mesixfuture

Teenage boy presents to the ED, hasn't voided in 23 hours d/t erection d/t um..pleasuring himself with....oragel. Oragel? Yeah, I still can't figure out what the inspiration for that one was.

You definitely need to do something about this problem ASAP before some serious patient harm comes down. Nobody likes to have to write up a fellow employee especially when you're new. You can try talking to them, but these sound like some rough broads, I would want every encounter to be a witnessed one so nothing comes back to haunt you. Good luck. And btw while you're having this heart-to-heart with your manager I would bring up this 1:14 nurse to patient ratio, that's too much even for an experienced nurse. Wish you the best!

I have two tattoos, both that I got after I became a nurse, they are both on my back and always covered when I go to work. I don't think they should have to be, but I made a concious decision to have them placed there because I understand that there is a stigma with them and professionalism is important to me. Now that being said I also have a tongue ring that I don't take out when I go to work, its small, not highly visible and is rarely noticed by patients and I work in a high volume ER. But my work ethic, clinical skills and nursing judgement stand out way above my tongue ring and if anybody chose not to hire me based on the tongue ring alone, they would be missing out on a great nurse.

love the quote! is this an rn or lpn program that has the 80% cutoff? i'm in an rn program now, but i know when i went thru lpn school our grade cutoff was high. good luck in your program btw.

I love both of our unit secretaries, even though one of them has more conspiracy theories than J. Edgar Hoover. Poor old gal always thinks everybodys out to screw her over. But I digress..due to the fact I'm in an RN program and EXTREMELY POOR, I work any extra shift they'll give me...as a nurse, an aide, or a unit secretary. One shift in CCU as a unit secretary and they nearly had to put ME on suicide/homicide precautions. That is a tough job. The doctors are all breathing down your neck with a kagazaillion orders and wanting fresh order sheets and stickers, the phones ring all day long, the call light NEVER stops, and twelve people talk to you at once. All that for minimum wage or a teensy bit more. I'm about to have a nervous breakdown just thinking about it again!

Uh, yeah. If that crap is really happening, and you know it and don't say anything, then it's your fault too. Report it.

I'm a peds and ob nurse, so I don't have a lot of cardiac experience, and when it's happening to you personally...well all kinds of stuff runs thru your head. I've always been a little tachycardic (108 resting), but lately I've been passing out for no apparent reason. I've passed out three times in the last two or three months. It's always in the shower, so I question vasovagal? But I haven't changed anything about the temp of the shower so....??? I had just recently starting taking Topamax for migraines...so I wondered if that could be dropping my blood pressure and making me black out. Or... could I be seizing? I'm out for like five minutes at a time. I've never had an MRI of my head. You'd think that be a standard neuro test, huh? I went straight to the neurologist the second time I passed out, but he refused to changed my meds and instead sent me for a cardiac workup. My echo is negative, my halter is negative. I still have to have a stress test. But I'm a peds nurse. What do I need to insist on for my treatment? What questions to I need to ask? What do you guys think? Help...

I had an accidental stick in nursing school once. We were practicing on oranges, my syringe and my hands were sticky, so my hand slipped and all 1 and 1/2 inches of the needle slid down the side of my pinky. So I was scared of needles for about a month. But my very wise instructor made me stick people until I could do it with my eyes closed. Now I let GNs and GPNs practice sticking IVs on me, even though I don't even have great veins. Practice. Practice. Practice.

I don't think working in the ER has anything to do with growing a thick skin. I work on a WIC floor and we have some of the thickest skinned nurses you'll ever see. But then again we code babies, kids, deal with fetal demises....traumas aren'ts the only way to callous your hide. I'm very interested in the ER and I've pulled a few shifts down there just to see what it was like...my first trauma was a drug overdose/attempted suicide who was paralyzed from his waist down due to previous bullet wound injuries. He was only twenty-six, but it was a heck of a lot easier than coding a twenty-six week, 1 lb baby who had to be c/sectioned early because her twin died in the womb and was making her septic. My thick skin might also be due to the fact that I'm a medical examiner on the side, but never let it be said that ER is the only breeding ground for a second epidermis.

I feel your pain, Girl. I've been a nurse for two years this June and I've always worked in women's and children's services and I have no kids. It comes up often, usually beginning as a compliment..."you must be so calm when your kids are sick," or "you probably did great in labor since you knew all the tricks". If it gets ugly, I just be the best nurse I can be. Telling them I know what I'm doing isn't as convincing as anticipating their needs and acting on those needs. Once I've anticipated and treated sore nipples, swollen perineums, sore backs etc. etc., they don't care quite as much whether I've personally experienced them or not.

If you don't get out soon, there will be no cover your a$$ measures because you won't have an a$$ left to cover.

When hiring for L&D, no experience is of any help to your resume except L&D experience, and maybe a little postpartum or some nursery. You are just as likely to get hired after nine months of med-surge as somebody is after nine months of dialysis. We recently hired a girl who had years of experience in CCU (and she was a good unit nurse)and she actually had to have longer orientation than a girl who had only two years of experience in an L&D somehwere else. L&D is like nothing else. The patients are different, most of the meds are different, the docs are different, even the documentation is different from anything you are used to. It's also one of the most rewarding jobs there is. Go for it!

I disagree with color coding scrubs just because I went to a private school for thirteen years and I enjoy not having to wear the same thing every day. However, I do agree that nursing should wear scrubs and other departments should wear something different. It's confusing for the patients, they can't tell nursing from lab, dietary or housekeeping.

Does your facility's blood bank carry RhoGAM? Any missed AB whose blood has an RH - factor, must recieve RhoGAM to counter the RH antibodies that have the potential to abort the next pregnancy.

I feel your pain. I was looking thru one of my peds patient's recent clinical results for an H&P and found a note from an ER doc that read something to the effect of "discharged pt to home, grandmother called back and said the pt was to be admitted, vital signs stable, labs w/i normal limits, no ill signs/symptoms noted" but by golly they brought her back in and he admitted the kid. What the heck? When did Granny get admitting privileges? We had a drug seeker that lived on our floor for months, came in every few days with some new ache or pain that had no rhyme or reason. Finally one of our docs refused to give her any more narcotics, and she was suddenly well enough to go home and hasn't been back. When he refused her narcotics, one of our RNs drew him a pair and labeled it "Sack Of Courage". He carries it around in his wallet. I'll see if I can't get a copy for the OP's doc, maybe he just needs to be reminded they're in his pants somewhere.

I would like to clarify here that I did NOT say that the OP couldn't defend our profession because she was not yet licensed. What I did say is that as a student, a non-employee, and most definitely not a participant in the conversation is that she should not have smarted off to the doctors. Standing up for yourself and your profession one thing, being a smarta$$ quite another.

To all you ER nurses: I'm an LPN, starting into the RN program this fall. My eventual goal is to be a flight nurse, but I have a long way to go and a lot of experience to earn before then. From what I've been able to gather I need both ER and ICU experience in order to even been considered for the position. I've had eighteen months of pediatric and obstetric experience, and I really love what I do. However, the director of our ER, who knows of my plans for flight nursing, told me that if I would transfer at this point, she would hire me. That would give me two years of ER experience before I even got my RNs, then I could work a couple more years ER and then hit SICU and get into flight nursing two years earlier than I had originally projected. But I know it's a really tough job and completely different from anything I've ever experienced. Peds and ob is all I've ever done. I'm excited, but scared too. Can you all give me some advice and a heads up about life in the ER? Thanks!

Okay, maybe you should start thinking about that 2 be on the end of your screenname. Until you pass your boards you are NOT a licensed nurse, you do NOT work at that hospital, and what that doctor said should not have affected you in any way whatsoever. But should you ever begin to work at that hospital, you have marked yourself. Don't get me wrong, I have stood up to many doctors over MY patients. Because that's what a nurse is--a patient advocate. And if you feel what the doctor has said or done can have a bad patient outcome, then you have every right to stand up. But if he just dissed your profession 2 be!!!!, so what! Good doctors know how valuable nurses are. You running your mouth didn't make nurses look any better, it just made you look worse. It also embarrassed your instructor. Obviously you never learned the sticks and stones rule. Choose your battles carefully. And just so you know, you chose wrong this time.

I don't work in a unit, but I can feel your pain. I work postpartum and everybody's mother, aunt and grandmother knows exactly what I should do to take care of their little girl, and they're not afraid to tell me. I actually had one new dad "teach" his wife how to breastfeed. It was amusing to witness, but also frustrating because she eventually gave up sore, cracked, and blistered because he couldn't figure out how to latch the baby on, and they weren't accepting outside (i.e. nurses) help.

I think I would put my foot down and demand some more orientation for the sake of your license and for the sake of those patients. It doesn't matter how many mom/baby couplets you offer to take, if you are the second RN, your butt will be helping out with the crashing baby. No questions asked. At my hospital we are required to have NRP even if we just work out on the postpartum/peds floor, much less the nursery and L&D. When I first started L&D, I had only two c/s with a preceptor under my belt and I swore I wouldn't do c/s because I hadn't been properly oriented. Low and behold along comes an emergency case and who's butt is in there? Darn right, mine! After that I went to my boss and told her I needed more orientation if she expected me to competently deal with the patients. And I got it too. I'm an LPN/scrub tech, but I've been an active participant in two neonatal codes in the last three months. If you're the second RN, you have no choice but to participate. If you're not going to ask or aren't able to get more orientation, I would at least get NRP even if I had to pay for it myself.

Yeah, really! What good nurse doesn't wear high heels to work. I find that my heels are really useful in helping me reach the mayo stand in the OR.

Our morning insulin is usually profiled by pharmacy @ 0700. And that's a huge gray area of whose responsibility it is to give. Dayshift clocks in at 0645, but nightshift doesn't clock out until 0708. Trays, however, don't come until 0730. I compromise by doing the fasting right before I leave, but I refuse to give the insulin without a tray present especially since my diabetics are either postpartum, antepartum or pediatric. Our cafeteria isn't the best in the world. Some peoples trays get mixed up and have to be sent back, or sometimes the food is so bad the pt refuses it. It scares me to think what would happen if nightshift gave all the insulin and walked out before the trays even came.:uhoh21:

Okay, I'm a girl and I'm not supposed to be on this forum, but I'm so excited to find a guy peds nurse!! I think guys make awesome peds nurses, but all the guys in our hospital work ER, OR, SICU, CCU, or CCSD. We are combined with a postpartum unit, so I guess that's why guys shy away. Anyway, it's really refreshing to see a guy that works with the kids. Awesome Dude!! More power to you!!

Keith, while I appreciate the kudos to the "ancillary staff" such as your fellow nurses LPNS, I must say that you were a little harsh, Dude. Don't get me wrong, I think paramedics are pretty amazing people, and would rather one respond to my car wreck rather than a medical professional who is not used to the field, but rather a controlled environment. However, I wouldn't want a paramedic to touch me in an OR. You might have superior training in some areas, but you are only taught to work out of an ambulance. I'd like to see you make sense of a surgical tray. Before nursing school, had you ever seen a Koker or a Balfour? I have a close friend that works the field. He amazes me with the things that he's done, delivering a two pound baby alone, rescuing a kid from a burning car, but he's pretty impressed with my ability to set up an OR for a stat section in less than two minutes or to step in and actually assist with surgery if a second doc or midwife can't make it. It's obvious that you miss the field. I'm sorry that you can't make ends meet doing a job that you love. But that gives you no right to diss our profession!

I wear a skirt w/ my scrubs instead of pants. So patients usually guess that I'm religious, and I'm often asked to pray. I always oblige when asked. Sometimes I pray silently for my patients, especially during delivery or in surgery. I think God hears me either way, whether they realize I'm praying for them or not. But back to the OP, if a patient asks you to pray with them, by all means pray!