RN30241

I wish I had a dollar for every patient that presented to triage with a "spider bite" that turns out to be folliculitis. Forget hygiene teaching...these folks turn all shades of purple when they haughtily inform me that THEY had looked it up on the internet and their next door neighbor's cousin's first wife's brother looked at it and THEY said it was a Brown Recluse spider bite....(sigh) the people we have to put up with sometimes.

I once turned my head and allowed a family to sneak a chihuahua in to see her owner who was terminally ill. Yeah, health code regulations and all that stuff...I can honestly say it was the right thing to do. That little dog laid under her owner's covers for 4 or 5 hours, never made a sound and didn't hurt a thing. My patient was recieving pallitive care at the time...terrible pain , grieving about the things he shoulda, woulda, coulda done in his life. The spark that lit up in his eyes when his daughter pulled that little pooch out of her (rather large) handbag made it worth any trouble I may have gotten into. As it turned out, no one was ever the wiser and he died a short time later. The episode gave my patient and his daughter one last good memory of mischievous fun together. Now that's what nursing is all about!

My husband and I married in June 2005. He is an R.T (x-ray tech), that my sister used to work with years ago. We happened to meet up with him a few years ago duing a trip to the E.D. with our father who was ill with cancer. When I transfered to the E.D. the following year, he and I struck up a friendship that eventually led to that momentous first date. Three years later we recanted our "I'LL NEVER EVER MARRY AGAIN" vows for wedding vows with our mutual co-workers cheering us on. Losing my dad to cancer was the most horrible and helpless feeling in the world; However, the silver lining in the end was that it led me to the one person who was able to make me feel whole again.:kiss

I think the appeal of night shift is the same that led me to working in the E.D. You have greater autonomy in both situations. I personally like having less hand-shaking, back-patting administration around to slow me down. Besides all the REALLY freaky folks don't come out until the sun goes down...keeps my job interesting!

Our E.D. still uses a pneumatic tube system ...like the tellers have at the drivethru at the bank...to send specimens to the lab. WHEN it works, half the stuff we need it for don't fit into the cartridge, i.e. blood culture bottles, specimen cups,etc. It never fails that the tube will hang up with the quick cath specimen you just collected from the septic baby! We usually just run the important stuff upstairs...not very efficient but better than having to recollect. A few months ago some motor on the thing burnt out and for 6 weeks we had to pull a crappy looking piece of cord to send the tube up and pull another cord so that the lab could send it down again. For some reason administration didn't like the staff's idea of just attaching a bucket to a rope outside of the lab's window and pulling it up instead - we didn't see that it was so very much different than what we had!

My very first nursing position was on the surgical floor. While not a common practice, the surgeons would have to do debridments on the floor or evacuate hematomas from post-op incisions. For this purpose we keep a supply of 30 ml Lidocaine on the unit for bedside procedures. The only difference between the Lidocaine bottles and the Normal Saline bottles used to flush I.V.s being used on a p.r.n. basis was the color of the writing on the labels...can you guess what happened. When the patient complained to the "experienced" RN he felt funny after his saline lock was flushed, she responded by crying out, "OH MY GOD", and RAN OUT OF THE ROOM LEAVING THE PATIENT WITH ONLY HIS CONFUSED BUT ALARMED FAMILY AT BEDSIDE! Thankfully he made a complete recovery after a visit to the CCU. We all realized that her error could have easily happened to any of us; but to this day I always think of her when drawing up a saline flush and double check the label.

Agree to wearing the button as long as you can also wear a button that says, "I'm here to save your butt, not kiss it." Seriously, is administration wearing the buttons, too?

Hello to all of my sisters and brothers on the frontlines of health care ...the ED! As much as I hate to admit it...stupid people are fascinating sometimes! I'm just glad to know that they don't all live in my town...coulda sworn in a deposition that they did! My most recent winner is the gentleman, released THAT WEEK from prison to a work-release house. At triage he complained of a toothache, demanded immediate narcotic administration...sneered at the Tylenol our protocal allowed. When his name was called for treatment he was nowhere to be found. Four hours later he returns to triage with glazed eyes and twitchy to say that his tooth didn't hurt any more and "Oh yeah, sign this paper that says that I've been here at the emergency room for treatment." When confronted with the fact he had been M.I.A. for numerous hours he said he had walked to the convenience store...within sight of the hospital...for TYLENOL. Needless to say, his house warden pulled a drug test on him and he got a one way ticket back to jail.