Sari_LPN

I have been a nurse for only three years now. I have worked LTC and home health care both here in Michigan and in New York. I love LTC, while I was in school I swore I would not work LTC. I now thank God everyday that he brought this to me, the feeling you get when one of your residents smiles brightly just at seeing you....oh no way to put into words. I get frustrated by the times we are short staffed, or when I am left alone to care for too many people. I am currently in an acute care part of the facility, things can and sometimes do, go bad in a split second. But I feel so good when I do everything I can to make a difference. One important thing I have learned is to not expect to get off work at your scheduled time, if you expect to be there late and you get off on time.....bonus. If not you didn't expect anything different anyway. I have learned all I can do is start at the beginning and work until I am done, with that mentality I don't get stressed as often. Good luck to you, it really is a wonderful place to be, no matter what others say.

I don't think your reaction was abnormal in any way. I did notice that this is posted in the Geriatric and LTC specialty forum, and while you did the right thing but giving this person CPR, since it was their wishes to have it as a full code, chances are that a geriatric patient whose heart stops is not going to make a recovery. In fact, most patients who are coded in a hospital setting don't make much of a long term recovery, even if you do get a heart beat back. Here's an older article, but a I did a Google search for you of "long term survival after CPR" and also "long term survival after code blue". I'm comforted by information, so I hope that you are too. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...46/ai_12755284 Thank you so much, reading that really did help. I have been going over and over every step I took, could I have done something better?? Knowing that statistics are this way makes me feel like I really did do everything I could.

Thanks so much everyone, I am feeling a little better today. Did have a Dr. question me, like I purposely did something to make the patient code, yeah that's what I was wanting.......I do know next time will be easier for me, and it helps so much to know I am not alone in freaking out a little. The nurse that assisted last night didn't realize it was my first time until we were talking about it tonight, said she was impressed by how well I did. Guess I am cut out for this field after all.........

I have been a nurse for three years now, loving most of it. Tonight I did CPR for the first time, the patient did not make it. I have felt like I am in a state of shock since then. Is this normal?? The nurse that assisted says I did a great job, but for the first time in my career, well actually life, I panicked. I have dealt with being the first person on the scene of a bad car accident, didn't lose my cool. But, tonight, I couldn't seem to remember anything, I reacted, but questioned every move I made..........is this normal, or should I be worried about my ability to handle the situations that I will face in the future??

Well state was in, still not sure of the outcome. But they did say it appears that I had all my stuff in order and that this was not my fault. Just waiting to see the final decision

Well today was my first day back to work since this happened. I can actually say I love my management... My DON came up to me, patted me on the back and said heard you had a bad night fri.....kinda joking with me. When I stated how horrible I felt, how inadequate. She smiled and said "It was not your fault, we do believe a nonstaff member let her out." State has been notified, don't know what the outcome will be. But knowing that management is standing by me, not ready to blame it all on me, makes me feel much better.

The alarm system is functioning, don't really think we check it a certain times. We have a resident who hangs out by the door so when she's sitting there everytime it's opened the alarm goes off. To turn off the alarm it's a number code that goes into a punch pad....not to hard to remember if you watch it done a couple times.

I had a resident, well escape on me tonight. I got a phone call from the local PD stating they found resident and were transferring to the local hospital. I had seen this resident about 45 minutes prior to phone call ambulating in the hallway. This happened at the end of dinner, as I was setting up all my tube feeders. We were working one nurse short tonight so I had about 15 extra residents to take care of, down two halls. After investigating I believe a non-staff member turned off the door alarm (resident had a wander device on) because no one heard the alarm go off. I was just wondering if anyone has had this happen?? What happens when state comes in?? I have been beating myself up all night....I know I didn't do anything wrong, but I feel I should have done something more. The resident only got a scratch from the evenings adventure..thank God!! I just feel so inadequate at the moment, could I have done something?? What do I do now??

I actually had a miscarriage and on the day it happened both urine and serum tests came back negative.... had serum and urine tested at the doc's two weeks prior and was started on low dose birth control to kick start my system (hadn't had a cycle in 5 months) had taken home tests quite a few times before going to the doc, all negative

I am really close to some of my residents and try my best to keep them happy while I'm there......here are a couple of their faves.......... when going in the room to get a blood sugar I sing "time to poke a finger" to the mexican hat dance theme, and dance...they just laugh and hand me a finger........ tell them I'm thinking of going as a vampire for halloween all I seem to do is go around after peoples blood.......... kinda tired from working a double so that's all I can think of at the moment