MrsMRN

Oh my GOSH this is MY LIFE right now! I am entering my 7th year of nursing as of next month. I got married 5 years ago and within that time period I have had two boys 22 months apart (on purpose--thank you very much) I started out working in a hospital 12 hour shifts. i made it to 36 weeks and then called it quits for the remainder of my pregnancy. We had the baby, and my husband (who is a teacher) watched him on my weekends on and we had a nanny for the days I worked. It was a fabulous time. About when I got pregnant with our second baby a year later, I decided I wanted to work shorter hours during the day so I didnt miss any time with our son, and also because having a child and being pregnant again was much more exhausting than the first pregnancy because you have a child to take care of! So I switched to a .7 8 hour day shift position in the float pool. It was CAKE. And I was again able to take maternity leave 4 weeks prior to his birth. (side note, BE SURE to get short term disability insurance BEFORE you get pregnant, as they pay you a percentage of your paycheck for the first six weeks or so. Its really helpful when you arent working and want to stay on maternity leave for more than 12 weeks) Anyway, once our second was born, we continued with the nanny at our house, and my husband watched the kids on my weekends on. Then, a school nurse position came available in my husbands district and I jumped at the opportunity because then we could be on the same schedule. So for the last year I have been doing that and it for sure has made a difference. Having kids is hard no matter what! They require a lot of time and attention, and even though you are tired, you WANT to be there with them. It is so hard to explain--because yes, it seems daunting looking at it from an outsider's perspective but once the baby comes and you watch them grow and learn and love being tired becomes your new norm and it becomes easier. You just make it work. I have an amazingly supportive husband who shares all responsibilities with me equally too so that helps. Good luck on the baby making when you are ready! you will not regret it. P.S. I am 38 with an almost 2 year old and an almost 4 year old....and we are planning on having one more so it cant be that bad

Op. My two cents is that you are NOT in the wrong to feel the way you felt. Regardless of someone having a bad day, it is NOT ok to treat a co-worker that way. And yes, you were a co-worker on many levels. Generally nurses will get asked if they want students and/or they get paid more to have a student. On top of that , she should have felt blessed that she had an extra pair of hands, eyes, ears, etc following her around to help her out with the difficult patient. I have seen it many times, and experienced it myself as a nursing student. And guess what...I took on students once i was able to and I NEVER treated them like that. Disgusting and that nurse should be ashamed of herself and her lack of self control and professionalism. Yes it is ok to have a bad day, but its really crappy when THEIR bad day turns into everyone else's bad day too. Misery loves company

I have been a nurse for seven years, working in a large variety of different areas in hospitals, clinics and schools. I have never come across anyone who had disclosed they had an abortion. Nor would I treat them differently if they had. What I have encountered was very difficult for me. i was seven months pregnant with my first child and having to take care of a woman who was also seven months pregnant. She was a drug addict, on a med/surg unit for an abscess and they wanted me to give her narcotic pain meds as well as methadone literally every 4 hours. she was constantly hooked up to a fetal heart monitor and always ******** about wanting more meds. It felt like she never once thought about that baby. THAT was very difficult. But I had to trust that the docs knew what they were doing and what the baby and her could handle. The baby ended up being born early and was taken away from mom.

completely depressed after reading some of the countdowns.....86 for me. EIGHTY SIX?!?! whaaaaaaaaa!!!! But we still have spring break and memorial day weekend to look forward to!

It sounds to me like the ONLY reason that you are worried at this point is because of your transfer, correct? Otherwise it wouldn't necessarily be a "big deal". If it were me, I would do my best to show up to work and not miss a day through transfer, and then push through as long as I can without another call out. You want to get your transfer, and then make a good impression on your next supervisor. Sick is sick, and through what I call "sick season" of fall and winter, 5 call outs is nothing....as long as you are showing up on time, working hard, communicating with your supervisor, etc while you are at work. I dont believe anyone should come to work with a frequent cough, fever, body aches, etc. However if you are calling out because of a sore throat, runny nose, or any other minor symptom, then I would have a different opinion. Good luck with your transfer!!!

Yeah that did sound confusing. This was used for our very demanding IV drug users who were very much alert and oriented :)

I didnt read through everyone's posts so forgive me if this has already been said: I used to work on a geriatric alzheimers/IV drug user unit (i know, whaaa?) where a LOT of the patients were verbally abusive due to their diagnoses or background. What worked for us was a written care plan displayed in the room for all to see (if its not a private room, somewhere in the room where all STAFF could see). Whether the patient agreed or not, we would ask them to sign it. (very few would of course, but we made sure they understood that it didnt matter if they signed it or not) Every day at huddle we made sure EVERY STAFF MEMBER on the floor knew the plan. the patient would have ONE RN and ONE CNA assigned who were responsible for their needs. We made sure the patient knew that no one else would be responding to their needs. They were allowed one call light call per hour that would be responded to, and at any point they became aggressive (verbally or otherwise) of their behavior was outside of the expected behavior in the care plan, it was an immediate walk out (once the patient was deemed safe of course). We made it THEIR choice whether they received the care they wanted or not based on THEIR behavior. Medication administration was done quickly and efficiently and if the patient began their bad behavior or foul language, medications were withheld until the behavior stopped (as long as these were PRN and not life saving medications). Politeness and treating staff with the dignity and respect they were demanding was of upmost importance to reinforce. Of course, everyone needs to be on board with this plan or it falls apart quickly. Hope this helps!

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, can someone please explain to me why this conversation is being had on a NURSING SITE when this person is talking about going to a job in an apartment complex?!?!? I just feel like i wasted precious time trying to figure this out and I dont want to read through the zillion page post any longer!!!

yeah I wasn't a part of the decision. I was told "this is what we are doing"....kind of frustrating for sure.

OMG you guys! I just had the weirdest, most disturbing thing happen last week. I have been wanting to post it here but been so busy I am just now getting to it! I had a spanish speaking Kinder come to me who had pooped his pants. Never seen him before, so I know this hasnt been a pattern at school. None the less, it IS February, and I stopped even attempting to help these kids change after Christmas break. I figure it is now time for these 5 and 6 year olds to have some responsibility for their bowel and bladder habits. Anyhoo, it took a good 15 minutes for me to get out of him that he had pooped and needed a change of clothes. I grabbed the extra clothes (we have a huge donation closet currently...but it is dwindling fast) and ushered him to the private bathroom in my health room. I handed him some flushable wipes as well, and went to close the door. (you know, for privacy, and smell purposes, and because its the socially acceptable thing to do when you are in public). He started FREAKING out, saying he was scared and putting himself between the door and wouldnt let me close it. oh did i mention that he already had his pants and underwear off and wast STEPPING I HIS POO! At this point I didnt have any other kids in the office, so instead of trying to reason with this kid, I just left my office and shut the door. I figured, ok well he didnt want the bathroom door shut so I will just give him some space. Nope. He tracked that poo all the way through my bathroom and all over my office, came to the office door naked as a jay bird and started crying and asking me to open the office door. Dear Lord child i am trying to give you some privacy!!! I literally had poo all over the floor, it was all over his feet and I was freaking out. Of course no one came to my rescue and I had to give up and give in and open the door and have him change. right then and there. In front of the entire office. Because he was covered in poo and I didnt know what else to do. I mean, C'MON!!!!!!!!!

this is fascinating to me! I understand it would be more work, but think of the amount of help we could provide to so many kiddos who may otherwise not have access to good healthcare! Wow. I will be following this :)

Oh my gosh! Sending prayers that this child gets the care he needs and comes back to school happy and healthy. Wow. Very scary.

Flare-He is not a 1:1 student! They are attempting the least restrictive alternatives with him for now, but I think it's very evident that this child needs to be in a self contained classroom with individualized lessons and 1:1 paras. SO FAR the napping hasn't been a huge issues, but you are right. Its coming, I know it. Its not just about him napping in here, but me having to constantly redirect him back to the cot for at least 15 minutes daily, while trying to triage bloody noses, potty accidents, daily med admins etc etc. I have started to just ignore him and let him get out of bed and roam out into the office because i'm being super passive aggressive and trying to make a point :) lol. But I have also mentioned my concerns to the principal who is willing to brainstorm alternatives SHOULD we need to. yikes. Is it mid winter break yet??

Lifelearnings-This nap has not been ordered by a Doctor, rather decided it was best in a meeting which included the principal, teacher, behavioral support paras. Yes it is because of behaviors. But let me tell you, the behavioral para drops him off in my healthroom for "nap time" and then takes off and Im left dealing with him. For example, today, five seconds after she left he said he needed to use the restroom. While in there, he turned on the emergency shower and soaked everything, wouldnt get back into bed, etc etc. I finally just ignored him until he laid down and fell asleep. Aint nobody got time for that. I emailed our principal, who is very very supportive. She said in the event both of my beds are needed for a sick kiddo, he can curl up on the floor in her office....I requested a plan B and plan C. Not sure why he isnt just in her office to begin with but if this keeps happening, where im left to deal with him, im going to say something again.

What info is the app giving her? I think this *might* be the question here. Unless the app is giving her some kind of info she cannot get from her meter, I would say it is not a necessary item to have. If mom is getting the info as well, and can call the school is she is noticing a dangerous downward trend, etc, then perhaps the student doesnt need it? Especially if she is not being responsible and using the device as her diabetic supply.