BSN74

I have a new chemo port. When they need blood, they just disconnect my tubing, ask me to hold one end of it. Attach a syringe and get all the blood. Then they just reconnect every things. No sterile gloves, no sterile techniche. Is this OK? Also, since 2 weeks befor dx, rwo months ago, my legs have been covered in hundreds if bug bites infected with staph. Been to two dermo guys. Regular one home and one up here. I follow their instructions to the letter. I am staying at Amnerican Cancer Society hope house during the week. The nurse was in a big hurry last time when she accessed my port and kept looking at something on the other side of the room. She was moving around too fast and I wound with this "window thing" pulling at my skin. This was monday. Here on Wednesday, it was itching so pad I pulled a little of the adhesive back. There were red bumps, yellowish blisters, probably the spreading staph Sometimes the adhesive part of a bandaid will cause me to have blisters after about 3 days. I am having my whole colon removed and also orifice and rectum about 6 weeks after chemo. Had one week of chemo at this point. I want all this staph cleared by my surgery date. I feel in am just infiltrated with staph everyday. What should I do? The Derm. (really great guy) up here did a culture and sensitivity. No result yet. Should I ask to be put in the hospital and treated with IV antibiotics?

One reason people may come when it is not an emergency is because it can take so many weeks to get an appointment with your doctor. I have had ulcerative colitis of the whole colon for 30 years. Right now I am bleeding and in pain. My GI is booked until March and even though I told them about my symptoms they will not see me. They said to go to the ER. I hate to do that because it is not really an emergency, but what will happen to me if I bleed like this until March?

And they wonder why there is a nursing shortage! Nurses are treated so badly. If they would just stand up for themselves, things might change. But they won't. And administration knows it. Nurses are worried about what might happen to their patients. But what about all the patients down the line who will have to suffer from unconscionable nurse-patient ratios, and every thing else that is wrong with nursing today because nurses keep accepting things like they are? Administration cannot just call up the local temp agency and say"send me a warm body over here." Nurses have power. I wish they would use it. I am 55 years old. I have gotten to watch nursing over a long period of time and see the changes, which is kind of neat. The bad part is that nursing and they way nurses are treated is much worse than it used to be. I looked to see how old you were. You are only 25!. You have the wonderful ability to leave Nursing in the dust and go do anything you want! That is what I did. I went back to college the day after I turned 40 and became an accountant. I had taken a course to see what strengths I might have. For 2 solid years I carried a 4.0 GPA partly fueled by all the things I had to put up with as a nurse. All I had to do was think about getting up on Christmas Morning and going to work and I was good for two or more hours of study. Then I sat for and passed the CPA exam. Now I am CFO of a company that makes custom electronics for drag racing cars. I am off every weekend, holiday, and night. And I love the trips. OK. I am ready. Blast me.

You might start changing you mind about some of this anit-white stuff when you get a little older and start being the paitent

Body fluids look just as disgusting on Mickey Mouse as they do on white and you can later bleach the white.

As a new nurse in the 70's, I wore whites and a cap. And the white hose. Only the RN wore those. The LPN's wore skin color. I remember rushing down the hall looking down at my legs shortly after graduation thinking "I made it, I'm really a nurse!" And the white uniforms were not starched. They were a knit with flattering seaming. They were so comfortable, not like the unstretchable scrubs. Now that I am old I am starting to be on the patient side of things. Last year I was in the ER with a DVT. I was scared to death. Something about the Spongebob and Minnie Mouse scrubs on the nurses seemed a little like an insult. Later, not wanting to bother anyone, when a worker came into the room I asked for something for pain. She said "I am here to clean your bathroom." You say you wear badges so we will know who you are. There is so much info on the badge that the name part has to be written in small type. I can't see it without my glasses, in pain, with the nurse moving around, and the badge often upside down. Anytime someone came in my room I was reduced to saying "what are you?" I felt very rude. All nurses do not introduce themselves and even if they do, who can remember all the new names? You say nurses cap's went by the wayside because they were an infection control issue. I kept my caps washed. But what about those badges? How often are they cleaned? Often, the picture is of a dark haired woman and the nurse has gray hair. How old is this badge? They say the dirtiest thing in the hospital is the doctor's necktie, but my vote is those nasty badges, I don't want one touching me. I am so glad I got to be a nurse when nurses had the added advantage of looking good. Little girls today miss out on the dream of wearing that cap. Solid color scrubs look like pajamas. The prints (and why are they always such unprofessional prints?) look like clown suits. Add Crocs and there you go- clown shoes to go with the clown suit.

Isn't it sad that humans don't revere being a decent human being the way they revere sports heros and movie stars? They could begin teaching it to small children in nursery school instead of just saying "children can be cruel" when some child accidently wets his pants or something.

I just started a new job today. In the orientation literature,it said time off could be revoked at the last minute if the facility needs to. We go to Mardi Gras. You have to make reservations 10 months in advance. There is price gouging. Rooms can be $700 per night and there is a 5 night minimum. Plane tickets are inflated too. All money must be paid in advance and is strictly non-refundable. What if I have paid 3500 for a trip and they tell me two days before I have to forget the trip because I have to fill in for someone? No wonder there is a nursing shortage if you can't even plan a vacation.

I have been out of nursing for a long time. Now I am probably getting a job working with mentally challenged individuals. My uniform will be street clothes with a lab jacket. Question: do RN's still wear their school pins? I used to put mine on my lab coat.

I always wondered what would happen if they offered a large hourly rate on holidays.Maybe some people would offer to work and others could be off. I mean serious $$$$$.