pirap

Check your orders also-some doctors specifically state NO FUNDAL CHECKS..JUST FYI

Is anyone out there using GE Centricity EMR (Electronic Medical Record) Charting? Just wondering how it is working for your specific department and what changes has your department/hospital made to make it specifically fit your nursing area? We went to this system back in June so that we would eventually be a paperless hospital and we would forgo the hard chart. I really enjoy my job-I love my job actually-but this system has us charting more than we ever had before. I work mother/baby and on occasion we may have 5 couplets to chart on so we are charting on 10 people every 4 hours-which takes A LOT OF TIME. We just had a 3 hour updated class that added even more stuff to chart. To top it off labor/delivery uses watch child and that information doesn't even cross over to our system so we have to rechart everything they do in watch child onto our system(They don't have to use the GE system "yet"). Like to hear from 'ya.

I have a teaching degree in Elementary/Middle and taught some too and now I am on Mother/Baby and LOVE IT. You just work your way through Med/Surg in nursing school..everyone does. I worked Med/Surg for a year after graduation and learned and mastered almost every skill I have today. It was hard but I know how to care for many kinds of patients. OB used to be just deliver patients but many women are delaying having kids and our population is older now and many woman have huge health problems--diabetes, high blood pressure, etc so not only do I care for postpartum but also manage medical issues. Learn everything you can..take nothing for granted. One day you will get the job you want.

I teach a childbirth class/work postpartum and one of my students has had prolo therapy in her lower back. I have never heard of it and she was wondering if she could have an epidural. I believe her therapy was in the lumbar area. Prolotherapy for those who don't know:Prolotherapy ("Proliferative Injection Therapy") involves injecting an otherwise non-pharmacological and non-active irritant solution into the body, generally in the region of tendons or ligaments for the purpose of strengthening weakened connective tissue and alleviating musculoskeletal pain. Has any nurse out there had experience with this type of patient? I have not and my co-workers have not either-including the girls in labor/delivery. I never had the opportunity to speak to one of our anesthesia guys this week as I only worked one day. Any help would be appreciated!!!!

My mother has been a dialysis nurse for over 15 years. She is an LPN. Anyway, dialysis is a very hard and demanding job. You are constantly on your feet and stay bent over a lot helping patients. You are required to lift/carry 50 plus pounds of jugs with bicarb, etc to the machines. Nurses for this field are in a HUGE demand because of the growing concern with diabetes and other major health issues. You will find no shortage. The pay is usually excellent, with great benefits and a 3 day work week(full-time). You are off on MOST holidays but vacations are not allowed around major holidays because a lot of patients are non compliant even more during holidays so sometimes you have more patients scheduled(this is what mom says). If you are looking into something "easier" than med-surg then I would say NO to dialysis. Mom says patients can be a pain in the butt however you do form good relationships with some patients since some come for years on end-either waiting for a kidney or they don't get one and die. Another aspect that is so demanding is that the dialysis centers don't want a "cold" chair. So if a patients particular treatment is for 3 hours management wants them up and out of there FAST so the next patient can get on. Some days it's assembly line type of work. Mom likes it OK. She works for Davita and I think they are a HUGE company(not sure) but her pay and benefits are good and are BETTER than the hospitals in this area. Hope this helps. Mom laughs because everyone thinks dialysis is easy. People say "The nurses are just sitting around waiting for the patient to get off." Dialysis patients usually receive lots of medications during/after dialysis and many get blood..so they are quite busy.

I put a year in med/surg with often 7 pts a shift. Things get hectic I know. Just hang in there...you are so new. If this is not your type of nursing--learn EVERYTHING you can, do the best you can and when you go home don't worry about it. Your "grove" will come with time and experience and many of the things you are fretting about will be a distant memory!! On the MS Gulf Coast, huh? Man I wish...I think I would stop at a local casino and throw a few back with a that $50 that is burning a hole in my pocket.... (We used to vacation there every year for 1-2 days and then journey onto Florida to the beaches with the kids for 2-3 days..Casino Magic was our spot...still there but not to play anymore..sorry just a side note!!!!!) Hang in there!!

i am 36 years old and have not been in nursing that long. when i was in orientation there was an rn that became a nurse in her late 40's that was 74 years old..yes 74 years and she could work circles around me. i never thought she was day over 40. i think you are a little selfish in your thoughts..many of those ladies sacrificed and devoted their entire "young" years to their children. they raised up their babies and now they have all the time in the world to finally get to do something for themselves. what should they do-stay home? what should their job be???mcdonalds, deliver papers, work at the gas station-all necessary jobs of course.. nursing isn't always about skills. an "older" nurse brings to the profession that not too many younger nurses can-life experiences-whether from her home life or a previous first career. something that i rarely see in a 19-27 year old. i think it's pretty sad that you would look at "older" classmates and make such hurtful comments. and to answer your question that nurse who graduated from rn school at 50 years old just retired at the ripe "old" age of 76..so 26 years??? i'm not in my 50's but those words hurt me for hurt feelings you might have caused someone working so hard toward a career in nursing. it's words like those that push the nursing field back a few steps. we should embrace anyone with the drive, determination, ability to get a nursing license-not discriminate because of someone's age. what you are saying is no different than saying "whites deserve to go to nursing school and african-americans or hispanics don't." it's no different...

We are a busy mother baby unit and sometimes we have 20 plus ADMISSIONS and the same discharges EVERYDAY!!!! Sometimes I get 2 admits and 2-3 discharges...just goes with the job. Our charge nurse tries to look at acuity first and then the admits are assigned in order of delivery to nurses based on patient load. The only time I have ever complained is when I got 2 admits that delivered within 1 hour of each other and they both arrived at the same time--SHIFT CHANGE OF COURSE. THAT WAS L/D FAULT...thats for another thread...

our policy is a minimum of 1 hour in recovery following a lady partsl delivery. some nurses hang onto their patients forever and the faster ones drop off and get a new one-totally not fair. some nurses hang onto their patients as long as they can only to dump on the post partum floor right before shift change. i really wouldn't worry about that hour except if you are one of the ones who like make your pt hang around for as long as you can.

i wouldn't confront these people but you are right..it is child abuse.. can you imagine what it must be like in a car with the windows rolled up and someone sucking on cigarette after cigarette with these poor helpless souls strapped in the car with no way to get out or a way to roll the windows down...the windows may be slightly cracked but come on..no one rides with the windows down anymore!!! even if you roll them down all the way smoke is still in the car or ashes are getting blown all around!! can you imagine these kids in their beds night after night breathing horrible cigarette smoke? man the thought just makes me want to puke my brains out... have you ever smelled the children of smokers?? they absolute reek of cigarette smoke..not just on their clothes but down to their pores..you can even smell it on their breath. you wouldn't leave a loaded gun on the coffee table, or an open bottle of medicine out in their reach..both could be deadly in an instant..but if you smoke around your kids you are killing them--slowly.

i started a nursing program in 1996 and quit because of some of the same things you describe. i did a clinical rotation at a va hospital in virginia and saw how some of the staff treated our veterans and decided that there was no way in hell that i would ever be a nurse--if this was what nursing was all about. by quiting i made the biggest mistake in my life, but with age comes more maturity and more life exposures. i went back into nursing several years later and now work mother/baby and teach childbirth education classes and hope to one day become a certified lactation consultant. i love my career(it's not just a job to me). my point, maybe wiping feces/urine/lifting people isn't the type of nursing that is suited for you. there are lots of opportunities from school nursing, teaching(health ed in schools), occupational health, etc. so many avenues!!! i used to have anxiety every time i went to my job on the med/surg unit, but now that i have found my niche, i look forward to going to work every single day!!!! good luck and please don't give up..like with anything new comes anxiety and stress.

Our tests were posted by pin numbers we created and so occasionally, early in our program, my best friend would check mine for me if they were posted after I left. I was the top student until the very last semester out of a class of 150, worked FULL TIME(29-40 hours/week), had 2 kids under 4 and pregnant with my 3rd the last semester and so yes on occasion I feel SOME people were kinda taken back by my grades. But I pushed myself and I didn't get the good grades to impress or show off. I felt bad if I didn't make an A on every test or at least have an A EVERY SEMESTER. But my best friend probably has the BEST nursing skills and SHE NEVER BOUGHT A NURSING BOOK IN SCHOOL AND GOT BY WITH C's!!!!!! She is awesome!!! Passed boards on the first try(I did also). My skills in nursing relate to the teaching side/education and hers hands on skills are kick a$$!! So it doesn't matter what your grades are anyways and I believe we are losing a lot of potential awesome nurses because most schools look at the GRADES rather than the whole person!

if you have a year and don't want to sit idle i vote for pursuing the surgical tech program. in areas such as labor/deliver the nurse manager in our hospital requires scrub experience due to increase rate of c/s and if the rn is already experienced then she follows the patient from start to finish. also studying for the st program will get you focused, in my opinion, on nursing school. i was never a patient care/nurse tech and i did fine out of school and the grueling first year of med/surg. being a tech before a nurse isn't required in my opinion. i've watched techs in my nursing school class kill themselves working only to be dead tired on exam day. staffing wants their people and most could care less if you are in school. also if you are tech and get in trouble for calling in, being late, or quit because of school conflicts, i know our hospital looks at your previous job history at their hospital. i didn't want anything screwing up my chance to work where i wanted to work! you know how short the profession is and you should have no problems getting into an icu!! good luck!

Almost ALL my books were the older edition. If the class was using edition 8 I had edition 7. IT NEVER MADE A DIFFERENCE. Our Med/Surg books were almost identical except for a few pictures and maybe a different consulting nurse or doctor here and there listed in the credits. I MADE STRAIGHT A's IN NURSING SCHOOL. If a teacher makes reference to a certain table chances are that your "older" book has it just on a different page or you could always look at a friends or go to the library. Don't waste your money on brand new books and if you buy them DON'T BUY ANY BOOKS UNTIL YOU GET TO CLASS. We "had" to buy this nutrition book-cost $75 and we used it for ONE week for the lecture. I never bought it, just paid careful attention to good sources of vitamin A, etc. I talked to the hospital dietician and she gave me a little handbook of what foods are with what vitamin, mineral, etc so there are other sources than an expensive book. Also "had" to buy the book Nursing Today-$40 only to consult how to do a resume, cover letter and all sorts of crap that was common sense-like what not to do on your job or interview. BIG MONEY waster(not for ME). OK to buy older editions!! HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!!! PASSED MY BOARDS WITH 75 questions and at the top of my class!!!

i did my internship in l&d and liked it but i've found i love mother/baby way more. my best friend did her internship in l&d and got a job right out of nursing school worked a year and left. she left because the enormous responsibility and liability was too much for her to risk. think about it, in most states the parents can sue you up to what 21-23 years later?? maybe that small decel caused them a brief deprivation of oxygen and they sue you because johnny is special ed? you know maybe you spent over an hour trying to get the doctor to come access the strip and he just kept telling you to give her oxygen and turn her, etc and you tried to tell him about decels, etc and he still dragged his a$$ in on his time only to do an emergency section with the baby going to the nicu with apgars of 3/5 and later to find out the kid has mild cerebral palsy. ok who gets blamed? the nurse of course. if it's your dream-make sure you have good malpractice insurance and you are up on your game with good assessment skills and ball$ to get a doc on the phone to be an advocate for your patients!

Nevermind..better not post this

My ratio was usually 7:1 Our CNA on our floor was 11:1 or 10:1 (if she is lucky she will get the shorter hall!) NO MED NURSE Hopefully our secretary was there! I didn't "hate" my job but I had way too many patients and it wasn't safe. I learned a lot and wouldn't change my experience for the world!

that's your mom? that's your dad? that's your family? poor little baby! ok reality..i :redbeathe my job 100%..sometimes though i really wonder about the families who are "allowed" to have kids and are "allowed" to leave with them!! my real 3 words... love my job

You could also look into volunteering with La Leche League or a support group for breastfeeding moms. Sometimes having a a little background like this may help you gain employment after nursing school-especially in hard to get areas like mother/baby or l&d. Well documented time assisting moms with breastfeeding could help you later be a certified lactation consultant(if you have ever thought about that avenue). We have volunteers on our floor that do secretarial things and help with translation if needed. Good luck!

"it's a shame that insurance companies haven't caught on to the fact that homebirths save them thousands of dollars per birth and reduce charges for unnecessary interventions. " i have nothing against a home birth/birth center delivery..nothing at all, but frankly the above quote from another poster really got me to thinking. imagine if a home birth goes bad..the midwife loses the heartbeat and the nearest hospital is 15-20 minutes or more away. they take the baby by emergency c-section and revive the baby but it's brain dead/vegetable and for the next 80 years this person lives. who is paying for this "savings?" yes this could still happen in l&d but the trip to the or is less than 1 minute away. risks are everywhere in ob and the liability is a huge burden on a lot of our minds. so i have to agree with another poster that the main reason we don't let our moms/babes leave is liability. i'm just throwing the "vegetable" theory out there. i'm not mean hearted or mean spirited..just like to play devils' advocate.

I'm a relatively a new nurse, grad of May 2006, and I love my job on Mother/Baby. I am part time. I also teach Expectant Parenting Classes (Childbirth) and a program for low income expectant moms that teaches childbirth, infant care, safety, etc. I LOVE MY JOB(S). I "did my time" in med/surg and I don't regret that long year of hard, backbreaking, exhausting, thankless work. That year taught me to prioritize, interact with demanding patients and FAMILIES, work with lots of people(MD's, respiratory, CNA, PT, etc). Very often I had critical patients, many should have been in ICU. I left because I was in fear of my license and my family livelihood/future. I began to worry, night after night of having 7 high acuity patients, that I could make a mistake and harm someone simply because we had a staffing problem or in hurry to get my work done I overlooked something important. Med/Surg was not my favorite but it is the foundation of all nursing and important and often a foot in the door to another nursing position. My advice is to explore what interests you rather than what schedule works best or doing a job just because it might be beneficial later. I knew OB/GYN and teaching was what I wanted to do. I took a pay cut to do a job I wanted to do instead of staying where the money was better.

If the mom is so dead-set against leaving ASAP then why in the world did she birth in a hospital anyway? Medical intervention OK to bring your baby into the world but then abruptly rescind it? I would think mom knew the "standard" stay by having a good dialog with her OB/GYN and speaking with the pediatrician prior to delivery. Maybe the mom should have had a home birth and arranged a home visit by a pediatrician or family doctor.

My oldest daughter who is 7 was treated for scabies. No "special light" was used to look for mites, no scrapings, no ink test..nothing. OK maybe the doctor knew immediately what it was. Gave her medication Elimite to treat it..OK..I have a 4 year old and a 16 month old..all my girls play together with toys, blankets, get in each others bed, hug/love on one another. I asked the doctor if they were going to treat ALL of us..they said NO..basically schedule another appointment if we show signs. OK from nursing school and all that I read about treatment it HIGHLY recommends that the entire family be treated at the same time. She could get them again!! I feel that I am washing bedding, vacuuming in vain because I may have them and don't know it yet..same for the rest of us. She was treated Monday. I have not been treated so I guess I continue to work, my hubby too, and my other kids continue to let them go to daycare/preschool? I just feel that we could be passing them around and I could be cleaning my house "to death" for months to come..instead of just treating all of us and doing a major cleaning now. Not looking for advice here...just wondering what ya'll think??!!!! Besides vacuuming the floor is there stuff to wipe on bedposts, floors, sinks, etc that is effective in treating this additionally??

When I working Med/Surg just early last year the trauma docs said it was OK to give SC upper legs. Our patient had a lot of abdominal trauma..but if ok for that why not SC anywhere else??

We have titles, too and we worked hard to earn our position. When I phone a doctor or answer the phone I usually say, "Nurse Smith or Mrs. Smith, RN or Mary Smith, RN speaking." I will soon one day have a Doctorate so I WILL be saying Dr. Smith, RN speaking." Talk about confusion!!!!:wink2: