maggie0

Has anyone actually paid her for this service? Because who would? I can't see crowds of people clamoring to hear what she has to say.

Please don't come to work sick! You had a bad stretch but hopefully this is over now. Feel better!

Yeah, this is an extreme over-reaction on the hospital's part, and if you read these boards often enough you'll see that it's a red flag and not an innocent misunderstanding of the situation, or even standard procedure for them. They're either targeting you and have been waiting for a slip up or have decided to make an example of you. If you like the position, wait for everything to blow over—which it could—or strategize your exit with a lawyer.

A lot of this is what some colleagues call "safety theater.” It does keep staff on our toes, but I think it also sets up challenges for the patients: You think I'm going kill myself with a hair tie? Watch me do it with my underwear! My unit allows hair ties, shampoo, bras, etc, though we keep them locked up when they're not being used. It's a pretty good compromise ??‍♀️

I didn't think she should have been criminally charged, and I believe the hospital is to blame for a system that allowed the errors to happen, but her mistakes were so egregious and downright stupid I don't think nursing is the right field for her. I'd vote no.

I don't know the specifics about that hospital, but I think it's typical to have to take a physical agility test. Mine involved bending over, squatting, walking, etc. Nothing too difficult! I think they just want to make sure you're ready for the job, not bootcamp! ?

I'm going to see how it goes. I went into nursing after a nasty divorce in my 40s. Due to my late start, I'm going to have to work as long as possible; luckily, I love my work. Hope I stay physically up to it!

The doctor should tell you how to deal with these patients. It's not really our role to decide if they're malingering or not. That said, I just make sure I don't give them more attention than the other patients. The other patients shouldn't be neglected because someone else is faking a seizure every single shift. (Also, interestingly, just because a seizure isn't epileptic doesn't mean it's fake: psychogenic seizures are real seizures caused by psychological issues. So, it can be super hard to tell what's "real" or not.)

I was bullied a lot up through high school. However, it would not be possible to bully me now, for some reason. No one dares to mess with me ! ? Wish I could go back in time and teach my younger self how to deal with people better.

Pointing out the difference is not necessarily bullying, but excluding someone because of it, publicly mocking and humiliating them for it, and doing this repeatedly is.

Personally, I love psych. Working long-term care I'd probably run for the hills--I get floated to other floors and don't know how those nurses do it. I love our patients and my coworkers, love the stories and the dark humor, love the chance to spend lots of time with patients, really appreciate never having to place a Foley, etc. This is to say, YES: it's so much about finding your niche.

It's okay to fail a skill or two or three. I failed my very first skills--BP and Foley. Like you, I was nervous and sweating and basically psyched myself out, dropping stuff etc. Disaster! But I repeated it, did fine, fast-forward 3 years and now I have my dream job and l love it. Skills tests are faint memories! You'll be a great nurse--because you want to do the best you can do. Put it behind you!

Thanks for this reminder. I've finally gained the confidence to handle this kind of situation on my own floor, but when I'm floated to a new specialty floor I suddenly feel like an inept student again--but you're right, I'm not.

We allow bras because of basic dignity, but will usually hold underwire bras unless the patient has nothing else. Kind of nurse discretion.

At my facility, we normally have 3-4 nurses for up to 20 patients, and 2 or 3 (on a lucky day!) techs. This is during the day/eve. One nurse is the med nurse and doesn't usually take patients. At night it drops to 1 or 2 nurses and one tech. But there's also a nurse and a tech from the pediatric unit who can come running if there's something going down. Ours is a pretty nice place to be honest.

Oh they are definitely trying to hoodwink you into doing evenings!! Don't fall for it.

I pulled meds for another nurse when she was extremely pressed for time, but I didn't feel good about it and probably won't do it again, if I can help it. On the other hand, when I'm floated I don't have access to the other floor's med room, so I've had to administer meds someone else pulled--sometimes already drawn into a syringe. Yikes! Do not like. But I'm a relatively new nurse and don't have a lot of "no" power...

It's much safer to have two nurses in this situation--one on each side. On our unit we give Benadryl in one arm simultaneously with Haldol and Ativan in the other. I know lots of other places mix all three and as long as it's given quickly it's probably just fine. But having two nurses there is good for a lot of reason, including safety, liability, etc. Is your unit so understaffed that you can't spare an extra nurse for the two minutes it takes to give an IM? That would concern me. I'd hate to be the only nurse responsible for something going haywire.

As a psych nurse and the mother of a transgender child, my take is: if you say you're trans, whatever your reasoning, you are trans. No one else can decide that for you. Also, you may change your mind later, and that's okay. The only precaution I would take is not doing anything irreversible (surgical) before the age of 21. Sliding between genders, or abandoning gender altogether, is socially acceptable with young people today, and that's a good thing. For many of us, trans or not, gender roles have been confining, even imprisoning and damaging. I see some victims of sexual abuse decide they are transgender, and I do wonder if they are just trying to avoid being assaulted--but the problem is not the kid here. The problem is that this society lets so many kids be sexually abused. Let's worry about that, and let kids present however they want.

I agree with the above. Eating disorders are long-term, complex issues that need specialty care. I like to focus on basic body-positivity, health, and self-esteem with adolescents, and we definitely avoid showing kids their weights or talking about calories. (If your coworkers are showing adolescent patients their weights, I might bring that up with management. Not okay.)

I use therapistaid.com all the time! Some really good stuff, and time saving.

At my place of work, the population is about 50% voluntary, 50% inv. I think it's good to have that mix: each half kind of brings the other half down to reality, if that makes sense. The state hospital to which we refer patients is 100% involuntary--of course, I guess, because it's not exactly a happy place.

Most of the time, unattended births go just fine. But is it really worth the risk of having one that doesn't? Before modern health care, a huge percentage of mothers and babies died in childbirth. It was a horrible time of dead women and babies filling cemeteries. There's no benefit in going back.

Social anxiety is treatable--if not curable, pretty close to curable. I speak as someone who had it bad most of my life. After therapy, meds, and practice, it's not an issue anymore. I don't know whether you should stay in nursing or not, but I encourage you to keep working on your anxiety. It's not a fixed, unchangeable thing.

It's typical for nurses to get floated around where I work, and for sure we sometimes do aide-level stuff like sitting with patients and doing their laundry. Lately, a lot of us have been recruited as screeners and covid testers. Personally, I enjoy moving around the hospital and doing different, easy stuff occasionally. However, if a facility is paying RN wages for this kind of work on the regular, they have issues with staffing and organization. I'd keep one eye on the door and update my resume, just in case.