Escape5

I have been feeling the same, "never good enough" hits the nail on the head. I don't think it's wrong to become frustrated when you feel like you give it your all and you never get any positive feedback. I've been a nurse for 5 years and I wouldn't have made it through without telling myself I've done I good job....but it feels really good to get positive feedback and sadly, I've found it lacking in the few jobs of my nursing career. In my experience, it seems like people are a lot quicker to write you up or complain, just for the sake of it, versus give you a pat on the back or even a simple thank you. It's funny how much I've come to savor the phrase "thank you"....it makes my day. People just don't seem to say it enough, or if they do, it is not genuine.

Well, I don't quite agree with that but if you feel that way it's your choice. I have enough time to once in a while notice and appreciate nice things even in such a high-stress, fast-paced environment. I've come way to close to burn out otherwise.

I generally don't find Toradol ordered in major trauma, at least in the ED. We usually give small doses of Fentanyl in the initial trauma assessment since it is short-acting, less risk of hypotension, potent enough to provide some pain relief while we are finishing 2ndary and adjuncts (placing splints, log-rolling, waiting for scans.) It's all specific to the doc I'm sure.

So I'm just coming out of my lurking shell, sorry if there's been a similar thread. Just wanted to see if anyone had a really sweet ER story to share. When I say sweet, I mean did someone in the ER (patient, visitor, fellow nurse, physician, staff) do or say something perhaps small but very touching? I love the ER but it is often void of the warm fuzzies! Anyways, a couple to share on my end... The medics brought in an elderly lady on a recent Saturday s/p fall in a grocery store. A very young man (20s/30s) had been nearby shopping and immediately went to her side, called EMS. He offered to help the pt. get in touch family or friends to let them know she was going to the hospital, but the pt. replied she was no longer close to anyone in her life. After she arrived at our ED, I encountered the young man in the waiting room. He had driven to the hospital to come and stay with her in the room so she was not alone and scared. With pt.'s permission, he went back and sat with her for hours during the work-up. Total strangers, generations apart. No alterior motives, he just knew she was alone in this life and she truly needed a companion at that time. I'm sure he had other plans for that Saturday night too and but there he was at her side. Maybe it was something small, but it touched me....I see a lot of loneliness, entitlement, drama, tragedy etc....it's nice to encounter kindness. I also had an elderly gentlmen arrive by medic after a fall. Pretty minor fall but many health issues, definitely needing a medical eval. His wife arrived maybe 30 minutes later. She was delayed because she quickly wanted to snip some fresh flowers from her garden to bring to his ER nurse (me.) They were beautiful and she was so proud of them. I transported them home in a urinal (all i had but it worked great!) and then put them in my favorite vase. They stayed fresh for almost a week, and I thought of that lovely pt. and his wife every time I looked at them. Very thoughtful....I'm sure she was very anxious about her husband, but she still took a couple minutes and gave me more comfort in a time she should receive it.

I've been lurking for a while on these boards but felt the need to de-lurk to reply to your post. I have been spirituality-confused as well due to many reasons (mostly personal issues, nothing major just some unwanted life changes). I have an RN job which I like most of the time but is no longer challenging me....combined w/ the personal stuff, I am just definitely needing a change of environment...wishing I felt content and stable in at least one area of life! Anyways, won't go into my whole story but I definitely felt like I relate to the things you've said and I wanted to let you know that you're not alone. Life throws curve balls, and as much as I don't undestand why, it is simply not fair at times. I still think the easiest way I find comfort is in the conviction that there is a reason for the suffering you are going through. You may not know it for a while, but going through rough times is changing your life in ways that allow you to get to better places. Hang in there and keep holding on to the hope you have that things will get better, even if it's just a small amount of hope. Life WILL get better and time will demonstrate there is something great out there for you...perhaps something so great that you simplycan't imagine it now.

I always enjoy random symptoms thrown together into one complaint: "Dizziness, tooth pain, hearing voices" "Chest pain/UTI" "Suture removal/H1N1"

i had a pt the other day who listed an allergy to caffiene, reaction: jittery. i also had a pt. that wrote she was allergic to "tacos." um ok....

I think a lot of this comes down to age. It's does seem a lot different when a younger person calls an older person sweety/honey/etc, rather than vice versa...younger to older can tend to sound demeaning in my opinion. I am in my 20s, and more often that not, it's my patients who are calling me honey, sweetie, etc. I really like it and find it endearing...unless it is from a patient around my age or younger. In those cases, it rubs me the wrong way. I generally refrain from calling a patient by a name like that, although I've been guilty of it a couple times without thinking. At the same time, I don't like calling pts maam, sir, or Mr./Mrs., because it feels cold to me. I know it's probably the safest bet to be professional and respectful, but not as friendly . I'll go w/ Mr./Mrs, but if a pt. introduces themselves to me by a first name, I'll use it. Never had a problem. I sometimes will call the pt. "my friend" like, "alright, my friend, i'm going to start your IV now..." It seems like a good in between, not too cold but pretty low potential of offending someone.

If a pt. is on any sort of cardiac monitoring, they must be transported to the floor with an RN and an additional person (usually an EMT.) It's really annoying because it pulls the nurse off the floor for at least 10 minutes, up to 20 (depending on where you are transporting in our huge hospital.) Sure I can understand if they are unstable or going to ICU, but an RN w/ ACLS has to transport very stable people going to tele (and our docs just love to order tele for pretty much everyone.) I don't understand thought why they are allowed to go to CT or XR w/o monitoring if stable, but have to be transported on a monitor to the floor. We DEF need a better system. If they don't have tele, then a pt. transporter comes and picks them up. We do electronic report except for IMC or ICU pt.'s, so report is faxed and a phone call follow-up to confirm or answer questions.

I work in a Level I Trauma Center/ER. Code Blue and Code Yellow refer specifically to trauma. It confuses some people, esp. new grads, when a CPR in progress or a patient codes in a room, they will call it a Code Blue...we just call it "pt. coding" or "cpr" in room X. The rest of the hospital, it's an MSET. Here's ours: MSET - Cardiac Arrest (not sure exactly what is stands for...) Rapid Response - Not an MSET but unstable pt. who needs add'l attention emergently. Anesthesia STAT (usually when someone has difficult airway and cannot be intubated) Code Blue - Unstable Trauma/Severe MOI coming in Code Yellow - Stable trauma coming in Code White - Trauma w/ CPR in progress (not overheaded b/c they gen. do not make it.) Code Vascular - Dissecting AAA coming in Code Purple - Unit on lockdown (no visitors allowed, gen. r/t gang related trauma) Dr. Red - Fire (when it's over, "Dr. Red return to your office." Pt.'s have figured it out). Code Walker - Pt. eloped. Followed by description of pt. Code Pink - Infant abduction There's a couple more like Orange, Black, Brown, Green, all referring to some sort of disaster, bomb, decon, etc. but I can't remember them and thankfully have yet to hear those ones called. Also, I wish we could call a code when our ER was filed to capacity. It would probably be a daily occurrance. We sometimes are able to go on Re-Route (if allowed by pt. condition, ambulances are directed toward neighboring ERs.) However, usually when we go on re-route, the other ERs will go on it soon afterwards and when everyone is on re-route, it all kind of becomes null...they gotta go somewhere!

This comes a little late in the thread, but thanks to all who provided links to Microbiology website! I am in Microbiology and I just can't take studying in the book anymore, it's too dense and I can't concentrate. For some reason, I learn much better reading things online. Good luck everyone!

I feel the same way as you. I am starting nursing school soon, and I browse these boards a lot and I am usually comforted and excited by some of the posts I see about nurses with good experiences, passion for their jobs, and a positive outlook. When I see posts like this, I do get anxious about my decision to enter nursing. I try to remember the reasons I am entering nursing and focus on the positives... Everyone deserves to be happy and I absolutely agree, if one is not happy, find something else - life is too short to do something that you don't want to do. Good luck to you (the OP).