PrivateDuty

I do private duty nursing and my patient has now 3 stage IV wounds. His mother has a friend who uses Comfry Leaf mashed up and mixed with honey to pack wounds with. She leaves this in 48 hours, then uses Me-Salt for 12 hours. At the beginning, he had ony 2 wounds..Stage II-III. The third wound came up about 4-5 weeks after beginning the Comfry treatment and has quickly became a Stage IV approx. 6cm x 5.5cm and now has tunneled into one of the older wounds making it 7.5cm x 8cm. Nothing has changed with the patient except for the Comfry tx the mother has begun using. My pt. has MD and is up to a wheelchair everyday for 7-8 hours a day. I've have read what I could about Comfry on the net, but what I read says to use on superficial wounds. Has anyone else heard of this? Does anyone have any suggestions? He has an appt. with the wound clinic right after Christmas, but the mother refuses any kind of surgical debridement, surgery of any kind, or wound vacs. The mother also changes treatments frequently saying she knows what is best for her son. In the 11 months I have worked here, she has sometimes used 4 treatments in 2 days...(Xenaderm, Me-Salt, Panafil (if needed), or wet to dry) I have never studied to be a wound care nurse and woud appreciate any input from anyone. And it is charted daily that the mother does the wound care (even though we have orders from MD for nurses to do), but since she doesn't go by the orders, she does the treatments of her choice.

I have been working 52 hours one week and 60 hours the next week rotationg for 3 months now. It was really hard at first, but now I just take it one day at time and somehow I make it through it.

There is a bill pending which would 'strengthen the laws against violence toward health care workers'. Find out about it and help get it passed. WE are the ones who can change what goes on where we work. CapeCodMermaid...where can I find out info on the bill? I do not work in LTC now, nor do I ever plan on going back to LTC b/c of the way resident's, families, and other nurses treat you. But, I would like to see something be done instead of management just saying we have to deal with it b/c it's their home. I know that's not it, management just don't want to lose a paying resident, no matter what they do to staff.

I did not take the med for excessive sleepiness per se. I have chronic insomnia which Ambien nor Restoril helped, so my MD wanted to try to even out my sleep patterns. Like I said, I did sleep better, but the side effects were horrible. I do not just put drugs in my body, but after 15 years of insomnia, yes I wanted to try anything he suggested to help me sleep... But I also trust my MD...he hasn't purposely steered me wrong yet.

I actually had this dream last week. I was working in the ER and went outside the bldg to get something. I looked up and saw a big jet coming right toward me and the bldg. All of a sudden the wheels fell off the jet and I flung myself to the ground knowing it was my time to die. The plane ran right over me (but somehow missed the bldg.) I don't remember feeling any pain in the dream, but I had to crawl back into the ER and tell them I had been run over by a plane. The MD put a pt. braclet on me and said when my shift was over he would admit me for 24 hr obs. No idea where this dream came from. I haven't worked in ER for over 10 years, but it was kinda funny after I woke up and got to thinking about it. Wonder if it's b/c most nurse managers do not believe there is any excuse for an absence? Maybe that's why I haven't called in sick in the last 3 years...:selfbonk:

The thing that hits me in the face most from your post is about the other nurse havig to chart 4 times to "get it right". That is "illegal" in our profession. You cannot alter charting, even if administration does not like what you charted.

Working with alzheimers pts you hear all kinds of crazy things, but the best I think I have ever heard was from a proper little lady who came to me one time and whspered, "See that woman there?" I looked up to see aother pt. walking down the hallway and said yes. The lady whispered again and said, "she's a prostitute." When I ask why she said that she promptly said "see that sign, it says she charges $200. The "sign" she was refering to was the hall markr for the 200 hall.:roll I couldn;t help but laugh.

I feel that the bond also comes from the respect we have for the different ways each of us approach helping others. We all have the same goals, but go about it in a different way by definition of our job descriptions. In the end, it's all done to help the wounded, sick, or helpless.

We need to all remember that we were once in that students shoes. I have time restraints also, but I have gone into a field which requires (even if not written), me to help fellow employees and potential future employees. I would expect the same help from them that they get from me.

Several points in my reply...1) it took me 3 1/2 years to get my RN. I got all my pre-reqs first and got those going p/t for 1 1/2 years...then went thru RN program for 2 years. 2) Can't answer for any other RN's, but I do not look down on LPN's. I learned more in my first job in ER from an LPN than I did from anyone else. I do feel that if you want to be an RN to just go ahead and do it first, otherwise you are just adding time onto schooling.

I do agree 100% w/PAS, but do feel it should be for terminally ill patients.

I worked night shift for 2 years. I loved the shift and was able to sleep, but I never felt good. Guess I just wasn't cut out for it.

To be quite honest....the pay in NC sucks!

I do not feel the need to lose weight over guilt or anything, in fact have been overweight since I became a nurse. I finally decided to lose weight to make myself feel better, and glad I did.

I just think it's great he has so many people talking about a topic that certainly needs addressed

Personally, I love 12's. I have always preferred 12's to 8's in nursing. i always feel I can get more done for some reason.

I was prescribed Provogil 2 years ago d/t terrible sleep problems associated with shift work. The good news is I did sleep better...the bad news, I had a terrible reaction to the med. I would burst out crying all the time, was paranoid, had terrible anxiety attacks. I had to be weaned off the med, b/c you can't just stop taking. When the med was out of my system, I went back to normal (if I am normal...lol) But, it did scare me to death!

I would turn in my resignation effective "RIGHT NOW" and break the door down to get out of there.

About a year and a half ago I was working the 11p-7a shift in a nursing home. We had a patient that could not ring her call light d/t paralysis. About 2am the call light in her room went off. Me and the CNA's just looked at each other for a second then went to the room. The call light was in the trash can beside her bed so we just figured it had fallen and somehow the button was pushed. Well, about 5 minutes later the light wen off again. When we went into the room it was on the bedrail right where we left it, but no way the pt had pushed it. (she was in a private room). We went back to the nsg station and sure enough the light went off again (3rd time...) a few minutes later and again the cord was where we left it. We had no idea what was going on. A few minutes passed while we were talking about this one of the CNA's got up to answer a light across the hall from that pt. When she got to the room, the pt who rang the light told her something was wrong with her roommate. Sure enough, her roommate had passed away. As soon as she said this the light from the pts room who could not ring it went off again. We went and turned it off and as far as we know it has never went off again. We were really spooked to say the least.

I took the test 12 years ago when computer testing was fairly new and rumors about # of questions going wild. I was with another girl from my class and we both finished about the same time (the first 2 finished) and walked outside. When she said she got only 75 questions I burst out crying...I had gotten all 265. I knew then I had failed if I had taken the same amount of time to answer 265 that she had answered 75. I had to wait 11 days for my results at that time and then she got her results before me and she passed. It's a long story, but my results were LOST IN THE MAIL!! The BON would not tell you at that time if you passed or failed so I just had to wait. I went to the post office and dug through lost mail and everything I could think of. FINALLY 4 days after she had gotten her results, I got mine and had PASSED... I can think of no other time in my life that I had felt so awful and helpless, and just downright SICK. I know what all of you are going through, I remember the feelings all too well. Do not worry about the number of questions you get, I know lots of nurses who passed the first time with 75 and with 265. Congratulations to all of you new nurses and welcome to the field, it is a wonderful career. :welcome:

Thanks Sabby...I am about 20 minutes down S 85 from Charlotte. I know exactly where Mt. Airy is...(Mayberry, right?) Glad to meet you!

I didn't have to sit through the written tests they had years ago, but I did have to wait a week and a half to find out if I passed or failed. I came out of the test KNOWING I had failed, cried all the way home, and felt like I couldn't hardly function over the next 11 days. (We didn't have websites to check either..:uhoh21:) I am so glad they have changed the process so people can find out faster!! And congratulations to everyone...now take a deep breath and have fun!!

CONGRATULATIONS...:welcome:!! I was gonna say I took the boards with approx. 25 people and everyone was between 75 and the max on questions and everyone passed. You can just never tell!

It has been 14 years since I started RN school, but I was a single parent of 2 small children and had no choice but to work FT. I did work at least 40 hours a week throughout school, and it was hard, but it also helped me arrange time to study that I may never have done if I had more free time. I knew I had to do the work when I was able in order to pass. It is hard, but do not get discouraged if you have to work..you will make it! If I did it anybody can...lol I had been out of school for over 13 years and had to learn how to study all over again!

Just found the site and am very excited about exchanging questions and answers with others. I live in a very small town outside of Charlotte called Dallas, NC. I have been a nurse (RN) for 12 years now and love it. I have worked in various fields. but am currently working in home health doing private duty nursing for trach and vent patients. I have to say that I feel like I am actually doing more nursing now than ever. I get to spend all the time I need with my patients and still have time for all the charting and other paperwork. I am going to start this fall working on my BSN and am excited about that. Anyone have any recommedations for colleges in Charlotte for my BSN? Glad to meet everyone...:smilecoffeecup::smilecoffeecup: