linda535

linda535 has 32 years experience.

Latest Activity

1. Verbal Hand-off Reports - Are they no longer necessary?

   linda535 replied to yr.pedsnurse's topic in General Nursing

   That sounds like a "dump". What if every available nurse is already busy with other patients? Does the receptionist or HUC take the patient? Those issues aside, there is nothing to substitute for TALKING to a person. We have tried this and things get...

2. I don't want to clean poop

   linda535 replied to missmollie's topic in General Nursing

   Sounds like she has a lot of opinions and preconceived notions regarding psych as well as nursing. She will have to find out for herself that there's poop and then there's POOP. I'd much rather take the brown stinky stuff than the unreasoning fears a...

3. Our units acuity is at an all time high.

   linda535 replied to TheNGTKingRN's topic in General Nursing

   Not just in hospitals. High and increasing acuity, no "summer slump" and no staffing increases. (But thank God, no drops in staff!) "Flu season" all year round now. I think the higher acuity is partly related to insurance. Pay-for-insurance people w...

4. What it means to be in an "outbreak"

   linda535 replied to Aeterna's topic in Safety

   In our facility, we've been working hard toward not spreading anything that we can prevent spreading. We do a lot of hand sanitizer, hand washing, wiping down rooms between all patients, and have masks on us and all patients and family members with ...

5. The things I wonder...

   linda535 replied to AngelfireRN's topic in General Nursing

   Think of the microwave. Instant gratification, convenience, and no need to use any other appliances.

6. I think I just ended someone's career

   linda535 replied to Asystole RN's topic in General Nursing

   I got to the end of this story and my gut reaction was "WHAT?? What about those idiot staff members who "made it a game to shoot staples at her face...". If this is the way they treat a fellow staffer, HOW DO THEY TREAT IMPAIRED PATIENTS? At the ve...

7. The Great Emergency Prank War

   linda535 replied to murphyle's topic in Humor

   I don't know about your facilities, but as much fun as this sounds like, my management would have a cow, little kittens, and/or a $%#&-fit if we indulged in any of these things. If anything like this was witnessed by management and patient and/o...

8. Not Convinced Nursing is an Autonomous Profession

   linda535 replied to Inspired By Silence's topic in General Nursing

   When you have the first threat, or God forbid, the first actual lawsuit involving you or a patient you were helping (!), you will be glad there was a person (MD) who is the RESPONSIBLE one. Although now, I'm sure the lawyer who posted the first repl...

9. Did I Miss Something?

   linda535 replied to AngelfireRN's topic in General Nursing

   Our kids came along late and very close together. I was at home on my "day off" recovering from 4 long OR days and an equally long on-call night. Both my toddlers were cranky, and vomiting, along with explosive diarrhea and dear MIL called to ask, ...

10. Where is money wasted in healthcare?

    linda535 replied to country mom's topic in General Nursing

    My company also recently went "LEAN", a la Toyota, with all the Japanese catchwords, philosophies and especially hired profe$$ional facilitators. This led to multiple "events" which were week-long (and sometimes longer) committee meetings (catered l...

11. Emergency Room Minor Care

    linda535 replied to ALH2004's topic in Emergency

    As a nurse for 27 years, the last 14 working in Urgent Care, I'd strongly recommend working in this area if you want to get lots of experience. If you are looking for an "easy" job, forget it. Urgent Care gets everything from the "warts for 10 year...

12. Should spelling count?

    linda535 replied to betc's topic in General Nursing

    Truely, mispelt words and tyopos can change the curse of a pts visit. (sic) At our facility, a multi-specialty clinic, our EMR has a spell-check built in and we are REQUIRED to use it. My feelings - if a professional (RN, LPN, CMA) is documenting me...

13. When patients lie about rides.....

    linda535 replied to TazziRN's topic in Emergency

    My favorite urgent care story was a pt medicated with Demerol and Phenergan and supposedly waiting for a ride in the lobby. Reception called us to tell us we must have "cured him" because he was seen sprinting across the parking lot to his car and d...

14. RN as Inpatient, horrible and looong rant

    linda535 replied to Haunted's topic in General Nursing

    Hi Laurie, I hope you can get over this quickly and without any more complications. I totally agree that you need to write letters - to the hospital administrator, to your doc and if possible, HIS boss. Go to the top whenever possible. Also, I kno...

15. Continuing Education Units

    linda535 replied to taochien's topic in General Nursing

    Try this site: http://www.pesihealthcare.com/ I've been to many of their seminars and they're almost always exceptional and as advertised. Good luck.