one2one

I just watched a commercial on tv for a topical antibiotic ointment where the little girl says her cut got infected and her mom had to take her to the emergency room! For a cut on her finger? Are they kidding me? I just can't believe they would encourage people to tie up the emergency room for such a thing!

There is a book written by Nicholas Boothman called "How to Make People Like You in 90 Seconds or Less". He offers great tips on building rapport with people in literally only 90 seconds. It's very simple and well worth the effort.

Several years ago I was working on a stepdown unit where another RN was assigned to a pt in her mid 40's with MS. The pt choked on her lunch tray and the nurse did nothing to intervene because the pt had a DNR order. The pt died just because she choked on a piece of food and the RN thought that she couldn't suction her because of the DNR order. ( I was off of the floor with my pt in the radiology dept at the time) I only found out about what happened later in the day.

The physician's order sheets we use at our hospital have a space at the top for the physician to write in the pt's code status. One of the physician's recently wrote in "A.N.D." in this space. When asked what it meant, he said "Allow natural death". This is not an approved abbreviation at our facility. When asked exactly what he meant by that, he went into a 15 minute speech. In the end, the conclusion I came to was that the pt was to be a DNR. Have any of you seen this abbreviation used before? I'm not sure what the legal consequences would have been if the pt had coded and we followed the order and did nothing. I would like to hear your thoughts on this.

Promote health, ease pain, allow death with dignity

Well, I want to add that the cost of living in MO is lower than a lot of other places (esp CA). Besides that, money isn't everything. The wages quoted in the hospital websites are, of course, negotiable. For my money, MO is still the best place to be!!

I absolutely agree with give Tylenol and other PRN meds based on the asessment- if they need something-give it regardless of what other nurses might say. I've worked PRN in a longterm care facility for many of my nursing years. I've also found that if you have pt who aren't sleeping at noc may need pain meds. I also discovered that they may not be sleeping well because they are cold. I was surprised how many people would go to sleep just by putting a warm pair of cotton socks on their feet. It works wonders.

I'm thinking of learning Spanish as a second language. Do you think this is a valuable skill in your nursing practice? Would it be worth the time and effort it takes to learn it?

Sounds like a winning idea to me. It would be great experience for you. Some LTC facilities will pay for the CNA class if you work for them. Anything you can learn before you start nursing school will be of great benefit. Some facilites also offer scholarships for nursing school too. Good luck to you whatever you decide.

Is this stuff worse than taking sleeping pills to sleep? I don't need help falling asleep, I just have trouble staying awake sometimes. Any other suggestions on how to adjust?

This is only MY opinion for what it's worth. Starting off in the general ICU of a community hospital is a great place to start because you'll get to see a little bit of everything as opposed to a specialized ICU where you concentrate in only one area. I would try to give it two years if you can. You should get some good basic experiences. Then it might be helpful to take the CCRN exam and get your certification. (It impresses other employers). I don't think your current manager would feel upset with you for moving on after two years.

Have any of you who work nocs every taken Provigil to help with your wake-sleep cycles? Does it work for you? I would like to know your opinions before asking my Dr to prescribe it for me.

If your back pain just started, consider seeing your OB-Gyn. I had terrible back pain and found out I had a bad case of endometriosos growing on the outside of the back of my uterus. It was impossible to see with ultrasound but found it with laprascopic surgery. (I had other sx of endo as well). Once I had the surgery, no more back pain.

Go online and try out the www.wilkes.med.ucla.edu/inex.htm website. You'll hear examples of both heart and lung sounds and the abnormal ones. And it's free!

First you should go to the aacn.org website and read the requirements for taking the exam. If you meet those requirements, go to www.ed4nurses.com and consider buying their review course. That's what I did and I passed the first time I took it. I had scheduled my exam and felt prepared (though still afraid of failing) The day it took it, my grandmother died that morning. My family insisted that I go ahead and take the exam anyway. I was upset and cried all the way through it, but managed to pass it anyway. I say, if this is what you want, don't be afraid to go for it. You'll be glad you did.:wink2: