I retired from nursing about 5 years ago. Back then if a patient came in with drugs on them we didn't call the cops because of HIPAA. A troubled family friend bought Fentanyl. Couldn't wait till he got home to use it and stopped at a convenience stor...
Under 4 minutes you're gonna miss something. With triage like you're talking I would have to redo everything myself when they got to a room. Plus, most patients wanna tell you ALL about it. You can redirect over and over but their current problem rea...
LilgirlRN replied to zhapper2002's topic in Emergency
Get ready for a different kind if rat race. You have more patients on the floor but also more time to get things done. Everything in EDland is stat. Everything is in hurry up mode. The only thing Americans are afraid of is inconvenience. They don't c...
LilgirlRN replied to NurseOnAMotorcycle's topic in Emergency
I was en ER nurse for 25 years. You stuff things in the back of your mind somewhere so that they don't bug ya all the time. I was in the car with my BF close to where I worked years ago and a memory that I'd hidden just jumped to the foreground and I...
LilgirlRN replied to loboracer's topic in Emergency
Just my 2 cents worth here.... yes, shoot the messenger. Get out of my way messenger, this is my patient now. I just got report from you when you called in. Unless something drastic has happened since you talked to me then I don't need another report...
Standard of care is what any prudent RN in that given situation would do. What if the patient WAS having an MI? You knew she was having chest pain but didn't do an EKG? They could eat you alive in court! You know what needs to be done, just do it. Be...
I live in Alabama. This was a couple of years ago. A patient on disability using her smart phone to look for some where new to live. At the time, me, a gainfully employed person did NOT have a smart phone. She starts showing me pictures, the homes we...
I'm a very experienced nurse, more than 25 years. I was fired from my last nursing job for something really stupid. Facebook. At the time I was taking Ambien for sleep and posted about a code and mentioned a doc's name. I don't even remember doing it...
LilgirlRN replied to LilgirlRN's topic in Career Support
No action was taken by the board, no one was hurt. The place I worked has a very strict policy about social media and they decided to make an example out of me. Had I been the unit manager I would have fired me too based on what I wrote. However, no ...
I had a patient in 3rd degree block suddenly go into this weird, wide, S L O W Vtach. I thumped her, she yelled at me. Why did you hit me? Complained to her family, family complained to unit manager. Luckily all caught on monitor strips!
LilgirlRN replied to tiredofstudying1's topic in NCLEX
Dear Tired, Stop studying, stop worrying. Even if its for just one day, play, have fun, do whatever YOU like to do! If you don't know it by now..... I've been an RN for almost 26 years. Back then we had to go to the state capitol and sit with hundred...
LilgirlRN replied to Jenny878's topic in Disabilities
Sounds like you are reacting normally to very stressful situations. I doubt that I would be doing any better than you are and I'm not bipolar. You're doing everything you can do to feel better. When I'm down I tend to hold it all in and try to be str...
LilgirlRN replied to unappreciatedrn's topic in Relations
I can see your boss's dilemma, its a legal one. Doesn't want the unit to be responsible for him but at the same time (as others have mentioned) I wouldn't send a 13 year old home alone. I&D of the hand shouldn't have to stay long (typically).
Nurses don't diagnose officially, but there have been many times when I got the correct diagnosis and the doc did not. Sometimes a diagnosis that the doc has never even heard of. But like you, I hate hearing people say I'm just a _______. As the sayi...
LilgirlRN replied to MereSanity's topic in Emergency
ER is different than any other place in the hospital. You have to know a little bit about everything. You also have to give up the feeling of control that you have in the OR. Accept that you aren't going to know everything. Forget that there are thin...
Most ER's have standing orders for just about anything except medications. ie... 40 year old female with abdominal pain, nausea would get at least a saline lock, UA, UCG, CBC, chemistry, amylase and CT abd. As far as headaches go, is this the worst ...
Oh yeah and sometimes I just pop the top off the tube and let the blood just flow into the tube with no suction at all. I do this if I'm in a vein but can't get the catheter to advance but it has great blood return and the vein isn't blowing.
In my opinion it depends on who is working in the lab as far as how many times we get the call that the blood is hemolyzed. So lets say they do call and say it is. We go back in stick the patient again, send it to the lab and guess what? It's hemoly...
LilgirlRN replied to patrickh_rn's topic in New Nurse
Sounds to me like you should have had a better orientation. When you hear the words "nurses eat their young" consider this an example. The solumedrol... that extra dose probably helped your patient! I'm not saying that you weren't wrong in giving the...