Debra ACRN

Dryer than a popcorn fart

Oh me, my class had to. It was in 1982 so it was ages ago. It was horrifying! I remember it was Bev, one of my good friends who did me. She inserted the tube about an inch per painful, grueling, minute. When she finally got to the stomach and th...

OK, here's another one. I started working in HIV/AIDS in 1989, then we spent a lot of time figuring out how to pay for funerals. Now, we spend a lot of time how to pay for medication. We always seem to figure out a way, now it's just way more satis...

I'm so old that I used to smoke in the nurses station while charting. Can you even imagine? For the record, I gave up that nasty habit years ago. Hey we used to have to make room assignments based on if the patient smoked, and I remember putting clea...

Those long honking loogies that take as long to cough up as a cat with a fur ball, I'm sure I turn green and then they want you to look at it...........ugh

I've actually refused to HIV test a patient who stated that they would commit suicide if the test was positive. We got the patient some psych assist prior to testing. Your first duty is to do no harm. If the results of a biopsy would or could cause s...

I think you have an amazing chance of being just fine. First, it was someone who knows they have HIV, hopefully they are on antiretrovirals and have an undetectable viral load. Then you didn't get stuck with a hollow bore needle and that has a decrea...

Well I've worked in an HIV clinic for 18 years and never had a needle stick. I think there are less then 300 total health care workers in the U.S. that have contracted HIV from a needle stick in all the years HIV has been around. Thats not many. I'm ...

I worked at the bedside for two long and overwhelming years. I too knew it wasn't for me but I loved the patients and staff so it was bearable. After, I worked for an Indian nation running a home health clinic and then started an HIV nurse run clinic...

It's been a hundred million years since I did clinical but I wanted to offer my advice anyway. I started out nervous and have a habit of talking to myself. I found that I would do each task with my patient and state what I was doing, why I was doing ...

In 1989 a group of us started an outpatient HIV clinic. We were federally funded in 1993 and I have been the director ever since. It's small enough where I get to see patients and it's a nurse run clinic with a physician back up. I love every second ...

I think this is where our advocacy skills must be brought to full fruition. Drs are influenced by facts so have it all written down. I would have stood in his face and asked him since when is a pulse ox of 80, crackles throughout, VS of blah blah bla...

My guess is chicken. The most common mouth sores my patients get are either thrush or apthous ulcers. If a patient is pretty depleted immunologically esophageal thrush is pretty common and it has been described to me as if a big wad of soft bread is ...

Engrave the name of every resident on their dentures. I had a nightmare of epic proportion years ago when all the residents decided to swap. EWWW!

Speaking of patients transporting themselves to a bar, I can do you one better. I once had a patient who was in a 4 man room in a nursing home. He was much younger then his fellow roommates but liked them all. So much so that he went out a got a coup...

When I was a young nurse, 25 years ago, I decided to put all my energy into starting an outpatient AIDS clinic. I had lots of men in my life but always held them at arm's length as I knew I couldn't do a husband and kids and my clinic. Eight years ag...

As a nurse who is older then dirt, I ask you to reconsider the humble bed bath. I have found that it can set up an intimate relationship with patients that can really help illicit true feelings. It is a magnificent time to really thoroughly examine t...

I don't post very often but I feel compelled to answer your question. Nursing is a more then a job, for me, it's my passion and my calling. I find that when you are doing what you love and working as hard as you can, you can enjoy the blessings of go...

You may just have shown response to the vaccine you took for Hepatitis B. If you have actually had hep b, the only worry with your transmissibility is if you have chronic hep b carrage. This is quite rare but there are blood tests to detect this. Go ...

I was a nursing student a hundred million years ago but I just finished my graduate degree so I don't think anyone would be mad at me for offering some words of wisdom. You are normal. Nursing school is hard and if you really apply yourself you get m...

I just finished my project. It was on introducing cultural aesthetics into senior nursing student curricula. We made nichos (Mexican Folk Art boxes) to illustrate a mental health nursing concept. It was designed to increase communication between the...

Viral load is how many copies of HIV are in one cmm of blood. After infection with HIV there is an initial spike of HIV virus and then it sort of settles into a set point. This is probably the set point. I have no idea why you would start AZT as a si...

Well first of all, it's just plain rude to yell at someone, no matter what. I occasionally have been known to ask someone if they think their mother would be proud of the way they are behaving? It has never failed to stop them in their tracks. Second...

I'm an AIDS Certified Registered Nurse and have been working with patients for the last 19 years. The chance of transmission from a MAJOR exposure (greater then 1 cc of blood) is 1 in 350. Your exposure wasn't even a 100th of that. Additionally, when...

It does. I know that if you are poked with a needle through a latex glove, the glove wicks off 1/2 of the blood as it punctures through the latex, making it less risky. Do we need to lecture on the dangers of recapping?