FrankieJane

Hi all... I had my gall bladder removed (per scope) about three weeks ago. I seem to be doing alright with the exception of some right sided pain. The pain is just under my right rib and feels like I am being stabbed with a knife. The pain occurs...

Hi all, I am a hospice nurse with a pt that has severe depression. This pt has a very long hx of depression which has been managed in the past, but recently (the past few years) is uncontrolled. Nothing seems to help this pt. This pt has recently ...

Hi everyone... I have been a hospice nurse for eight months now and my caseload just keeps rising and rising. I currently have 16 patients. All of my pts are hospice, my agency does not do home healthcare. We see pts four days a week and do patien...

My husband's uncle has end stage esophageal cancer and has less than 3 months to live. The family is looking for hospice services. Does anyone know of a reputable hospice in Waxhaw NC? The one my husband's aunt looked into was talking about a $2000...

I have endometriosis and my doctor suggested that I take a low dose birth control pill and only allow myself to have 3 periods per year. This doesn't work with the tri packs, the dosage on the pills must be the same. I personally didn't like this m...

I am severely impaired in my left ear and dull normal in my right ear. As my hearing deteriorated, I found that I could actually feel the sounds in my ears through my stethescope (pulse, b/p, etc) so I haven't had to upgrade my stethescope yet. I w...

My brother was dx'd with testicular cancer when he was 30. He had one testicle removed and had chemo. He did not need to have any lymphnodes removed. It has now been 4 years since he ended chemo and he is still cancer free. He even got his wife p...

I just recently ran into a situation with my hospice. We have two new pts in a very bad neighborhood and I recently found out that these pts would be mine. One pt lives in a house and it is a good family. I have no problems seeing this pt. The o...

Have any of your patients used methadone for pain control? How well did it seem to work for them?

Thank you for your reply. I agree that my safety comes first. Even if a security guard escorted me, he can't protect me from a bullet. I am going to refuse this pt. My manager can fire me if he wishes...I don't care. If I don't look out for myse...

Can anyone tell me about the medication lexapro? I couldn't find it in my drug book. Have you had any pts on it...if so, what are some of the common side effects and how well does it work?

The pt and his wife decided to discontinue hospice services. The pt's physical status was stable and he showed no signs of decline. Unfortunately, the pt's depression never resolved. The anxiety improved, but that was about it. I still think of t...

Does anyone out there know if OSHA puts a limit on how many hours one can work in the course of a day or a week? The reason I ask is that a friend of mine works in an ADON position. The facility my friend is at does not allow the ADON to hire agenc...

Well, I was just on-call last night and found out at 9:30 pm that I was the primary...and ONLY person on-call. This was after working an eight hour day and seeing 6 pts. I only got called twice, but due to the times of the calls and the length of t...

On-call is bad where I am at right now, mostley due to being short staffed. We have a 24 hour triage that does a good job at handling situations over the phone. We have designated on-call workers for weekdays and weekends. The primary nurses funct...

Just a little update: Since my last post, one full-time nurse from our team quit. I got so frustrated that I did go on a couple of job interviews. I checked out other hospice's in my area...and although their pt loads are smaller, they were not ...

Our facility has just instituted another job for the nurses. We are supposed to call the MDs of our pts with a verbal report (in addition to the written report we already do) and then inquire if they have any other people in need of our services. D...

I had a pt that had bladder cancer with mets to the vagina. She had growths on her labia and also had growths that protruded through the skin in her groin area. The tumors had a dark brown discharge and a strong odor. The pt used scented candles a...

We had a team meeting in Feb. to discuss how the nurses felt. This took place after three nurses, a chaplain, and a social worker all threatened to quit at the same time. Everyone on the team is so overworked...we had people in tears at the meeting...

renerian...I found a couple of sites on the web that gave instructions for chest tubes with bottles. If I'm not mistaken, it appears that I care for this type of chest tube the same as a pleuravac (without the suction). The only thing I wasn't sure...

Just curious...have any of you had a hospice pt with a chest tube? I am about to get a new pt with a chest tube...and it sounds like the tube will be left in indefinately (I suppose I'll hear more about this pt in tomorrow's report). I have worked ...

igloorn93: E/S Cardiac does stand for end stage cardiac. As far as psychotherapy goes, the pt won't typically leave his home...he gets very anxious when he has too...so I doubt he will go to psycho therapy, but I will encourage it. Maybe there is ...

I tried to post a reply earlier, but it got lost. Anyway, I'll give you guys a little more information to go on. My pt's terminal dx is E/S Cardiac. What I don't understand is that the pt does not have any symptoms related to his dx at this time. ...

Ooooppps! I see this is a medication test, not a math test. Still, you will be fine. The medications will most likely be the most common ones like lasix, etc. My medication tests focused on the five rights like I mentioned before. There were als...

I wouldn't worry too much about the test. You most likely won't get fired or have anything bad happen to you if you don't pass the test (or is this a pre-employment test?) Most employers will go over the questions you missed and teach you how to do...