gizzy76

All of these things ring so true and I'm only around page 20 with reading them! A few of mine... 1) Those families who want you to do things for their family member when you are in the middle of something else which is more important...We had a lady who came by ambulance with an MI and we were treating in our ER. We had asked the family to leave the room while we proceeded with care. Once we treated her and gave TNKase I allowed the family back in for a moment to see her so they would know that she was doing better than when they seen her brought in. All the daughters could do was ask for a glass of water for her because she had a bad taste in her mouth. Meanwhile, I was trying to administer Lovenox and pain medications for this woman. Then they asked me to brush her false teeth and when I said I could not do that at the moment, the one daughter got snotty and said if I would get her a basin and a toothette she would do it herself then if I couldn't do it for their mom. This family did not realize how serious the situation could have been for their mother. 2) The nurses who are nowhere to be found when you need them and always around when you don't. And I completely agree about the ones who are too busy to help you because they're chit chatting or checking their email. That irks me. 3) LTC families who pop out of the woodwork when their loved one is dying and they suddenly know the answers to everything. They want to change the routine of care and they know exactly how their loved one SHOULD be cared for and it's NOT how we've been doing it for the past 5 years. 4) LTC families who visit for 3 days and decide that their mother isn't getting the same treatment that the rest of the residents are getting. Well I'm sorry, if your mother has dementia, is a wanderer and becomes aggressive regularly, we're going to let her sleep when she wants to sleep because it saves our employees from getting hurt and it lets the resident feel better. If that means she won't get the afternoon snack because she's laid down for a nap, then she doesn't get it. It's not because we don't want her to have it. And we're NOT going to intentionally wake her up and aggravate her just so she can have it. 5) People who phone in a rural community to find out which doctor will be on call that evening for outpatients. I'm sorry but if you need to be seen that badly by a doctor that you're going to come to the hospital, it really shouldn't matter who sees you. Usually these people are the ones who know which doctor will or won't give them the drugs they seek. 6) The same people who repeatedly bring in their kids to ER with snotty noses and need antibiotics. It really makes me wonder why they can't cope with a sick child at home who has the sniffles. 7) Parents who bring in a child with a high fever and they haven't even taken any measures to bring the fever down...Tylenol, Advil, cool cloth to forehead, less layers of clothing instead of the child being bundled up...etc I think this is getting a bit long...sorry...might be back with a few more later

I have felt the same way many times and then something will happen with a patient that will make it all worthwhile for me. Maybe you need to search through your day and see if there was something memorable about it or someone who touched your soul (even if it was small). Maybe public health nursing would be good for you, or even home care if you feel that working on the floor isn't for you in the end.

I currently wear Birkenstocks and they took about a year for me to get really used to wearing them. During nursing school I had a pair of Clogs from http://www.shoesforcrews.com and they were awesome. I believe they were called Euro Clog. Slip resistant and quite comfortable. I'm quite tempted to get another pair. I know a few gals who wear Jungle Pro by Merrill. I have a pair of slip in sneakers by Merrill and they're comfortable but I've never worn them to work for a day to see how they hold up.

When I was in nursing school, there was a gal a couple of years behind me beginning her training. I cannot remember what country she was from but she was a doctor in her country. Strange thing was, she was having trouble with the requirements of nursing school. She found it hard. Thought that was interesting. :)

Could PRN be Psychiatric Registered Nurse? I know here in Canada we have RPN's which are Registered Psychiatric Nurses. Just a thought...

Just wondering what you all can tell me about clostridium...we have a lady who came into our rural hospital and she's just tested positive. All my dictionary says is that it's a rectal infection basically and one of my co-workers said that it takes 10 days of Flagyl to clear it up. Can anyone help? Thanks!

I think the little guy was deprived of oxygen thus causing the Cerebral palsy etc. The family were upset at their son being in the state he was due to the negligence of the hospital from delaying the boys births. My heart goes out to those people. Such a sad thing to happen to them.

Thanks for the fantastic replies! I guess my choice of wording of "throttle" wasn't so hot. I bit my tongue with this gal and tried my best to satisfy her wishes. I hear dayshift had quite the time with her as well. :)

I just had to ask b/c I am finding lately that a lot of my patients seem to think they know how to do my job better than I do because they watched a procedure one time or another. What do you all do when this happens? Just this morning I had a 26y old female whom I had to re-prime her IV line b/c it went partially dry in the tubing. She kept telling me that I didn't need to unhook the tubing from her heplock, I could just run it. Um...OK, whatever. Then she decided to tell me how I should poke the tubing into the new Saline bag. Not even 30 seconds later she's telling me that I put the tubing in the pump wrong because she had less tubing to work with for movement than she had previously. Sorry, but I wanted to throttle her.

The daughter of one of my old nursing home residents was having botox done. She had the creases in her forehead fixed, and she had her eyes lifted too if I remember correctly. She does look a bit different, but not a whole bunch. She said that she wanted her eyes to show more but didn't care about her tubby little body. It made me smile. She was a really lovely lady. I do believe in being who you are, but if certain procedures make you feel like a million bucks and you have the money to spend, I don't see why not. I caught my first episode of Extreme Makeovers last week and it blew my mind! Some of these people improved greatly and it showed in their smiles!

Interesting article...thanks :)

I'm just curious to know if others have seen this in their practises... We had a lady come over from the doctors clinic to our outpatient dept with an order for Demerol/Gravol IV to help her migraine (she comes in every couple of days lately) and the nurse I was working with says "I'm not giving this IV, I'm going to give it IM and get Dr so-and-so to change the order later". I felt kind of uneasy about that. Sure, I would have loved to just have given an injection rather than starting an IV on this lady...but somehow this just didn't seem right. I realize that yeah, we're in a small hospital and the nurses get to know the doctors very well but... What's your take on it?

My first visit to the chiropractor was when I was 13 years old d/t back pain I was experiencing a lot. When we got the x-ray it showed I had lower back scoliosis. A few adjustments later my back felt fantastic and my menstral cramps went from a 15/10 on the pain scale to maybe a 3 or 4/10. Unfortunately, being a teen, I didn't always make a good attempt at going back for more treatments as scheduled. Now as an adult and sufferer of the occasional migraine, I've been rethinking it. Just may have to make an appointment soon!

I don't know a lot about it...but I thank God that you are okay! My best wishes for a speedy and full recovery!

Can't say I can answer your question, but from what I've noticed during my training etc, most male nurses are found in urban centres. Not sure why though. Good luck on your project!