cardsRN

thank you for asking. i am much better now. stiffness and the occasional spasm. much improved with daily bike riding! and back to my full duties!

i guess the answer is...some. lots of our patients seem doomed from the start (large teaching hospital that operates in cases where you think they should have their heads examined). i still care for every single one the same way. it is disheartening. it can be draining. I guess the reward is being able to treat the pt as a human being and try to make the connection for them before they leave. if you are thinking about a critical care career i would advise you to think again. as one poster already pointed out it takes a certain kind of crazy to get into nursing to begin with. it takes a whole 'nother kind of crazy to work in the ICU's. but i wouldn't ever leave.:heartbeat

busy RN and mom- thank you so much for your supportive post. it's weird how at first you think everything is fine. the morning after my shift i was in the ER like, fine- just give me a valium and i'll sleep it off, see you all tonight. maybe not. maybe i wouldn't work another shift for 3 months... ugh. i know that i'll get over it eventually with the right treatment, it just sucks now.

flying scot- i am sorry for all you have been through. i need to hear about returning to pt care! i know all will be right in time, the uncertainty just sucks. it is good to hear survivor stories of those of us injured on the job. you should hear your MD out if he thinks additional surgery would benefit you. just saying...

thank you for replying. i have been to a chiropractor before and i swear he fixed things i didn't even know were broken! i just think i feel so lost. i miss my "real" life where i used to take care of patients, i wish i knew when i would be back there again...

So i work in a CVICU, i injured my back moving a patient in early august and have been out of work since. i am doing a light duty job part time in the evenings and i miss patient care and the challenge of ICU so much but that's not the issue. i am still having numbness in my hand and restriction of range of motion in my neck. i am in PT 2x week and it is better immediately after my PT, but always back to the same the day after. i had an EMG today and the neurologist told me that it looks like a pinched nerve in my neck and that i will probably have an MRI. i see my occupational health MD on tues. and we discussed the possibility of cortisone injections already. i am just scared. i want to hear from anyone who has been in a similar situation. i miss my life! i just want things to be back to normal already!

absolutely. and to understand the anger and disappointment and conflicting emotions people feel and how that makes life in general harder by orders of magnitude. also, just a word about judgmental behavior: why is it that when an older person c/o pain they get treated but when a younger person c/o pain they get that label- you know the one- "seeker".

ummm... fyi my mother would be making the trip with me to do the "lugging" if, as ruby pointed out, my doc even clears me to travel. (hadn't even considered that part). i guess that i am optimistic that with the PT i will recover quickly. the part i don't understand about your post is where you get the idea that i am faking injury. or how being out of work despite fulfilling the necessity of caring for my child makes me unprofessional. it is fortunate for you that you have apparently never been in this or a similar situation. if you ever are i hope that you will be treated with compassion.

wow thanks for all the responses you guys! the doc i saw this week said there is no way to tell how long i will need to be out of work. now i am on motrin, skelaxin and valium and am still having pain to the point that i cannot stand or sit for prolonged periods. today we were at a friends b-b-q and i had to go lay down for a spell. so this is certainly not faking. but i start PT next week and have high hopes for that. according to the doc i saw it is just a strain and will heal given time and PT. caring for my toddler makes it very hard not to lift and aggravate the injury though... it is just a strange and unfortunate convergence that the shift i need off for my family party is near the time of my comp leave. and btw for those who asked, i have not been out to ohio in about 2.5 years and my aunts/uncles/cousins have never met my son. i am not in love with my job... my unit in particular is a very difficult one to work in and we have a very high attrition rate due mostly to horizontal violence issues and lack of management support. however, i need the paycheck and health insurance. i guess the heart of the question for me is whether it is politically smarter to have the talk with my NM or just call in.

let me start at the beginning. i work fri/sat/sun nights. my unit is not staffed well and the summer vacation time was alloted by seniority at the beginning of may. this amounted to 4 shifts off for the period of may-sept. for me. took 3 as a long weekend and one as a sat night 8/11 (tonight). the thing is that in mid may, my mother booked a trip for me to bring my son out to meet the extended family in ohio at the end of august. the trip would involve me missing one friday night shift 8/31. at that time i requested the shift off and was told that there is no more vacation time to go around and i will have to find someone to cover it. fast forward. i have asked everyone, tried to work out trades, asked my nurse manager for help. all to no avail. fast forward again. i injured my back last weekend and am out on comp until at least 8/24 (the date of my next follow up appointment). if i am back to work by 8/31, what do i do? do i: 1. call and have a frank discussion with my nurse manager about not coming in friday 8/31 even if i am back to regular duty. 2. just call in sick. 3. attempt to change the flight plan and make my family cancel the party she planned for that friday night (they are already very irritated with me about this situation) i think my NM is fed up with me in specific and staffing issues in general so i am feeling very conflicted about this. thank all of you who made it this far. i do not usually get many responses when i post questions here but hopefully someone can help.

this is such a sticky question. there are those who abuse, and everyone always works short. everyone feels that your unit is the one always floating and never receiving floats, so you know that your sick call won't be covered. it makes you feel guilty. but you have to do the best you can for you, because as other posters have stated- the hospital will never remember you killing yourself to be there no matter what. you will never get those days back. i have a situation right now where i requested 1 shift 3 months in advance and was told "no" that all the vacation time was already distributed and there were no more days available. i have tried in vain to find coverage. the plane tickets are paid for. something is going to have to give here...

i recently dreamed that a large man i had taken care of for the weekend was falling out of bed head first and no one would help me. there i was, holding him by the shoulders, vent alarming, swan pulling out, trying to keep him from falling and all my co-workers outside the room going about their business. that is a fairy accurate dramatization of my unit though...

my heart goes out to all those who live in pain every day. i can't imagine how draining and disheartening it must be. one poster mentioned a 24/7 pain service that manages all narcotic orders- what a beautiful idea! our pain services is not in house after hours- telephone consult only. and they are not involved frequently enough by the primary team. no one wants to deal with the pain issue until it is a crisis at 3AM and getting an epidural takes an act of congress. in my current job the resistance to pain control for the pt is coming from the attendings. one surgeon in particular, who will not allow his patients to be medicated for pain or anxiety, he has the 2 mg morphine IV q 2-4 hours d/c on the AM of POD #1. HELLOOO... these are post open heart patients, 3 chest tubes and you want them OOB! it is so personally hard to see patients in pain, try to manage it non-pharmacologically, call repeatedly and just run into the "we don't want to over-medicate" wall it's so bad, i think even at my relatively young age, if i was told i had to have CABG to save my life, i would think twice because it is mideval torture what they put these patients through. education of our older physicians on pain control is sorely needed

it's hormonal, just be sure to thank and apologize after the birth. pedicures helped me keep my cool. just a few minutes to sit alone and be pampered. so nice that i still do it now.

just popping in to say go team! great discussion and way to keep it civil! we need more of this kind of spirit of debate on these boards! :w00t:

we just discharged a lady from our unit with OCD. she had picked the skin off of the top of her head almost down to the bone. ewww. she was so agitated and always wiggling around in her restraints tying to get to her head. very disturbing.

when i was pregnant with my son i worked until 2 weeks before due. worked a night shift, went home, got in bed, 2 hrs later my water broke. delivered a healthy 38 week boy two days later (when i finally agreed to go to the hospital and have the pitocin started). at the time i was on a med tele floor too. now in icu where i really am on feet at bedside at all times, i don't know that i would work up to due date. it is personal. up to you. if you are feeling it is too much to handle and you can afford to be out of work the extra time, then talk to your OB and they will probably give to OK for leave. as for your manager, it would take a heartless person to hassle you about going out on leave a few weeks early.

well, i have seen a cardiac surgeon operate in jeans in one of our rooms on a saturday night. wow what a doc. i'd have his skills in jeans (or a tutu if he preferred) any night of the week. OTOH, it's the open toed shoes that get me. gross. what are you going to step in? what's been on that floor? what could splash on you/fall on you. i'm pretty sure there are OSHA regs about open toes in direct care areas, but i see it time and again from MD's and NP/PA types.

[quote=crissrn27;222 All that being said, if 5 people are in there with there shoes off their stinky feet being loud that is one thing, but if someones husband wants to stay with their wife I don't see anything wrong with this. As long as he is quiet and respectful of the other pt in the room I don't think it is our place to say he must go. They might have never spent a night apart, and I don't want to be the one that separates them for no reason, other than "policy". I know my dad, after his MI, would have been much better off in the ICU with my mom with him all night. He was very scared and nervous and all he wanted was mom. They weren't letting her in until morning........and he suffered all night because of this "policy". He didn't let her out of his sight for weeks after! I think it should be a case by case deal, IMO. i think that there is a very good reason besides policy to have set visiting hours with no overnight stays in semi-private rooms. dignity and modesty and feeling of safety for the roommate. i don't think it is fair to expect another patient to feel totally ok sharing a room with their roomie's visitors, esp visitors of the opposite sex. what if the roommate has a trauma history? i know that i would be EXTREMELY opposed to being forced to share a room with a stranger of the opposite sex. it is up to us to advocate for all of our patients privacy, dignity and safety. and if that means that the husband/wife sleeps in the lounge, then so be it. what if it was you who had to use the commode with so and so's hubby on the other side of the curtain? private rooms can be appropriate for 1 overnight visitor. and my facility's policy allows for unrestricted visiting for the dying pt.

OMG you win! :rotfl: to go with the IV bath stories. we had a ff chf pt on home dopamine so when she would come in you would have to switch her to hospital system and she was grouchy and bossy and i was a new grad. so i had already disconnected her meds and hooked up ours in her PICC, then the IV pump fell off the pole unspiking the bag. dopa all over me, the pt, the bed... me yelling for help knowing her BP would be in the 70's in a minute. and her just sitting there rolling her eyes at me. i wanted to go through the floor.

awww man... did you have to go there? there have been so many threads lately where posters are attacking others abilities as a nurse based on an internet post as another poster stated, OP, bless you for caring about the details (like when a saline lock was flushed) because the details are important. but you may want to, as others have also pointed out, tend your own garden first...

not sure i understand your question. the self help group may be helpful in reducing the stigma in the person's own mind by being able to see for themselves that they are not alone. of course that is just one of many ways in which such groups are helpful...

depends on your area of care, on floors code team comes (docs, RT, anesthesia, ICU nurses and at my facility pharmacy comes too) in the units we run our own. often RN's run our own. i think the best jobs for a new grad are recording- so you get a sense of how things progress or doing compressions- so you are right there to see what people do and how.

big butterfly on my left hip, lizard on my r breast, symbols on my back (I know, i know it was a different time in my life) appointment on friday to get a flaming skull on my l arm. working on ideas for a half sleeve with my son's name. no jail time or harley riding here either.

few good ones here: my midwife and the L&D nurse who helped me bring my son into this world. hard working women, extremely patient, skilled, and creative. when i was hospitalized for an eye infection (leading later to blindness and then cornea transplant) i had to have eye gtts q1 hr around the clock. two night nurses in particular stick in my memory as being kind, funny people. the fellow on my case that admission was also very gentle and caring, actually. the only health care gripes i have are about insurance companies and md's who waaaaay overbook their clinic.