ellen 12

Thanks Quality Nurse. Your post reassures me. I seem to blame myself for having too much to say instead of just putting up with the injustice.

WOW! - and five thumbs up - very sad. No wonder - America is in such dire circumstances. We wear masks and take precautions to prevent the spread of Covid 19. To suggest that people who take precautions - are hypochondriacs is beyond reason. Taking measures and working together to prevent the spread of Covid 19 is about a caring state. Not a totalitarian state.

I doubt he is taking this drug. His proclamation is just another opportunity for him to spout quackery.

Trump amazes me. I live in New Zealand. It amazes me that Trump is the so called " leader of the Free World". He is certainly not my leader.

Good to see all the open responses. You will not enjoy your work while feeling tired, anxious and depressed. It is too hard to look after anyone else while you are feeling so low yourself. A suggestion: make an appointment with specialist doctor. Send an email to them prior to visiting, listing your problems and how you feel. Take the same email into the doctor when you visit and go through point by point your concerns. You have put a lot of work into becoming a nurse. Now is not the time to be looking for a different role within in nursing. Now is the time to put work into yourself. I would spend all my days crying - if I didn't have my antidepressants. My antidepressants make it so I can live and function. Don't undermine your struggle. Make it very clear to the doctor that you need help. Ellen. B.N. ; R.N.; P. Dip.; P.G. cert.

A friend visited ED cause he couldn't sleep.

I work night shifts - night shifts are hard as you work against normal body clock. Working nights we have 3 staff on duty - morning shifts work with 15 staff. They can do the bathing. I will on occassion shower or bathe someone - through need - but I will not shower or bathe someone as a part of regular care. I'm too busy tending to the needs of 53 patients as a whole. I get on well with day staff - they're a great team. Management are a problem.

nurses need to vent - and there are more good moments -it's just the difficult moments are awfully threatening to ones career and vocation.

I'm sure this will be one glitch in a long career. Nursing is like that - - glitches crop up along the way.

I'm a deep introvert - and I have always felt I would/ could be a good nurse - I know this from patients responses. But colleagues and managers aren't supportive - and this makes me anxious. First weeks of nursing school another student stated "oh you can't be shy and be a nurse". I don't think she made it through to be an RN.

^Thank you kind nurse.

Thanks for you response crazyts :)

i work in care of the aged. I get along with other staff, patients and families- but not management. This has made me just about unemployable because I tend to be a strong patient advocate and end up in aguments with management. I worry home care would not be interesting enough. I need to have a very medical role - assessment, wound care and end of life care. I love to care for the most frail in society. I am not really into long social chit chat situations. Do you think home care would suit me?

Timely application of palliative care. Recognising commencement of dying process. Autonomy of patients in aged care hospitals.

Finishing night duty and emptying a catheter bag into a jug at the bedside - Inky (hospital cat) came along and sniffed at the jug. I instinctively said - "no Inky - you can't drink that". As I stood up I glanced at the patient - who was smiling.

Sad...

I work in aged care with a hospice attached. I enjoy this type of work- maybe I am a bit desensitised. I like to ensure the patient is kept comfortable physically and emotionally throughout the dying process. I become upset when people die with distress - in my experience this shouldn't happen if people receive the right level of care. My dad died at 92 after a long history of CHF, He died peacefully, just the way he wanted. I don't think he would have appreciated the people who then took the measure of thumping on his chest and forcing air into his lungs in their effort to bring him back.

Maybe the low status of aged care nurses relates to the general lack of status afforded to older people in society. I think it's interesting that hospice work is considered high status - whereas care of the dying elderly is right there on the bottom most rung. Both require a palliative approach. I work in aged care and I love it. I have the priviledge of caring for people who are extremely frail, with multiple diagnoses, incorporating medical and psychosocial -- most patients require palliative approach to care. The work has depth and is interesting --but there is need to understand and grasp the complexities of care.

That's interesting. I work in aged care facility- with 6 bed hospice. Giving SL every hour would ensure pain wasn't adequately treated, nurses are just too busy. When I start the pump - I know my patients are ensured of having their pain treated. the pump is charted with a PRN dose for breakthrough pain, and the dosage in the pump is increased until the dose is effective. I live in New Zealand.

Working in hospice - your role is to promote comfort and feelings of well being towards achieving a comfortable death. The work is positive and rewarding. Working in longterm care should have given you insights in regard to this. But everyone is different - and maybe care of the dying - for you personally could be a negative experience, not everyone is suited to work in hospice.

So few families use touch. They too often pick a chair furtherest away from the patient. Hard to understand. I try to model touch - hoping people will pick up on this - but it's never worked to encourage families to offer touch or move in to sit closer to the patient.

The doctor charted morphine to be given as required. So the goal is to treat symptoms with a relatively small dose until the dose is effective. Sublingual is an unusual way to give morphine, if the patient has lost their swallow - we use a pump in a measured 24 hours dose s/c.

Patients in long term care very often require a palliative approach to care. This is what draws me to long term care nursing.

I know a guy who is fifty - he graduates this year and he will make a great nurse based on his attitude and life experience. I think much depends on attitude, a desire to listen and to help. I like to have male nurses on the team. To my mind they create balance - and also - important for some patients to have a male to interact with. Go well!

I hope I haven't been rude.