TopazStone

Latest Activity

1. Has anyone had the experience of knowing a patient on their unit?

   TopazStone replied to njmonsterboi80's topic in Psychiatric

   It happens to me a lot and as the only scheduled nurse, I can't avoid caring for them. I do inform my supervisor and reassure the person that everything is confidential and will remain so. I do have the option of trading sites with another nurse but ...

2. How does a psych career affect the psych nurses?

   TopazStone replied to malusport's topic in Psychiatric

   Thank you for writing this post. I am pretty sure I am reaching burnout levels as a psych nurse. I can still feel empathy for the patients who are in a psychotic break and I have a soft spot for the young adults who are entering the system for the f...

3. Phobias anyone???

   TopazStone replied to danissa's topic in Psychiatric

   Spiders, heights and creepy old dolls. I guess when I was around 3, I bounced down to my grandma's basement where she had been trying to clean up some old dolls so they were all sitting out (some with missing limbs and mildew over their eyes). My mo...

4. Britney Spear - HIPPA violation?

   TopazStone replied to danu3's topic in Psychiatric

   Sheesh-- I've been saying for ages now that the poor girl seems to be Bipolar and they should leave her alone. Can you imagine having your psychotic break publicized like this? It is unfortunate but I'm sure the media had access to a police scanner a...

5. Accepted nurse to pt. ratio

   TopazStone replied to wonderbee's topic in Psychiatric

   Good heavens! I work at a psych crisis facility and have been complaining about the ten to 16 patients I've had to manage. Of course, our tech is not able to complete VS or blood sugars and I am the only medical staff available on my shift (free stan...

6. Got Beat Up Badly In Face By Patient

   TopazStone replied to Aviationurse's topic in Psychiatric

   This is one of my worst fears. It seems that psych is the bottom of the feeding chain everywhere as far as safety, staffing and funding are concerned. I worked nights on an in-patient unit and at change of shift, I had three patients. One of the med-...

7. Your in Charge of the staff and things go Bad!

   TopazStone replied to happthearts's topic in Home Health

   Another method to block the manipulation is to use a single cell phone/ pager for the manager on-call. This gets rotated to the person on-call and is the only number provided for CNA (heck-- and nurse) contact. No exceptions, substitutions or refunds...

8. Belly Piercing/Tattoo

   TopazStone replied to shavsha's topic in General Nursing

   As far as working with visible body piercing, remember we work with the elderly (for the most part). There are clear "holders" you can purchase to keep the hole open when you can't wear the jewelry. For safety, I would NEVER wear anything that a pa...

9. What's your diagnosis?

   TopazStone replied to hoolahan's topic in General Nursing

   Wow, it sounds as if your neighbor has a lot of stress in her life! Sometimes when people refuse to address their feelings, they are turned inward and show up later as physical problems. Angina is a common reaction to stress. Also, I see a lot of ...

10. What's your diagnosis?

    TopazStone replied to hoolahan's topic in General Nursing

    OK, here's the psych nurse input. Thyroid levels need checked-- possibly hyperthyroidism. With the use of Zoloft, could she have had an anxiety attack? I frequently have pts who c/o the symptoms that I think are cardiac related. The absence of ches...

11. Missed visits

    TopazStone replied to TopazStone's topic in Home Health

    We are mainly Medicaid. We manage meds and long term physical problems because the patients are constantly hospitalized if we don't assist (ie, check BS, apply skin treatments) and we do some social work as well. No, we don't decide when to D/C. I...

12. Hire a nurse? In Twin Cities, that's the $10,000 question

    TopazStone replied to NRSKarenRN's topic in Activism

    I love how they keep saying that better bennies and salaries will drive up the cost of health care. If you pay well and appreciate your employees-- how much better will staff retention be? The cost of training new nurses and using agency to cover c...

13. Missed visits

    TopazStone posted a topic in Home Health

    Now that the Summer is upon us, I have had an increase in missed visits. Either the patient calls to D/C or they just plain aren't home! The salary nurses have a weekly quota and visits are scheduled the week before. The missed visits do not count...

14. wound care formulary

    TopazStone replied to sunnygirl272's topic in Home Health

    We just had an inservice from a wound care nurse. Some supply companies are hiring them and they will come and do consults and F/U. They even call the doc to ask for treatments. Check around to see if you can find one in your area. They will give...

15. Just Venting

    TopazStone replied to hoolahan's topic in Home Health

    Hoolahan, Take a deep breath and let it go. It seems that many people in the system want to find somwhere to lay blame, and it is not usually on the patient. Most of our patients are sent to us for noncompliance issues. We try to call prior to the...