franciscangypsy

I know Harry; he's one of my online writing buddies! He's an amazing author! He will a kick out of knowing that you are reading his stuff here!

Vomiting and sputum! GLURG! Also chewing tobacco. That stuff is GROSS! (Yes, I've had pts spitting their tobacco juice in a cup at their bedside. GAG!)

Synthroid, Metoprolol, Lovenox, nitropaste, Simvastatin are probably the top 5 non-insulin meds we give on my Medical Telemetry floor. There are other favorites, but these are probably the top ones we give that it seems that EVERYONE gets.

I've been doing this about a year. Since I'm trying to become a published author, I write on my nights off. I also nap (prn), talk to my boyfriend until he goes to bed at mn, catch up with people who either work nightshift or who stay up late and live far away, do chores, exercise, read, watch movies/TV shows, scrapbook. There's a ton to do at night when no one is there. Sometimes it's more of a matter of you finding what fits you. I hope you find the way to stay awake at night that best fits you. :)

* I wish you wouldn't complain loudly about how much you hate being here -- not only in the halls, but in patients' rooms. It puts me and the patients in a bad mood and it's getting to the point that I hate being at work when you're there * Thanks for your bright smiles and generous help. You made a horrible shift that much better. * Thanks for sharing your abundant knowledge; I learn so much from you * PLEASE don't grill me about the smallest details in report if you're going to look it up yourself anyway. I believe in being detailed, but it's 8am already and I'm exhausted. You can easily look up labs from days ago on your own time without me sitting there watching you in frustration because I still have one more patient to give you. Please do me that small favor since I already helped you send off a pt to a test who wasn't even mine. And PLEASE stop running away in the middle of report for small things. They can be taken care of when we're done. I know you're trying to be thorough, but you are usually the first to want to get out early at the end of your shift because you want to spend time with your kids. I don't have kids, but I do have an urgent date with my pillow. So could we get this done with? * Please don't leave your phone and pager on your computer and walk away from it. If someone needs you, they won't be able to reach you and someone may get hurt. Don't be offended if I hunt you down and hand them back to you. It's unsafe. * Please don't riddle your every day conversation with strong language. I don't swear and don't appreciate it. I understand the need to vent and will let it go, but it does bother me. Thanks to those of you kind enough to apologize even though I don't say anything and am not meaning to give you dirty look (and I sincerely hope I'm not). I really do appreciate it. That kind of sensitivity is rare. * You are an AWESOME charge nurse. It's a joy to work with you. Thanks for being so supportive and amazing. You're my hero and I want to be you, minus the whole charge nurse thing. *Thanks to those nurses who received report from me on Thursday morning. I had a truly awful shift and gave the worst report of my life. Thanks for putting up with it and be so nice about it. It means a lot. * Thanks to my aides. You guys bend over backwards for me and I really appreciate it. * Please don't say horrible things about other nurses/aides/whoever when I'm around. I don't want to know. I'll figure it out for myself and I'd really rather not have a bad attitude toward them because of something you said. I have to work with them too and would prefer to have a good working relationship if it is at all possible. On the other hand, please don't be offended if I walk away when you start gossiping. I don't think I'm better than you. I'm uncomfortable and don't really want to know what you're saying. * Please don't one-up me with horrible shift stories. I just finished having an awful shift, you reamed me over something that was passed on to me wrong, and I want to cry. I'm trying to vent and feel a little better for missing that one small thing and all you can do is mention how much more horrible YOUR last shift is. I'm sure it was awful and I'm sorry. Could you just listen to me for a second, though? I'll listen to you later. Really. I just need to feel better and you're not helping.

Since I work nights, in order to get appointments into places before they close, I have to call right after I wake up (before I'm really awake). I have had to catch myself multiple times from introducing myself as Franciscangypsy from 3E" when I pick up.

Mine is really stupid. I hate doing I&O. It's so easy and so important, but I love that the aides do it and hate in when I have to.

I didn't know that. Thanks for sharing.

I had this happen when I was a CNA and about to leave for nursing school. I had worked with this lady for at least a year and she knew I was leaving for college for the first time. When I finished helping her, she gave me some money (I don't remember how much). Even at 18, I knew I wasn't supposed to accept money from pts and tried repeatedly to give it back. Finally, it looked like I would just make the lady cry if kept insisting, so I left with it, thanking her. As soon as I got back to the nurses' station, I snagged my DON and told her what happened and gave her the money. She found a way to sneak it back to the pt so her feelings wouldn't be hurt. Thankfully, I've never had to deal with that again.

CNA, at least in VA, is under the State Board of Nursing. If you do a Google search for New Jersey State Board of Nursing, you might get some answers too.

It didn't matter in VA, either. I was also 17 when I completed my CNA and started working in a retirement home. The program was a couple times during a week, in the evenings, and mostly stretched over the summer. I started my senior year of high school after I finished the program and started working within the first couple weeks of the school year. I would ask the place offering the course -- they probably would be best able to answer your questions. :)

My hospital only has private rooms for pts. I love it. I think it should be across the board. How hard must it be for people to share their moments of grief or fear with another pt and his family. Not fair for anyone involved.

Like Ace7 said, everyone's experience is different. I also work 7p-7a. My floor is Medical Telemetry and I started there right after graduation with no extra classes outside of basic nursing school. To describe Med Tele, what I like to tell people is that we get people with heart problems (MIs, CABG candidates, ablation candidates, pacer candidates, etc) BEFORE we fix the problem. On a normal night we can have anywhere between 5 or 6 pts. It's a light night if we have 4 pts and a heavy (though not uncommon) night if we have 7 pts. If we're lucky, we start out with a full team or only one empty room. If we get an admit, hopefully it is around 2300 or after, when we're winding up on med pass and assessment for the others. If we get two or three admits and a discharge or two (I've had this happen), we pray to God that there is a float nurse to help or that the charge can give a hand. Usually it's not nearly that bad, though, and after report from 1845-1915ish and the rush from 1915ish to 2300 or mn, we usually have time to eat, wrap up loose ends, do research for the crazy busy dayshift that has no time to do so, and maybe admit a pt or two as well. Then, around 0400 or 0500 I rap out my telemetry trends (10-20 min tops) for all my pts and then begin med pass. Report and home! Then sleep and back to do it all again. Usually the night goes by pretty fast -- esp. if you like to spend time talking to your pts like I do. I think the youngest pt I've had was about 15 or 16, the oldest has been close to 100. Heparin is an everyday gtt, Amio, Integrilin, Dopamine, Bumex are fairly common too. There aren't many gtts we don't do -- a nitro gtt being the only one that comes to mind right now. CHFers, pts with CP, and pts with arrythmias are our bread and butter. I've only had a couple of CABGs personally in the year and a half I've been working here, but that's just luck of the draw. Heart caths and stress tests are super common as are pacers and even ablations to some extent. We don't see much in the way of trachs or chest tubes (thank Heavens, mucusy kind of stuff is my personal Kryptonite). It's an intense floor but I've definitely learned a lot and am learning more every day. Since we don't have a medsurg floor, we see a lot of different kinds of pts, including respiratory, renal, and (occasionally) cancer pts. I was miserable on and off for my first year as I got my sea legs, but now I absolutely love my job. There are good nights and bad nights, but I've finally hit my comfort zone. I'm glad I didn't start on a slower flow. The heart is very fascinating and I love my pt population. If you go cardiac, expect to work your rear off, but also expect to learn a LOT. Hope this helps somewhat.

Thank you so much for posting this. I almost started bawling just reading this. Such a special moment.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions and the sympathy. I got two nights off in a row after that night, then called off for a low census. The last night I worked after those three nights off was tons better stress-wise and load-wise. I think I partially just needed a break. Now I'm going on vacation for a week too, so I should be good as new. I've never been very good at guided imagery, but the suggestions to take a few moments to get stress under control are well-taken. For me, prayer seems to work best, so I found some little 5-minute or less prayer books and some quotes of Mother Teresa (who definitely understood the meaning of stress in our area of work). Thank you so much for taking the time to help!