Disablednurse

I too am someone who lives with chronic pain on a daily basis. I am on meds every 8 hrs for pain and on prn meds for break thru pain. There are many days I would rather hurt than take pain med for the break thru pain because of the way it makes me feel. The strength of the prn med is needed for relief, but I do not like the way it makes me feel. I did say at one time, I would love to know how I would feel if I did not take the routine every 8 hour med and was able to find out when I had a severe virus several months ago and could not keep anything p.o. down. All they could give me was demerol IV and I got that every 4 hours. So I got relief for one hour, hurt for 3 hours. The one time I tried it IM, I had nightmares and was so jittery, I could not stand it. When I was able to get the p.o. meds again, and some relief, I said I did not ever want to experience that again. I am so glad for this board. :)

Unfortunately, there is nothing that you can do about it unless you belong to a union or have a contract signed by both you and the administration stating that you were hired to work only 12 hour shifts. I have been part of administration and sometimes decisions have to be made that are not liked by everyone, but are the best for the facility or that are mandated to be changed by the upper level management. I am sorry that this happened to you because I have had this happen to me also and it is not fun or pleasant when you have your entire life planned around this schedule.

I would have to say no, but not for reasons r/t job satisfaction, pay rate or things such as that. I have been thru so many things in the past year with my husband health wise that I have wished and wished that I was not a nurse so that I would not know what was going to happen next with his health situation. Being a nurse means you know too much sometimes and that often hurts too much when it involves family members and for that reason and that reason alone, I would not be a nurse.

If you can get in to see a neurologist, they can probably get you in to see a pain mgmt specialist associated with them. I have chronic back pain and am seeing a pain mgmt specialist associated with the neuro group who treated me for my back problems.

I have never heard it called it called nursing syndrome, but there are some nurses that get out of nursing school thinking that they will only have to sit at the desk for the remainder of their nursing career. Then it happens and they have to go and clean up a patient that has really messed themselves up. These nurses want someone else to do all the dirty work and them to do everything else, when that does not happen, out pops the attitude.

What is so sad is that the bad CNAs pull the good ones down with them. You try to ask them to do something that is within their job description, their reply is "You can't tell me what to do." Excuse me but that is my job. They don't want to be treated like children, but they don't act like adults. I give them the same respect that I receive from them. I will not ask them to do something that is not within their scope of practice. The nurse cannot do their job for them or always help them do their job, because if the nurse gets behind, they cannot help her. Nurses cannot stop in the middle of med pass to help someone to the bathroom, because the meds have to be given within a certain time frame. CNAs do not understand this as a rule. Nurses have to do their charting and keep up with the med pass, dr. orders and other things so that if something like an emergency arises they will not fall so far behind. I also think that if a nurse is sitting at the desk doing nothing and a cal light comes on, she should answer it. There are some nurses that do not show respect to the CNAs and this is wrong. You have to show respect to get respect. We could all learn a lesson about this.

No MaryG, you are not wrong to think that the nurse should answer the call lights. When I was working my job was MDS nurse. When ever I would be at the desk getting info for my job, the nurses would sit at the desk and ignore the call lights, I answered them, but got to where I would not take my work to the desk. Some nurses just do not want to answer the lights as they feel that this is not their job.

I don't think that James said anything out of line. He just stated facts and his opinion. What he said is the norm for LTC facilities. They are not allowed to hire people with assault of any kind in their past. This could lead to lawsuits, because if anything questionable came up regarding her and a resident, the facility would be liable for hiring her knowing her past. I worked in LTC for 23 years and I would not hire her because there is no company that would allow her to be hired. That is just the facts.

All LTC facilities are now required by law to check the background of all employees because of the high rate of elderly abuse. I know other places do this but not as strict as LTC. Maybe you could get your lawyer to talk to these people on your behalf. I don't know if this would help or not. Sorry about your problems, will keep you in my prayers.

The thing about it that makes me so mad is that they are told upon being hired what their job duties will be. If they do not want to do that, then don't take the job. I know they gave me a detailed job description and I have read theirs. If you don't like the job description go to McDonalds and sell hamburgers.

One of the problems is lack of support from management whenever they try to reprimand a nurse aide when the nurse aide will not follow orders. A lot of the nurse aides now have authority problems and think that if the nurse above them tries to tell them what to do then they are treating them like children. I have had nurses aides jump down my throat after being told to do something and then myself being reprimanded because I dared to tell them to do it. It is not worth the hassle and once the nurse aide sees you get reprimanded for telling them to do something, they lose respect for you and know that they do not hae to listen to what you say.

I agree with both of you. It is a very rewarding profession and it is a calling. There are those that become nurses thinking that there will be good money making potential, but that is not so. You have to look at nursing as what you can do for people and how you can help them. I have put 25 years in the profession and loved every moment of it. I worked in LTC and it was most rewarding.

My husband fusses at me all the time because I worry about whether I am taking too much pain med. He will ask me how I am hurting on scale of 1 to 10 and when I tell him 8, 9 or 10, he tells me that I really need something and not to worry about taking too much. He cannot stand to see me hurting and I am getting better about taking something when I am hurting worse as I don't take anything when the pain is in the range of 3-6.

Konni, good luck with your surgery. Be sure to let the doctor know if you are hurting and if the med does not work make them give you something that will. You will be in my thoughts and prayers.

I do agree with a lot of what all of you are saying. Some doctors are bad about not giving people pain meds. I am seeing a pain management specialist for my back pain. Because pain meds are so strictly controlled, I had to sign an agreement saying where I buy my meds. I am fortunate that my doctors believe me when I describe my pain. I have worked with some nurses that refuse to give anything other than a tylenol, even with cancer patients. Because I deal with pain myself everyday, it is a very touchy subject with me and I try to avoid discussing it with others because of that. However all of you have brought up good points.

Pain is something that is hard to judge and everyone is correct to say you have to take the patient's word for how bad they hurt. I hurt every day of every week, 24/7 r/t herniated disk with nerve damage and intractable pain. I do not cry about it when it is at a ten, because I cannot cry and moan all the time. Most of the time my pain is somewhere between 5 and 10 and that is with pain meds being taken every 8 hours and between times for breakthrough pain (ms contin and oxycodone). When I take the meds I end up sleeping all day or all day and all night. I am never out of pain, but I do try to put on a happy face for the general public. My husband fusses at me about it, because he said don't try to hide it, if you hurt, it is ok to show it. I am sorry for the long post, but just needed to tell my story.

Well I guess I am either too dumb to figure out how to get this info on the screen or my state does not give the info on the internet. I do know that they give the info to others r/t publications, etc.

I never minded doing anything for the patients, but when I was on med pass and not used to working the floor, if a patient asked for anything like help to BR or something, I did call for the CNA. Our med pass time frame is two hours and anything longer is considered a med error. I had many CNAs get mad at me for not helping or doing what the patient wanted but there was no one to help me pass the meds. Unless it was an emergency, I would always call their CNA to come and let them help. What made me mad was when I was trying to pass meds and look for a CNA and could find none on the hall. That would really cause me to blow a fuse.

In the future, divide the patients between the other nurses and only take 2 or 3 patients yourself. That way you will be able to cover them when they go to eat and if something happens you will be free to cover it. Do not give them something to argue with you about.

Before I had my hysterectomy, I was going for all but about 2 or 3 days a month with a seriously large flow and would wear depends for a pad because the large pads did not even help.

I tried to use the OB tampons and never could get them in, thought they were too dry and too big. I much preferred the ones with the plastic applicators.

Nolenurse, talk to your friends or someone you trust and let them tell you the names of some good gyns, they should be able to. Then pick from them.

Nolenurse, is the tampon difficult to get in, does it hurt to wear it? Just what is the problem? Do you have a difficult time with your menstruation? I was never able to wear tampons, even after I got married. I also had a lot of pain with my period. If the answer is negative to these problems that I have mentioned, you really need to see a gyn.

I worked in LTC for 23 years and have seen and worked with many dementia residents. All of the above responses are wonderful. The use of a baby doll is wonderful. These residents who kept children or had lots of children and grandchildren will take these dolls and for them they are real. Also the dementia bear with a tape recorder built in is wonderful. It comes with soothing tapes that you can play while the resident cuddles the bear. I have only come across one resident that I was at a total loss for what to do for her. She wanted to pat and did not keep her hands clean, even with staff washing them. She stood and walked almost continously. It was very difficult to find the right things to keep her occupied. Our only resourse that constantly worked was food and she could not eat all of the time. We were lucky that she responded to some of the office staff and they would take her to their office and she would sit in their office and go to sleep. I would not trade one minute for the time I spent in LTC. I loved everything about caring for the residents. However, paper work is a killer of good nursing measures in LTC.

I worked in LTC for 23 years and have seen and worked with many dementia residents. All of the above responses are wonderful. The use of a baby doll is wonderful. These residents who kept children or had lots of children and grandchildren will take these dolls and for them they are real. Also the dementia bear with a tape recorder built in is wonderful. It comes with soothing tapes that you can play while the resident cuddles the bear. I have only come across one resident that I was at a total loss for what to do for her. She wanted to pat and did not keep her hands clean, even with staff washing them. She stood and walked almost continously. It was very difficult to find the right things to keep her occupied. Our only resourse that constantly worked was food and she could not eat all of the time. We were lucky that she responded to some of the office staff and they would take her to their office and she would sit in their office and go to sleep. I would not trade one minute for the time I spent in LTC. I loved everything about caring for the residents. However, paper work is a killer of good nursing measures in LTC.