Florence NightinFAIL

I really recommend the book by Dave Ramsey - Total Money Makeover. In the spirit of saving money - don't buy it but borrow it from the library! Start an excel spreadsheet and track where your money goes each month. Hey also has an iphone/ipod touch app if you have one of those. It's important to surround yourself with reminders about your financial/debt plan.

That's ok as long as you keep as your thoughts/feelings don't become actions. I have never heard of a nurse volunteering to do it for free. EVERYONE cares about the money and those that say they don't need to get out and let the ones who need the money take their place. This is my goal. Except the part where you have to keep your education up to date - so you need to brush up on diseases/procedures etc. at home sometimes. . Now that I have an issue with. That is harsh. Where do you draw the line? I hope you don't expect compassion from your friends/family if you ever become sick/injured/etc. because that my dear is hypocrisy.

This will be hard but it can be done: I don't know if you live near your parents - but I would move back home and live with them for the next 1-3 years if they are ok with it. This is no time for pride - you don't want interest to collect on that which would take you years. Live back home if possible and put every cent of your paycheck towards paying off the loan. No vacations, no shopping, no eating out, no expensive holiday gifts, etc. etc. If you have a cellphone - I would even get rid of that and just use the home phone. Tighten your belt for 1-3 years and you can be debt free forever (if you continue to spend within you means). Here is a system I found really helpful: http://www.daveramsey.com/home/ Here are some tools you could start with incl. budgeting http://www.daveramsey.com/category/tools/ I know some people might find it too extreme but that is what I am doing. I want to enjoy the rest of my working years without worrying about debt or incurring crazy interest. Furthermore I am single so if you are married/have kids I know this is not realistic. P.S. That does not mean that you have no life - trust me there are hundreds of fun things you can do for free - picnics, biking, visiting library, going to the beach, visiting the free landmarks/attractions of the place you live, playing board games, inviting friends over for a movie on the tv, having potluck etc.

Hello ALL nurses, I hoping you could clarify something for me or tell me about how your system works wherever it may be. My previous job - there were no teams - the LPNs would ask whichever RN was available to do the tasks that were out of their scope and everyone took their own report etc. etc. Typical. My current job, an acute medical surgical floor, has RN-LPN teams. The team as 8 pts - 4 for the RN and 4 for the LPN. We take report together and help each other out as a team - which sounds great. However, something came up recently that was very confusing. An LPN's pt had a new order which the LPN forgot to check/give. The manager not only called in the LPN but also the RN. The RN was reprimanded for not checking the LPNs chart. Excuse me? LPNs are not students that you have to look over their shoulder. They are licensed nurses. I thought the only responsibility the RN had was to do the few tasks that the LPNs couldn't - i.e. blood administration, IV insertion, hanging IV meds etc. On top of my 4 patients - am I expected to keep up to date on the LPNS pts too? Who has time for that? During my orientation I was never informed of this. I would have never known this if this incident did not occur. I plan on approaching the manager soon to clarify this some more but I was pretty shocked. What do you guys think? And those in teams - what do you guys do? Sorry if I'm all over the place and for any mistakes - I rushed this post because I'm leaving for work in 10 minutes!

Dear God, please protect me from the evil of the people I will encounter and protect them from my evil! Please show me their good side and show them mine! Don't translate as well in English.

Thanks for the info guys! It's weird how they never cover the dpb in nursing school or was it only my school?

Hello, Before posting this I tried searching google and allnurses forums but I wasn't able to find answers to my questions so I hope you guys can help! (What happened to the search function anyway, or did I go blind?) 2 questions: 1) I recently had a pt with BP of 124/48. She was fine, no concerns. However, I haven't seen a dbp that low and asked a fellow nurse when dpb would be considered too low and something to contact the doc about and she said she didn't know and to judge it by how the pt was doing. I didn't pursue the question because we were pretty busy, the pt was fine, and I wanted to do some research later on. I know that we should be considered if the sbp is below 80 or sometimes 90 depending on the pt - is there some kind of parameter for the dbp? 2) What was the lowest dpb you have seen and how was the pt doing? Thanks!

If you have any qualms about that I wouldn't recommend that you get into nursing. I could say that you could go somewhere like OB where you only care for women, or community nursing where you are not likely to do basic care. However, what are you doing to do about the 4 years of nursing school where you have no choice and what the instructor says goes?

During night shift when you have some downtime - browse through all the resource binders in the unit and take notes. Orientation is the only time you have to take a good look at those binders/books/notes so use it well! Don't rely only on your preceptor to learn something - ask questions and learning opportunities from the other nurses. Make sure they are not busy first though! Help others (without them asking) and they are more likely to help you. Don't take things personally - some people get stressed out easily and unless they make it obviously personal - don't worry too much about curt responses and grumpy attitudes. Some people have a dry sense of humour and are labelled as rude. Don't use rumours to make up your mind about someone. Spend even half an hour looking up meds/procedures/surgeries/nursing skills when you get home. And best of all: Try showing up half hour to 15 minutes early if you can before every shift - getting a head start on report and organizing your day before the shift starts sometimes really helps!!!

LOL. I'm in love with her attitude. I'm a new grad and considering how much 'eating young' threads there are here - I wanted to express my gratitude to the good ones!

After a rough, on our feet, nutty night filled with sundowning - this gem: "I wish I had an ativan spray" - Preceptor. I wish I did too. Not only will my patients get a spray, but so will some managers, doctors, nurses and family members. I would even spray myself to calm down. It would have to be odorless so that I could do stealth sprays. It would also have to magically diffuse and work when sprayed on the phone. AAAAAHHHHH.

I had a very crazy busy shift and one of my patients who was stable was a sweet LOL. At one point I went in and apologized that I haven't seen her much and was ready to explain myself when she said: 'Oh don't worry about a thing honey, I see how busy you are. Just do your thing, I'm alright. Thank you for caring'. :redpinkhe When I had a little breathing time, I went in to lotion up her dry skin and included a back and foot massage and she was so grateful. That's an example of a little extra I do for sweet/understanding/kind patients. It's human nature to want to reciprocate kindess/goodness. P.S. That in no way means that my rude patient get sub-standard care - it just means they get what they're there for.

I'm not going to debate you on this because I have a feeling the moderators would edit/remove my posts - however, I must say that I really envy the rose coloured bubble you live in. It must be nice.

That's pretty funny. You ARE joking right?

You did the write thing. [EDIT: lol, pun? 'right' thing] ALSO: Keep a personal note about the situation - your own documentation. About the incident, times, people there, witnesses, name of don, what he said in qoutes, your reponse, date and time. keep it somewhere safe and easily accesible. just in case your document disappears or is tampered with and somehow you are involved in an investigation. I wouldn't put anything past this piece of work. I would also start job hunting -if he actually said you would 'kill' the facility unless you FALSIFIED events - I wouldn't feel safe with him. You worked hard for your license.