how did they pass theyre boards??

Nurses General Nursing

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im just wonderin how some of these nurses passed theyre boards. i am a stna and i was workin an this guy couldnt breathe he was really nervus and his 02 stat was 92 so i told the nurse he need a breathing treatment. she just looked at me lik i was crazy and kept doin whatever she was doin at the nurse station. so i put it on him and he said thank you thank you and he was better, but the nurse got mad at me!!! she should be the on mad at herself for not caring about her pateints and just sitting at the station when her patience are sick. im glad when i become a nurse i wont be like her :D

the machine is on the bed sid table and the little tubes of medicne are in the drawers of the table

Sounds like a poorly run LTC/rehab place. Medicine should be in the cart, not in a drawer (unless an order was written stating that it could be).

Second, if the patient is able to "say" he cannot breath, then that means he can (you cannot talk if you cannot breath). If he has COPD, he probably always feels he cannot breath (not a good thing, but the truth). Raising the HOB would have been a better thing to do next time. Also, telling the nurse what he needs is not good. Just keep reporting that the patient needs to be looked at is better. No matter what, you need to just let the nurse be responsible for the patient's meds and oxygen. More oxygen is not the answer. Nurses get fired for giving oxygen. Turning up oxygen can kill a person.

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no because it was the evning and the don already left and we only have 1 charge nurse from 3-11 so she was the only nurse in the whole place.

First, you tell the nurse the patient says he can't breathe. Okay, you did that. So now go back and see how the patient is. Check their vital signs if you've been trained to do that. If the patient isn't improving go back to the nurse and tell her as much as you can about his condition. Say "I'm really worried about so and so, he's still saying he can't breathe and he's getting very anxious. I checked his vitals and this is what I got. Can you please come with me now and have a look at him?"

If the nurse says she can't get there right now, keep checking on the patient and reporting back to the nurse. Ask if there's anything you can do while you're waiting. Keep him or her updated on the patient's condition. Don't treat the nurse as the enemy, she's not, work with her to get the patient's condition addressed.

If you truly think the patient is having a life threatening emergency and the nurse is ignoring you (or dealing with a life threatening emergency with another patient) and there is no other nurse anywhere in the facility to help you, my advice would be to ring the ambulance then go back to the patient and stay with him until the ambulance arrives. Be prepared to explain why you called and make sure you have your facts right. Like others have said, a patient who gets short of breath at times and may need a breathing treatment is almost certainly not having a life threatening emergency.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Nsg QA.

I'm thinking the OP is just trying to incite others over her comments. You can't take the OP seriously when they can't spell, or use proper English. I dare say he/she is not very well educated.

Can someone please CLOSE this thread???

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Psych, Tele, ICU.
ok i see how you are comfortable with letting other make decisions but that is not the type of person i am. not that there is anything wrong with that. but if i see my patience like that amd someone fails to make a desicion i will. and i doubt anyone will try to revoke my liscense because of the good samaritan laws.

You just don't get it. Good Samaritan Law will not cover you in the hospital. You CANNOT take it upon yourself to crank someone's O2 up as high as you choose-you can knock out the hypoxic drive and he will have more trouble breathing. Without properly knowing the how's and the why's of this particular patients case, you were grossly out of line by what you did. A breathing treatment is also a medication, and as a CNA you are not allowed to administer those either. With your overwhelming sense of entitlement, I can see your nursing career will be a short one. Will you insert a central line, if the patient's peripheral sites are shot to hell, or will you wait for the MD to take care of that??

If i was that patient's nurse, would have reported you to the nurse manager, and the DON. By all means, be an advocate for your patient but remember your scope.

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Specializes in PICU now, Peds and med-surg in the past.

Please don't mess with oxygen! If this man had a history of COPD turning the oxygen all the way up could put him in a life threatening state. In nursing school you will learn that oxygen is a medication and you must be extremely careful with when and how you administer it.

finally another cna lol! well he is really nervus all the time and he was already on oxygen and i turned it all th way up and he STILL couldnt breath. but 92 is not his normal so i was worried and the look on his face made me scared and i bet it woulda gona down if i hadnt done the breathing treatment.
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Specializes in Gerontology.

the machine is on the bed sid table and the little tubes of medicne are in the drawers of the table

The little tubes of medicine?? What did you give? Do you even know the name? Did you administer it properly? Some meds need N/S added, some don't. When did the pt last receive treatment? What are the side-effects of the medicine you gave? If you can't answer these questions, you have no business giving the treatment.

It sounds to me like your pt was more anxious than anything and just needed to be reminded to take a few deep breaths and calm down a bit. It sounds like you just fed into his anxiety by giving him his "treatment".

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Yes closing this thread is a good idea.

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Specializes in PICU now, Peds and med-surg in the past.

Lets fast forward to when/if you become a nurse - you have a little old lady with signs/symptoms of CHF, doc is notified and wants no changes to therapy. You decide a little Lasix wouldn't hurt and go ahead and give some Lasix. Patient experiences an allergic reaction to the med that you gave without a license to practice medicine. You WILL lose your license, no Good Samaritan law protects someone PRACTICING OUTSIDE THEIR SCOPE.

ok i see how you are comfortable with letting other make decisions but that is not the type of person i am. not that there is anything wrong with that. but if i see my patience like that amd someone fails to make a desicion i will. and i doubt anyone will try to revoke my liscense because of the good samaritan laws.
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Specializes in LTC.

If the patient can yell the patient can breathe.

What were his respirations? What did his breathing sound like? What did his lungs sound like?

As a CNA when someone is having trouble breathing here are the things you can do:

1. Put the head of the bed up

2. Calm the patient down

3. Talk patient through deep breathing exercises

Things you can't do:

1. Touch a medication of any kind, this includes O2. If you don't know how the med works and what it is treating you should not be giving it.

2. Call 911 unless the patient is blue, full code, and the nurse is refusing to look at them.

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Specializes in Med Office, Home Health, School Nurse.

I think I'm still in utter shock that the OP doesn't realize what's wrong with this scenario! That's absolutely insane....

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I agree with those questioning that this situation ever happened.

What scares me more than the bogus scenario described is the state of our education system. This is way beyond a spelling problem...

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ok so what it didnt hapen but it is a real sitation that nurses dont pay atention to theyre stnas.

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