NurseBlaq

There are a few things I like. We can now post a pic without going around the world to do it. We can post comments with the edit feature included in the box instead of going to another page for the extra functions. Love the new upvote system which allows you to choose different options. And I agree with MMA310, it's easier to find the new posts quicker.

Entering the break room 10 hrs into a 12 hr shift......

"If she rings the call bell one more time...."

"Another new admission?"

Nope. I love nursing. The only thing that makes it hard is the bridging over of administrators into supervisory positions and all they're worried about is money and filling beds, never staff satisfaction or, more importantly, patients actually receiving the best nursing care possible. It's all about money and not patient care. That's why we see frequent fliers and poor patient outcomes. Quality of care is better than quantity of dollars but upper admin doesn't care.

In our case, we split the patients and passed meds and took turns doing PRN requests. We were not going to take report but the patients didn't get neglected. It was the point of liability. There was an able bodied charge nurse hiding in the office doing nothing. That shouldn't happen at any facility, especially when it's critical staffing levels on a specialized unit. I made the decision long time ago no facility would burn me out, cause me to have a meltdown, or create an environment where my license was at risk. Not worth it. That facility also has more travel nurses than staff nurses but they refuse to fix their upper management. Too much nepotism and not enough qualified staff. It's still just as bad and this was years ago!

I don't see how this one can be explained in her favor. I have had supervisors get upset with me because I told them I wouldn't accept more patients because it was unsafe and I wouldn't be able to provide safe care. One threatened to fire me and I told her to be sure she gave me enough copies to send to my attorney and the board of nursing. They're threatening people with firing and loss of licensure. Those who don't know their rights will submit to the threats. KNOW YOUR RIGHTS! Having said that, this nurse should have, at minimum, contacted pharmacy to verify or ask about the med. I contact pharmacies all the time to inquire about meds I can't find information on, or I contact the doctor to ask "Why are you doing this *med or procedure*? Please explain it to me because I'm unfamiliar with this and would like to learn more." They're either surprised or glad that I took the initiative to learn more.

Knowing this as a nurse also helps when our loved ones are hospitalized. My grandfather was in the ICU and had ICU psychosis and was also sundowning. He was beating the staff pretty bad and they had to restrain him. He hated hospitals cause all of his siblings died in hospitals and he was the last one left so he associated hospitals with death. I called from out of state and spoke to his nurse one night. She told me things he was saying. I told her he behaved that way cause he didn't know them. I then told her to call him by his nickname and order him to do things, cause he moved when my granny said so LOL. For example, when he would jump out of bed talking trash about leaving and ready to fight, I told her to call him by his nickname and tell him to "get in bed and go to sleep cause it was too late for that mess." They tried it and it worked. She called me back laughing and said he simply responded "OK" and got in bed and went to sleep. Even when he was transferred to another unit, they passed on the information and he never really had any issues with attacking the staff after that. However, before I passed on that information he was "the crazy mad who would beat you up so make sure you medicate him." He has since passed away but I understood the nurses dilemma and being attacked. I would have appreciated family members telling me tidbits of information to help me on those days I was beat up by patients.