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.

im sure you are aware that your ex is a ****ing asshole. i mean this is HIS kid too why wouldnt he want to take care of her? sheesh it was just phengran...not even a narcotic. you have NO choice but to get an attorney. too much at stake here. and you dont want to make any mistakes. i would definately mention to him that if you cant work he will have to pay so much more in support and of course alimony. regardless of what he does get an attorney. this needs to be attended to...not just the ex but the doc who for whatever reason wants to be in the middle. seems to me that he cant be going around making false accusations like that without legal recourse. how can he prove that you called that in? who took the call? did they say it was you? where did you get the doc's id number? ...sounds lame to me. oh i cant even imagine what i would do if someone did that to me. why do ppl have to play these games. things dont work out in a marriage so go your way and leave each other alone. yeah you have a lot to lose but he owns the drug store and he is a pharmacist so it seems to me he has a lot to lose too. get an attorney and just do what he suggests. it may cost you some money but he has pushed your hand....i imagine since this is a bogus charge he would have to pay legal fees. he should anyway. good luck...keep your sanity ...and keep us posted

some piercings are really nice. if the person has a nice flat belly, the piercings look great. infection is common. my belly is anything but flat so thats out for me. its just the belly button, not really seen by others, in other words it wont stick out like the tongue or eyebrow (oh i hate those) and it can always be healed over if she changes her mind. tattoos are another story. id never allow my 14 year old to get one. teens change their minds from second to second. its a life long decision that a teen is not capable of making. i have tattoos. i love them. the only one visible is on my wrist and its just a small black bracelet but you wouldnt believe the comments i get daily about it. i never even think about it until someone mentions it. so far the hospital hasnt said anything....many of the employees have..."havent they told you that you have to cover that up?" when my daughter was 16 she wanted her tongue pierced SOOOO bad. no way. i think that looks terrible (sorry). you cant help but stare at facial piercings no matter how hard you try. i dunno i think it takes credibility away from the person...they are taken less seriously. i explained about how often she changes her mind and told her to just wait...if she still wanted that done when she was 18 i would find a place and pay for it myself. she is 22...her tongue is not pierced.

so did you call the script in unauthorized by the MD or is your ex just saying you did? i dunno...id remind the ex in the meantime, without a job he is going to have to pay so much more in support.

ok so you got a little out of hand and acted by instinct. since she is going to tell on you anyway and you are already in trouble why not just go in and beat the shyt out of her?

our jobs are not difficult enough, we need to look at our sisters to make things worse. they teach us to work on defense. the best thing you can do is stand your ground. you know you are a good nurse....you know you have good assessment skills..DONT LET THEM TAKE THAT AWAY FROM YOU! i would not sign the evaluation unless you were able to write your side of the story and that you disagree. some of the people i work with kept holding up hoops for me to jump thru...i put them around their necks and pulled. i dont jump thru hoops. some of what they said about me was true and although i sure wasnt going to admit it at my eval...i used that info to make me a better nurse. this will pass...its just getting thru it. you will tho. and ppl like that ALWAYS get theirs...all you have to do is wait.

is it really up to you to make it stop? it will surely catch up with her in time. no doubt that family will report her and if they dont another surely will. before you drive a wedge between the two of you...and you will...make sure you have your facts straight and make sure that someone else hasnt done this first. when a person goes AMA at our hospital we must call the doc, the charge nurse and the supervisor. there are papers the pt must complete. what was the reason the pt gave for leaving? all im saying is there is not much sense is causing friction between you and a coworker if mgmt is already aware of the situation.

i wish we would hold them at change of shift...at least give us some time to change over without the added "insanity" but we dont.

heather....that had to be the WORST! when i get the paper i guess i usually go thru the list but seldom read them. we just had a pt die and her family was a PIA. in her obit her son listed all her survivors and beside his name he put (professional actor) it was hard to imagine even that jackass doing something like that

well gee folks where i work et night we alls sits arownd skratchin owr bellies and eatin vittiles and drinkin joe. iffin de ER kawls and sez we are fixin to git an admission we justs tells em to hold dem on down dere until de break of day. weuns night nurses dont do nuthin moren we have to. thats why i reckon we works at nights

i want to learn to crochet! sitting has to be the worst. ive never had to do it a full shift but i have relieved for breaks and i hated every second of it. get a medical terminology book....might even be one on the unit.....start learning that...i cant tell you how much that class helped me. i took it before i started nursing....while i was doing my prerequisites. i dont mind working on other units....i like seeing how the other ones are run and i like learning about other specialties. so far ive been lucky to work with nice people who tried not to make me feel left out. i always say hi to everyone. if im walking down the hall and someone is walking the other way i always say hello, even if they never do. some people are just rude...you cant help that but it doesnt mean you have to be....know what i mean? and the nurse who was making fun of your name must be blessed with quick wit....lol