Post-Its from the edge

Nurses General Nursing

Published

We're always putting little post-it notes for the docs or other nurses on the chart. Sometimes it'll be to clarify a nonessential med, or to suggest a lab, medication, or consult.

Sometimes I want to write a little different kind of a Post-It note. Like one to the family of one of the patients from a few weeks ago:

"Dear Family,

Despite what some doctors have led you to believe, your loved one is not going to live forever. Please make him/her a DNR so that we all can stop the craziness. Your loved one is miserable--and terminal--and we're only making it worse."

OR:

"Dear Dr. K,

I have noticed that your H&P refers to Mrs. X as a bilateral BKA. However, my assessment found her to have both legs and pedal pulses of +2/+2. Please advise."

Note to Administration:

I will be expecting a substantial pay increase for doing my part to raise hospital revenue. Since your recent budget cuts do not allow for PRN staff and the hiring freeze that is in effect, I have been forced to work while deathly ill. I have managed to infect every staff member and visitor I have come into contact with. The current patients were excluded from said bioterrorism attack, so don't be concerned about losing money from increased length of stay. Hospital admissions have sky-rocketed, thanks to me. I hope that the cost of using agency nurses to care for all of us hospitalized staff members along with the rest of the patients doesn't eat up too much of your precious profits. Please hand deliver my check to me in room 1313 by noon today because I have to make a 25% down payment on the lung transplant that I must have due to the severity of my untreated lung infection. Our crappy, so-called "insurance" has an exclusion for this particular treatment.

Thank you

P.S. This is not actually a Post-it note as they are not allowed for in the budget. This is just a plain piece of scrap paper stuck to your desk with my infectious green snot.

LMAO :lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :roll :roll :roll :rotfl: :yelclap:

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Dear Nurse Manager...

Just because I have been here for almost ten years and quite honestly plan to be here forever, does NOT mean that you can screw me over on the schedule. I understand that the nurse you just hired "needs" every Thursday and Friday off for her AA meetings and that she "has" to work three shifts in a row because she lives two hours away and stays in the sleeping rooms so she doesn't have to drive, but what about me and my family? All of a sudden I have to work every weekend to accomodate her? All of a sudden I am not able to go to my Thursday night Bible class because she can't go to AA any other night? So, her recovery is the #1 priority no matter who is cheats out of something? I would probably agree to give up my Bible class if we could alternate weekends or something, but since she is a single mom and her parents can only watch her children during hte week, she gets every weekend off. Was this not something that was discussed before she was hired? When I was hired I was told that EVERYONE works every other weekend (unless they work it out with the person the work opposite so they don't have to or so they work every weekend) and that no one is guaranteeed that they will have a certain day off every single week...we try to accomodate things like Bible classes, bowling leagues, PTA, etc, but sometimes you just have to miss.

Sorry to drone on and on and on...

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Dear Nurse Manager...

Just because I have been here for almost ten years and quite honestly plan to be here forever, does NOT mean that you can screw me over on the schedule. I understand that the nurse you just hired "needs" every Thursday and Friday off for her AA meetings and that she "has" to work three shifts in a row because she lives two hours away and stays in the sleeping rooms so she doesn't have to drive, but what about me and my family? All of a sudden I have to work every weekend to accomodate her? All of a sudden I am not able to go to my Thursday night Bible class because she can't go to AA any other night? So, her recovery is the #1 priority no matter who is cheats out of something? I would probably agree to give up my Bible class if we could alternate weekends or something, but since she is a single mom and her parents can only watch her children during hte week, she gets every weekend off. Was this not something that was discussed before she was hired? When I was hired I was told that EVERYONE works every other weekend (unless they work it out with the person the work opposite so they don't have to or so they work every weekend) and that no one is guaranteeed that they will have a certain day off every single week...we try to accomodate things like Bible classes, bowling leagues, PTA, etc, but sometimes you just have to miss.

Sorry to drone on and on and on...

Well put!!! That irks me also :)! or how about the terminally sick employee who shows up to work sick and after getting report, decides an hour later that she HAS to go home and leaves the rest of us with the extra patient load. Can't you just call in sick? Weren't you sick when you woke up this morning? There i feel better now :). AMARTIN1

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Specializes in Utilization Management.
Originally Posted by Angie O'Plasty, RN

Dear previous shift nurse,

Please stop trying to give me (and our patient) heart failure. You can't need Code practice that badly.

KCL boluses MUST BE RUN ON A PUMP.

However, hospital policy is that PRBCs do NOT run on a pump.

Mmmmm-Kay?

Lovin' every minute of it,

~AngieO~

In our hospital, everything can be run on a pump, even IVPBs. And guess what? PRBCs do wonderful on a pump.

Oh, I'm aware of that, Becky. In one hospital I worked, the policy was to hang blood via a pump. However, in this hospital, we may not use a pump. It's hospital policy--probably because if we ran blood on pumps, there would not be enough pumps to go around. ;)

And also on the topic of Supplies....

Dear Central Supply,

Who the he(( is in charge of ordering supplies anyhow? Why do we have thousands of brand-new boxes of 1 cc syringes without needles to go with them and yet NO 3 cc flush syringes?

#%$*$@^@!!

Love,

Your nursing staff

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Hee hee hee. I really like this one!!! :rotfl: :rotfl:

Dear Administration -

It has come to my attention that you have no idea what goes on in your facility and are completely out of touch with what is feasible to expect from your staff. Please get a clue, leave your plush new renovated offices and speak a civil word to the people who keep your facility going 24/7 - 365.

PS - have lost "ask me if I've washed my hands" button again. Am willing to do without a replacement for the sake of the budget. Also am willing to volunteer to filter all ideas stemming from administrators with too much time on their hands. Free of charge, for the sake of the budget, of course.

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Ohhhh, I really like this one too! :rotfl:

Note to Administration:

I will be expecting a substantial pay increase for doing my part to raise hospital revenue. Since your recent budget cuts do not allow for PRN staff and the hiring freeze that is in effect, I have been forced to work while deathly ill. I have managed to infect every staff member and visitor I have come into contact with. The current patients were excluded from said bioterrorism attack, so don't be concerned about losing money from increased length of stay. Hospital admissions have sky-rocketed, thanks to me. I hope that the cost of using agency nurses to care for all of us hospitalized staff members along with the rest of the patients doesn't eat up too much of your precious profits. Please hand deliver my check to me in room 1313 by noon today because I have to make a 25% down payment on the lung transplant that I must have due to the severity of my untreated lung infection. Our crappy, so-called "insurance" has an exclusion for this particular treatment.

Thank you

P.S. This is not actually a Post-it note as they are not allowed for in the budget. This is just a plain piece of scrap paper stuck to your desk with my infectious green snot.

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Specializes in LDRP.
However, hospital policy is that PRBCs do NOT run on a pump

not on a pump? Why not? Our blood runs in thru a pump. the Y blood tubing, but a regular IV pump.

WHats the rationale behind that?

Thanks!

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Specializes in Utilization Management.
not on a pump? Why not? Our blood runs in thru a pump. the Y blood tubing, but a regular IV pump.

WHats the rationale behind that?

Thanks!

For me, there's no rationale involved except that it's hospital policy. I only can assume that the rationale might have something to do with the fact that if the IV extravasates, it can make quite a big messy-looking hematoma. If the blood is not run on a pump, the IV simply stops if there's a problem.

I know most of the time the pump would beep, but I've seen cases where the pump just continues to run and pushes stuff into the tissues.

So I'm guessing that's why we don't use them.

However, it's more likely a lack of pumps. We have a list of things we're not to run on pumps--most IVFs, most of the antibiotics, protonix, things like that. We have little add-on things we can use to regulate the flow of fluids if we're not using a pump, but they don't work so well with PRBCs so we just use the roller clamp to adjust the drip rate.

Remember, I'm in Florida, and we're dealing mostly with a fragile elderly population.

Hope that answered your question, but if it didn't, I really couldn't offer more information on the subject. You might start a thread about it if you want more answers, though. I'm sure there's someone out there who can answer it more effectively than I.

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you don't run prbc's on a pump?

I am from the old school where it was run by gravity. I think that it is because those old pumps were not made to run them.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Geriatric, Behavioral Health.

Actual post-it note attached to the nursing desk from a Nurse Manager (at a previous hospital I worked at):

Providing pens or pencils for staff is no longer in the budget. Please bring your own or you will do without.

I almost fell off my chair when I read it...way back then.

True story.

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Actual post-it note attached to the nursing desk from a Nurse Manager (at a previous hospital I worked at):

I almost fell off my chair when I read it...way back then.

True story.

You know what? In the thirteen years I've been in nursing, I've always had to supply my own pens, they've never been supplied.

I think I'd keel over from shock over if suddenly pens were supplied.

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Dear charge nurse,

I'd appreciate it if you would not pull a recliner up to the nurses station and prop your feet up with a pillow and a blanket all night long. Its extremely unprofessional. Just because you are not required to take a patient doesn't excuse you from working. How about asking your coworkers if they need any help, because I'm drowning over here. Thanks for nothing.

-Me

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