WhiteFlowerRN

You did what you could do. I would have called the family with that dropping O2 sat. It's a hard call and you called as you saw it. That's really all you can do. WhiteFlowerRN

Hi; I'd say q 4 hours is q 4 hrs. If the patient needs more talk to the doctor and get a plan for the patients break through pain. Although, a few times in my 30 year career I have given narcotics early. Rules always get broken. good luck WhiteFlowerRN

Hello; The psych nurses posting is dead on right. You can't expect MD's to handle psych issues any more than I would expect a oncologist to run a code in the ER. The local county mental health providers can hook you up. You can get the right medication. Know this, you have a great support group right here, right now.

Well here it is 0254 and the ER has emptied out so I have a minute to go to allnurses.com. I have never seen nurse/prayer/interaction charted. Imagine, "prayed with patient. patient expressed reduced anxiety and a willingness to ambulate postoperatively" or "meditated x 5 min. with patient focusing on flowers at bedside. pt. calmer and pain level has come down to 2/10." Or, "Prayed with parents for their dying infant. Parents expressed ablility to let infant son 'go' now." (That is the cliff note version of a real story we recieved. I'm thinking the prayer part isn't charted. But I don't know for sure.) So, what's up with that? Why is spiritual nursing practice left up to the nuns and parish nurses when so much prayer is going on? If you do pray and have a story that touched your heart would you please share it? Prayer works. Thanks so much. WF

I went with my step sister to the local 25 bed hospital as a support person while she intervied for a nurses aide job. The Sister liked me better and hired me. That was in 1968. I wanted to go to acting school and told my mother so one day while driving to the city to shop. Unfortunatly, I mentioned this goal of mine at the begining of the 1 hr drive. She had me trapped in the car and proceeded to instruct me in my lifes mission and that I would become a nurse because they are respectable people. O.K. So, I went to nurses training and became an ER nurse (did that for 25 years) and now am a nursing supervisor and an ER nurse. Was it worth it? Yea, it's been a good journey. My children are raised. I still have time to act. We'll see.

Do you ever pray with or for your patients?