midnightmadness

Not to sound nasty but if it's self harm it usually isn't for suicidal reasons. I had to do a report on it a few years ago and the stat at the time was like 1 in 6 or something along that lines. They use it as an outlet "letting the hurt out" or letting the stress out. they usually don't flaunt it and many parents don't know it is even occurring until years down the road, one of my friend's parents didn't realize she was doing it until she had to rush her to the ER. Females in their teens are more likely to do it but it isn't just a teen thing, one research I found had kids as early as 5-6 and people over 60. the most common demographic is middle class. It is not just found in the U.S. as many citations I used were from all over the world. I have sat with several patients with that need to self harm for long periods of time just listening to them tell me about why they felt like they couldn't talk about it, mainly because of judgement. Ultimately it is our jobs as nurses NOT to judge, we don't know the situation that made them self harm. We are to be supportive and lend an ear to them, providing unjudgemental guidance WHEN they ask for it, not pushing out opinions on them.

I worked for 5 months at the same hospital my mom did and I was never allowed to work on the same unit that she worked on. Not that that bothered me much...oh you need someone floated to 1 East sorry mom's working so I can't :)

At one of my former jobs we had a day nurse that would apply this anti stress mix of lime, vanilla, lavender, cederwood and ocotea, sometimes every 15 minutes (she would apply it three times during a half hour report) and my STNAs and I were getting sick from it. She complained about the smell of smoke at a smoking facility but her young living essential oils were probably worst. I would bleach down my cart and desk three times after she left before the smell would lighten any. Staff complained but unfortunately she didn't take us seriously "it's all natural" and management wouldn't do anything about it since she wasn't actually putting it on the residents.

I just started working with my mother, a night nurse also, at a small nursing home about a month ago. To be honest I love it because I feel like I can bounce questions off of her (and her I to a point) easier then before. At this facility a lot of staff are family members or members of the same church so it's nothing abnormal. I have found I have 2 types of coworkers on how they deal with us working together. The first, making up the majority, are cool with it, maybe ask a question or two about us working together, asks me when I work with her next, but nothing big. The other type seems to think she is either my keeper or acts like I am a kid and runs to her about anything concerning me ignoring the fact I have been a nurse for almost 10 years and have lived on my own for 7. I get questions about picking up or switching, all passed along through her from other coworkers, sometimes expecting an answer when they ask her before she even passes it along to me. One particular nurse ran to her to complain about me because I did extra documentation on residents, not even doing anything wrong. I am hopeful that it will lighten up soon.

Poor kid, hope he's alright. Its not a new nurse thing its a nurse thing in general, Every where I have worked it is a common trend with them, even dated a paramedic (friend of the family and not my finest moment) a nice enough guy until our chosen professions came into topic. He told me, in more inappropriate terms, a nurse was only good in a "sterile environment" and couldn't handle a real emergency if it "bit us in the ass" I have had them tell me before to "Call the doctor and cancel the order" and throw a fit in front of my residents when I said no. On the other hand myself and coworkers have been pounding on residents chests during codes and they stand back and watch getting mad when we invite them to take over. I have had to call them for assistance and ended up filing complaints with the city over how they talked to my residents. I even reminded them that my residents are just a call number to them, I know a hell of a lot more about them then they do. I made it a habit now of requesting a squad number for "Documentation purposes" and also asked where they got their doctor degree from (Never in front of residents I promise).

I used to have residents call me a "little play nurse" it would tick me off to no end and the RNs would encourage it and prompt him to say it. I had an RN talk crap about LPNs and i reminded her that i taught HER to insert a foley and an LPN earned the right to have the words Practical Nurse and we learned it all in half the time it took her. On the other hand i had this doctor at the hospital, where I worked at as my first job, that yelled at me for saying i was "just" an LPN and told me to never let others cheapen what i worked hard to get.

Not my proudest thing to admit but In middle school it took 4 burley female nurses to give me my required school shots. One put me in her lap and held me down one held my arm one braced my other arm while the fourth did the injection. I remember calling them everything a 11 year old could think of including insulting their career choice. In nursing school it took me almost an entire lab to do the inject a pillow before i could handle the needle without shaking. Since then i stand by my opinion tis better to give than receive.