blynn

Gosh, I would kill to see that at my job. I should clarify that I don't work at this hospital, but I definately have noticed a trend in upper management to say 'we hear you, we're going to work with you to fix things'. And then there is no follow through. It's discouraging.

OUCH Pannie! Thanks for the warning, hope you feel better soon!

Love the snowfall we're having today, don't you? I tried for over an hour just to get my car out of my driveway today, took a lot of shovelling just to get my car back down the hilly driveway and into the garage. Had to call my nursing manager to let her know that I wouldn't be coming in. She was pretty understanding about it, but I could tell she was a little upset. I guess that I was not the first one to have to call in because of the snow today. I feel BAD about not being able to come in, but I just don't think it's safe to go! Even if I could get to the road at this point, I'd probably end up in a ditch. Anyone else get stuck today?

Hey, if she's insinuating that she's going to beat you up in a parking lot, can't you slap a restraining order on her? Or does HR frown on that sort of thing? Does anyone know how that type of scenario would typically play out?

This thread has got me worried. I work for a clinic that only hires LPN's and MA's. We don't have any RN's employed at our facility. We are each assigned one doctor to work with, and we handle all of the patient calls for our assigned physician. We collect information from the patients, and relay that info to the MD. Then we call the patient back and relay to them the MD's advice/orders/instructions/what have you. But not every phone call is something that you need to talk to an MD about. Sometimes it's something simple, like yes, you do need to be NPO starting midnight before your surgery, or yes, I can phone in a prescription for the sample medication that the doctor gave you to try. (His dictation will always very clearly state 'patient is to call for RX after trying samples) Am I out of my scope of practice here? Things are not always so cut and dried as the examples I've mentioned. I am in the habit of documenting all of my phone conversations, and I will have the MD sign off on my notes, particularly if it's regarding a patient being non compliant or something of that nature. I feel confident in my abilities, and if something comes up that is questionable I will always run it by the doc, but I worry that maybe the clinic shouldn't just have LPN's and MA's doing all of this.

I was just wondering what your son felt about all of this? Was he really disturbed by this, or did he just think it was a lame joke? Does he really not get along with the boy who did this, or are they friends? (I know you might think it's bizarre to ask if they are friends, but teenage boys are a strange breed, only type of people I know that can be knock down fighting one day and good friends the next.) Personally I'd go through with all the medical testing that you feel is necessary, but I would speak with your son first about pressing criminal charges against the boy.

What's that saying again? Doctors save lives, nurses save doctors. I work one on one with a surgeon as his office assistant. I triage all of his patient calls, make sure all of his orders get to the right people, assist with office procedures, schedule meetings and appointments, and so on and so on and so on... If he had to do all of this on his own, he wouldn't have time to do the surgeries that he spent so many years learning how to do. Nurses are not less important because they are not the ones handling the scalpel. They are the ones that the doctors are trusting to take care of things and hold down the fort so that they can go on and do more of what they were trained to do. As amusing as it would be for me to watch my doc try to do all of the dreaded FMLA paperwork and handle the voicemail from his patients and clean rooms and so on.. it really would not be a good way for him to spend his time, not with all of the demands that he has on it already. So yeah, I guess you could say 'I'm just an assistant', but I'd really like to see him get through his day without my help. And how many other nurses are helping him through his day? The OR nurses that assist him in his cases, the floor nurses at the hospital who will make sure that his patients are on the mend, and who will alert him if there is a problem. The home care staff making sure that orders are implemented in the home, the LTC nurses caring for our patients who are in nursing homes... and I am missing about a billion other people in this list, I know I am. No single person could ever be in all of those places taking care of all of those people at once. AussieJack, I guess I'd be really curious to know about what sort of experiance your friend has with hospitals and doctors and clinics and so on. It's been my experiance that most people have no idea about all of the things that go on behind the scenes. Most doctors come into contact with THOUSANDS of patients per year, so it stands to reason that they're gonna need help. Okay, I'll just step off of this soap box now. :)

I think that that is a very clever way to teach a bully to knock it off and start being fair. :)

That patient's foley must've been plugged or kinked or something, there is no way they should have 800cc's after only two hours with the foley out. I think your idea of being sure it's drained is a very good one.

Awww... that is really sweet!

I've been pondering the idea of taking an accelerated RN program at the local community college, I know I need to get more information from them, but I am scared out of my mind that I won't be able to DO everything. I live alone, support myself, pay my mortgage, work M-F about 7:30 to 4:30 at a clinic.. how can I possibly add college to this? I'm afraid I'll have to quit my job, but if I quit my job, I can't pay my bills, can't pay my bills, can't go to school.. I know I'm not the only one who ever had to deal with this, any insight?

:uhoh21: Oh NO, are you kidding? How will she be able to tell her patients bad news? The LPN in our clinic that I mentioned earlier was about two inches from getting fired, but she decided that the job was too stressful and quit on her own... to persue RN school.. I am sure that will be sooo much easier for her.

I was hired as a new grad LPN for homecare. I had worked as a PCA with the same company so I kind of had my foot in the door. I worked in home care for my first four years out of school. I was primarily assigned to just three patients who needed a nighttime caregiver in the house. The hours were long, the pay not overly fabulous. You get to know a patient and their family pretty well, and that *usually* is a good thing, every once in a while you start feeling like maybe you know more than you'd like to about them. It was a good experiance for me, but I eventually felt like I was letting a lot of my other nursing skills 'rust', and about two years ago I took a clinic job.

I worked a night shift at a client's house and someone tried to break in, the parents of the child I was caring for yelled at them to get them to run off. It worked, but it did not sit right with me that they did not call the police. I started looking for a new job after that night.

OMG! Would someone who did something like that be facing abandonment charges?