2. ER rushing patients to the floor

   dharlow replied to freckles23's topic in General Nursing

   NO Kidding! Bad enough that you rarely get a break let alone a full uninterrupted meal! Where is the house supervisor? I transported plenty of times when the ED, ICU and M/S were being slammed.

3. Horribly under staffed unit. What can be done?

   dharlow replied to bear94's topic in General Nursing

   I took over a M/S unit years back after being the house sup for the hospital. I was overloaded with LPNs (19) and 3.5 RNs for a 34-bed unit. I was a working manager. I started with surgeons yelling at me from my office do - fast forward 2 years late...

4. Yacker Tracker in the NICU ???

   dharlow replied to Bezoars's topic in General Nursing

   Yeah, I'm with you there. Or if the call lights are going off and it wasn't a particular nurse's patient it would get ignored even if it was just to get some fresh water. God forbid they answer it because the patient might need a (wait for it...) bed...

5. Is it legal..

   dharlow replied to L&DRN93's topic in General Nursing

   As a former Risk Manager, one of my first days in that role was shadowing my preceptor and she had a med error Incident Report she was following up on and the poor ED nurse had way overdosed a baby on Chloral Hydrate! No good!

6. Is it legal..

   dharlow replied to L&DRN93's topic in General Nursing

   So if they float you to peds - have they ever pulled you back to OB for any reason? I ask this because if you are being floated to peds and take care of sick kiddos and then they pull you to OB, I have a problem with that due to infection control.

7. ER rushing patients to the floor

   dharlow replied to freckles23's topic in General Nursing

   Agree. M/S was my bread and butter for a lot of years both as staff and manager but have worked ED as well so I can identify with you. I briefly returned to work M/S PRN while I was in grad school but after years of lifting on too heavy patients with...

8. ER rushing patients to the floor

   dharlow replied to freckles23's topic in General Nursing

   Sorry for your rough night. Been there many times as m/s/t floor nurse, charge nurse and manager. Early in my career I took report on a patient that was a hospice patient but family couldn't bear watching him pass at home. Told the ED nurse "okay, I...

9. Yacker Tracker in the NICU ???

   dharlow replied to Bezoars's topic in General Nursing

   True!

10. Quitting job during orientation?

    dharlow replied to angieRN528's topic in General Nursing

    Med/Surg isn't easy. Believe me, I know. Most of my career (20+) has been as a M/S nurse and I'm proud of that fact! I even managed M/S for several years. The one thing I tell newbies is go get your M/S experience because even if it is just a year or...

11. Has anyone taken Vickie Milazzo's Certified Legal Nurse Consultant Course?

    dharlow replied to ANNSY54's topic in Legal

    Worthless. Took the course with a friend because she wanted to do legal. I had already been a paralegal before becoming a RN but went for the heck of it. Complete waste of money IMO. ALL I studied was the end of chapter highlights and passed the test...

12. Only Crusty Old Bats will remember..

    dharlow replied to Pepper The Cat's topic in General Nursing

    Rigging your own version of a mist tent for a pedi patient using wire coat hangers and clear plastic (because you were RT at night and on holidays all day!) Setting up bili lights and using surgical masks to cover private parts. Being the only RN on...

13. When did you last see a nurse wearing the old school garb?

    dharlow replied to DesiDani's topic in General Nursing

    I was privileged to retire a nurse in 2005 who graduated from a diploma program in 1956. She still wore her cap and everyone loved and respected her. I managed to secretly get her spare cap and had a glass case made for it with a placquard with her n...

14. Are There Jobs for Inexperienced RNs Besides Floor Nursing?

    dharlow replied to jack1971's topic in New Nurse

    Dialysis is VERY busy! I worked at a Davita briefly and found it was not a good fit for me. I was up at 0300, drove 30 minutes to work, and from the time I entered the building I was setting up machines and accessing fistulas for the first round then...

15. Ugghhh, another new nurse...

    dharlow replied to Joe V's topic in Rock

    LOL, I hadn't been an RN for maybe 2 years and I had a male patient that when I went to insert a foley cath I couldn't maintain a grip on his penis - I went to one of the older nurses who had been nursing forEVER...she came in, pushed down on the pub...