mercykitten

"Mr. Jones, I have been meaning to talk to you about your cholesterol levels. You need to take a pill to lower those levels as well as change your diet. No more salt or fatty foods for you." said Nurse Smith. "Nurse, I do not wish to discuss this." replied Mr. Jones. "You may wish to avoid this conversation about your cholesterol, but it doesn't change the facts. Your life depends on addressing these problems," Nurse Smith responded. "But," replies Mr. Jones, "this is a private matter and has nothing to do with you. How inappropriate of you to bring up these issues, Nurse." Half an hour later in the nurses station, Dr. Hart is discussing Mr. Jones with Nurse Smith as the charge nurse approaches. "If we don't get Mr. Jones to address these health issues including his cholestrol and his diet, those stents we just put in are going to clog. He'll end up needing open heart and that doesn't really solve his problems. Nurse, we have to get him on board with this." Dr. Hart leaves the station. "Jane," says the charge nurse to Nurse Smith. "I am afraid that you have offended Mr. Smith. He said that you brought up issues he does not wish to discuss. He wants you reprimanded for inflicting your views upon him. Maybe it would be better if you don't discuss these matters with him." It isn't about religion. It is about a personal relationship with Jesus. It is okay to bring it up casually to see if the pt wishes to discuss spiritual issues. It is most frequently at night that patients wish to discuss this. As someone who has faced a potentially fatal disease, the afterlife is on your mind a great deal. We have to respect boundaries, not force the topic on someone, but asking us not to say anything at all is like asking Nurse Smith to take no action to save Mr. Jones.

I want to be encouraging and there is good news. While my back pain never completely goes away, it is better at times. But what I have found is that I have learned to tolerate the pain better. Pain that would have had me calling into work, doesn't seem as bad. All pain is personal. I think that we all have to learn how to deal with it. I am not trying to play down your pain at all. Actually I have become thankful for my back pain. Because this year I have had to go through chemo and radiation treatments for cancer. The back pain taught me a lot that helped me handle my treatments. I don't know if this posting will help you much or not. But I will keep you in my prayers....other people's prayers have helped me a lot this year. God bless you.

First, no one has mentioned that the vomiting nurse may have been pregnant. That happens quite frequently with our co-workers (since we are a predominantly female occupation). Several of my co-workers had frequent n/v....and were saving their sick time for their maternity leave. But I must confess that I have worked sick. Early in my career it was because there frequently wasn't anyone to replace me (back in the days of team leading where I was the only RN for 20-44 pts). I don't work sick as often now.....I am older and just can't. Plus now I am working mostly 12 hr shifts. I have called in on days that I would have worked if I had been scheduled for 8 hrs....but being sick, just couldn't go the 12 hrs. But I have also worked sick because of sick policies (just allowed 4 occurences/rolling year) and if you miss on your weekend, you have to make it up by working one of your weekends off. I only get every other weekend off, so that would put me working three weekends out of four in the month. My husband also works every other weekend, so it really messes us up. Anyone else have a simliar experience?

Whose hospital isn't talking about cutting costs? We hear this at every unit meeting. While it is true that governmental budget cuts have impacted all of health care, the ceo's and other high level administrators aren't taking cuts to their pay, and are still getting bonuses that the grunts (you and me) who do the real work are no longer getting. In a previous post "what does your ceo make?", a news story in a Sunday paper was quoted as saying that the ceo at this local hospital was making almost $700, 000 a year. The DON was pulling in more than $300,000. And, yes, RN's in some places in KY are being laid off. But no high administrative people have been touched. Anyone got some thoughts on that?

A newspaper article in our Sunday paper revealed the fact that the ceo at our hospital makes almost $700,000 a year. The vice president of nursing makes over $300,00 a year. And we have been told to do everything possible to save the hospital money. We have lost medicare payments due to the budget crunch. Tonight we "saved the hospital money" by working with a smaller staff since we had discharged many patients from our floor. That worked fine until admitting started filling us up. Anyone else have any ideas on saving money for the hospital? By the way, I know for a fact that at least one employee at our hosp is living in the homeless shelter. .....So what is your ceo making?

Thanks for your note, but I am in Kentucky.....I guess some of the info at allnurses.com got mixed up. But I do like both Texas and North Carolina. My twin brother went to Duke.....mercykitten.

We (hospital) have been told to go restraint free. While I understand the intentions behind this, the reality is that it doesn't work. First of all, it does not support patient safety. We had one pt. fall four times in an hour, one time with the nurse standing right there. It is also an issue of patient safety for others....pts can wander into another's room.....and can become hostile and combative. Secondly, we don't have the staff to handle this. One night we had to have one RN stay with one patient. We're just a regular floor with telemetry....our RNs have up to six pts plus must help their LPN buddies. One night the same team had this psych pt and another pt with a heartrate in the 30s....but pysch pt was combative.....Fortunately the other pts's heart rate went back up. But there was a potential for that one pt to keep another pt from getting the prompt medical attention that was needed. I think that restraint free policy while well meaning, is against all common sense. Unless of course, we are trying to cut short people's lifespan by having them fall and break their hips. And while the nurse is doing this restraint free policy, who is going to be liable when the pt. falls?......We all know that it will be us.