Sue D

I know exactly what you mean. I'm really getting to hate nursing...I get nothing but abuse and hassle from relatives, put up with an awful lot of booze-inflicted injuries and and am more than fed up with it all. Let someone else put up with it for th...

Working in Plastics I have seen this many times. Mostly we remove accessory nipples because of the increased cancer risk. Uncommonly we see it in men also. A recent patient had SIX accessory nipples extending down the body.

Lord!! in Plastics we are like plumbers...we remove drains all the time especialy with the flap reconstructions.

I work in reconstructive surgery...we NEVER say "good result"

In the UK nurses with certain qualifications are now able to prescribe drugs from a limited list. Do you think this adds to our status ? or is it a patronising admission that experienced nurses often know better than junior doctors?

Thanks for that! As a ward nurse I oten feel frustrated that as a non nurse-pracitioner I can't prescribe meds that I know my patients need. I work on a surgical ward and very often need anti-emetics written up STAT. As things stand I often wait hour...

The Internet is terrifyingly addictive! I find myself glued to it even when I have an early shift.

I was very interested to read this. In the UK HCA's (the LPN equivalent) are not permitted to administer any drug in any form. Sorry if I am being ignorant here but is an LPN more like our old Enrolled Nurse than a Health Care Assistant?

It's a very difficult issue. I work on a reconstructive/plastic surgery unit and we recently had a patient admitted for a bilateral breast augmentation. She insisted that her husband should not be told about the nature of her operation and had, in fa...

How awful for you. I was once involved in a similar error when our in-house haematology lab got two patients with the same name confused. Like you we acted in good faith, beleiving that we were acting in the patient's best interests. Don't feel bad, ...

I assume that CNA is equivalent to Health Care Assistant. There has recently been quite a row in the UK about our largest healthcare union (UNISON) issuing HCA's with badges that read "NURSE" in large type. In addition to this HCA's have also recentl...

All these tales are just more examples of the sad fact that nurses are often their own worst enemies. Clashes between old and young, degree or non-degree and all the rest of it just divide the profession, especially in the UK. I think that American n...

There are quite a few oncology sub-specialities. I work in plastics which seems irrelevant but we do a lot of reconstructive work following mutilating oncology surgery. These are very rewarding patients to work with and getting a good result is great...

I'm English. Who the hell is Jay Leno?

Under the UK healthcare system we had no choice but to treat this patient. We also had no choice about tolerating the abuse. All patients deserve the best care we can provide IV drug abuser or not. My point was that my employers, the NHS Trust should...

Thank you for answering. It just goes to show that a rose by any other name.........

Perhaps all you US nurses can help me? Despite being familiar with the terms intern, attending and resident from such shows as ER I have no idea what the exact UK equivalents are. For the record here is the UK grading system Consultant: THe only diff...

One of the recent admissions to my ward was a known IV drug abuser. Although he had a heavily exuding wound and was known to be both HIV+ and hepatitis B+ he refused to stay in his side room and inisted on walking around the open ward, often after pu...

Here's a good story from my student days. My friend and I were working on an oncology ward. This was our very first placement on the nursing course and it was tough. We were averaging three deaths a week. My friend, Maria, was assigned to care for a ...

I'm very surprised that caps are still worn in the US. NHS hospitals in the UK stopped using them in the middle 1980's. Part of the rationale for this was infection control but it was also thought to be outdated, a link to the past where nurses were ...

I work on a plastic surgery ward where we do large numbers of BBR's. Whilst this op does seem to benefit the vast majority of patients I have to say that post-op complications are fairly common especially where free nipple grafts are involved- insist...

Standard staffing levels on my NHS acute surgical ward are never higher than 1-10. This is about the normal level for every ward in the hospital. Extra staff are just not available due to the general shortage of nurses in the UK. Thank heavens for HC...