lil'nurse

I work on an acute psych unit in a hospital. We frequently get geriatric pts who have been acting out d/t alzheimers, demetia. We do "look them over" and do understand how difficult it is to deal with these patients. Unfortunately, we can't fix what's wrong with them except to give more meds which can have serious consequences to an elderly person. A lot of the time the nursing home won't accept them back into the facility d/t their assaultive behaviors, then it's up to the hospital and the county to work together to find a facility that is equipped to deal with them long term.

I picked psych because it's interesting. On the other floors, pt are "the lap chole" or the "fem pop"; the pt's on our floor seem more diverse to me. It's your responsibility to get to know them on a more emotional/psychological level, as well as care for their physical needs. I really like the staff I work with, got to have a sense of humor when you work acute psych. And no matter how crappy my life gets, there's always someone on the unit who is so messed up it makes whatever I'm going through seem trivial. Kind of puts it into perspective. I really dislike it when other nurses in our hospital say that psych is an "easy job". Maybe we are not dealing with medically unstable, "Trauma, Life in the ER" pt's but that does not mean our job is easy. Until you've worked in it and saw what actually happens and how stressful it can be, you can't understand how it is just as important as "medical nursing".

This just happened where I work. Pt thought everything contaminated, including clothing, so had to take it off. It was noc shift so not too many people around, until the hallucinating detox came in and wanted to join in the fun, very agitated when we wouldn't let that happen. One in each seclusion room that noc.

I just reviewed this at work. Insurance info can be collected as long as it doesn't delay tx. Each dx/presenting problem must be given the same minimal tx no matter what pt's ability to pay. Also it is a violation to contact an insurance co. to find out deductibles/amount of coverage prior to tx.

I just read last night that Kelly Preston, John Travolta's wife and Scientology follower, is publicly supporting Tom and his courage to speak out against psychiatry. She also said that Brooke Sheilds was acting irresponsibly for not telling people the dangers/side effects of antidepressants. Umm, sorry but I think that's a health professionals job.

We run it in as fast as over 15 min. I thought that you didn't need a filter anymore as long as it wasn't mixed with anything else .

I can't imagine being the only rn with 33 psych beds, yikes. Are they more long term, stable? I work in a hospital and we have 21 adult beds although at the moment we are short on docs so we are only at 14 beds. At 14 we need at least 4 licensed staff, perferably 3 RN's and an LPN. Not including a CNA who does checks and a unit secretary. If we were at full capacity, we need 5 staff.

Yep we do the same thing, we change our pt. into scrubs as soon as they come on the unit. We have to have an MD order to give pt's back their clothes. We had a suicide on our unit a little while ago and it really changed our safety measures. We have a person whose only duty is to walk through and do checks. Those at high risk for suicide or behavioral issues are on 1:1 or 5 min checks and in a camera room.

I think the word of choice is incapacitated rather than incompetent. We go though this all the time. Legally in our state, we have an incapacitated hold where an MD can hold a person on our locked psych unit until they sober up. Our unit uses a criteria where the BAL drops 0.04/hour, example admit BAL 0.40 at 0100 will be 0.36 at 0200 and so on until BAL is estimated at 0 and pt is showing no signs of intox. Can be difficult to judge, some long term alcoholics can have a BAL of 0.35 and seem o.k. other than slurred speech, while another pt is passed out cold. More difficult to judge with illicit drug use.

We have little handheld "spiders" which we can clip on our badges or on our keys. Occasional one goes off accidentally. Not sure where they got them from, what company. Each spider has a specific number and when pushed, a display screen shows which staff's spider has been activated and where they are on the unit.

I was sick after each shot too. My sx were a little less with each vaccination.

I work in psych and this is ABSOLUTELY frowned upon. I would not have a job. We don't use our last names on our name badges and NEVER give out personal information.

One of my co-workers (RN) got a letter a few weeks ago about an incident that happened over 3 YEARS!!! ago. She was an LPN at the time working in LTC. The BON is investigating her documentation. I don't think I would consider myself in the clear just yet.

A baskethold is used to physically restrain an aggressive individual, involves grabbing an aggressive individual from behind, pinning their arms so they can't strike out. Difficult to explain I guess.

I worked in facility for the dev. disabled and we used 6 point restraint when someone became violent towards others. It was often neccessary because we were unable to use PRN meds in a non-acute setting like you can in the hospital. It was used as part of a behavior program that was made specifically for the individual. You had to use it as a very last resort and an MD needed to notified within the hour of application. Specific guidelines for release where used i.e. 15 min of calm behavior. Quiet rooms were not allowed. Also needed basket holds, two man escorts, etc. written into the program before they could be used on someone.