Aerolizing

Where I work, ECT is done quite often especially to those patients who have complicated medical histories who may not be good candidates for the usual antidepressants or who have had no sucess with antidepressants. The patient is NPO after mid...

I work in a long term facility. We call in hospice for our folks with end of life pain control issues and they do a wonderful job getting pain meds ordered. We also tend to use a lot of transdermal patches (fentanyl)sp?. They last for three days a...

I am new to ltc and man oh man, I could fill up all available space to talk of my concerns. I am getting ripped from family members every day. I am getting no support from administration when I have serious concerns for my patients from the care t...

I work with mental health specialists and have worked with behavioral health techs and psych assistants. The best ones have been college educated as a requirement of the position. I have worked with many CNAs who had zero psych training working as ...

competence respecting your patient and family punctuality honesty ability to listen patient advocacy

I have worked with a few post partum psychotic women. With each and everyone of them, we had family meetings. In those family meetings we could not stress enough that the patient was never to be alone with the baby. There was always to be a family...

For some of my tougher classes, I would read the whole chapter into my little tape recorder and then play it at all available chances like in the car on the way to and from school, when I went to bed, I played it until I fell asleep. I also got rea...

We had a young nurse who came to our hospital to request that her spinal cord be severed. (That is how she ended up on the psych unit.) She knew that meant paralysis and life in a wheelchair. She had pain that was not controlled by multiple surger...

Not in Cleveland. We have plenty of people who sign so communication is not really a problem. We have even had a deaf, mute, and blind patient. So if you specialize, do deaf people ever "hear" voices or do they just have obsessive bad thought...

Hi PattyJo, I have some distant relatives in Lone Pine and one of my second or third cousins was going to be a psych nurse. Been there a few times and everyone there knows everyone else. Pretty neat. Anyway.. In my experience as a nurse...

Can anyone tell me where to get the latest restraint and seclusion regulations? My place of employment doesn't seem to have access to it. I want to be able to help them with a writen copy or at least a web site. I have searched JCAHO site to no av...

Hey PattyJo, Do you have people in Lone Pine????

Hi Brown Suga, I was a nurse tech, not sure if that is the same thing as an extern but probably close. I was based on an ortho floor and got to have my elective floor (since no one in their right mind would ever want psych) sometimes. I...

As for the breaking of sterile technique, I would simply say, ooops, you touched this or that. Then I would offer to open up or go get sterile supplies if I was there doing the assisting. As far as iv sticks, some patients are so hard, even th...

I had been hired as a new grad on my first unit with 6 weeks of orientation. After that, I still had my preceptor. She still worked with me and was my resource person whenever I had any questions. Everyone on my unit reported my every move to my p...

I think one of the reasons that fav nurses did not cave in was that they pay their nurses approx $10.00 less per hour than the other area agencies. Passing on the savings to the CCF. To lower that by another 35% as requested would have made t...

Coach Cathy, My thoughts exactly. Is this a baby? Sounds like one. Makes me want to go check on my little one to make sure he is all covered up. It is cold up here in Cleveland.

I work both in a long term facility and in an inpt psych unit. Why not just ask them to find another home for their mom to live in? When we had frequent flyers (on the inpt unit) who said we were not doing anything to help them after a few yea...

I have found a site that not only has the regs but it lists in plain language how to institute the new changes and be within the new guidelines. It is First.gov, Medicare which used to be HCFA. I have the guidelines printed out now so I have no que...

I have gotten my undies in a bunch over this whole issue. I just took a job where the policies and procedures book has not been updated in a few years. It is not management's top priority although my safety is MY top priority. I work nights on the...

I am not sure of your question but I will try to answer the best I can. To treat depressed patients you have to look up DSM IV listings for depression. I am not sure if you use that book over in your parts but I am sure you must have some sort of eq...

Hi Nursiev, I am also from northern Ohio. I hope I have not just hired on at your place. I just got a new job. Anyway, I, like you and fiesty nurse am not afraid to speak up. I have never been told to shut up but I have been told nicely to s...

Social workers are used for mental health intakes during day hours an they are on call off hours. They investigate health care coverage and disposition if our hosp is not one of their preferred providers.

Kwozb, You did it once, you can do it again. Do whatever you did to take the boards the first time. I got one of those NCLEX books with all the tests and just went over each and every page. The best help I got though was reading the latest nu...

Hi Shannon, Hang in there. I felt the same way during my schooling. It was pretty stressful. Others don't understand how much nursing school takes over your life. Stay committed to your schooling. Tell your boyfriend that you are doing it f...