pinksugar

It must be a Maryland thing, but one of the only reasons why my unit has stayed open during some snow storms was because patients that were written for discharge couldn't get rides and cabs weren't running.

I have tried everything - all of the tricks in this thread - and I still gag left and right in patients' rooms. I try to hide it as much as I can. I gag just watching something gross on TV. I have tried mouth breathing but that makes me gag even more and I can still smell things just as strong.

I noticed the OP says she lives in Maryland. We got slammed with a lot of snow a lot earlier than all of the weather people had predicted - we expected to wake up to a dusting on 1-26 and already had several inches on the ground. We were supposed to get 1-3 inches total and ended up getting about 10 in some areas. There is no way that the OP could have predicted that - none of us Marylanders knew we were getting hit that hard and fast, including weather forecasters.

My parents paid for my bachelor's degree (I had scholarships that paid for a good portion of it, they paid the rest). After that I was on my own. My bachelor's degree is non-nursing, so I had to pay for my own nursing school. Community college (AA in Nursing) is very inexpensive and is IMO a very good alternative to taking out 100K worth of student loans to get a job that you can (easily) land with a cheap 2 year degree. In fact, in my area nurses with a 2 year degree have an easier time getting jobs than those with BSNs because it is well known among the local hospitals that the 2 year degree programs have more rigorous clinical training.

You aren't a bad person, but you asked for advice and people are giving you good advice - it just isn't what you care to hear/read. I find it hard to believe that you would be worse off working full time than PRN. If that is the case then perhaps you and your husband need to sit down together and figure out where you can cut your budget - you already stated that your housing is free (a true luxury that I assure you most folks do NOT have) so you should be able to figure out somewhere to cut costs so that you and your husband can get ahead and you can pay these loans off without having banks, etc. breathing down your neck 24-7. I wish you luck.

I rotate all of the time, often several times in the same week. I feel blessed that I am able to do it so easily. I know others have difficulty rotating.

Our facility mandates flu shots as well. You can get permission from your PCP not to get one and they will excuse you, otherwise you are fired. I think it is silly to require employees to get flu shots but I was going to get one anyway this year because I am pregnant and it isn't worth it to me to lose my job over this (at least not at this time). I pick and choose my battles (and I am gearing up for one so I didn't want to waste my energy fighting getting a flu shot).

Sorry, you might be out of luck. Generally people mention a planned vacation during the interview process, whether to the manager or HR, before getting hired.

I agree with you. One of our nurses (who speaks Mandarin as her native tongue) was written up for not using the language phone to speak to a patient that also spoke Mandarin, even though her Mandarin is perfect. Our managers maintained that the medical consent forms the patient signed weren't valid because she didn't use the language phone and instead spoke to the patient herself. That nurse now refuses to speak Mandarin to any Mandarin speaking patient at any time, for any reason. Like I have stated several times before in this thread, there is nothing wrong with using the language phone instead of learning a new language. In fact many facilities prefer (or mandate) their nurses to use the phone to protect themselves from liability.

I seriously hope that many of you on this thread that don't think that we should be required to learn Spanish and are bothered by the trend of American citizens being expected to know Spanish are supporting the groups lobbying to make English the national language. We can shut this trend down.

All of us may not have the available time that you do. It is very nice of you to try to learn Spanish in your spare time to help these people. No one is arguing that with you (I don't think, at least I am not). I just don't agree with the premise that we should all be required (or feel a moral obligation due to the fact that we are nurses) to learn Spanish. TBH in my area we have way more patients speaking Russian (and I have taken Russian, it is an incredibly difficult language to learn) or Chinese. Spanish would not be that useful to me or my patients.

Let's see what happens in the next few years before we start making predictions about who will be jobless and who won't. Currently many groups are lobbying to make English the national language. Hopefully that will happen.

So now in order to be patient advocates we have to learn to speak the patient's native tongue, even though THEY have made the CHOICE to seek medical care in a predominantly English speaking country? I don't follow you, and I am glad that I don't. Your line of reasoning makes no sense to me. If you have the time, money, and concern to learn every language that any of your patients might speak, go right ahead. I won't stop you, nor will I care. Don't automatically assume that the rest of us are ignorant fools that don't advocate or care for our patients simply because we choose to speak English in a country where English is the predominant language. As another poster already stated, much of our extra time would be better spent gaining clinical knowledge that would better outcomes for all of our patients, even the English speaking ones that no one cares about.

I have already stated earlier in this thread that I have had no difficulty communicating with any non English speaking patient. I simply use the language phone. It has never been an issue. I take offense at the patient in the OP thinking that we should all bow down and learn Spanish to accommodate her.

Not speaking Spanish is not one of my shortcomings, nor is learning it my responsibility. I just got paid yesterday so I guess my employer doesn't require it. A patient's utter failure to plan for living life in this country is not one of my shortcomings. The shortcoming belongs to the patient in this case.

On the flip side a non-English speaker could learn a few English phrases that would make it easier for them to communicate when they are in the hospital. FTR, the ignorance displayed in this thread (IMO) comes from the patient mentioned in the OP. The entire health care worker population in the USA should learn Spanish simply to accommodate her because she has decided to grace us with her presence? I don't know whether to roll my eyes or laugh, so that is why I did both. IMO you can't get much more self-centered, ethnocentric, and ignorant than the patient mentioned in the OP.

LOL, I didn't even notice. I sure hope that things are better by now!

Good heavens, you poor thing. Where do you work? (You don't have to answer of course, I'm just asking rhetorically). Not all places are like that. Those stories are downright terrifying! I don't think that those things would happen at most hospitals, TBH. I hope that you find a solution that works for you. I also wish for you to find peace. I just can't imagine that kind of stress on a daily basis. (((Chenospirit)))

If she was frustrated with her situation then she should look to blame herself as that is exactly who is at fault. Like I said, I have had patients that speak many different languages (we communicated with no problem using the language phone) and I never once got the impression that they had any irritation over the fact that I did not know their language. If anything, they seemed embarrassed that they didn't have better English-speaking skills. Those people I sympathize with and will go out of my way for. Patients like the one mentioned in the OP, I will not. I have no problem communicating with someone that speaks only broken English - it doesn't have to be anywhere near perfect for us to understand each other. As I said all of the documents that make this country what it is (which is why immigrants are flocking here, no?) were drafted in English and that makes English good enough for me. When I read the OP I was reminded of yet another one of my favorite quotes, 'your failure to plan does not constitute an emergency on my part'. That is how I feel about the patient in the OP. If communication in this country is a problem for her, then it is just that - her problem. The only person that needs to take steps to remedy that problem is herself.

So we should all have to learn Spanish to accommodate the patient mentioned in the OP, but she should not make any attempt to learn English? I would not go to a hospital in a Spanish-speaking country and expect them to speak English - I would make a valiant effort to communicate with them in their native tongue out of respect for them and their country. It is exactly the same thing. Why is it okay for her to not care to understand English, but we should be required to bend over backward to learn her language? I have taken care of patients speaking many languages that I don't know - should we also all learn Icelandic, Swahili, Japanese, Russian, etc.? I could go on and on. What in particular makes her native language (but not my native tongue) so important? It is the sense of entitlement that really gets me. 'When in Rome, do as the Romans do.'

If there is no way that I can get overtime then there is no way I am working it. Problem solved. I work for pay.

The Constitution, Bill of Rights, etc. were drafted in English and English is good enough for me. Anyone who doesn't like that may feel free (and I encourage them) to request another nurse (although on our staff of over 45 RNs I don't think a single one knows or cares to learn Spanish ).

I have no problem with families insisting that their loved one (whose death is relatively imminent) be kept alive over the holidays, a certain special date or event, etc. However, I think said family should foot the bill for this futile care and not the taxpayers. I bet that many of them would change their minds quickly.

(((HUGS))) That is ridiculous. Aren't we all adults here?

This thread that you started is not only impolite, but also incorrect. Before you start an entire thread committed to insulting a group of people that have - gasp - the audacity to use a word correctly, perhaps you should make sure that you are indeed correct. This is my pet peeve on forums like this - people that feel the need to call out other people, especially when the person doing the calling out is wrong. In America the word may not be popular - I know that I don't use or particularly care for the sound of 'orientate'. That doesn't mean that others are wrong for using it, though. I often wonder why people feel the need to start threads like these.