PeachyERNurse

People who can’t breathe scare the crap out of me. I can pretty much deal with anything else —except trachs and babies. Those two, I will do anything to avoid.

We’re expected to use ours for TWO weeks...I’m certainly planning my exit and praying I’m not infected before then.?

Metro Atlanta. The whole state has 3,000 cases so nowhere near as hard hit as other locations.

Amen! ??????????

We are at 40+ positive patients and 20+ rule outs. For reference, my hospital isn’t very big. Just over 200 beds. My anxiety is through the roof.?

I'm seriously considering it now that my hospital is forbidding us from wearing masks unless we’re caring directly for confirmed COVID patients.

I totally understand rationing, but to tell us masks aren’t allowed and threatening write ups if you bring in your own is just plain crazy.

Is anyone else’s facility refusing to allow staff to wear masks (including plain old surgical masks) unless they’re caring directly for a COVID-19+ patient?

?

Thanks so much for the response. I was at work when she called me, and she can be a drama queen about a lot of things. But when she says she hurts, she's really hurting. She actually said the words "I want to die" because she was in so much pain and no one cared. I was crying along with her because I couldn't believe this is the new reality! This is truly insanity, and we're gonna be having a heck of a lot more than an opioid abuse crisis here soon, when pts like these can't get their meds. Thank you so much for the care you provide your patients!

I know this thread is kind of old, but I felt the need to comment. My sister has sickle cell. Yeah yeah I know the stigma. I worked in the ED for 10 years, and I came across a lot of fakers who didn't even really have sickle cell and just wanted drugs. And also the sicklers who we treated like/or actually were seekers. My sister's never had a whole lot of hospitalizations until this last year when she was hospitalized multiple times, received multiple transfusions, had to have a couple surgeries, etc. She's had a script for Dilaudid for YEARS. She fills it maybe 2x a year. Nothing excessive. She called me the other day hysterically crying because she'd been in pain, was out of her Dilaudid (because she let the previous script run out...always tries IBU 800 first which is generally helpful) and her Dr wrote her a new one. But apparently the pharmacies are now refusing to fill certain scripts??? Written by legit well known hem/oncs. I called one of the pharmacies and was told they can refuse to fill scripts written by certain docs, and they can choose to give pts only x amount of their prescriptions? Oh, and they have to call and confirm with the doc that you really have what illness you say you have. I had no idea that was a even a thing! No snark intended, but do they call the oncologist to confirm your cancer before they fill your script? Or the ortho to confirm your bone really is broken in 3 different places and you need that oxy or whatever? She was turned away from multiple pharmacies that she'd regularly used in the past for her other meds. They treated her like a seeker even though they could see she wasn't on the PDMP (yep I confirmed this). I had to call a fifth pharmacy to get her her meds. So yeah, I can definitely see chronic pain med users with legitimate pain issues killing themselves when their pain relief is taken away or severely limited.

How'd you lose your job on FMLA? I thought that was the whole point...that with FMLA you leave, take care of your personal business, and come back to a job.

I'm not even 100% sure of what the policy is at my job. But I work in a procedural area where we're on call, and if my childcare falls through (it's happend 3x in the last year at least), my kid comes with. She's been there unfortunately 8+ hours. She either chills in the break room or in an unused pt room. She eats whatever meal/snack I buy, and I personally clean the room when it's time to go. It's that, or I'd have to call out and pts and/or the very minimal staff we have suffer. Management has heard about it and said nothing to me, and I obviously try not to make a habit of it. However single parenting sucks, childcare isn't easy to find in some places, and I empathize with anyone who has to bring their kid with them on a regular basis.

What?!?! Your personal medical information is uploaded online??? That can NOT be legal.

This is my DREAM shift!