TheLastUnicorn

This would happen anytime I called EMS for a patient when I worked LTC/SAR. The EMT would even try to pursuade the patient that they didn't need to go to the ER. I finally got so fed up I just started calling the EMS company or hospital / whatever service they were with, right in front of them, and ask to speak with a supervisor. Especially if I had already told them the MD ordered it and they'd keep fussing.

Plastic container method, just to make it easier to put on and take off while keeping it... I dunno "in place" and not just flipping around a bag. No lid, place container in paper bag. I suppose it's just an illusion if trying to preserve the "clean" side from contamination

I'm guessing you are in LTC or SAR? How many patients on the pass? Honestly, if you're the floater, it will take a while to get a rhythm and it will vary depending on the unit / cart you're assigned. If it's a heavy patient load, it's gonna take as long as it will take until you get more familiar with it all. Keep a small note pad and make notes. You say there are problem patients. Make note on them. Do they want a med at a specific time? Do they wants all their meds before or after something else. Do your best to accommodate. You may end up ping pinging all over the unit but it may also make your night less stressful. As for the cart. Again, this will come with time. Keep notes on what drawer things are in for that unit. Eventually you will become familiar with it. If you need to, make yourself a little sketch layout of the cart for that unit.

Just apply. At worst they tell you that you don't qualify. There's nothing really to lose unless you dont.

I wouldn't call someone threatening not to help you as support. That's the opposite of support. Where is your family? Where is your real support? I'd move to wherever that is. As for hours, the most flexible is ER, or pool. Or take an office job. What were your goals in nursing? Nursing is a huge field to enter without some sort of goal or idea on Where to work. You need to figure that out. So you want a 9-5 office? A 3 x12 hospital position? A 5 x 8 skilled nursing position? Faculty RN have a lot of good examples for you above. But like they said... It depends on your experience. The obvious answer is you're going to need to find flexible child care. There is no other way around this. Or move to where you have real support. Daycare is stupid expensive, but you can typically find good caregivers/babysitters to take a kid a few hours in the morning to drop them off and a few in the afternoon to pick them up. Also see if the preschool program has early drop off or wrap around care. Also, If you find a nearby position to where your only dropping off 10 minutes early some places may not mind. Start making calls. See who can work with you.

At this point with a BSN I don't think anyone cares about your ADN. I wouldn't even mention it. You're an RN with a BSN. That's all employers care about and all that matters.

The first thing I did when I was exposed to COVID at the hospital was call my husband and consult on whether I should come home, or stay away from the house by getting a hotel room for the foreseeable future. Coming home means I would knowingly expose my husband and our children to this virus, also anyone else he comes in contact with because he is considered essential at his job. He wanted me home. Had he agreed that a hotel and keeping my distance from our home was in the best interest of our family, I would have done just that. I wouldn't have felt unsupported, unloved, or felt shunned from him or any of this other BS that's being prattled about. This is what real relationships look like. You make sacrifices, and if that sacrifice is having to physically be near someone for their own well being and safety, so be it. That all said, as some have told you, this will likely be a reoccurring theme in your relationship. What happens when you tell him about the patient with bed bugs? or scabies? Those are quite popular in the hospital setting. You will come across them. That and a hundred other potentially communicable diseases and illnesses. You need to have a discussion with your boyfriend on how this affects the future of your relationship. It's not just COVID you will be exposed to (and yes, you have been exposed, caring for the patients with it or not), there will be other things you will be exposed to and you need to know from him if he can handle that.

You don't have to "take" the medication yourself to test for it. You can absorb it through your skin, and can breathe it in second hand. There's a reason for the whole USP 800. As nurses we are exposed to drugs, those drugs affect us. So yes.. You would total test positive for insulin, no need to ever even be exposed to it! (just gonna let you think on that one there). Keep in mind, this is still a federally illegal substance. You can anything a certification now. What can you do with it? No idea. I don't see where an RN is needed in this field. We can't prescribe it. And a dispenser would have no need for us. Not even medically dispensed from a pharmacy would need an RN. Sure you could work in the office of a Dr that handles cases for medical MJ but what purpose would a certification be in that setting? What is the cert even educating you on? I think you would start there. What are the specifics of the education, and how you can apply that to the field of nursing.

There's a difference in being floated, and being oriented to floating. I was oriented the months before I was even floated. Before I was even eligible to be floated. Didn't remember a damned thing by the time my turn came around. No one cared. The nurses in Icu were incredibly supportive. As for the drama. Nope. Stay out of it. I'm glad I'm now a float nurse. I no longer have to get involved or deal with any of that unit drama BS. Like someone else said: address it directly. Talk to your manager. Speak directly to said nurse. None of this he said she said they said BS. Don't fall for that crap.

Have you discussed used these issues with your boss? Going above their head without taking to him/her first seems a bit extreme. Maybe the woman had permission to wear scrubs. Maybe she is working on a project or is in school and that's why she's shadowing. How do you know the patient want asked if it was okay for her to shadow? Also.. Not sure how you can be a nurse, or going through nursing school, without patients being exactly what you're trying to claim they are not; a learning experience.

You may also want to inform him that chart checking another nurse is not his job and counts as a HIPAA violation. Assuming, he has no business being in that patient's chart. As the other's said. I do hope you have been formally keeping record of all of this, because if you haven't up to this date; none of it matters. You can't say "well, I've spoken to him on multiple occasions" unless you've formally written him up and had him acknowledge there was a verbal reprimand. You're management. You tried to be nice. It didn't work. This employee is toxic to your work environment. You can either protect him and his "first adult job because he's just young and new", or you can protect all your other employee's. If I was one of your other employee's and I kept reporting and having to deal with this nurse and nothing seemed to be done and he kept getting worse? I assure you they are looking for other jobs. It's very clear he's not going to change. Get rid of him.

This has literally never been a concern or issue that I've even thought of. The last thing I am worried about any of my patient's is when their last bath was. It's never a question I've asked or have been asked outside of LTC/SAR. I dont think we track it at all unless the family is throwing a fit about the patient not having had a bath; but usually that's because a patient is refusing and then telling their family how neglected they are. Our MAR's don't have a spot for tracking baths, unless it's on the PCT side of things or in ADLs. If my patient is mostly independent or mostly independent; they will be offered a basin to wash up in, or they can ask for one. We'll set them up at the bedside to wash up. Help where needed. This applied to tele patient's as well. If they are not tele and if the rooms are equipped with a shower, and they are capable of showering themselves, they are allowed to take a shower. If the patient is a complete care; they are given a bath every night shift unless they refuse. Sometimes depending on how much staff is available and what is happening on the unit, they might miss a night. Typically every other night is common. Bed baths/complete baths happen on night shift. Otherwise the patient can clean up whenever they want. In our facility ICU patient's get the CHG bath typically on night shift. It even comes up on our MAR for 6am but we sign of off at whatever time the we get around to actually bathing the patient. Most independent patient's either will do it themselves or refuse, but by that time they are downgraded so it doesn't even apply to them anymore.

Oh yes, the huge grey area that is HIPAA; can't forget that. Certainly accessing charts when you're not clocked in, despite having an expectation of care for the patient, can very easily be considered a HIPAA violation. The expectation of care is the important thing; at least as my current facility. If we have an expectation of care for a patient (say, they are being assigned to us and are in the ED) we are allowed to access their medical information. In the event we don't end up caring for that patient (they are downgraded to med/surg, upgraded to ICU, or given to someone else), we are not penalized for having been in their chart. The limit to this, is we have to be 1) clocked in, and 2) assigned the patient by either the charge nurse, supervisor, or patient flow (day shift only, which is a weird concept to me, they just call you like "hey! There's an admission in the ED I'm gonna give you, like... WOW!, who are you!? call my charge nurse! ahem, anyway). So yeah, super grey area when it comes to HIPAA, if your employer doesn't like you and you're non-union... you leave yourself really open there.

The issue with "fills" going to the wayside is essentially a non-issue. These "frills"; nurses fetching water, fluffing pillows, giving back rubs, or assisting the patient to the bathroom when family is right there; won't disappear because our health insurance system changes. Sadly, these "frills" are considered basic nursing tasks and care. Nurses will still be expected to do them, and they will be billed as general nursing care. A facility is never going to tell patients they are now responsible for having family come tend to their needs because as soon as something happens to that patient, based on having a family member doing something, there will be lawsuits. Until lawsuits can't be thrown around like candy, nothing is going to change that nurses will still be the one escorting grandma to the bathroom or get her a glass of water even tho her son/daughter is sitting in the bed next to her.

I'm sorry, this will be harsh. You can blame whatever and whomever you want to, but the first step to any recovery is accepting the consequences of your own actions. You are the only person responsible for the choices you made. Not your friends, not your dentist, not your patients, not your child, not your employer. You. You are still making excuses. You can cry about god being the only one to judge you but, that's not true. Your fellow nurses will judge you. Employers will judge you. They will judge you more when you make excuses. "I didn't ask for this, it was the dentists fault, I didn't use IV I only snorted, addiction is a disease I'm sick, I'm clean now but I just smoke weed (new flash, that's not clean)". You're going to need to grow some thick skin. Acknowledge responsibility for your actions, for your addiction. Stop with the excuses. Stop trying to minimize the damage. Stop trying to rationalize how its not that bad or it's not your fault. You can't call yourself a good nurse when you're stealing from your employer and allowing your patients to suffer for your own addiction. You can't call yourself a good mom when you're an addict. All that said. I have a lot of respect for people in recovery. Recovery is hard, and it is a lifetime process that you will never escape from. You will always be an addict, and you will always be in recovery. I wish you all the best and good fortune in your efforts and I hope you can maintain strength to uphold your recovery. But, you have to stop with the excuses.