frannybee

It's easy to say don't work nights if you can't go a full shift without sleep, but some of us work rotating shifts and don't have the luxury of being able to refuse nights. The staff that do our rotas think nothing of putting you on for PM/AM/PM then 4 nights, with no regard for the health and safety of us or our patients. We are never given enough time to prepare properly for the night shift routine, nor to come back to days. Yes, we have challenged this practice; no, it didn't make a lick of difference. We get unpaid breaks on a ten-hour night shift, and generally we get those breaks. We take them as one longer break, and the choice to sleep on your break, in your own time, is yours. The ward is always covered by at least two other staff (one RN, one AN) when breaks start, and the proviso for going on break is being aware that you may be called back if needed. This is different from day shift where we can leave the ward and be uncontactable for our whole break. Sleeping when not on breaks is unacceptable. I think of how many times I've not heard a buzzer go off when I'm wide awake on a day shift, and it scares me how easy it would be to miss one even if you are a light sleeper with exceptionally sensitive hearing. I don't condone it and I wouldn't expect to be let off lightly if it was me.

I thought it had to be 5% dex, incompatible with N/S. Could be wrong though, I've only given it a couple of times. Do a Google search for the product info and compatibilities, should tell you what you need to know.

:chuckle Actually, I was in a student bar, playing pool with my bf and two of his lovely mates. Alas, I can't even use rampant rumpy pumpy as an excuse.

Thanks to all of you for your concern and suggestions. The pain is *much* better now, only hurts if I move too quickly without thinking or turn too far. Physio next Tuesday, hopefully be able to go back to work tomorrow night.

:chuckle

My neighbour's baby had a meningitis scare last week - I had to calm my bf down when I told him I had a headache and sore throat to boot (both gone now, and no spots). The headache's prolly due to holding my head differently and the sore throat was from sitting with his best mate while they shared a cigar. Jim's massaged me but my neck doesn't actually feel sore to the touch and the massage didn't do much good. He's kinda heavy handed. As for the electric massager, I have a variety and none of them has helped. Well, not my neck, anyways Thanks for all your suggestions. I've asked Jim to go to the pharmacy for me tomorrow while I'm in physio to get me something topical. Hopefully it'll only be a day or two til it eases.

I'd feel better if I knew what I'd done for it to hurt so much. I've been off for 3 days, so it's not from lifting, I haven't pranged my car, and my partying has been very quiet, honest guv! My mattress and pillows are the same, and I haven't fallen asleep on a sofa or whilst sitting up, so I really have *no* idea what I've done to myself.

I woke up yesterday with a very sore stiff neck. I figured I'd just slept funny so I took some ibuprofen and applied heat, thinking it'd pass by bedtime. Unfortunately it's much worse today, to the point where I can barely move my head from side to side (think I'm in pain all the time and the brufen's doing bugger-all. Codeine/paracetamol don't help, and the dihydrocodeine I took last night gave me awful abdo pain so I daren't take it again. I'm alternating heat-packs with wearing the collar. This is really getting me down now, and it's not helping that I can't get sick pay since I've only been with the NHS for 4 mths. Any other suggestions on how to ease this pain til I can get to the physios?

^ Say no more. My nails stay naked.

We have a freezer full of frozen meals (curries, cottage pies etc) that we can bung in the microwave if we need a meal in a hurry. We also have a little oven and bags of frozen chips (fries) that we can cook up if we have a picky eater. As for the Coke/Pepsi battle, we have drink machines. That's it. You want anything other than tea/coffee/hot chocolate/cordial/horlicks or water, you bring it in yourself or have your family do so.

After having to special a patient who had been given 10x too much insulin (40u instead of 4u) I always check with another nurse. The nurse who made the error was off for a month on stress leave even though the pt was fine. She hadn't had it checked because she was in a hurry to get home to her children. It doesn't have to be signed that it's been checked, but our policy is to have someone cast their eyes over the script and the syringe. Yes, all meds have the potential to cause damage, but these meds are particularly easy to get wrong if you're tired or rushed or just not thinking straight.

That's the one, except the last two words were 'and hymen'!

I vaguely remember being taught a vulgar one but it escapes me....I'll try and find it for you though.

I know you're probably aware of it but I'll bring it up anyway (pet awareness project). If any of your students are having fainting spells, please don't let them play sport until they've been seen by a GP or cardiologist and had an ECG to rule out Long Q-T and other 'hidden' arrhythmias. You more than likely do that anyway but it's something dear to my heart and gets missed far too often. If I can stop *one* child from having a cardiac arrest on a playing field, all the awareness-raising will have been worth it. I'm not trying to teach you to suck eggs, so please accept my apologies if it's come across that way!

'Everybody Hurts' by REM 'No Angel' by Dido 'Hopelessly Addicted' and 'No Good for Me' by The Corrs

There's always the cough-syrup ad in the UK... *sings* Night Nuu-uu-uurse Funky reggae beat, lyrics as follows.... tell her try her best just to make it quick woman tend to the sick because there must be something she can do this heart is broken in two tell her it's a case of emergency there's a patient by the name of mickey night nurse only you alone can quench this here thirst my night nurse oh god oh the pain is getting worse i don't want to see no doc i need attendance from my nurse around the clock because there's no prescription for me she's the one the only remedy my night nurse only you alone can quench this here thirst my night nurse oh the pain is getting worse i'm hurt my love i don't want to see no doc i need attendance from my nurse around the clock because there 's no prescription for me she's the one the only remedy night nurse only you alone can quench this here thirst my night nurse oh the pain is getting worse i'm hurt my love and i'm sure no no doctor got a cure my night nurse my night nurse my night nurse

I would be worried about the risk of wound infection if a c-section is necessary, MRSA in particular. Policy on our ward is to stay out if preggers. If we have I-131 radioactive iodine Rx happening, pregnant nurses get moved off the ward altogether.

We've had a lady in for 2 wks now with dizziness (none observed since admission) and falls (none since admission but covered in bruises o/a). Various investigations, nothing abnormal with any of them. Doctors were going to discharge her tomorrow....she arrested this AM. Alive but unresponsive except to painful stimuli. Shocked the hell out of us.

99% of the nurses I've seen/heard "ratting out" on other nurses have done so to protect their patients. When patients put their lives in your hands, your loyalty must be to them as much as to your fellow nurses. It's not a case of giving up on anyone or of loyalty to "the system", but a case of upholding the code of conduct of nursing, which implores us to protect our patients. Male or female has nowt to do with it. :chair:

:chuckle

I didn't think I had any doozies, but then I remembered these.... ~ The ward sister who pulled me aside, taking me off the ward, and shut the door behind us in her office on my very first prac placement. She told me that I was obese and therefore a candidate for stomach banding, and did I want to give her friend at private hospital X a call about having the surgery? "Oh, and this is our secret so don't mention it to anyone." She even lifted her shirt and made me feel her abdomen to show me where the band would sit and how well she'd done on it. Stupid me didn't mention it til my last day when my mentor went berserk and was threatening to call the nursing council about her - she was not only touting for business, which is illegal, but she also took two nurses off the floor which compromised patient safety. ~ The same ward sister, now on a different ward on my very last placement before graduation...gynae ward, very important to note whether the post-op ladies had passed flatus which would indicate a return to normal bowel function. In handover, I was trying to inject a bit of humour as we'd all had a really rough day and instead of said 'she is passing very large amounts of flatus regularly' as was written in the notes, I said she was farting like a trooper. Everyone laughed but Sister, who dug her fingernails into my arm and yanked me toward her and whispered in my ear "We do not say fart in MY hospital. The word is flatus. If you do anything like this again I will see to it that you never work here". Of course nobody heard what she said to me, so when we came out my mentor asked about it. I told her and she was less than complimentary about the sister. Two weeks later it was revealed that she had assaulted a student nurse (slapped her face for answering back whilst getting told off for something petty) and was losing her licence to practice. I couldn't wait to get off that ward while she was there, but would love to go back now. ~ Student called Greta who ended up nicknamed 'Bimbo' for her stupid questions in lectures. We had a visiting lecturer from Western Samoa who was talking about cultural and nursing differences between Australia and W.Samoa. Greta sticks up her hand and asks, "Is it true that men are allowed to have more than one wife there?" Lecturer, born and bred in W.Samoa and married to a W.Sam. man, says "No - some Polynesian/Micronesian/indonesian cultures may practice polygamy but it is not part of the W.Sam. lifestyle." Greta: "But my dad worked there for 3 months and he said that men there can marry as many women as they want". Despite being told by the lecturer that this wasn't true, and being asked by the rest of the class to get back to the real purpose of the lecture, she wouldn't drop it. Her misguided beliefs about different cultures astounded me, especially when we went on a rural prac together and worked in a largely Aboriginal community. Every day she spouted racist and just plain wrong statements, yet when we both applied for the same rural nursing scholarship at the end of the year, she got it and I missed out. I can't hate her though, because she made me go to the party where I met my partner, Jim - probably the only good thing she ever did for me! Our A+P lecturer, a lovely Chinese man, had an idea to create a contraceptive brief (underwear) for men, working from the theory that excessive heat kills sperm. He wanted to call them "Naughty Noodles Pants". I suggested "Toasty Testes" which he loved -giggled for the rest of the lecture.

I have never beed DNRed but have refused to go back to one ward who delighted in giving me the unmanageable bay *and a student*. Four all-care patients, one who was dying, a confused wanderer and another with a hip wound that was leaking fluorescent yellow pus. There were six pts in the bay, and I had 2 cubes as well (the perm. nurses had a bay each, no cubes). Morphine syringe driver ran out and needed replacing - nurses 1,2,3 and 4 all said ask Sister, we're busy - Sister then said ask one of the nurses, I'm busy. Took well over an hour to get someone to accept that I couldn't do it by myself and NEEDED someone to check the CDs. I got bawled out because it got to 10am and only 3 of my patients had their beds made (all were clean, medicated, fed and safe). The poor student had to put up with me ranting and desperately struggling to keep up - bless her, it was her first placement and here I was, on my 6th shift as an RN! I still rankle when I think that on a ward full of E and F-grade nurses (not new nurses, some experience and additional skills, more responsibility) I was left with a student who expected me to be able to teach her something about nursing. I did teach her about agency nursing - if a ward treats you like shit, you leave and don't come back. I left that ward smack on the dot of 1pm and was on the phone to the agency at 1.05pm telling them what had happened and that I would never go back. Two hours later I started on another ward in the same hospital and had a fabulous time - great staff and friendly atmosphere. We all cried together when the evening news came on and we found out what had happened in New York. Those shifts were on 11/9/01, and I can never forget them.

The trust I work for has a new regime for pts admitted with insulin-dependent diabetes and BSLs over 25mmol/L. Lady came in from a residential home having collapsed, found to have BSL 34mmol/L. Started on new regime (4x 1L N/S Q1hr, 2x 0.45% NaCl Q2hr then 1L N/S with 40KCl Q4hr until r/v). Cathed on arrival as she was unresponsive and would have been unfair on her (and us!) to keep changing her pads while they pumped her full of fluid. She passed the most revolting urine for about 2 hours (3400ml) then it cleared and we got another 4000ml over the next 3 hrs. Total of over 8000ml that shift, but she wasn't in retention so doesn't count for the gong of most pee in one go....but I was impressed! Regime did the trick, BTW - 2000% improvement in her condition after 48hrs, and her electrolytes never got out of balance once (12hrly bloods).

You guessed right, Ratched - her team were discussing it but as she was allegedly competent, they were reluctant to transfer her out anyway. All is well, she went home today and because the room is hot now, we have one less patient to worry about

We used feet a lot in neuro ITU when arms and heads were covered and tangled in 4 million different lines. Doctors still do the cannulation here, so doctors order is n/a :)