thisnurse

clean for wound care and sterile for central lines

oh i am such the expert on this...lol this sounds like the kind of pt i seem to get ALL of the time. everyone, including the docs laff cos i ALWAYS get the whackos. went thru a similar situation called the nursing supervisor....she blew me off...i told her he had a strong potential for violence...he heard me and he got even more agitated. she heard him screaming, she came to the floor. security was called and they sent up ONE female officer. i called them back and told them they better send more. 4 men came to the unit. i called the docs. resident came to the floor and tried to reason with him. he would NOT restrain or sedate him....issues with imprisonment... resident told me not to worry...he would be ok. BULLSHYT this guy was out of control. he didnt know what the heck he was saying or doing. there was NO WAY that doc could tell me he was going to be ok. finally gave him 5 of morphine....big deal...might as well have given him a drink of water. gave him 10 of xanax, then another 10. no effects at all...didnt even calm him down. i told the doc, in front of the supervisor, that i was NOT going to care for this patient. it was a safety risk i was NOT going to take. he couldnt guarentee my safety and there was no way this guy was going to kick my azz. after i refused to care for him, everything changed. thats when the doc decided to give him the morphine. and thats when the doc and the supervisor decided to have security stay with him all night. just dont do it. refuse the pt. call the supervisor, call the doc, call whoever you have to. stick to your guns. and i have NO problem telling pts like that to settle down. and i have NO problem telling them i am NOT going to tolerate their abuse. AND I DONT. i really hate the psych patients. they go from calm to homocidal in seconds. no way to read this and respond until its too late.

i saw/heard of it too...it is just as isearl said. and it is creepy

what a horrible way to lose your son.

nobody likes doing this. not us and not the docs. where i work it is the doc who discusses code status with the family. but i have done it as well. ill say something like "have you given any thought as to what you want to do now regarding resuscitation?" i just let them vent after that. i answer questions if they have any and i just listen. if they decide to make the pt DNR i call the doc and get the papers. i cant say i really hate this. what i really hate is trying to bring back a pt who is dying anyway...especially when they are in great pain.

first i tell them how stupid they are. then i twist their arms or pinch them until they agree to take their meds. i offer other support too. if the pt is afraid of addiction i educate them. most times i get them to try one dose. when they see how much better they feel they stop refusing...most of the time.

thanks for posting the article. this really is fascinating. for anyone who watched the show....how did they take it out of her? by using their hands or some kind of lift? i imagine that would be 200 lbs of slippery goop.

good for you ortho! if you dont stand up to them they will walk all over you! i had one objective during orientation...learn to do my job they had one objective during my orientation....make me feel incompetent i had two great nurses orient me...it was the rest of the staff that sucked. first two weeks out of orientation were hell. i was constantly fighting with staff members who yelled at me for things that were not even their business. they were looking thru my charts to see if i had left things undone. and oh man if i left something like a blood draw for next shift or an empty IV bag...might as well have killed somebody....i had some terrible pt experiences where ANY of them would have needed help and NOT ONE of them would help me. id ask a question..."im not answering any of your questions, im charting"...i got written up for standing up for myself...over and over and over....by the same ppl all of the time. it was obvious what was going on. mgmt called ME into the office but never them. i cried more than once. but i stayed because i am stubborn and would not let them make me feel incompetent. lol...one time when mgmt called me in the office i told them IM A DAMN GOOD NURSE AND THERE IS NO ONE HERE WHO IS GOING TO TAKE THAT AWAY FROM ME. things finally settled down. i passed the audition. i get along with everyone now and i am oh so very very nice and helpful to all of our new nurses....and the staff rides me for that sometimes too.

thing about using assistants is that since some of them never move anyway the pts never suspect they are dead.

LMFAO

we have a secretary that is absolutely AMAZING. she knows in her HEAD.. most of the phone extensions in the hospital. she knows policy and procedure better than any of us. she gets EVERYTHING done. and she is the person i go to for help. i am truly awestruck by the way she does her job.

wow your unit clerks sound like a dream compared to one of ours. "if you dont put your admission orders right here (they were not RIGHT in front of her) i am not putting in your orders." if you dont do this...if you dont do that ....im not putting in your orders one day she came into the conference room during report and SCREAMED AT ME ...i was just GETTING report about a pt who was a surprise transfer...(you know the ones, you dont know they are being transferred until the ambulance gets there) the ambulance driver was going to leave, he wasnt waiting ...blah blah blah...i better get out there RIGHT NOW...blah blah blah...and this unit secretary is red faced and screaming at me. meantime the nurse who was before me was already in the room taking out his IV. i told her she needed to calm down and go take a look in that room before she went off...after report i found the manager standing beside the UC. so i started asking questions like ....why were you so upset? did the ambulance driver threaten you? ....queer questions that hinted to the manager we might have a clerk that used to work for postal service. our secretaries run staggered shifts. one starts at 6am, one at 7...ect. i was getting ready to go into report and the doc was just writing orders for one of my pts. the secretary who started at 6 took the chart and said she would put the orders in. i came out of report and there was the clerk from he11 screaming at me because she thought i took those orders and set them on her desk for her to put in when she came in. (on nights we put our own orders in) the sane secretary had set the chart down and went to check something so all the crab saw was the chart sitting there and she just assumed i left them for her. thing that irks me is that i dont take advantage of our secretaries. i put in my own orders when im not busy. i help them when im not busy and i ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS put in my own verbals no matter what. (i think the person who takes the verbal SHOULD be the person who puts the order in..cuts down on confusion) on nurses day we got a candy bar. she was mad about this...'the nurses get everything. they get all the money. they get everything and we get nothing. and they are the first to complain how hard they work" i burst out laffing. "how much do you think we make?" she said...30 bucks an hour....this made me roar. "where do YOU work?" lol i told her when i took over the world i would pay her 30 bucks an hour ...till then maybe she should just shut up...she said...lolololol...THAT WILL NEVER HAPPEN...lololol(another one of my dreams shot to hell) one very very busy day i had the nerve to go to the bathroom. i didnt know that i had to report this to her. i got out of the bathroom and she started yelling at me and telling me if i ever "disappear" again and she has to call around to find me she is reporting me. xray called for me and i couldnt be found and she KNOWS they are reporting me. this behavior almost makes me laff. ...i said...oh well...i just saw our manager here...where did she go? ill get this straightened out right now. oh no she said...i have already taken care of it. i thanked her...lmao the funny thing is every time she tries to bully me it blows up in her face. EVERY time. and its not that i dislike her...i like her very much...she just is a bully and i guess she is the very last to learn that i wont be bullied by anyone. as for getting the same assignment...where i work the assignment generally is determined by shift. if i work 12 today i wont get the same pts if i work 8 tomorrow. dont you hate the idiots that chime in when nobody is talking to them? that was one of the most stupid things i have ever heard of a nurse saying. no lie....i would have just looked at her and said emotionless...."thats mindboggling" and given her no more attention. dont let anyone push you around...if you start that you will quickly become the unit doormat.

peeps...you mean you are supposed to do the iv pole thing BEFORE rigor? geez we always do it after...makes a sturdier pole. yeah most of the patients are wimps about sleeping with the new IV pole. thats why we use dead assistants. the patients never complain...they cant tell the difference.

wendy...its nurses like you who give the rest of us a bad name...we use the bucket treatment on our unit all the time. we all wear catheters too. if the budget allows they let us change them once a week. there is no excuse for leaving work. even if you die on duty you can hold charts at least or be a door stop. seriously.... i wont even go to our ER anymore. i go to our sister hospital. our ER docs (i swear there is only one...he is always there when i am) is OBVIOUS about getting the pt in and out. he doesnt listen to anything you say. he looks at you...orders the test and you are out the door with a script of pain pills...needed or not. just to shut you up. i know all about being busy....this guy is ridiculous. and i dont care they SHOULD take care of their own first, of course in non emergency situations. we dont get that many percs and that should be one of them. the nurse that told you to wave if you pass out should be slapped. i can believe that they heard you wretch and never came in. this stuff happens on our unit all the time. ill hear someone wretching or the phone is ringing and nobody is answering it, or call bells are going off and the assistants are just sitting there. i go to the desk and say loudly....OH WHATS THAT NOISE? DO YOU HEAR THAT? GEE WONDER WHAT THAT COULD BE...and then i go take care of it. i was unfrotuantely back in the ER last night. had a wonderful doc who asked me if they "went in my heart" to put the stent in my aorta. maybe it was a trick question. hope you feel better and i hope you at least gave all of the ER staff a big sloppy kiss before you left. mario...some advice for you....better watch what you say about the nurses...you may be right ...you may be VERY right in what you say but you are not a nurse yet. i just dont want to see you accidentally burning any bridges. you might not have noticed but nurses can be very viscious...i know, i know..its hard to believe....lol im only saying this because i have seen some of our CNA's say things like that about nurses and the next thing you know ALL of the nurses heard what she said but NONE of them heard what she REALLY said...until i told them. just dont pizz anyone off unless you have to. its not even worth it...you are a great CNA soon to be a great nurse. just dont want you to get caught up in some of the stupid politics.

respect? not where i work. i think we are respected by the other nurses who say they wouldnt do med/surg for any money. but i dont think anyone else...suits...docs...respect us at all. its highly stressful. things change in the blink of an eye. you have to anticipate the changes and learn to think and act quickly. which, not incidentally is one of the things i like about the unit. i enjoy the variety of patients we care for. i learn something new every day. there is no sitting around and its never ever boring. it does have its downsides tho. we are unappreciated by everyone from the mgr to the pts. because we are always so damn busy we dont have the time to be popping in the pt room every 15mns to see if they need anything. no time for fluffing pillows. we just have NO time. and this is more often than not misconscrued as poor care. i hate the inappropriate pts we get. had a guy transfrerred from another hospital because they had no monitored beds. he had some kind of arrythmia i cant recall now. so he gets to our ER and they decide he no longer needs a monitor. we get him on our unit. q15mn vital signs which go nicely with my other two pts who have q1 hr accuchecks. and i REALLY hate KNOWING that i did a half assed job and thanking the gods nobody went bad that night cos certainly they would have died.