HaileyRN

I totally agree. I think that most (if not all) of us have an innate desire to help others. We truly want to help. That's why we went into nursing in the first place. In nursing school, I took care of two patients at a time. Granted, we were just learning skills and medication names then... but I had time to sit down and talk to the patient... to understand their frustrations and see where they were coming from. When I graduated nursing school and started working in the ER, I tried my best to continue to check in constantly with my patients. That didn't last long. Unfortunately, when you've got 4-7 patients (depending on how the charge nurse feels that day or if it's a freakin MONDAY), you have a multitude of orders to carry out and tests to take the patient to. I have to find those tiny veins in nursing home patients and drug addicts. If I sat down and talked to family members the way I'd done in nursing school, nothing would be accomplished. And even through increasing nursing-to-patient ratios, the hospital administration wants us to improve our patient care satisfaction ratings... Slavery with a smile. Wonderful, eh?

Have you already finished the paper? I just came across this thread... - One of the techs I work with told me that he once triaged a female who arrived via EMS... when he asked her for her name, she replied "Precious Ho." - Chest pain: Patient complains of chest pains after "smokin' $500 worth of crack cocaine" - Chest pain: "Patient complains of chest pain after starting to use crack after 9 months sobriety" - Asthma exacerbation after using heroin. Needs intubation. Again. Visit history shows he was just discharged from the hospital 2 days ago due to the same issue. He has an extensive ER-->intubation-->ICU-->home-->heroin-->ER-->etc history. - One brother shot another brother because they were fighting over fish. - Penile itching... patient states his sister is a "prostitute" and she's been coming over to his apartment and borrowing his clothes behind his back. - Baby is crying a lot. No vomiting, no diarrhea, good PO intake, good color, tears with crying, no fever, etc. The baby is just crying a lot. - "I went to the washroom for a bowel movement and... it... just came out." (18 year-old who delivered a 7 pound baby into the toilet...grandma came by and fished it out... claims she didn't know she was pregnant). really???!!! - vibrator lodged. Actually on second thought... all this stuff sounds like it should be on the Maury show...

At the change of shift, I got a cardiac arrest patient. The arrest was witnessed and paramedics arrived on the scene about 4 minutes after the patient went down. The patient came to us intubated and with a nice 18g IV to the left EJ. Without a clear history, we weren't sure of what caused the arrest. Anyway... In an effort to "quickly" figure out what to do next, the doc asked for an iSTAT to be run (basic chems + H/H... takes 2 minutes to complete). I handed off the blood to one of our ED techs who happened to walk by the room and told him that I need this immediately. 5 minutes later we wondered where those results were. Nothing was on the iSTAT machine, and the tech was nowhere to be found. When he finally appeared, I asked him where the results were. He said that he was doing an EKG and that the machine was now "cookin'." In other words, he got sidetracked and forgot. After the code was terminated (and the patient expired), I yelled at the tech for failing to prioritize correctly. He saw the intubation box, the crash cart, and coworkers doing CPR on a patient. The tech's excuse was "I'm not the only one who knows how to use an iSTAT machine. You have 7 other nurses and 3 techs around, and I had to do an EKG." My thinking was... if that had been ME in HIS position, I would have started the iSTAT machine, brought the small little machine over to where the code was occurring, and then prance over to do the EKG. Instead, we wound up with a hemolyzed sample and screwy results because the blood had been sitting around for so long before it was run. Was I wrong in getting upset with this tech? Maybe I should just do everything myself from here on out...

Nursing in practice is nothing as I thought it would be when I first developed interest in this field. I thought that I would be able to sincerely help others and develop open and warm relationships. You know... the ideal crap that nursing school teaches. Actual practice has been nothing short of terrible. People are inconsiderate, rude, selfish, unappreciative, and quick to find ways to win big in lawsuit dollars. There has been much hype with "the nursing shortage"... I should have known... that this "shortage" is simply because this field is tiresome and unrewarding.

With the closing of some nearby hospitals (and the threat of closing some of the county clinics), we've seen an increase in patient load. Each day, we have patients parked in the hallway, and management has yet to increase staffing. It is a stressful situation for all. We are trying to work as we possibly can, and patients are still angry at everything. WOrking in the ER feels more and more like a lose-lose situation...

I've been a nurse for 10 months, and to be totally honest with you, I'm starting to look into doing something entirely different. I work in a very busy level-I trauma center/ER, where the focus is reducing LWOTs (patients "leaving without treatment"), increased patient statisfaction, etc... all with limited supplies and a perpetual problem with being short-staffed. On my days off, I get calls to work because "we're short-staffed again today." On an average day, I have my assigned beds, along with patients parked in the hallway. I just hope and pray nothing awful happens to any of those patients. It is a busy ER, and despite hearing a code occurring in the very next room, patients somehow manage to tune that out and complain that they haven't been seen, or that no one brought them a cup of ice. In addition to all of that, the ER has had constant heat from the med-surg/tele units in regards to receiving ER patients. Until we finally switched back to fax/tubing report, I had problems with "the nurse is not on the unit... the charge nurse is nowhere to be found, and no nurses here are willing to take report." And bypass? It seems like just about every other hospital in the area will be willing to go on bypass, but we're too poor of a hospital to afford it. Just about everyone gives me grief... "experienced" nurses on the other shift, doctors, patients... it's been less than a year and already, I fell burnt out. Retirement looks good. Dealing with all the b.s. is not what I thought nursing would be about...