Great Dane

No I am not an alcoholic if that is what you mean and I don't have a drinking problem - well it is a problem with the epilepsy *lol* I was just turned down for my 3.rd job and it was at a ward where I have 5 months of experience and the need 10 new nurses, so they should be eger to get someone who knows a lot about that particular type of ward and doesn't need a lot of training. It was a medical emergency ward and not a lot of nurses in Denmark are very good at that speciality and the practical stuff too taking bloodsamples, IV accesses, EKG, Atery punctures, acting independent in emergency situations etc. Besides I am in the danish home guard (not even close to being at a level as your national guard) where I am taking a course as a medic, acually a bit more than that - but I get the same training as paramedics on ambulances. So I am pretty well qualified for the job or at least for knowing how to act in emergency situations. Still I was turned down. From now on I will not tell them about it. The reason why I did is that I do volentary work for young people with epilepsy and I thought that would be a good thing to mention. I have been warned about telling them before I get hired. But it is the reason why I am not too happy about changing shifts, so I would like to be only on evening shifts. It was also as a sort of experiment to see if it really is that bad, and apparently it is... I just can't belive that it happened within the healthcare system. We are supposed to know better. I have sort of given up and now I will work as a substitute. Then I will get more freedom to choose when I want to work, the money is better and I get to try out a lot of different wards. Knockandhello - I am glad that you haven't had the same experiences. It lets me know there is hope, maybe I should come to work in the US in stead

A survey in UK shows that 28% of the general population dont think that people with epilepsy should become nurses. I have epilepsy and there are times where I didn't get the job, because of it, even though I was the only applicant for the job. I write it on the application because I feel that it is something that I should be abel to talk freely about to prevent stigma both for me and for others. Epilepsy doesn't go very well with the working hours for nurses and the changing shifts, general stress and pressure in emergency situations. But I have always been drinking when I have had seziures. I have never had a day off because of it, and it has not been a problem so far. But the nature of epilepsy is that you can never say for shure about anything. And I cant say for shure if the changing shifts might be a problem. What do you think? Would you want to have a nurse with epilepsy? - as a college? - and if you were a patient? I ask because I would like some views on it and not because I want you to feel sorry for me. So I appriciate honesty, even though it might not be a politically correct point of view. Great Dane

"Why did you coose not to keep our agreement? That's just not good enough" It was on my final clinic after 3 years at the school. The agreement was that no matter what I should always consulte with my nurse-instrctor. She never asked why I didn't hold the agreement. So why I didn't hold the agreement? Because the patient got very ill and I called the doctor before I told her. Didn't even want to hear my side of the story first, it wasn't after 15 minutes of yelling I got the chance to explain my self. But then she continued yelling at me. She never admitted she was wrong. Others, including the doc, have complimented me for showing responcibility and initiative. But we pretty much hated each other and even more after that. Everything I did was wrong. I filed several complaints over similar situations, but got these "sit down and talk about it in a nice manner" answers from the school counsiler. I thought about complaining to the head of the school for the lack of support. But didn't expect to get much support from them either. It was the worst period of my time as a student. It was the only time I thougt about quitting, and I truely love nursning.

I think the danish system is different but out of 3½ years of education we shift between theory and clinical, and we have 5 months on a medical ward, 5 months surgical ward, 10 weeks psych and 10 weeks primary healthcare (old peoples home, home nursing etc) Acually when I started I thought that psyc was something I would hate. But it turned out that I liked the way you really worked with people as a person. The worst was at an old peoples nursing home, for people with demensia. Just the same day after day, bathing patients, telling them not to eat the plants etc. I was also at an emergency room for medical diseases COPD, heart faliures, seziures, hypoglucomia, alcoholcis with cravings, people who had poisoned them selves overdosis, suicideattept or by accident. It was very interesting and fun because you could se some results of your work. Psyc and emergency was the most fun GD

I wouldn't feel comfortable if I had to give some medication, where I didn't know if it was the right pill or not. Even though mistakes do happen, I would prefer if it was me who poured up the medication. We do everything our selves, we prour up the pills, pull it up in suringes, mix the IV fluids if they come as a powder or if it has to be mixed with NaCl or something. Some have talked about making it all computerised so it is a machine who pours up the medicine, because computeres are more relyable. Offcourse the nurse should not be held accountable for a mistake made by the pharmacist. The correct dosis for growenups is usually 1-3 pills, so if you get a bag with 30 pills, or a suringe with 50 ml for IM injections, then there is clearly something wrong. I once had a drugg addict who had to get 300 ml of Metadon in the morning,(100 ml can be lathal if you are not used to it) that is 1/3 of a bottle or 2 whole cups, like the ones you drink water from, usually it is 1 or 2 in a small glass, the same as you drink tequila shots from. Offcourse we were a little suspicious and we called a doctor, but it was right, he was just a serious addict - but I think it is because he tricked the doctor, it should just take the craving, not give you a rush, and it is a very small dosis. max 40 ml pr dosis I think it is, more than that has no effect on the craving, even though they often more than get that - but there is also a mental craving for the rush. It was someone who had worked with addicts for decades, who told me that. A nurse who had worked in the pharmacytical industry for a lot of years also told me that more than 75 mg of magnyl has no effect on preventing trombosis etc, but a lot of doctors dont know this and offcourse I would pour it if it said so. I would prefer to pour it my self, but it does make your day a lot easier, and takes some of the work load off, if someone did it for you and you just had to tjeck it

WOW - I hate americans all of a sudden, when did I say that?... Some things might have been lost in translation or it came out wrong, but I think it is a bit rediculus to suggest that I hate americans. I'm pretty shure I never said that. The "so american" was just a sarcastic joke, because you always hear people talk about sueing each other. We have courts here too and offcourse people should have rights and some DO rightfully sue the hospitals. Nothing bad was ment by it. I guess you would have something similar for "That is so typically European" when every yes/no question is answered with a "Maybe, but only if..." - I mean if you look at politics. You get all the medicine pre packed? We have all the different types of medicine on the shelfs in a medicine-room, we get the list for each patient and pick it from all the different packs it comes in - don't know if there is an english phrase for that, but nobody does the job of packing it for us. If that is a good idea or not, is hard to say, but there has been some debate if we should do that or not. Most nurses don't like looking at 4 white pills in a pre-packed bag, not knowing if it is the right 4 white pills and then administering them to the patient. As for the procedure, the nurse DID look it up because she didn't know the medicine, but she somehow got it wrong, dont ask how, she propably saw 25 mg as 2,5 mg or something.

stn2003 - you are so "american" talking about people getting sued and going to court. What you suggest, with someone breathing her down the neck is humiliating and surves no purpuse - over looking a comma doesn't call for that. It would make anyone want to cover for your self or fellow nurses, and then accidents or malpractice will never be corrected This nurse has propably given a million pills before before she saw 25 as 2,5 or what ever happened Personally I think it is a very big burden to put on a person to be in a room full of druggs, having to pick the rights one and the right dosis - and we all know how well doctors write - knowing that if we take the wrong one or in the wrong dosis, then people may die. Doing that potentially deadly "game" several times every day for years and decades, even though we all learn and know the druggs, it does take a lot of responsibility. I don't think anyone who takes up nursing, takes that responsibility lightly. If we punish nurses that hard, then they/we will just start to cover it up and then we will never correct the flaws in the procedures we have. Maybe the solution would be to electronical medical journals (they used the written on paper type) or improve the ones we have allready, maybe even to have a machine sorting the pills.

Here is an example - there must be LOTS of them, thinking of all the number of pills being administered, it is impressive that so few mistakes are made, acually. An older lady patient, from another country who didn't speak the local language, had a massive apoplexia a year before and was paralysed on the left side of the body + blind on the left eye. She took lots of medication for the sympthoms from the apoplexia and 5mg x 3 Baclofen (spasmolyticum), was one of them. They are in 10 mg and 25 mg pills, but in this department they only had the 25 mg types She came to the medical E.R. because they couldn't wake her up in the morning, and she fell asleep soon after - she had NIDDM but the had a normal bloodsugar when she came in. The son translated when she came in, in the afternoon. The next day she had to be transfered to another department. A nurse had to administrer 5 mg Baclofen she didn't know the medication and looked it up, took the 25 mg box and gave the patient 2 pills, thinking it was 2,5 mg. So it was 50 mg and not 5 mg she got, meaning 10 times the right dosis (she didn't get them in the evening). Intoxification signs are from being sedated, uncntious, coma to dead. The strength of most medication is made so 1-2 pills are the usual precriptioned dosis, so 2 pills didn't seem strange at all. At noon the same nurse had to administer the patients medicantion angain, and saw that it was the wrong dosis. She ran to the patient saw that she could be awoken, but fell asleep soon after. She didn't speak the language, so she couldn't tell if the patient was talking clearly or hazy, the left eye didn¨t respond to light, because she was blind. The bloodpressure, puls, SO2, and temperature was OK, the breathing was very deep. Like she was just sleeping very tight. The doctor was called and he said that if the patient was going to die from it, then it would have happened allready, there is no antidot. So they had to check up on the respiration now and then, and mesure the bloodpressure, puls etc. every hour. The head nurse was informed and the accident was repported and written in the medical and nursing journal so they knew when she got transfered to the other department She had a good deep sleep most of the day and that is all. Nothing serious happened and when the mistake was discovered everyone reacted "by the book" nobody tried to cover it up or anything. But had it been another type of medication, or had she not noticed her mistake when preparing the next dosis at noon, then the patient would have died Should it have any consequenses for the nurse? If it would, then some might be tempted not to repport such an accident, because when they discovered the mistake, the acted at once and just as they were tought to act. But would a penalty in any form serve a purpuse? A punishment is a way of saying "don't do this, or bad things will happen to you" I don't think this particular nurse will EVER make a mistake like this again. Would you ever be abel to go back to nursing after that?

I wear sandals, like Teva sandals. Are there rules that you must wear shoes? - there aren't in Denmark I once tried with shoes on and it's just too hot. The ones that dont wear sandals wear, I don't know the word for it, but those type of shoes santaclaus also wears - offcourse they are made of rubber and leather instead of wood, but anyway. I don't think they are very comfortable, so I don't like those either. I'm a sandal-man. Offcourse they have the disadvantage that if you get some disgusting stuff (blood, vomit, urin etc) on you it hits the feet, and not just the shoe