CountrifiedRN

Never let your cousin try to shoot anything off the top of your head with his new BB gun. If by chance you do, don't tell your mom that the resulting red lump and hole between your eyes is a zit that you tried to pop. Don't ask the ER nurse "How in the world did THAT get in there?" referring to a bottle cap found in your lady parts. I think you already know the answer to that one. If you bring your child to the ER because he's been vomiting all day, please don't feed him cheetos while waiting in the lobby because he hasn't eaten all day and he's probably hungry. The next round of vomit will stain white nursing sneakers a ghastly shade of yellow.

I like Althomas answer for the pts who don't get off the phone when you walk in. As far as having too many visitors, our policy is also 1 visitor per pt, and is usually strictly enforced with some exceptions, like parents of small children. #3 is my pet peeve, usually it's the family members standing at the door, walking in the hall, and some even trying to peek in other rooms to see whats going on. I always ask them in a firm voice to remain in the room with the patient, or they can go to the lobby, because they are compromising the privacy of the other patients. It seems like everyone wants to know exactly how long the wait is, how long it will take labwork to get back, etc. I usually try to overestimate the time so if the wait is shorter than my estimate, they are happy, if not, they were expecting it anyway. Most of the time it depends on the person you are dealing with, some people you just can't please no matter what you say or do.

I second that.

We have TV's in all rooms except the trauma rooms, and I agree with those who say it decreases complaints about wait times. Ours are on moveable arms attached to the wall, so they can be pushed up out of the way or pulled right down to the pts bedside, no remotes. I rarely have to go change channels for anyone since the TV can be put within their reach. I also find that in our fast track unit which is somewhat small and closed in, it helps keep pts from overhearing other pts information discussed at the desk or in the next room. So in that way it provides more discreet treatment.

How clever, a purple eyeshadow bruise. Ya gotta love it! :chuckle

I work in a relatively small ED but we serve a large area. We get occasional threats from patients and family members, and it is absolutely not tolerated. The last pt to threaten a nurse was approached by several staff members while the charge nurse informed him that assaulting a healthcare worker is a felony offense, and threats are taken seriously. When security arrived they were told that the pt could stay for now, but if another threat was made he was to be escorted from hospital property. Security stayed at the room until the pt was d/c'd. Terra, if it were me in your shoes, I'd be revamping my resume' and looking for a better place of employment.

"I got small veins, it's generic." (genetic) "I had my technical shot last year." (tetorifice shot) "I think I'm having one of them mycardia infarts" (No explanation necessary, hee)

Oh how I love that point of reference! :chuckle My favorite was a pt that had been in the hospital for several days with back pain, abd pain, and migraine. Lots of tests, nothing showed up, but her pain was constant and 10/10, even with pain meds. Her mom would show up each morning and come in and out throughout the day until bedtime to make sure her daughter was getting appropriate pain control. When staff would enter the room, pt would moan and groan and begin limping if she was out of bed. Once I walked in to reassess her pain after giving her pain meds, and she was out of bed, trying on clothes that mom had bought during a recent shopping excursion. She didn't see me standing in the doorway at first. When she noticed me watching her jumping up and down, trying to squeeze into a pair of pants way too small, she suddenly had excruciating pain and crumbled to the floor, slowly, so as not to hurt herself. :chuckle

Whoa, I don't see any similarity between a celebrity leading the police on a chase after his ex-wife, who he was known to abuse, was found murdered, and an overwhlemed triage nurse who has a management with no back bone. But maybe that's just me. I can actually see the media making the situation worse because they would probably show a pt, teary-eyed and complaining "I've been waiting for two hours with this sore throat I've had since noon, I could barely scarf down my biggie fries at lunch and now my nose is getting stuffed up. And just 15 minutes ago they took some guy with a little bit of chest pain in before me, when I was clearly the next in line." Then there would be a commentary on how people are suffering in the waiting room, and the nursing staff isn't doing anything about it. The next days headline would probably be something like "Triage Nurse Reprimanded By Hospital Administration". Sorry Terra, it sounds like the only way things will change is if management backs you up. You can't effectively triage in that atmosphere. Hopefully it won't take something serious to enforce the triage policy.

RN2007, I PM'ed you about the video you were describing. (Check your private messages in the user control panel, the button at the top of the page that says User CP) I haven't seen it yet, but I will watch for it.

I posted a similar question in the emergency nursing forum and got a lot of great responses. Here's a link to the thread: https://allnurses.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=35879

It's times like this that I really miss using curse words here. I have a few choice ones in my mind right now.

I love that you are asking these questions, it says a lot about your eagerness to teach and be a great instructor! Ok, for lecture I like the powerpoint presentations and hand outs because it makes it easier to keep notes organized. It's also nice when there is reference to what book is used because we often have many books that sometimes have conflicting information on the same subject. I don't know if this is within your control or not, but it is helpful if the lecture reflects the clinical rotation. We've had some semesters in our program where we attend, let's say, the ICU clinical rotation in the beginning of the semester, but don't actually learn about ventilators and diprivan drips until the last part of the semester which is a few months later. (Bad planning on the part of our program) I think that there will always be some course content that is just impossible to make interesting, but I like an instructor who is open to ideas and suggestions about the class. We've had instructors who say "I have taught this way for 20 years, and I'm not about to change it now", and in the next breath say "In nursing we must learn to be flexible and adapt to new situations". (They never see the irony in it either) For clinical I could probably write a book, but I'll try to keep it short. Good instructors are as quick to offer praise as they are to offer criticism. Please don't yell at a student in front of others, whether it be docs, nurses, patients, or other students. Too many in our program do that and it seems more of a power issue than the mistake the student made. More often than not, it makes the others who were witness to it lose respect for the instructor, not the student. If a student is doing a new procedure, talk through it first, before going into the room. Offer guidance when necessary, but give the student enough time to complete the procedure. We're pretty slow when we first start! One thing that I have seen in my proogram is that fear and intimidation are not conducive to learning, and most students will just try to "fly under the radar" if they feel intimidated rather than get the hands on experience they need. Try to encourage the students to get all of the experience they can, and be available to assist or assign procedures, because the nurses are often too busy to help a student when they can just do the procedure faster themselves. I hope this helps! Just curious, if you don't mind me asking, what level students will you be teaching? I think it makes a difference for clinical if the student is in first semester as opposed to last semester.

I love that you are asking these questions, it says a lot about your eagerness to teach and be a great instructor! Ok, for lecture I like the powerpoint presentations and hand outs because it makes it easier to keep notes organized. It's also nice when there is reference to what book is used because we often have many books that sometimes have conflicting information on the same subject. I don't know if this is within your control or not, but it is helpful if the lecture reflects the clinical rotation. We've had some semesters in our program where we attend, let's say, the ICU clinical rotation in the beginning of the semester, but don't actually learn about ventilators and diprivan drips until the last part of the semester which is a few months later. (Bad planning on the part of our program) I think that there will always be some course content that is just impossible to make interesting, but I like an instructor who is open to ideas and suggestions about the class. We've had instructors who say "I have taught this way for 20 years, and I'm not about to change it now", and in the next breath say "In nursing we must learn to be flexible and adapt to new situations". (They never see the irony in it either) For clinical I could probably write a book, but I'll try to keep it short. Good instructors are as quick to offer praise as they are to offer criticism. Please don't yell at a student in front of others, whether it be docs, nurses, patients, or other students. Too many in our program do that and it seems more of a power issue than the mistake the student made. More often than not, it makes the others who were witness to it lose respect for the instructor, not the student. If a student is doing a new procedure, talk through it first, before going into the room. Offer guidance when necessary, but give the student enough time to complete the procedure. We're pretty slow when we first start! One thing that I have seen in my proogram is that fear and intimidation are not conducive to learning, and most students will just try to "fly under the radar" if they feel intimidated rather than get the hands on experience they need. Try to encourage the students to get all of the experience they can, and be available to assist or assign procedures, because the nurses are often too busy to help a student when they can just do the procedure faster themselves. I hope this helps! Just curious, if you don't mind me asking, what level students will you be teaching? I think it makes a difference for clinical if the student is in first semester as opposed to last semester.

Whew! It was truly a calling back then, wasn't it? Thanks Stephany!

I have seen some nurses aspirate before a flush. Our school doesn't require us to do it.

S is for squeeze (contraction) D is for downtime (relaxation)

I know what you mean, so far this semester we've missed one clinical day and two days of lecture. The clinical day is ok because we had extra time scheduled in, but the lectures are being made up by coming in 1/2 to 1 hr early on other lecture days. Is it almost spring yet?

MattsMom, I'm sorry that you feel this way. I am a nursing student, and I haven't seen that attitude in myself or any of my classmates. I can understand that it is a burden to an already overworked nurse to have to delegate to a student that she may have just met that morning, without knowing her competency level. I don't feel that staff nurses owe me anything, but I do owe myself the best experience that I can get before graduating, and sometimes to get that I do have to be assertive, without stepping on anyones toes. Yes, I do think that instructors should be primarily responsible for the students that they bring in. But since there are often many students to one instructor, they often rely on the staff nurses to assist. Is this fair to you? No, it's not. Is it fair to the students who need to gain this experience so they can learn safe practice to be with a nurse that doesn't want to mentor? No, it's not. But the school has contracted with that hospital to provide a learning environment to the students. Not all the blame should be placed on the students/instructors. Part of it is with your employer who expects you to mentor. I don't know if it is part of the job description in a teaching hospital, or if the nurses are given a choice. Ideally, students would only be paired with willing nurses. As I get closer to my graduation date, the responsibility of safe patient care, and the liability if something goes wrong, weighs heavy on my mind. So I can try to put myself in your shoes, and know that it would be something that I may feel uncomfortable about as an RN, and that may be a huge inconvenience to my routine. And believe me, I am so appreciative to the nurses that do take the time from their busy schedule to show guidance and teach. And even when I am paired with a nurse that makes it obvious that she does not want to be bothered or hindered by students, it is my responsibility to ensure that I get the most out of my clinical experience. Someday soon, I may be her colleague, who she depends on to carry my share of the load.

Yep, I've been feeling the same way. I'm not afraid of failing, but the huge responsibility of doing everything on my own, having the RN behind my name. I guess everyone feels that way as they get closer to graduation. I got some great advice here a couple weeks ago - to give the nurses on your rotation a list of skills you would like to do so you can get as much experience as possible before graduation, and to find an employer with a really good orientation program for new grads. I tried out the suggestion to give the nurses a list of skills I wanted to do, and they really appreciated it as they were not sure what they could ask us to do for them with their other patients. And I got to do some extra skills as a result! You'll do fine, just soak up as much experience as you can!

I posted a reply under pinning ceremonies also, but just wanted to say here thanks for that info. Very interesting history.

Thanks, RainbowSkye, for the explanation of what a band is, and essarge for the history behind them. When I saw the posts about the black bands, I wasn't even associating them with the nursing caps. For some reason I was picturing a band you wear around your arm?!? Sounds like it was a nice tradition, and I never knew that the stripes on the caps denoted level of training. Pretty interesting.

I've never heard of getting a black band. What is it symbolic of? Angelica - Circus Circus is a cool place!

Our school has a pinning ceremony, and from what I hear it is supposed to be quite beautiful and emotional. It is held at a really nice historic church. (for sitting space reasons, not religious) I have never attended one so I'm only going on what instructors and other students that have been to one have said. I can't wait!

SusanRN2004, that is an awesome entry! Kind of sums it up for many of us. Thank you for sharing!