bobarb

I haven't been on this site for awhile, and just reread most of this ER site....and Of course, I loved it! I had the worst shift ever on Sunday, and when my shift was over I think I hated everyone....most of all, of course, the child abuser, child raper, loved by the mother.....ARGH!!!! I am retiring in a few months, and I swear that my last few days on the job I will tell these people what I thinki of them! I can't wait. Meanwhile, please continue venting, so we all can remember that we aren't alone. ER nursing is amazing.....as angry as I get, I wouldn't work anywhere else.

I agree w/Nascar nurse. Our mental health system is pathetic. Our social services system doesn't work. I guess we just keep plugging along, hoping that someday something will work out right, and just maybe that psych pt. will get better, or at least won't commit suicide....and I say this with sadness, at least not on my shift!

As a nurse nearing retirement, I think getting your BSN would be almost mandatory! You have much more opportunity w/BSN. I think - and this is just my opinion - that soon an ADN will be treated like LPN, and BSN will be considered the "RN".........I only have my ADN, and have seen opportunities pass me by because I didn't have the BSN. However, that was my choice. And you can work and go to school at the same time.......and many hospitals help pay for it! Good luck!

We recently moved into a new unit, and it is beautiful.........but we have some concerns. Our pt. rooms have walls, and just the doors are glass. It is in a small rural hospital, and it is just 3 rooms, but I can only see into one of the rooms, in the other two the patients are not visible from the desk. We used to have cameras in our rooms, but mgmt. now says no cameras, that we have to use bed alarms or personal alarms and that should be sufficient for our patients. I am watching them on the monitor (no tele techs) the only RN on the unit, no CNA, no body, and I am complaining that it is unsafe. Especially if I am in another pt. room, and another pt. is ringing or crawling out of bed. My main question is - are you able to see your patients in your ICU? My manager says that in most hospitals you can not see your ICU pts........I can only speak for 4 hospitals that I know for sure you can. I am frustrated, especially if a pt. falls or has some rhythm event and I miss it. Ideas?

We do not give narcs if there is no driver...........and we make sure the pt. understands it. Some lie and say they have a driver, so we now have to see the driver in person. Makes for an intereting time sometimes!:redpinkhe

I loved that answer = hookers have clients!!! Good one!! I always call our "clients" patients!! Always. I don't care what the CEO says - he thinks this is only a business, but as a nurse, I know they are patients!

I personally am past the point of caring about my patients.....just don't want to harm them. And quite frankly, working in ICU and ER, I must do an OK job because I get many cards and letters sent to mgmt. thanking me....I think my assessment skills and technical skills are more important than "caring"........and I always thought the nursing care plans and nursing theory courses were just made up by MSN and PhD's anyway...and, I, too, do not know jWatson.!

Our hospital is remodeling the small ICU we have, and I just discovered that it has poor visibility to the pts. rooms from the nurses station, and no cameras in rooms. I am concerned that things will happen - seizures, central lines being pulled out, etc. Does anyone work in a unit where they can't see their pts. well? Am I worrying for nothing? (OUr present unit has camera in rooms, and visible from desk.)

EEEEK!! I HATE nursing diagnoses.......I have never found that spending time coming up with those stupid nursing diagnosis has helped me with patient care. And now they are going to be part of our hospital's reimbursement? Another example (in my opinion) of too much govt. interference. I don't know of a single nurse that I work with who thinks nursing diagnosis is worthwhile. Our joke is always that some BSN or MSN who was going for PhD came up with nursing diagnosis and never actually used it themselves. What is the general opinion here? I would be interested to know.