miko014

I've never seen a pump that allowed you to set it without a VTBI. If not, then why on earth would you even use a pump?? If you don't set that, the pump has no idea how much fluid is there, and won't do anything until the air reaches the sensor. By that time, you're going to have to re-prime. Those pumps are there to save you time and protect you! I have seen pumps where you have to input the drug, the amount, the BSA, etc. That can get a bit tedious, but overall I think it's an important safety feature. Just my , but I think once you get the hang of it, you're going to like it.

Thanks - I was able to throw something together - hopefully I have all the required pieces in there! Wish me luck, tomorrow is not going to be fun!!!

Hi all - I did a search on this and didn't really find an example that worked for me. I am resigning from a job that I have had for many years. I know that the manager isn't going to take it well. I want to give her the letter tomorrow when I tell her that I'm resigning, but I've never left a nursing position before, so I don't know what to write in the letter. My reasons for leaving include better schedule, better location, less stress, and several others. How do I address the letter and what exactly do I say?? Thanks!!

Is that the little girl who died of dehydration after they stopped her fluids and kept her NPO? If it's the case I'm thinking of, we had to watch a video about it. I don't remember the details other than what I said and that she drank a ton of juice one day and that by the time they realized that she was that dehydrated, it was too late. Or am I thinking of something different?

We have a similar system. It's been in place for 6 mos - 1 year now. Each pt gets a pamphlet on admission and that same pamphlet is supposed to be on the bulletin board in each room. I usually tell them that there is a program in place where, if there is a serious change in your condition, and your nurse/doctor is not listening to you, and you feel it is an emergency, you can call this number. I also tell them it is for things like shortness of breath, chest pain, etc - things you would call 9-1-1 for if you were at home. Not for your pain medicine or because you are hungry. I have not heard of much about it, actually, so I assume it is not being abused. I will have to ask the response nurses about it next time I see them...

Lol Magsulfate, that is too funny. I get that "in real life" all the time. People who come to the hospital for something serious get all worried about a hangnail. God bless 'em, you get the crazies everywhere lol! If it's going to be a bunch of long boring days, you're probably right, I would go nuts. I believe that the TT is just part of the job that I am interviewing for. I won't really know until I talk to them. I'm not sure when that will be, but wish me luck!!

Well, I wouldn't HAVE to go, but we already have tickets and stuff, and they are non-refundable. So I would be out quite a bit of money, not to mention disappointing several people (including myself!!!). We timed the trip with some specific things we wanted to do, and we've been planning it for a long time. I know there's no use worrying about this now, especially since I will probably not get the job anyway, but I would hate for that to screw anything up for me.

That's good to hear! Telephone triage was always something I had sort of considered, but I don't know anyone who has done it, nor do I have any kind of experience with it. I had been looking for a different job awhile back, and then I decided to just stick with what I have for now. It was a total surprise when I came across this opening - just a coincidence that I even saw it. I was like "eh, what the heck" and sent in my info, thinking I wouldn't get a call. Well, they did call now, and though I'm sure I probably won't get the job, I'm excited to at least know that I have a chance. I could definitely be away from the bedside - I would miss my job now, but my hands get very irritated from the gloves, and not having to wear them anymore would be paradise!! If you don't mind my asking, what kind of triage did you do? I mean, where did you work? Was it like an insurance comapny, or an office, or a clinic, or what? I really appreciate you giving me some input on this. Do you have time to run through what a typical day was like for you? Besides the weekend issue, was there anything you really hated about the job? Thanks again!!!!

:yeahthat:

Hi guys - any of you with experience in telephone triage - what did/do you llike about it and what did/do you not like? I have an interview that I never expected to get - but I'm very excited! I just don't know what to really expect since I don't have any experience doing anything like that. And sidenote - I have a vacation scheduled for July. I wasn't really planning on changing jobs any time soon, but then this opportunity came up, and now I'm really excited about it! But what is the appropriate time in the interview process to bring up something like that? THANK YOU ALL!!!!

Aww, I had no good advice so I didn't say anything, but I had to come back in here and make sure the little guy was doing okay! So glad that mama #3 finally gave in - hopefully she'll kkep it up! It takes a special person to invest so much time in animals like that - way to go, canoehead!

That's great! The rest of my res is formatted with bullet points, but I can definitely make something like that fit. Thanks!!!

Okay all, I need help. I wasn't planning on leaving my job for a while, but I came across an ad that interested me, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I'm updating my resume, and I need to describe my charge duties. The problem is, even though my title is "charge nurse", there's not really a job description for it. I basically do everything I did as a staff nurse, assign patients to beds, make sure all the other RNs are doing okay, deal with any issues (customer service or anything else) that may come up, and basically make sure everything is going as smoothly as possible. Anyone have any ideas of how to succinctly describe my charge responsibilities on a resume??? Thanks, you guys rock!!!

I would say that #1 if he thinks the nurses here are doing a bad job, then he shouldn't trust his pt's to them - perhaps he needs to move. #2, if the managers can't do anything, call security. They might not really do anything right away, but I'm sure they will have to make a report of the behavior. I absolutely would not tolerate this - I like LindaRN's ideas...hopefully someone around there has the balls to take care of the situation!!

Fake seizures and psuedo-seizures are not the same thing. If she was faking, she was faking. People get those terms mixed up a lot. A pseudo-seizure is a real seizure that the person cannot control, but the cause is not neurological - usually it's psychological. There is difference between that and someone who is intentionally faking a seizure.

Great thread! I'm the queen of the grammar police (impressive title, eh??) where I work! On boards like this one and in informal stuff, I'm pretty relaxed about it. But the basic easy stuff like your/you're then/than still grates. If I am reading something professional or published (e.g., a novel) and I find errors, that is just too much for me to handle!!! Some of the ones that have been getting me lately: -Would OF / Could OF / Should OF - NO!!!!!!!!!! No no no no no! It's Would'VE! It's a contraction of WOULD and HAVE! Come on!!!!! -Everyday vs. every day. Everyday is an adjective meaning that something is ordinary or routine. Every day means that something occurs or exists on every day of the week. Same thing goes for sometimes vs. some times. -As much as incorrect pronunciation gets to me, I can't fault people misprnouncing medical terms - some are just regional or based on the person wh taught you the word. Example: malleolus. I've heard "mall-ee-OH-lus" and "mul-LAY-lus". But one girl at work says "spootum" and it cracks me up every time!!!

I'm not sure I understand the question. I get 12 days off TOTAL now. It comes out to about 3.7 hours per pay. That's sick leave, vacation, etc. We get 6 paid holidays. That's it. It's terrible!!!! I had no idea how bad it was until other people started talking about how much time off they get. In addition, our health insurance stinks - it's just about the worst system I have ever heard of. I'm not anti-union - I think they could do us some good. They approached my hospital awhile back but people shot them down, unfortunately. I think the real reason for my burnout days is not benefits, though they could be a heck of a ot better. It's high acuity and bad ratios and unreasonable expectations on the pt's/families part and also on the part of the management. I mean most of the time we can't even get our meds passed without them being "late" and we get an hour before and an hour after the due time to get them done. There's something wrong there. In addition they want us to go above and beyond, which I would love to do, but I just don't have the time. And then you get the surveys back that give us ones and say, "they wouldn't give me any peanut butter" when they are on a clear liquid diet! I hope all that makes sense!!!!!

wow, can i work with you??? i only get half that for four 8's and a 4 (36 hours/week). i thought it was a little low, but now that i'm reading this thread, i'm getting jealous!!!!! that is awesome! i've always hated that my aprrox. 12 pto days per year have to be for sick time and vacation time! i've been with the company for 7 years and that's all i get? i want what you have - i'd be able to earn up to 29 days - that's more than double what i get now!!!!!

Yes!! And the sad part is that we all jumped on the OP telling her that she shouldn't have called for that instead of giving her positive ways to deal with being yelled at, which was her question in the first place. Well, that's not entirely true, there has been some good advice on ways to handle it, and a few good stories. But I do feel bad for her - this thread got kind of judgemental. Bottom line, nobody should yell at you for doing your job, even if they don't like the way you are doing it, unless there is an immediate safety issue.

I agree, the yelling docs one is the reason I started this one in the first place. Thank you for proving that I am not the only one this bothers. I would think nurses would have at least the basic courtesy to be informed on a topic and the opinions that have already been shared before voicing their opinions. I guess I was wrong. I expected some differing opinions on this, but I didn't expect it to deteriorate to name-calling quite so quickly. It makes me sad.

Each of my replies were to specific individual posts. If you don't have time to read the whole thread before posting, or at least to skim over the posts to make sure your point hasn't already been made 75 times, maybe you shouldn't be spending so much time online. And your style of talking about me like I can't understand you or I am not here is quite insulting. You see, I do read (or at least skim) the posts in the threads in which I am participating.

Hmmm...methinks you didn't read my second post in this thread.... :chuckle

Some repetetition is fine - I just get really irritated when it's several pages worth of the same thing over and over.

No dear, what I'm saying is - there is a post that is say, 25 pages long. People read the first page and then post away, saying almost exactly the same thing that 30 others have already said. Again, yes, you can skim or whatever, but it is annoying when someone says, "what is 2+2" and someone says "4". And then someone else says, "it's 4." And then 27 more people say, "4" - when the discussion has moved way beyond that point. So people who are actually involved in the thread and have been reading and keeping up with it might be discussing a different part of the topic - maybe someone came up with a great idea re: how to find out what 2+2 is, and the discussion has moved on to that, but because people only read the first couple of posts, the discussion keeps getting pulled back to the beginning: hence the :deadhorse Do I expect people to read every single word of every single post? Of course not. But it would be nice to have them go past page one of a thread that has 275 replies. Just sayin'. (Oh yeah leslie - forgot 2 things. 1) THANK YOU for addressing me so we know what you are talking about - you are really good about that but a lot of people aren't. and 2)Just to clarify - I didn't mean topics that come up over and over again - like "how much $$ do you make" or "NCLEX 200 questions" because I can just skip those threads if I don't want to read them.)

That's an awful lot to assume. I'm giving the OP the benefit of the doubt that she knows that you don't need to worry about the PO abx if they ordered them IV. 1) The op clearly states IT WAS NOT YET 11PM - how much earlier it was I don't know, but it was earlier. 2) She also states that the physician she called was the ADMITTING PHYSICIAN and was ON CALL. 3) There is also a lot of assumption that the pt is just on abx for the fun of it. IT DEPENDS WHAT THE ABX WERE FOR AND WHAT TIME IT ACTUALLY WAS to determine if the call was appropriate. All he needed to do was say, "no, you can hold the abx" or "oh yeah, she was on keflex? Go ahead and order Xmg PO X times daily." 4) Yes a more seasoned nurse might not have made this decision, but we don't know all of the facts, and even if she did call at 2300 for a PO antibiotic, she did not deserve to be yelled at.