AR_RN

Suction canisters are never emptied at my hospital either. Once installed, they're only replaced when full or when needed. Nothing in the canister will backflow, especially as long as the filter is left in place (I've worked with nurses that remove the filter...that bothers me). The vacuum is a one way flow, so when turned on and hooked up you aren't introducing bacteria back into the patient. Having said that, if a vacuum tube is to be left unattached, I do cap it to keep it closed.

As a med-surg nurse at a busy hospital, I understand and sympathize. I cried what seemed like every day after work most of my first year. I was exhausted. I never felt I was doing as good a job as I wanted to because I was constantly running, chasing my tail and never getting done. It does get better with time. However, as others have pointed out, nights may not be something you're cut out for (I'm not for sure), and med surg may not be your thing either. The beautiful thing about nursing is that you have so many different specialties to choose from. As a bit of encouragement, I've switched to Staff Support at my hospital, allowing me to work different floors and manage my work schedule around my life. That's taken a lot of the stress out of working for me, and I'm still in med-surg and love it. My time management and organization is finally, mostly, under control and I finally feel competent most of the time. It's taken me a long time to get to this point, but it feels good. Whether in med-surg or another specialty, you will find your groove, and learn what works best for you. You worked hard to get that license. You will find your niche.

I've done team nursing some. I prefer not to though. As said above, it depends on who you're working with....I've had nurses use "team nursing" as an opportunity to sit on their backside and order the others around. That's not how it works. If you work with good committed coworkers, it can be good, but it's a crap shoot.

If I feel that the number pain rating I'm getting (say from an elderly patient) doesn't mesh with what I'm seeing, I'll FLACC them, while also making a note of the number they rated it. I also do this on occasion with that patient that rates their pain a 10 while giggling on the cell phone and painting their nails.

I'm fortunate enough to work in a Catholic hospital. I'm not Catholic, but the nuns that visit each patient daily are a great comfort to many of my patients, regardless of their faith. Have I talked about faith with scared patients? Sure. Have I prayed for and with patients at their request? Of course. Would I ever refuse a patient the comfort of a prayer? Never!

Obama here. My reasons are mine, but I do pray for the future president either way. It's not a job I'd want!

There are so many factors to consider, and you recognize most of them. After 5 years in a hospital setting with 12 hr shifts, I need to point out that 3 12s is a lot of time away from your child. On those days, if you work day shift you won't see her at all. If you work nights, you need sleep during the day to stay safe and alert at night. Then for me at least if you work 2 or 3 days in a row, you'll need a day of "recovery" before you feel your best again. You'll have the flexibility of scheduling which is wonderful, from my perspective having time with your daughter every day with guaranteed time off on nights and weekends is worth a ton. You'll likely make more PRN, as mentioned, but hours are less reliable. Could you afford to not work for a week if hours are scarce during a down period? I'm off work right now caring for a family member, but I'm about to take a prn contract which will only require me to work 2 12 hr shifts per week. A decent compromise for me between having to give up time 5 days per week or working full time. Good luck with your decision. It's a tough one with pros and cons in each direction.

As said before, more info would be helpful, but humiliation is an emotion you may just have to tame. I was crushed and embarrassed and on the verge of tears the first time I was called into my mgr office. Now, I take it in stride. Not only does she call people into the office all the time for all kinds of things (good and bad), but no one but me knows why I was in there, and rarely is it even something worth stressing over. I calmly defend myself when needed, sometimes just nod and let her say her piece so I can go on about my job, whatever the "crime" requires, but bottom line, have confidence in yourself don't let a scolding get you down.

I had a great one last week. The family pushed the call light and said the patient needed help with her IV. I went in and they informed me that they had unplugged the IV and assisted the pt to the bathroom, then gotten her back in bed, but now weren't sure what to do with the IV. Ummm.....how about plug it back in? Seriously?

Oh, I forgot one of my other faves. The call light goes off and we answer it from the desk. "May I help you?" Instead of a response we hear this: Did you hit the call light? No, why? They said you hit the call light. No, why would I hit the call light? I don't know why. Do you need something? No, if I needed something, I'd hit the call light. Well did you hit the call light? No! Then finally to us, "no one hit the call light." Oooookkkaaaayyyy..... This about 3 or 4 times in 15 minutes. After that we called their nurse to the room to "FIX IT!" I think she moved the call light up by the pillow instead of down by his hand. :-)

I'm loving this thread! My favorite call light story was a man who was aox3, generally very polite and no trouble. Suddenly his call light started going off constantly. He'd deny pressing the button and I'd go in to check on him only to find the call light laying on the bedside table. It was in reach, but nowhere he might hit it accidentally. I'd no more than get out of the room and it would go off again. He seemed as confused as he could be. After about 10 minutes of this I had a brainstorm and traced the call light cord. The previous pt had been a quadriplegic and had a modified call light he could press with his cheek. This gentleman still had the same modified light and the quad's button had been placed under his pillow when the PCT remade the bed. Guess she didn't know what it was! The poor guy was only trying to get comfortable in bed and kept pressing the button with his head.

One I've learned that I don't think I've seen here.... Don't take your girlfriend's psychotic meds thinking they will help you sleep, then wait three days for the resulting erection to "get better" before you seek help. It gave new meaning to the term "blue balls".

I do both med-surg and peds. I hear it more on the peds side, but often on the med-surg side too. Frankly, I typically consider it a complement, whether they think they're giving me one or not. :chuckle If they couldn't do it, it's a good thing I am, right? I am usually chatting away with the patient or family while doing whatever I'm doing to prompt that response. My response is usually something along the lines of "it's all part of the job", but the truth between you and me is that not everyone's cut out for it. I'd have to be hogtied and medicated before spending a full day in, say, a preschool however, so we've all got our preferences!

I have to weigh in here with something worth thinking about. While I was in nursing school, I said the same things. I did NOT want med-surg. I was willing to do nearly anything but, and the thought of being stuck doing med-surg nearly bored me to tears. Once I graduated, I hired on at the pediatrics floor of our hospital. That floor is half peds and half urology/med-surg. Nearly a year into working there, I have to say I've learned so much and gotten practice with such a wide range of things working med-surg so much that I don't regret it at all. My suggestion would be to choose whatever you think you want to do most, but don't write off med-surg. I scoffed at those that told me that med-surg was a good place for a new nurse to start. Now, I realize that I've had experience in nearly every aspect of nursing, nearly every gadget, procedure and technique commonly used. I was lucky enough to get a job that allows me to do peds as well, but wherever you end up, use it as a learning opportunity and a springboard to bigger and better things later on.

I have to laugh at this one. Normally I have no problem here....it's pretty clear which is which. But last week, my grandmother was in a critical heart surgery, I was worried about her, major short on sleep, was charging for only the 3rd time in my life, AND had a patient with a colostomy who needed a colonoscopy. I couldn't keep the words straight all day!! :chuckle:chuckle

I got some great news this morning. I've passed the NCLEX! Therefore, for the sake of truth and clarity, I am no longer ARNurse2B, but am now, accurately: AR_RN :yeah::chuckle Yay, me!

I don't doubt it. I heard similar questions from some of my classmates on occasion. One nearly got kicked out about a month before graduation for doing a clinical write up for the previous week, which was already past due, on his laptop in the breakroom of our current clinical location. When asked why he considered that ok (he was supposed to be caring for 4 patients) his answer was that he hadn't had time to do it. Ummm....ok...everyone else somehow managed. Point being, not everyone has what we consider to be common sense. Even those who are technically book smart. An instructor can never assume that a student asking a question has actually exhausted all his options for finding the answer.

Wow. The level of bickering in what could have been a fairly adult conversation amazes me. I'm guessing some folks may be a little stressed out these days. Opinions were asked for, so here's mine. As one of the oldest in my nursing class at 40 yrs old, I had many in my nursing class that would ask a question of the instructor NOT because they'd already tried to find the answer, but because they wanted to save themselves the time to look for it. These students did seem to believe they should be spoon-fed facts and didn't realize that the information was not retained well when they were given the information that easily. OTOH, there were times when a question was asked and we really needed an answer. I found it helpful to frame the question in such a way to show that previous research had been done without success. "Could you explain why X causes Y? The book doesn't cover that detail and I was unable to find anything in my own research." I nearly always got either a straight answer, or an honest "I don't know" which I respect much more than an instructor trying to BS me. I disagree with the theory that all instructors who answer a question with a question are doing it because they don't know the answer. In some cases it may be true. In others it's a teaching style (whether you like it or not) and in others they may believe that your research on the subject wasn't thorough enough. Or maybe you're overlooking something simple and they want to lead you to the "click". Some instructors are horrible and have no idea what they're talking about, but at least in my experience, the majority are very knowledgable and we can learn a lot from them if we set aside the little annoyances and work with them.

LOL. I'm glad someone looked it up for me because I did think I might have made it up. I was wanting to refer to things said in a particular region, however, not the regions themselves, so "regionalisms" was the best I could do.:chuckle

When you start talking about regionalisms (is that really a word, or did I make it up?), how about these? "I have low blood." (anemia) "I have to go out back." (this one took me forEVER to figure out. She needed to have a BM!) I had more, but got distracted and now I've forgotten. But I will say this. When I read something posted on a website or in print somewhere using bad grammar or poor spelling I find myself losing interest and thinking the person is pretty careless and sloppy. I don't react that way to messages like these or emails, because we all get in a hurry and our fingers get tangled, but if you're going to publish it for all the world to see, at least have enough respect for yourself to double check it! :angryfire Having said that, I also often catch myself laughing because I recognize some of the typos I always make. I'm especially guilty of "althought", "teh", and "adn" (but I always proofread!)

OK, see, this is why we go crazy with pronunciations! I was prescribed this particular drug and always pronounced it meh-TOE-pro-LOL. My doctor "corrected" me that it should be meto-PRO-LOL. If she can't get it right, how am I supposed to? Guess I'll start calling drug companies and ask, "so just how DO you pronounce your drug name?"

Yep, I carry mine too, always on vibrate and I rarely need to use it while working. My 12 yr old daughter is often home alone and knows not to call me if she can help it because I won't answer the phone 99 times out of 100. However, if she needs me she knows she can text me or leave me a VM and I'll check it when I can. So why don't I leave it somewhere? Well I don't have a locker, and if I leave it in the car then I can't check it when time allows. But I probably wouldn't even if I had somewhere to leave it. It gives me a measure of security to know she can get to me if needed, and it would disrupt the floor more to have her calling the desk, rather than leaving me a message. Tweety, I'm usually right with you on stuff, but I've got to disagree with you on this one. Just because people survived without cell phones years ago doesn't make it better or preferable. They also survived without running water, air conditioners or internet, but those things are here to stay too. :typing Oh, also, I love this part. Our hospital has signs at every entrance demanding that you turn off your cell phones, then when you get to the floor to work the first thing they do is hand you a cell phone so they can reach you at any given moment. As long as I've got to answer that thing at the bedside of a patient, I'll carry my silent cell phone for emergency purposes!

OK, I've just read all 34 pages and have to admit I was :roll for some of them. I'm just graduating in 11 days, so my experience is limited in the nursing area, but these types of things have always driven me nuts. My current one, however, has been mentioned many times...centimeter/sontimeter. I've recently had it explained to me by a very straight faced instructor that although they refer to the same unit of measurement, "sontimeter" is used to refer to suction, chest tubes and pressure related things, and centimeter is used otherwise. My next question of course was, "Why?" She looked straight at me and without missing a beat said, "I don't know."

OMG! I've been sitting here laughing so hard my stomach hurts, with tears pouring down my face. My daughter has decided that I'm certifiably insane (possible...). Thanks, guys. Being so close to graduation and with all that's going on, this was just the cure for my stress level. I still can't top my worst slip up, which was from before I started nursing school. I worked as a 911 calltaker and received a frantic call from a hysterical mother who's daughter had just attempted suicide. I calmly asked her "has your daughter ever committed suicide before?" At least it slowed her down a little so I could talk to her after that.

I went and checked out your post. My starting pay is higher, but your situation is different. I'll be an RN, and I know LPNs do start lower. Plus, I'm in a hospital, and I know the peds offices around here pay less than the offices. Still, I think it's a bit low. I think starting LPN pay around here is more in the $14 ballpark you mentioned, but that's hospital, not clinic. Good luck. If they aren't offering you enough, you'll have to balance pay with other benefits and decide whether you need to move on to the next opportunity. I could drive another hour and make about $7 more an hour than I'll be getting, but there are more issues to consider, so it was enough for me for now. Only you will know what is the right offer for you.