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What is your Nursing Kryptonite?
But strangely, doing chest physio with young kids and teens with cf, and suctioning kids in icu, never bothered me.
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What is your Nursing Kryptonite?
Old men and sputum cups...yuk!! Just listening to them made me want to vomit...let alone the cup of sputum.....
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When you don't hear what the docs hear?
Fine crackles can sound like hair rolled between your fingers next to your ear. This is how I have always described them.
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You are NOT allergic to...
Then there are those who are allergic to ALL generic medications!
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What is your Achilles heel?
Full Sputum pots....ick, ick, ick!
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ect nurses
I have maintenance ect every 2 weeks under general anaesthesia. I am in Australia but I cannot imagine it being done anywhere with the pt awake! No way!
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ECT
I have had many ect treatments over the years. I currently am on a maintenance regime with one treatment every two weeks. I have minimal side effects. Only a minimal amount of memory loss, I think. I function, I work in a part time job as well. I am the most stable. I have been in 11 years of severe depression. Works for me and I wish other people in the ommunity didn't judge me harshly for it. Still has a major stigma unfortunately. I am still on anti depressant meds as well but will be on those for life I suspect! Feel free to ask anything u want to know!
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What's your nursing kryptonite?
Sputum from paeds patients is fine...suctioning doesn't bother me. The only time I remember that was sickening was when a kid with bronchiectasis and a trache...and behavioural problems...aimed at me and coughed :uhoh3:. Was glad I was masked, gowned and goggled!! Old men and sputum cups gross me out totally Listening to them hack and cough and then spit into a cup of sputum is just wrong
- What's Your Best Nursing Ghost Story?
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Nurses' personal medical records
If someone has a mental illness that is well controlled by medication and their psychiatrist has cleared them to work then I don't see a problem!
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I quit in the middle of my shift....
A number of years ago I had a breakdown and quit my nursing studies for good in the middle of a clinical shift . I do suffer from clinical depression and all my stress just culminated during that particular shift and I broke...it was horrible. Walking out isn't something I'm proud of but I literally could not continue at that time. It happens...
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What do you think of nurses who can't spell medical terms?
The mistake that really gets on my nerves is loose and lose! So many people write loose when they should spell it as lose . Does my head in
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Electroconvulsive Therapy
Starting Over....I have no doubt that I would be dead without medication, at the very least . At the moment I am sure that ECT helps me to function day to day, in combination with meds. Over the last 10 years I have lost my career as a physiotherapist of 9 years standing...depression has also cost me a potential nursing career and I am currently functioning as a part time pharmacy assistant with my current treatment regime. Severe depression also triggered anorexia nervosa and due to depression/anorexia I have had around 14 IP psych admissions with a total admission length well over a year . Since starting ECT I have become more functional and am now also a healthy weight. I do still struggle with depression..meds/ECT are not a cure for me, I know, and now accept that. I am angry at what depression has cost me however. For me, *sunlight, avoiding isolation, prayer, keeping my mind occupied by staying busy, etc...* is unlikely to cut it. One of the most difficult things about ECT is the fact that people judge me for it. It is my decision ultimately..yes?
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Electroconvulsive Therapy
I have had 3 courses of ECT as an inpatient, for depression, and currently have it every 2 weeks as an outpatient (Maintenance ECT). I think ECT has saved my life as my depression is very treatment resistant. Currently my procedure goes like this: arrive at the hospital at 6am...get obs done, make my way to the day patient room/lounge and doze a bit. Assemble with the 3 other ECT patients in the waiting area by 7am. I get called in some time between 7am and 7.45am (each person only takes 15 minutes)..lie on the bed...get jelco in...nurses attach electrodes..BP cuff etc. I get put to sleep and wake up in the recovery area not long after. Can sometimes wake up a bit disorientated but usually pretty good. Stay in recovery until fully awake and obs fine. Go back to lounge and have breakfast. Get picked up at 1pm and go back to my parent's house for the night. The worst aspect is the muscle soreness the next day...jaw, neck, back, legs . But by the following day I am fine... So, nothing terribly barbaric as far as I'm aware
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Tylenol overdose and the public's ignorance.
I work in a chemist as a pharmacy assistant and I am very careful to let customers know when they purchase an OTC or prescription med with paracetamol (in Australia) in it. It is currently winter, with a lot of people buying cold and flu meds OTC. The majority of these contain paracetamol. Unfortunately people can now also buy many of these meds in the supermarket with noone to point out that they contain paracetamol . I educate re the maximum safe dose/day at each sale. Even though the info is on the pack..who reads that? Not many....