Jessiedog

Don't worry sweetie, it happens to all of us. You will NEVER know everything, and most nurses will be happy to help you out until you understand the lingo of your current specialty. I've found the best policy is to honestly say Ï've never heard that abbreviation, could you explain" or something like that. If the other nurse refuses to help, it's on them, not you, for being unprofessional. By the way: I'm so glad this thread is continuing so well. I must have started it last year some time, and I've had some truly great laughs. It's true, that you don't have to be crazy to nurse, but it sure helps. Thanks guys.:yeah::yeah:

As a new & very nervous grad nurse, I was assisting with putting in a thoracic tube on the ward. I was responsible for holding the local, which came in glass ampoules. I dropped one, and it shattered on the floor. I sheepishly cleaned up. I crushed the next one between my fingers. The attending Physicial gave me a withering look, and commented "I wonder if it hurts if you cut yourself with a lignocaine ampoule?" as he took them out of my hands.....

One of my early codes, and I'd never pushed the Crash Cart before. Anyway, I was closest when the code went out, and adrenaline spurted. I grabbed that cart from the treatment room and barelled out. Bloody thing wouldn't move that well, so I pushed and pulled and did everything but pick it up and carry it, using all that adrenaline to my benefit. Out in the hallway I thought I'd get a good run up, and I did. So the cart goes over sideways, with me hanging onto one end of it trying to prevent the eventual crash. The cart hits the ground and I stand there looking at it, praying "I hope the defib still works!" A senior nurse sees my predicament and we lift the cart up together. She then calmly takes off the brakes, and competenly wheels it into the patient's room. Did I feel like a ninny!!:chair:

Good charting! Short, succinct, and relays the information needed.

Working several years ago in a rehab ward, we had one guy with a BKA due to poor circulation. The other foot wasn't faring so well, either. He'd ignored the warning signs of cool & dusky toes, and even the loss of sensation and then loss of movement. By the time he got to us, his entire foot was necrotic. But not moist necrotic; it was dry, solid necrotic. I swear you could tap on his foot, and get a hollow sound back! The foot halfway up the calf was solid, black, dead flesh!! I have never seen anything like it before or since. (and this was only my second year of nursing) The whole foot felt and sounded like a piece of black wood. If I'd grabbed a toe & tried to bend it, I KNOW it would have snapped off in my hand! Eeewwwww!!! The smell was interesting, too. This was when we only had four-bed rooms, so the old fella always had room-mates, although we did the best we could. The smell was a very sweet, all-pervading odour, kind of maple-syrupy, and not at all nasty or offensive unless you knew what the cause was. This, somehow, made it worse! That something that looked so horrible could almost smell nice! Anyway, the surgeon managing him wasn't quite sure that an amputation was warranted (duhhh ) so we were doing daily dressings. The entire foot and leg had to be dressed with parraffin-impregnated gauze, then non-stick dressings and bandages. This was the current treatment for necrosis, and worked well with a moist necrotic area. Trying to wrap parraffin gauze around this thing and:deadhorse hold it while bandaging was a complete waste of nursing effort, but we dutifully did it. After a couple of weeks, the amputation was performed, and the fella eventually went home with two prosthetic legs. The amazing thing was that with this dead limb attached for so long, he never developed any systemic problems, or even needed IV antibiotics! One of the 'wonders of modern medicine' ?

Thank the Lord in Heaven, this is a situation I have not experienced!! How embarassing!! How did you cope with nursing him for the rest of the shift??

We used to talk about a 'horrendoplasty'. This was an abdominal procedure that went horrendously wrong, with almost every complication you could name happening.

:selfbonk:One of my recurring nursing dreams is SOOOO embarassing, that I have trouble at work because I keep remembering it !! I dream that I didn't put my uniform top on, and went to work with pants, shoes, hair all done, but my breasts bare and swingin'! For some reason, it seemed perfectly reasonable when I got dressed and drove in. Even during patinet handover it was OK. Only when I started to do rounds with the paediatrician did it occur to me that he was looking at my chest rather than my face. I wound smile and pretend nothing was wrong, 'casually' trying to cover myself up. My embarrassment would rise as the paediatrician, too, tried to ignore my lack of dress. We would finish the round, and I wound run away down the hall to hide. The first time I had this dream, I worked witha that doctor the very next day! He's a sweet, polite middle-aged Englishman. (And no, I don't have a crush oh him!) I found it SO difficult to look at him normally, remembering how in my dream I'd paraded around shamelessly in front of him.

I have to agree. When I started nursing, it was routine to posey people to anything. I remember one old man had TWO poseys on, one frontways and one backwards, because he was so good at getting out of them. I accepted this as a part of nursing, and did my best to keep them on him. Now, it's rare that I see a posey vest. These people are usually placed up near the nursing station so that we can keep an eye on them. The whole ward knows them, even the cleaner, and we all keep an eye on them to keep them safe. I can't count how many demented patients I've seen sitting near the desk with a heart table in front of them, covered with magazines, knitting, biscuits, cups of tea and anything else that will hold their attention for a while. I've nursed people on the floor now, for their own safety, which would be unheard of in the past. We even have 'bus stops' in the hallway, so that they can sit there and wait for the bus. (Or the train, if that's their desire) Things have certainly changed, and I think for the better. If necessary, we will get an orderly to sit with a patient, or a nurse if we have enough staff, to ensure their safety, rather than tying them up. A lot more humane, even though it causes more stress for the staff. :redbeathe:heartbeat

What is even more disturbing, is that we can ALL visualise this without trying too hard! So, who's in the worse state? The one person who did it, or the millions of us who can SEE IN OUR MIND'S EYE how he did it????

Don't ignore the large label on the jug in the ward fridge that says "CAUTION: BOWEL PREP" and give your toddler a large drink while visiting Grandpa. The results will be nasty, and you will be awake a lot that night!:smackingf

Must be the old thing about viagra in nursing homes: keeps the old guys from rolling out of bed!

I have asthma, which is often exacerbated by an URTI. I go along to the Dr to get the certificate I need to stay off work for 2-3 days while I treat myself at home. I couldn't get to my usual GP, 'cos he was booked out, so took one who was free. In addition to URTI & asthma, I had a sevrely swollen throat, probably step throat. My Dr's advice? Go home, put vicks vapo-rup in a bowl of hot water and inhale it! It would cure my throat and asthma in one go! Hmmmmmm:confused:

It means you have the pre-requesites to last at your job. These being a cast-iron stomach, and a warped sense of humour!!