Isadora_Faye

Any advice for dealing with awful coworkers? This person is more than a coworker, but in fact is my "boss" while at work. It is so bad that it makes me not want to go to work. When she walks into the room I just tense up. Sometimes I will go to the furthest location from her I can find in order to chart, even though my patients are located at the other end. I find that she is rude to everyone, but there have been 2 occasions where I have been specifically singled out and embarassed. I was thinking about it, and realized she has never given me ANY positive feedback - I mean zero. As the person in charge, she should be giving me both positive feedback and constructive criticism. Once she lectured me in front of 4 fellow nurses, and in essence called me a slacker (but tried to make it look like she was joking)...what's worse is that it wasn't anything I should have ever been lectured on. ANY TIME I ask her a question, the person that should be there to support my learning, she looks at me like "you are retarded, I can't believe you are asking me this." Oftentimes I will avoid asking questions and just try to figure things out on my own, which I know is not safe, but I am just so scared of her. I get positive feedback from EVERYONE else I work with, I have people go out of their way to say nice things to me and encourage me. From the person who really SHOULD be doing these things, however, I am scolded for trivial things. I don't feel like I have any right to report her, because 1) who am I going to report her to without her finding out? and 2) what if I am just being totally irrational/I really do suck? Sometimes she is nice, she is so nice to the patients, and I just can't decide if I am the only one perceiving her to be someone who is not fit to be in her position. At this point in time I am planning on leaving once the committment I made to the unit is fulfilled, and I can honestly that if it wasn't for her, that might not be the case. I know it's silly to let one person have so much influence on me, but I can't escape her if I'm working where I am right now. I am never confrontational with her, I always accept her criticisms and fix whatever she tells me, I never complain or ask for days off or do anything to cause her grief, and yet she still treats me like crap... Please help &/or share similar stories. I posted in this forum as I am a new nurse and because I feel that my fellow new nurses will best sympathize with feeling inadequate.

You are saying to maintain the pinch throughout the injection? I believe we were taught to stabilize the needle because it prevents the needle from moving at all once inserted.

For any type of Insulin, I learned: pinch the skin, DO NOT aspirate, and inject at a 45 degree angle. We learned only to inject at a 90 degree angle if the person had a lot of subcutaneous fat. We learned, in fact, never to aspirate with subcutaneous (only IM). We also learned to stabilize the needle after insertion with the nondominant hand, therefore losing the "pinch" before actually injecting the insulin (pinch skin with left hand, insert needle with right hand, stabilize needle with left hand and skin goes from pinched to flat, then inject with right hand). What is your evaluation of this method? Now that I am in clinicals and actually having to do these injections, I have done a little research on my own time. It seems the general consensus is to pinch the skin and inject insulin at a 90 degree angle (only injecting at 45 degrees if the person is very thin). I just would like to know from all you expert nurses where I can find the "best practice" information for insulin/subcutaneous injection technique, or if you know you can just tell me. I feel like I am getting conflicting information depending on where the information comes from. Basically I am curious about which angle - 45 or 90. I learned 45 always with 90 as an exception, but now I am thinking I should adopt the 90 degree always with 45 as the exception. Also - keep the pinch throughout or is it only important to have the pinch while inserting the needle? Thanks!

I need some assistance on this topic and I don't have much clinical experience. A lot of times on the MAR it will state with blood pressure medications to "hold if SBP less than 120," etc. Sometimes, however, medications that will lower the blood pressure do not have any printed parameters listed on the MAR or in the drug guides. I am curious how to know when to hold the medication? Granted if someone's blood pressure was 80/50 I wouldn't be giving an antihypertensive, but how do I know where that line is? I know problems can be caused by not giving a regularly scheduled medication even if the blood pressure is stable (because then it will rise), but I also know that giving a medication that will lower blood pressure when the blood pressure is already low is unsafe. Advice is appreciated!