BeachBayNurse

We get many, many complaints about the food. Has anything been done to perhaps get some better snacks on the unit for the patients after the cafeteria closes? Of course not! However, the only other complaint that is mentioned often is that the person answering the call bell sounds grouchy, mean, etc. Who cares what he/she sounds like as long as you get what you need?! Of course this was addressed right away, we now have a script for answering the call bells.

Tried on a set, was not very impressed. The fabric seemed cheap and fit very strangely. Would rather have a cute tunic style top by Cherokee for half the price. If they did not have Katherine Heigl's name on them, I doubt they would sell at all.

I could write a book on the unprofessional ways I have seen my coworkers dress. However, unless you are some kind of manager, don't say anything! You have nothing to gain and everything to lose.

Yes, sometimes you will not have time to eat. If it is a life or death situation, I understand, but this maybe happens once a year where I have a few patients go bad at once. However, if it is just a busy night, sometimes I will make a patient wait while I go to the bathroom or eat a snack. What good will I be if I am dizzy while taking care of them?

Crazyco, I personally know how it feels to be in this situation, but pat yourself on the back that you are realizing you need an education NOW, not when you are forty. You are already that much further ahead. However, it is still a horrible situation to be in. My father had the idea that once you were eighteen, you were suddenly ready to take on the world. Nevermind the fact that I live in an area where the cost of living is unbelieveable. Some of my siblings because they didn't know better, or because they were too lazy to live without any luxuries to afford to go to school, started working in one dead end job after another. They also got married all at the age of eighteen thinking that person would make their life a little easier, started having children and are now totally miserable, divorced, with three and four children each and still without an education. I have no clue why my father is like this, as he is a very educated person, and even puts down nurses as being maids, even though I am the highest educated of my siblings. Crazyco, you need to attack getting your education like your life depends on it. Being a nurse will open many doors for you, and although it is not the perfect career, you will have the means to live comfortably working three days a week, and not slaving away in some dead end job and barely make ends meet. Do whatever it takes: live very modestly, do not go out every night with your old friends, if you have to take one class at a time. You can do it, you are already smart beyond your years!

I work at a hospital that is not as prestigious as say the Mayo Clinic, but is very large and well known. I have many friends that work for the Mayo Clinic also. Just comparing the large hospital I work at full time with the smaller, less prestigious hospital I work at per-diem, I feel much better treated at the larger hospital. There is less time for drama and favorites, as the hospital needs a larger staff to run it. I get the feeling at the smaller hospital that I am not needed or valued.

My #1 pet peeve are sloppy IV's. Coming in to assess a patient and seeing their line has gone dry due to the nurse priming a line with a 1000cc bag, and then putting that the bag has 1000cc to be infused in the pump makes me want to pull my eyelashes out . Also, leaving an open IV tubing dragging on the floor is so careless! I don't mind cleaning up other stuff from the previous shift, but for some reason wasting IV tubing and setting up the patient for injury by being so careless annoys me to no end!

Wow, I didn't realize we were such a group of gum chewers! I also totally agree with whoever said that what may be professional to one person, is not to another. Personally to me, nothing is a bigger pet peeve than to see a nurse wear the same pair or two of scrubs every day for years on end! This of course results in them being so faded and dingy. Scrubs are not that expensive! There is something wrong if we cannot afford to replace them at least every five years!

Also, do not assume because the nurses look relaxed that they are not working. Perhaps they are charting while talking? If you are always behind and they are sitting and chatting, it is not their fault, ask them for tips how to become more organized. Unless the night is totally going to h*&% I usually do not get worked up about anything, not worth it. However, some nurses spend so much time stressing out about how they are so busy, if they jumped into the work and stopped complaining, they would have time to sit down and relax.

I work 12 hour shifts, so I empty them at least once a shift. However, I usually empty them also four hours into the shift so I can have some kind of idea how much output the patient is producing.

I would also be so upset that one angry person could upheave your life so much. Take this as a sign that working for that company was a ticking time bomb, and get out ASAP. I have been floated to floors in which the attitude was to kiss the family's a@*, heaven forbid they get upset. I very much disagree with this, people get upset, they should be allowed to. However, as it also seems in these instances, it should be dealt with professionally. This is the biggest problem I have with nursing, you are working with sick, scared people, they are going to act wacky and complain sometimes. Don't hang your staff out to dry to keep the family happy.

This may sound horrible, but it makes me happy :chuckle to see them struggle a little. I probably didn't pick the best friends in college. I hung out with people who had a lot more money than I did and didn't seem to put much thought into whether their major was going to be conductive to finding a job that would support themselves after college. I knew that my family couldn't help me financially with another degree or pay my bills after college. Therefore, I found a degree that I know would help me be self-sufficient. Did I get upset when they partied every night while I had to go to be early to be up for clinicals. Yes, I am ashamed at how jealous I was. However, 75% of them now are either in a dead end job or are back in school to get a different degree. Yes, they had alot more fun than I did in college, however they are a good four years behind me career wise.

Just a question from a clueless med/surg nurse, not trying to blame or make assumptions! Why is it that all my admissions from the ER get sent to me at change of shift? I understand that it may be due to that the ER nurse did not get a chance to earlier and wants to call report so he/she can leave. However, it then results in that the nurse I am relieving cannot give me report because suddenly the admission is rolling through the doors and needs pain medicine, the family wants to know what's going on, etc. This seems to happen all the time and the result is the previous shift has to stay over. I know it is not due to anyone being thoughtless, just wanted to hear from some ER nurses what is going on from their side of the trenches :typing

Do you have 110% confidence that no scans were done? Are you sure the patient didn't refuse the scans, that the patient was not crashing and the doctor thought he was going septic and the patient needed the surgery ASAP? I would not become a doctor for anything this day and age, they are expected to take people who have abused their bodies for years and are expected to cure everyone. I am not saying this young man did anything wrong, I feel horrible he suffered through an extra medical procedure. However, if medicine was so simple, we could diagnose ourselves at home with an interactive CD-Rom, you click through your symptoms, you print out your diagnosis.

Why would one put themselves in some of the conditions you described in a society where one can sue at the drop of the hat? Yes, things were definitely different years ago, perhaps I would be more willing to take on too many patients, unsafe conditions etc., when the patients were not likely to sue and take away my family's livelihood.