ADN 2002

The sad thing is that so many of these family members are SO VERY IGNORANT, and even worse, they don't care that they are. Did you ever want to shake a visitor and shout "WAKE UP!!" We have so many issues with visitors, particularly the "under 14" rule. Amazing how many people totally miss the very LARGE sign on the entrance doors to the unit. I work on OB -- it's mind boggling how many people try to sneak toddlers into the birthing rooms! Or, how families want to throw a freaking party in the recovery room minutes after mom has come from the OR following a c-section. The PACU downstairs does not let families in, why do we? Last time I checked, a c-section was a major surgery. (They've yet to answer this one for me...)

HA! That's hilarious... UPDATE: I was NOT the on-call nurse for the evening shift tonight, the supervisor yesterday saw a problem with staffing and made a decision to inform me I'd be staying late. :angryfire I should start keeping a copy of the call schedule next to the phone...if I answer it.

I'm thinking I probably didn't ask my question correctly -- I think we ALL probably check our caller ID before answering the phone. To rephrase, I guess what I'm asking is how many people look at the ID, see that it's work and say "ha! yeah, right.." I've done that a few times in the past but lately I've been good and answered the phone anyway, thinking it could be my friend calling me, only to find it's people I work with calling me.

LOL, I totally agree. No offense to anyone intended, but this is absurd! Who ARE these people? Are there other similar "agencies" out there?

All right, fess up. How many of you screen your calls against the facility where you work? Here's my story: I have been on vacation since last Tuesday, and I'm scheduled to go back tomorrow. I got called twice yesterday by my facility asking me to come back early (today). The second call, my supervisor asked me to come in for my annual evaluation today -- it takes all of 15 minutes, and I had to go out for another appointment anyway -- so I agreed to that. I went in today in search of my supervisor and encountered several of my coworkers (who were having a very busy day), one of which was kind of ugly to me when I asked if she knew where our supervisor was. I let it go, chalked it up to them being busy and I know they knew I had told my supervisor yesterday that I could not come in to work today. Long story short, I found my supervisor, finished my eval, and booked it out of there. I'm scheduled 7-3 tomorrow - I got a call a short while ago from the house supervisor telling me (*telling me*) to just plan on staying until 7pm tomorrow. I could not find my call schedule, but I suspect I am the on-call nurse for 3-7pm or 3-11pm tomorrow. I have no doubt that this is in response to my being on vacation for so long, when they just happen to be busy, and I dared to tell them I couldn't come in when they called yesterday. (What was I thinking?? :trout: ) These people just can't stand when certain members of our staff take a vacation. I rarely ask for more than 2-3 days in a row (usually just a single day here and there), and this time I asked for 10, and it was granted. But, at the same time, there are a couple of "senior" nurses that take vacation all the time - one of which takes no less than an entire week EVERY SIX WEEK SCHEDULE. And nobody says anything. It'd be different if I was totally inflexible with my schedule, but I switch days around and stay over all the time, but come on! How much are we supposed to give? Now, I think the only thing I did wrong here was answer the phone, knowing it was the hospital. Half the time, when it's the hospital on the phone, it's really my best friend (a doctor that also works at this hospital) calling me for one reason or another. I'm thinking of telling her if she calls me on a hospital phone to expect the answering machine. Anybody else have these issues? (I'm sure many of you do, but it's aggravating as *fill in adjective here* when it happens...)

We open lidocaine as it's needed. Depending on the doctor, we'll either pour it into a sterile cup on the table or the doctor draws it up (while we hold the vial) with an empty syringe from the sterile field. I think it's a good idea, cuts down on waste (thus cutting costs).

We have to call in to the house supervisor -- all but one of them asks why and most of them try to talk you into coming in anyway. The one that doesn't ask says it's a HIPAA violation.

Actually, in my facility, PP technically just gets mom - we have a well baby NBN. (Not to say the baby never comes out to the room and we have to handle baby care as well.)

For the most part, I am happy with postpartum. I kind of wish I had just postpartum patients so that I can do all the good teaching stuff but in my facility, they throw in lap choles, non-infectious med/surg overflow, breast surgeries, GYN surgeries, stable antepartum patients, the occasional tonsillectomy patient, and the occasional transfusion patient (pts with CA that get outpatient transfusions). With all this other stuff going on, it's hard to do the postpartum stuff as well as you ought to, but in my case it's the facility that causes that problem. But, my facility is about to undergo a major transition due to change in ownership, so I'm sticking around to see how things change (as opposed to working in a larger hospital up the road -- we are a rural facility).

That's hilarious. :yelclap:

I am a PP nurse. Our patients do not recover in L&D - as soon as the episiotomy is sewn up, they're out the door to us. The biggest problem I have with the labor nurses is that they'll sit on a patient in recovery after a c/s or take a while with a vag delivery (neither of which really need the extra time in L&D, in many cases..some do, though) and they'll drop the patient on me all of 15-20 minutes before shift change...long enough that I have to open a note and do all the paperwork/orders/recovery VS, etc. Meanwhile, the labor nurse in question gets off on time (one is worse than the others, but they've all been known to do this). The worst case I've had is a labor nurse that came out and put the patient in a room (the patient, a grand multip) and fail to give any kind of report or even let me know I had a new patient. I just happened upon the patient, was thankful she was not hemorrhaging, went and read the labor nurse the riot act and then went to the nurse manager about it. Our labor nurses (ours, not everybody's) tend to forget that for every patient that gets sent out from L&D, PP gains a patient.

I'm an OB RN with an ADN.

For the record, I AM nice. I am not saying everyone should talk/think/act like nurses, but it's not unreasonable to expect a patient to know what they're allergic to. I also have no problem telling a patient exactly what will happen to him/her if they are exposed to something they are allergic to over and over again. It may make me seem like I'm not nice but I don't sugar coat stuff for my patients, and I've had quite a few patients actually come to me and thank me for telling them exactly what to expect when the doctor or someone else has downplayed something. (I just remember how I felt when I was little and getting a shot and being told it would not hurt.)

I got so messed up on my meds (namely, Effexor) awhile back that between that and my natural tendency for mild tachycardia I ended up in the doctor's office with a resting heart rate of 160. Bought myself a night in the hospital on tele with that one. I've never been so tired in my life. However, after two doses of atenolol, we dropped my heart rate by 100 beats/min - I had SO much energy, I was ready to paint the house or something -- they actually had to give me a dose of Halcion so I could sleep. Three years later, I'm still on atenolol. (And, off the Effexor, but on two other anti-depressants - it's sad when you and most of your coworkers are on some kind of anti-depressant or another so that you can function.) But, I'm rambling. Unfortunately, the hospital where I work (as with many hospitals, I have found, through reading on this website) does NOT promote care of one's self. The only good excuse for being absent is for a funeral and it had better be your own. They don't consider exhaustion a reason to stay home. And, it's frustrating as ****, because you're dog tired, dragging yourself through your shift and a nurse manager asks you what's wrong and why didn't you just stay home, then, and you're like why didn't I think of that?!? Maybe because the supervisors at the hospital give you a hard time when you try to call off. And now I have to go to bed because once again, I am beat after working all day (busy day, not enough nurses...but THAT'S a whole other thread...can 'ya tell I'm frustrated with my job today?) Thanks for reading.

Okay, here's another one -- how about when you walk in the pt's room and their phone immediately rings and suddenly it's like the most important call in the world and YOU have to wait for their stupid phone call (does not matter you have 15 things you need to be doing, all at the same time). Good grief, that ticks me off - I've actually had thoughts of trying to be slick and unplug the phone when they're not looking (but then the idiot caller would just call through the operator to the nurse's station and want to know why so-and-so isn't answering the phone and by the way, could I drop what I'm doing and go in there and check?) :angryfire

It's times like that you want to tell the pt "Okay, well, we'll know for sure when you're in full-blown anaphylaxis!" How dumb can people be?

Good grief! I've had stuff left for me (not nearly as critical as yours) and it really bugs me. The IV thing would have totally freaked me out..

*gasp!* You mean you DON'T know what the little white pill is? Despite the fact that only about 50% of the PO meds out there are little and white? LOL! I love to give the pharmacists a hard time on that one -- "you mean I can't send their pill box to you for identification??" Fortunately we have pharmacists with a good sense of humor...

I am sure this has been addressed along the way, but what are your nursing pet peeves? A couple of mine: How many times have you been taking a medication history on a patient, only to have them tell you they have no idea why they're on a particular med. Hello?! It's kind of an important thing to know Or, when a patient calls on the call bell asking for the nurse to "come here" and I ask if there's anything I can bring with me (trying to save a few steps and a little time) and the patient says no and then get to the room and they give you a laundry list of things they want. (this will almost always happen when you have five other things you're trying to do at the same time..) :smackingf Okay, I need to quit now..I can actually feel my BP rising...LOL. Any others?

It sounds nuts, but I sit sometimes when I'm watching TV or something (not looking at my arms) and palpate veins - I learned fairly fast how they feel and where they are and now I am a lot more confident in starting IVs.

I would probably unleash on the family member and say all (okay, maybe not ALL, but most) of the things I wish I could say to patients and their families.

I actually have a doctor's appt. tomorrow with my PCP - I think I"m going to see if he'll order a couple days bedrest for me..I think I need that worse than anything else right now. :stone

I also work in a hospital in a small town - my hometown of about 10,000 people. And, while I know a lot of people on my own - a great many more people know my parents and recognize the name from my name badge, so this has come up a lot. I'm also an OB/GYN nurse -- it just doesn't get much more personal than that! LOL I graduated from high school in 1997, so I have taken care of a lot of friends that have had babies and/or GYN surgeries. Like other posters have said, it's all about being professional -- my relationship with these people has not changed negatively - if anything, it's changed positively. Friends that might have shyed away from it before are now comfortable asking me a personal health related question.

Exactly. What is the point of having sick days vs. vacation days if all you can touch really is vacation days? I've worked here three years and I've only been able to use "sick" days once -- after I'd been hospitalized and made to stay off of work for nearly two weeks.

Thanks for all the nice replies -- I really needed them this morning. You guys won't even believe this -- I just got home (8am CST) from my 3-11pm shift YESTERDAY. So here's what happened: I went to work, feeling crummy, but I managed to psych myself up a bit - I was like, it's only eight hours, I can get through anything for eight hours. I was going along and running my butt off and trying to get stuff done so I'd get out on time b/c I have a lot of things I need to get done today (my day off), when a little more than halfway through my shift the house supervisor calls me and says well, you're on call for 11-7 (I am an OB/GYN nurse, and we have to take turns taking call - there is always one of us on call in case the "bus" shows up...) - and so the supervisor couldn't find anyone to come in to work (or so she said) b/c we were really busy and so she was like well, you'll have to stay and work a double. I didn't say a word and she's like "okay?" and I told her - what do you want me to say? It's not like I can say "no" -- despite the fact that I am ILL, I am here and I am on call for the following shift! I had my fit, cried for a few minutes, and got on with it. Long story short, I got through my unplanned double, and my plans for today are shot to pieces b/c I am beyond tired and am about to crash. (However, after reading all of your replies, I probably should have thrown myself on the floor, "unconscious" and let them deal with the aftermath.) As for my mystery illness this week - I think the majority of my problem is exhaustion. I worked all last weekend, and we were busy. I found out Tuesday that my pregnant best friend that lives 1000 miles away tried to kill herself over the weekend - I still don't have all the details on THAT one... Tuesday was the day I actually managed to stay home and that was the day that I passed out at home. I live in an apartment, and it seems that every time I lie down to rest lately (no matter what time of day) there is some kind of noise or whatever that keeps me from falling asleep when I need to. In response to some of your comments: I forgot to mention this in my previous post, but I actually have a doctor's appointment this coming Monday - I am going in for another issue, but I will talk with him regarding my syncopal/near-syncopal episodes this week. I have sick time at my hospital, but I can't touch it until I've used two vacation days first (totally ridiculous -- if I could actually take a vacation, maybe I would not be quite so exhausted...it has been a while since I had a "real" break, and even then, it wasn't a vacation...long story). We also have the point system mentioned by another poster - but it's on the discretion of our immediate supervisor as far as having points added for being absent from work -- and I don't really think my supervisor believes a whole lot of what I say when it comes to my being ill. There probably IS a policy someplace (I'll have to look into that), but if I threw that in their faces, who knows what'll happen. One of the house supervisors told me they aren't supposed to ask us what is wrong with us when we call in because it is a HIPAA violation -- I don't think I've ever called in when I wasn't interrogated (What's the problem? Did you take something? What did you take? etc., etc.) I think you have to be one of the "important people" in my facility to be able to take FMLA for idiotic reasons -- honestly, one of the nurses on my unit had designated FMLA days on the schedule -- scheduled FMLA days?? What is THAT about? Yeesh. I think I'm through ranting and raving for the moment; I've lost my head of steam.. P.S. I'll have to remember the handshake thing...I could just see the look on my supervisor's face...