ToxNurse

I too smoked forever and quit three years ago.. Heres the thing.. You have to quit and change your mindset.. You have to tell yourself that you will never smoke again. You must never pick up a cigarette again. You can't or you will fail. It took me a good year to get over the very strong urge to have just one... Now I realize how stupid I was for smoking and wasting all that money.. I bought a new car the day I quit and what I save each month pays for the car (my husband also quit on the same day). Find other ways to relieve anxiety during times of stress... Cry, Cry, Cry but DO NOT SMOKE. You don't need to smoke to get through a crisis.. I have two marbles that I roll together in my hand when I drive which keeps my hand busy. I never smoked in my home so I staying indoors a lot, but my dog kept having accidents in my house??? (she was not going out to smoke either and had never learned to ask to go out).. I had to stay away from my moms house for 6 months.. She smokes a lot and it was hard going there... Quitting is not a lost cause.. You can do it.. You can quit.. There is a toll free 800 number to call when you get the urge.. They will talk you down.. I used the patch and it worked well for me... Realize that its more addicting than heroine , but you can do it. If I can, anyone can. Good luck in the New Year and with the New You that does not smoke....

This is way too funny.... At work nurse friend walked into utility room that had a DO NOT ENTER sign.. The floor was being redone and she walked right into the glue that was being cured for new flooring... Could not get shoes off of floor and had to call contractor back from lunch to help out... Doing first rounds at 0730, walked into room, female patient was sleeping, I started toward the bed to look closer at the monitor, tripped over my own two feet and fell face first across her abdomen and thighs..She woke up with her nurse laying across her.. Best I could come up with was.. Good morming, my name is ___ and I am going to be your nurse today... Chair at computer was angled wrong and I could not get lever under chair to work. I stood up, turned a faced the chair, reached the lever under the seat.. The seat propeled forward, hitting me in the forehead, causing me to go to the floor in severe pain, instant headache and dizziness. I had large egg sized goose egg above eye.. Developed raccoon eyes 2 days after the event... The Employee health nurse had trouble suppressing her laughter when she called me to find out how it happened...and it was witnessed by 4 family members who were standing in the hallway... Nurse friend slipped in urine that leaked from a foley bag and broke her wrist when she fell. :roll

Because there are better nurses working at the bedside... Magnet promotes professinalism in nursing... We have been on our Magnet journey for the past 5 years and this past Wed we found out that we were awarded Magnet status... Our nurses get yearly bonuses for certificiation, for our Career Development pathway, for precepting. We get more money for education, to attend seminars and have an active role in all committees in the hospital. So when they want to change a policy that impacts nursing.. we have the final say.. Our practice committee researches the issue and finds the most relevant evidence before they give the yea or nay on passing it... It impacts the care our patients get by making us better bedside nurses.... "Reserach shows" is a huge part of our practice.... Bottom line... We control our nursing practice... not administration....

I have been at the same hospital for 21 years.. 13 of those as a nurse. Since getting my BSN I have been offered management positions, offered roles on committees, offered to oversee teaching programs, offered a postion in the Learning Institute.. But I remain a staff RN because I want to teach; so this spring I will be taking a part time job with our local community college doing clinical instruction with the ADN students. I would someday like to be faculty, so I am going back for MSN in Nursing ED later on in the spring... You can do whatever you want... As an ADN nurse I published my first article.. Everyones elses byline had tons of letters and my had just 3.. "RN.C." But I learned to write and research over the years so I ended up with a very professional, published article. I have my sights on two more things I would like to write about and hope that soon I will begin the work on those..... I would also like to take my topic to conferences....

:welcome: I work on a Pulmonary unit. Michael was 32, mentally challenged and had lived in a group home. Was admitted with sepsis after scalding his scrotal area with hot fluid (an accident) and the wound developed infection. He was trached, septic, developed resp failure. We had him from his initial incident and for 4 years after. He had no family and when he came in we treated him like our child. We brought him food, movies to watch and became his family. His favorite thing was to get admitted for chest pain (he knew that was his ticket in the door) during the holidays to be with us.. He coded and died one day after a dialysis treatment which was a huge suprise to all of the staff. 6 months later our floor was being moved to another floor for renovations.. Michael was always in room 14,, On the day of the move, I was in charge and made one last trip upstairs to make sure everything was taken to the new floor (charts, meds, bedside boards etc). The floor was deserted and eerily quiet. As I stood and looked up and down the hall, room 14's call light went on. A chill went up my spine, I went into the room. Nothing and no one was in there but the room was very cold and had the odor of Michael (we always brought OLD Spice cologne in for him). I am sure that it was Michael's way of saying good bye to us and the floor.

Oh...I forgot the employee incident report I had to fill out..... Chair was angled wrong for computer work and I could not get lever under seat to work.. I got up, stood in front of the chair, leaned down and pulled the lever.. The chair flew forward and hit me in the head causing me to go down to the floor, and have a massive headache, dizziness and a very large goose egg... 2 days later I had raccoon eyes from the injury... How do you write that up?? The employee health coordiantor was trying not to laugh too hard when she called me.....

I am laughing so hard.... I am the biggest klutz... I fell on a patient.. patient was sleeping, I went in a 7:30 AM, tripped over my own two feet and fell face first across her legs and lower abdomen.. She woke up very surpirsed to see her nurse laying on her... We use portable phones -- SpectraLink --- Dropped one in the bathroom when the clip came off my scrubs... $800 down the toilet... Had to be replaced... No charge phone... Dropped an empty evacuated 1 L container in the utility room... The vacumn causes a HUGE BANG like a bomb and I was showered with tiny bits of glass, and every staff member thinking the sky was falling on them from the explosion... I also spiked through IV bags.. and worst of all... an expensive TPN bag and the pharmacy has to make up a new bag pronto....

I took the PCCN exam today and passed.. I took the review classes at Trends in Critical Care Nursing in Sept 06 in Valley Forge PA, then used the program CD's to study from. Cardiac was the biggest part of the exam and the part that I scored the least in.. Study the cardiac and review the rest of the stuff and you should do fine...