Orca ADN, ASN, RN

Hospice, corrections, psychiatry, rehab, LTC

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All Content by Orca

  1. Orca

    Pre employment drug screen positive for pcp!!!!

    Orca replied to cocosmama's topic in General Nursing

    My guess is that they will seek confirmation of the results by a more precise and specific test that will show that what you had on board wasn't
  2. Orca

    Pre employment drug screen positive for pcp!!!!

    Orca replied to cocosmama's topic in General Nursing

    You mentioned that you were taking a lot of OTC cold medications. Dextromethorphan and diphenhydramine are known to cause false positive tests for PCP. Many OTC cold and allergy formulas contain one...
  3. Orca

    Administration lacks the reasoning ability of a 5 year old

    Orca replied to Guest219794's topic in General Nursing

    One thing I learned a long time ago: Arguments about time, care and efficiency go nowhere with management without specifics. These people deal in numbers, and they're a lot more worried about their...
  4. Orca

    they see dead people

    Orca replied to tatara's topic in General Nursing

    My mother - an RN, former ICU nurse and longtime house supervisor, was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She was a patient in the hospital where she had worked for so many years. The night before she...
  5. Orca

    What was your route to get where you are today?

    Orca replied to kikipania's topic in General Nursing

    I started out in college as pre-medical - as did about half the school. I had trouble cutting the chemistry and calculus, so I found a major I liked - psychology. A social science degree got me a...
  6. Orca

    Psych Interview...any suggestions?

    Orca replied to DMCRN's topic in Psychiatric

    If I had to give a single piece of advice for any interview, this would be it. I am astounded sometimes by the things people say about previous employers. Some have run down a litany of difficulties...
  7. Orca

    job interview

    Orca replied to Aviationurse's topic in Psychiatric

    Sounds like this bunch is operating on a shoestring. Unfortunately, with the economy and jobs being the way they are, it is likely that more employers will operate like this - passing expenses on to...
  8. Orca

    job interview

    Orca replied to Aviationurse's topic in Psychiatric

    Far too many unanswered questions, as far as I'm concerned. The fact that they want you to provide your own equipment (and they also want to dictate the type) is a big red flag for me. It sounds like...
  9. Orca

    More doubts... but practicing my affirmations!

    Orca replied to tripp3horn's topic in General Nursing

    I went to a community college. The median age in my class was about 35, and two of my classmates were over 50. These are people who know how the world works and they were focused on what they were...
  10. Orca

    I think my resident may have been having an MI

    Orca replied to Spritenurse1210's topic in General Nursing

    You had no choice but to call EMS. If you called the doctor, make sure to chart the date and time and that there was no
  11. Orca

    How was your first time poke?

    Orca replied to lina.561's topic in General Nursing

    On an IV start in nursing school, before I stuck the patient he asked me if I had done this before. My reply was "A time or two." The patient smiled, confident that I knew what I was doing. He had no...
  12. Orca

    Where Can a New Grad Get experience!?

    Orca replied to dfowler19's topic in General Nursing

    I had a brief foray into long term care, and I completely agree. Small things had a big impact, because they were a bigger part of the person's day. There is also the issue of patients not being able...
  13. Orca

    What would you do?

    Orca replied to Soph_LPN's topic in General Nursing

    It would be irresponsible to go to work and risk passing on an infection to your patients. Whether the agency was irritated or not, you did the right
  14. Orca

    Got really put down by my supervisor today

    Orca replied to jdub3's topic in General Nursing

    It struck me the same way. It may be that this manager is simply trying to stress the importance of organization with you. Asking several people to trust to memory what you have done over a period of...
  15. Orca

    How was your first time poke?

    Orca replied to lina.561's topic in General Nursing

    A couple of first stick stories: First, my first injection. I was on my OB rotation in nursing school. I checked my patient's orders and she had an AM injection scheduled. To top it off, the order was...
  16. Orca

    Charting "Incidents"

    Orca replied to Bug Out's topic in General Nursing

    I didn't say not to chart anything about the incident. Just don't go into the level of detail that you would in an incident report, or mention that an incident report exists. As far as a jury taking...
  17. Orca

    Charting "Incidents"

    Orca replied to Bug Out's topic in General Nursing

    As a rule of thumb, if a patient tells me something I use a verbatim quote if possible, without any judgment of whether the patient is telling the truth. I would include behavior that is out of whack...
  18. Orca

    What was the MOST ridiculous thing a patient came to the ER for?

    Orca replied to JUSTYSMOM's topic in Emergency

    Several years ago I worked on a hospital adult mental health unit. We had a middle-aged female patient who was a frequent flier and a known opiate addict. She claimed to have migraine headaches, and...
  19. Orca

    Best ER Nurse quotes

    Orca replied to JennyAS's topic in Emergency

    Charge nurse assigning patients: "Do you want the smurf, or too drunk to
  20. Orca

    Medical stumper

    Orca replied to Zen APRN's topic in Psychiatric

    Have you gotten a blood ammonia level on her? I had a male patient on an adult MH unit once who had an undiagnosed liver problem. He would be sitting in a chair and he would suddenly just be...
  21. Orca

    Attaching resume or not?

    Orca replied to rawrn's topic in General Nursing

    A resume is redundant with an application, unless the application specifically asks for one. The information in a resume (apart from your education and job history, which will be on the application)...
  22. Orca

    Psych floor in hospital vs Free-standing Facility

    Orca replied to Guest321574's topic in Psychiatric

    I have worked in both. As I see it, advantages and disadvantages of both: Hospital unit Advantages - Easy access to medical care when needed, or when emergencies occur. Specialists and consultants...
  23. Orca

    Do you start IV's on inmates?

    Orca replied to stephied's topic in Correctional

    I have on several occasions. Usually it is for either hydration or administration of antibiotics. I gave some LR to a guy who got burned
  24. Orca

    prison?

    Orca replied to Medsport's topic in Correctional

    Even if the prison is an intake facility, you won't get the number of intakes that you get at a busy county jail. For the most part, prison inmates are respectful to medical staff because (1) they...
  25. Orca

    UAP walking all over me...

    Orca replied to NurseLoveJoy88's topic in General Nursing

    When you are new in a profession, it isn't an easy thing to exude confidence. However, if you are timid and show that you are unsure about the directives you are given (or worse, allow subordinates to...