newbiern2006

Congrats from a St Vincent's Grad - I loved it there. God bless!:nuke:

No drinking AND driving, period. Drink but DON'T drive, I don't care - the occasional drink (or even very occasional inebriation, say, at a New Year's Eve party) is not a problem, but for God's sake, get a designated driver or take a cab home - duh! And alcoholism is a BIG problem. I haven't known one yet I'd trust as far as I can throw an elephant - and I've known a whole lot of them - up close and personal - you're barking up the wrong tree if you want any sympathy from me. I watched my beloved, broken-hearted cousin bury her only daughter, a beautiful (inside and out) 24 year old woman because some moron thought it was okay to drive drunk. Quitcherbichin' and knock off the drinking irresponsibly. Irresponsible outside of work, highly likely to be irresponsible at work - you can't hide what you are, and eventually that kind of drinking ruins your brain, and then you're impaired at work whether you've been drinking or not. I watched my father die slowly in an alcoholic dementia, and he was never aware of how impaired he'd become - nobody who drinks to excess on a regular basis has the right to be anywhere near patients.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My sister had a bumper sticker that said it bette tahn anything I've seen: "See Dick drink, see Dick drive, see Dick die. Don't be a Dick.":cry:

Yep, and I don't want one of'em to be my nurse.

Never had the flu in my entire life - had a really nasty, month-long reaction to the chicken pox vaccine, though, and now I get shingles on my face. The really stupid thing is, I HAD the chicken pox, nursed all five of my kids through the chicken pox and didn't get it from them because I am immune, but had to get the vaccine anyway, for nursing school, because my titers came back negative. Any body tries to make me get a flu shot, I'll get lawyer first.

I don't know about you, but I don't want anybody irresponsible enough (and obviously judgment-impaired enough) to drive drunk to be giving me meds or watching (or worse, not watching) my tele monitor or ... you get the idea. And as far as smoking and obesity go, how can that possibly compare? Smoking doesn't impair one's driving, and neither does obesity - nor do they impair one's judgment or clinical abilities. I suffered through nursing school with a classmate who was a drinker, and let me tell you, an entire group of us filed a formal complaint against her, because even sober, her drinking had impaired her abilities in clinical. Because she had not been caught drinking during school or clinicals, she was given multiple opportunities to improve her performance in clinical (she was a straight A student in theory). She was allowed to graduate and take the NCLEX, but there is not a single one of us who were her classmates that would EVER let her be our nurse.

On those cotton support hose - found a few brands. ComfoMED, cotton blend, firm compression Jobst Active, cotton blend, moderate or firm compression Jobst Sensifoot (not cotton, but claim to be "moisture wicking" to keep feet dry), mild compression, especially good for diabetics or those, like me, whose toes are extremely sensitive to "sock bumps" - otherwise known as seams Medi Motion Sport (also not cotton, but moisture wicking), don't know compression rating Siqvaris, cotton lined, firm or extra firm compression

Tee-hee - not embarrassed to admit it, stinky feet happen (quite a lot in my family;).) There is a brand that makes compression hose of cotton blend, nice and thick, too - I'll look them up and post it for you.

Not in my hospital - it's five days per year, period. I used up all of mine this past fall - I have asthma and allergies and get bronchitis easily in warm, wet weather, and if it happens to be Fall, with all its moldy leaves, it's even worse. My manage could not care less, and all she does is insist I do "better" - which means she wants me to come in sick, which I absolutely refuse to do. I can't be a good nurse if I can't think straight, and I sure as heck can't spread my germs to all those already-very sick patients, not to mention my coworkers. Last week, one of our long-time nurses came to work so sick she could barely talk, and ignored a patient who complained loudly of stomach pain all night long. She gave him Maalox, but that was it. When she did try to get the night intern to come, the intern refused, and she was just too sick and exhausted to fight about it. The nsg supervisor did nothing to back up this poor nurse (not an unusual occurrence - only one of our supervisors ever backs us up). It turned out the patient hadn't had a bowel movement in days, and on the day shift was finally able to get up to the commode and move his bowels, after which he was just fine. This nurse didn't call in sick because she'd called in sick two weeks before, and knew what our manager is like. Needless to say, this is just one more reason I'm not staying with this hospital. The VA in West Haven just 15 minutes away not only has better tuition reimbursement and health insurance, they have 13 sick days a year, a fabulous computerized documentation system, and they pay better.

No husband, no kids - if you're fairly intelligent (and you wouldn't have gotten into nursing school if you weren't), you can do this. I had both, and homeschooled, and worked full time, and catered my daughter's wedding, and helped her with her first baby, and ...well, you get the idea! It isn't easy, but it's the most important thing you'll ever do - for you, and for all the patients you're going to help. My only advice is to make a study schedule, and stick to it - and keep important due dates circled in red on a giant calendar with the assignment due written in, plus weekly reminders posted in the weeks prior to the due date.

time to chin up and thicken your skin!!! as they say in georgia (lived there three years) "done did it already!" it helped to talk with the nurses who were willing to listen, even if it meant wading through the ones who weren't. i've actually been able to lend a hand to other nurses on my shifts over the last couple of weeks, and the regulars on the night shift with me are much more supportive now that they understand just how woefully ill-oriented i was.

I worked crummy jobs a lot longer than three years, and I couldn't agree more, and except for God and my family, nothing is more important to me than nursing - all the more reason to protect my license with rabid fierceness. The money ain't bad, either:nurse:

i wasn't talking about an unfamiliar drug - my drug handbook is with me at all times, as is my rn notes. i'm talking about something i don't even know how to begin figuring out for myself - like entering information from a blood transfusion in the computer. i literally begged for help with that one, and every single nurse heaved a sigh and walked away from me - one had the nerve to tell me i should have learned it in orientation. well, i didn't, even though i asked repeatedly for instruction sheets for the various computer tasks involved in our job. i was told, "oh, don't worry about that right now, you'll learn it when you're on the floor." oh, really? and just exactly how am i going to do that with the nasty attitudes i've been running into? i am not a whiner - i graduated magna cum laude in spite of some very difficult circumstances, and i never once complained about the workload in school when all my classmates whined until i was ready to scream. but there are some things i just can't do alone, and learning my way around the computer is one of them. i wasn't taught how to enter a stat chest x-ray, for example - do you really think my patient had time for me to "go look it up" (there wasn't anywhere to look it up)?!!!!! i was left looking incompetent, when the orientation is what was incompetent.

I have low arches, plantar's fasciitis, and low back spinal stenosis, and hands down, my Nikes are the best for me. I once read an article (sorry, don't remember where) that helped people pick walking shoes, sneakers, etc by the type of feet they have, and sure enough, Nikes are built for-low arched feet. If you're having trouble finding shoes that don't hurt, maybe you can track down this article, or another like it.