ashagreyjoy

anhedonia, suicidality, memory problems, fasciculations/muscle twitching...she needs a neurology referral

You provided excellent care for your patient despite barriers and this is what being a nurse is all about. The hospitalist isn't in charge of your license, let that roll off of you. They don't have to like being wrong and they might even learn something.

Fellow RN's using PAPR. Are you wearing a mask underneath the PAPR? Was instructed by our authority that masking underneath the PAPR to protect the patient was not needed. My brain cannot reconcile the written policy that 1. If I wear an N95 with an exhalation valve the valve needs to be covered by a cloth or surgical mask, yet 2. Being told its fine to wear a waist-strapped personal fan connected to a plastic head bag, that traps my exhaled air and then that is blowing that exhaled air out of the sides of my head and mask over my face not needed. If I were Covid - patient, I would not want a clinician wearing a personal head fan bag blowing out air who was also not wearing a mask, anywhere near me. Interested to hear what other staff in other places are doing etc. I just cant reconcile what I was told. Thx in advance.

This is what Allnurses is about!! I love reading the strategies of tenured, professional nurses, Been there,done that & Curious1997 thank you for taking the time to share your strategies.

West coast state, biggest jail in the state. We been prepackaging meds for years and years. Our 0400 med pass is always pre-poured regardless and since Covid we are having to pre-pour even more dorms for the day and evening med passes.

We have transitioned to PO ivermectin tablets for human scabies treatment as our protocol rather than permethrin topical cream in jail. Ivermectin is used for human treatment already...but Im guessing its not the veterinary formulation

And this is one of the reasons I don't know if I will ever return to the hospital from the Corrections environment: jail isn't perfect but compared to the hospital I worked, its safer than the hospital.

I had a little bit of progressive care unit experience and thats it before I started in Corrections. Your hospital experience will serve you very well. Your ED experience and therefore likely acute psych will be very, very useful. My favorite study topic right now is personality and behavioral disorders. Welcome and best to you in our field!

Shout out to everyone I encounter with a nursing degree still referring to the virus as Corvid-19. All those crows and ravens love the attention!! Bring it!! Myself I will in future be referring to the pathogen as The Bat Soup Sickness or The Pangolin's Revenge, while sewing myself masks out of vacuum cleaner bags and attempting to grow my food for the Summer in the front yard.

Sounds like you are mixing up being a nurse with serving in a military organization. I am a nurse, not an officer. The government organization wherein I practice direct patient care nursing is a lockdown and dangerous setting. My organization has no reciprocally permanent agreement with me, as it does with its officers. What "oath" did you take? Did you get "sworn in" to protect and serve your hospital? I paid for school, got a degree, took a test and have a job. If I dont go to work, I dont have a job. I'm not in the military: I can be fired, laid off, downsized, hours cut...you name it. No "oath" included. I have non-nursing "co-workers" that took oaths and are sworn to serve local government. They carry tasers and handcuffs, they have employment-issued firearms, they wear bulletproof armor. It is an entirely different world. They are expected to be prepared for injury or death in the line of duty. From my perspective as a civilian worker within such an organization, it is disrespectful to confuse the responsibility of a nurse to their patients with the sworn duty (oath) of any level of law enforcement! If something goes down, law enforcement are legally bound to endanger themselves to protect the nurse. I've seen it in action.

DannyBoy8, Ms. Brown is per her listed credentials, both an attorney and an RN. Based on her credentials as an attorney, I take issue with the, in my opinion, professionally lacking legal perspective that she provided, on a public forum, for nurses in my state, when based upon the actual statement posted by Oregon's BON. I look forward, hopefully, to her clarification, as you said, in black and white. Based on her credentials as an RN I am offended, as a fellow RN, from an advocacy perspective, that she failed to identify many of the powerful tools we have available to protect ourselves, as a group. I am not looking for kind words or emotional support.

Ms. Brown, I am an RN in Oregon working in direct client contact without proper PPE. I dont understand some portions of what you wrote. The OSBON Covid-19 PPE statement currently on their website says: "All nurses and nursing assistants are entitled to keep themselves safe through appropriate use of PPE. The Board of Nursing does not expect nurses to work without PPE. The Nurse Practice Act will always support the ability of a nurse to refuse an assignment when they do not have the knowledge, skills, competencies, and abilities to safely accept it. Having PPE, or not having PPE, comes under the “abilities” section of the practice act." So my question is, is your professional legal perspective to mean that nurses are legally bound to work without PPE? I dont understand how you and other attorneys have arrived at the legal determination that the Practice Act can result in disciplinary action with the board, when their statement above says something else. Also, I take umbrage with your statement, "You do have a choice. If you believe the facility does not have proper equipment, you can give proper notice and resign." Ms Brown, we have lots of other choices, which you failed to mention. Make OSHA complaints. Are you unionized? Accept the patient assignment under protest & notify your union immediately. Ask questions of leadership, in report, in meetings, when everyone is listening. You are protecting yourself and your patients. Not unionized? Now's the time to get that rolling. Ms. Brown, I find the legal perspective information you provided in the above article/response is vague and unhelpful. To me your tone reads as helpless, hopeless, lacking in advocacy, and rich in fear-mongering. I am very disappointed in your article. I hope that you understand that with your credentials as an attorney and a nurse it is a grave responsibility when you offer statements based on your legal background to front line staff. TO ALL PATIENT-FACING STAFF IN THIS CRISIS: IN SOLIDARITY.

my corrections facility ran short of surgical masks to place on inmates who are sick and being transported to and from court, with a flu outbreak. I doubt we have enough N95 masks for staff either. we are completely unprepared. and this is a county run facility. It's going to be the wild west over here.

Davey Do I really missed your inter-colleague case studies!

Corrections is always hiring. I've learned sooooo much. Some point I will try to return to acute care (my year in med surg tele is solid gold useful) but one can make an excellent career in Corrections. I would not want to work solo in home health as a new grad.