Code_VSA

I can't imagine three spinal fusions. God Bless you.

I am sorry for your injury. But happy that I saw there were other alternatives. In March I had spine surgery. Titanium screws rods and bone grafts. Just one. The L-5 and S-1 fused on their own. Horrendous pain and disability. Even now, I can vacuum but I then have to sit. The more I do, the more it will hurt later in the day and at bedtime. I was thinking there is no way I will be able to go back to Emergency Nursing. Just picking up my 10 lb cat and walking makes me short of breath and hurts. I hope you find another line of work that does not require any more lifting. And it's just not that, twisting, pushing, constantly bending over will all have a wear an tear on your back. I pray you never have to have surgery. My total abd. hysterectomy with a tummy tuck, and umbilical repair was a piece of cake compared to this. God Bless.

I have graduated from an LVN program. I have also graduated with my BSN. Each and every time, I had problems with the math in Pharmacology. To be honest, I have had problems with math since third grade! In University I was not making the 75 or better on the Pharmacology tests. I was called into my advisor's office. I thought, "Well, this is it. I'm making A's and B's in everything else, raising 4 kids on my own and working three 12 hour shifts on the weekend as a LPN, and the stupid math is going to fail me" I felt like crying. My advisor pulls out a paper from her file cabinet and says, "Here, sign this." "It says you have a math deficit and you are going to work harder." I almost fainted. "Really? I'm not being kicked out of the program?" She just chuckled and said, "No. We understand that some people can be great nurses but have problems in some areas." I was so very, very relieved!" Funny thing is, after that, they started handing out calculators for the tests. I made 90 and above after that. Thank you, thank you University of North Alabama for giving me the chance.

I've never had a flu shot. Never had the flu. Now that I'm in forced retirement from spinal surgery from 40 years of wear and tear from Nursing, I'm glad my watch is over. God Bless all of you.

Nurses are grossly underpaid. I have been a nurse for 41 years. A couple of years ago I put in for a position at a Level I Trauma ER. With my BSN and ALL the certificates required to work in the ER, and my CEN, they offered $23.50. I didn't mean to laugh out loud, but I did. I told them I was making $21.50 ten years ago, same state. Have the wages only gone up that much in ten years? "Well, you know we're real poor here." Nursing is a great career. It stays with you all you life. But hospitals put too much on us. I have not been back to work for three years. And since my lumbar spine, c-spine, right shoulder, both wrists and and both feet are destroyed from all the heavy lifting, walking, standing on concrete floor, repetitive motion, I'm not going back. And please, not one person tell me how proper body mechanics could of prevented it....because I did, and it doesn't. I've also been physically assaulted by and MD and patients. Yep, nurses are worth their weight in gold.

God Bless the child.

Might be one of the problems with society today. Everyone is entitled and every body has rights. I agree with the other posters. She could have taken her business elsewhere, or hired her own private duty nurses in what ever color she wished. She should have the right to do that.

I forgot there has been plenty of Christmas holidays moved. Both Grandfathers....German and Japanese campaign, Father died while in Army, Husband's barracks missed the scud in Riyadh, brother-in-law still a bit twitchy after Vietnam, lovely Navy man adopted me made it back safe from Viet Nam, son-in-law from Iraq too, not too happy about the broke back and nerve damage from my other son's stent in Korea. Yes we know all about moving holidays around.

Yes that is true. But when you have an employer that says no one can take off, vacation etc. From June 15 to January 3rd. Then, yes, you can celebrate Christmas the first of December or the middle of January. True. When you ask 7 months ahead of time to have a weekend off in July for your son's wedding and turned down, why yes, I'm sure he should consult with my employer when a better time to have his wedding besides prime time from which is June 15 to September 15. And the best thing of all is writing the e-mail, "Saying I'm outa here, Bye Bye" Let someone else have the chance and opportunity to work every weekend, every holiday, night shift, short staffed, no equipment, no vacations. I'm willing to step down and give someone else the job and let them have this wonderful opportunity of nursing.

Because I am permanent weekend worker, I have had to work the last 7 Christmas's, Boxing Day (Canadian thing), and New Years. I didn't mind so much at first. But now it's getting to me that because of the time and a half pay for those 3 days. I make LESS money than I would on just a regular paycheck. ALL the extra money and then some goes for taxes. Double punch in the gut....work every holiday and makes less money to boot! I also asked for it off last year so I could go south and see my grandchildren and children. Denied. Okay, I get it. But WHY this year give me December 24th (Saturday) off, when I didn't ask for it??? Tired, tired, of the whole thing. I really feel that Nurses are treated poorly. Only two more weekends left and I am going casual.

Try posting the website for the custom scrubs. If not allowed, could you send it to me privately?? I love a certain Grey's Anatomy top (the one with the diagonal slash). Every time I wear it people ask me at work if I have lost weight...:thankya: So therefore, I have the same style in 5 different colors!

Don't give in! When the economy went down the tubes, my oldest graduated with her BSN. Took her 18 MONTHS to land a job an hour away. My youngest just graduated in December and started looking end of February and was just hired where her sister got her job. Please don't give up. There are jobs out there. Right now, I'm working three. Emergency, a dental office and for a pharmaceutical company. As you can see they are all related (IV skills, ACLS) yet not related. Think outside the box. We are all rootin' for you!

Maybe this is why the "Occupy Wall Street" protesting is spreading? We, the people, are freaking tired of CEO's getting fired but receiving a million dollar severance package. While we see our son's and daughter's struggling to make little above minimum wage with no health care and support their children on what little they make. When I see the news accounts, one phrase comes to mind "POWER TO THE PEOPLE!" Can't remember if it's from the 60's or 70's, or both? :spbox: Lol....do I smell a revolution coming?

It's still mainly a female profession. Even though we are in the 21st century, females are still considered second class citizens, property, things to abuse, things to protect "the little woman" syndrome. Worse even more.......WE, being female, do not stick together. Do not support each other. What is done to one, is done to ALL of us! And future generations of Nurses. I have 5 more years left before I retire. I have two daughters now in the career. I hope it will be different for them. But, I don't think it will be. I kind of like the time when all of Iceland's females went on strike. Back in the 90's it was mentioned in a Tennessee hospital that Union talk was going on. The hosptial said they would close down before they would let a Union come in. I worked in the California Union, it was pretty good. I now work in the Ontario, Canada Union. It is pretty weak. My husband (a unionized firefighter) tells me all the time, "Your Union sucks, why don't they do something?"

I think in that little check list they should add "Losing your teeth". See, when you have nightmares about your job, ya just might be clenching your teeth. Which can either crack or obliterate the nerve. I'm on my second root canal for a perfect, healthy, never had a cavity tooth. I checked "Yes" to every one of those check points. My fantasy is sending my "I quit" notice with a photo attached of me burning my license. It always puts a smile on my face.

:bowingpur Wow....amazing. Well said!! Thank you, I will remember that disclaimer, but I bet if it came right down to it, I don't think it would save my "A" double s.

I don't have any people from work on Facebook. That may or may not save me. I never get specific on Facebook with my family that I do rant to. Example: "Another night in Hell, but motrin will help the aches and pains." My family and close friends are thousands of miles away. It is one of the easiest ways to communicate with them. I don't have the luxury of quitting the worse job I have had in 36 years. My co-workers tell lme it's just as bad if I go anywhere else. In my department alone, two nurses under the age of 50 and a month apart had heart attacks. Nurses are on the verge of tears nightly and threatening to quit. My nursing shoe is a size 8 1/2 DDD.....even though my foot is only an 8 B width. Have to accomodate the swelling that running back and forth 12 hours non-stop, will bring on. This is me ranting.........have I given too much away? That would cost me my job? Dunno, probably. And it is only a HINT of how bad it is. Why oh why are we so hard on each other? United we stand and divided we fall.....and I have always, always seen nursing divided.

It scares me too that I can't vent to my family or close friends. I have NO one on facebook from work for the fear of it getting back to work. But I realize that anything is possible. And if I write about my horrible weekend in the ER and it could get back to my employer. I am even afraid to write some things on allnurses.com I wish I did have a job where I could "leave work behind"....but the daily pain of pulled muscles and worked induced strain is a constant reminder.

What a bunch of bull puckey. I have yet to look in a microscope as a nurse in the past 35 years. Come to think of it....I don't see any in the lab when I drop off or pick up PRBC's. I think machines do it all now???

My shoe size is 7 1/5 medium width. But I buy Saucony Grid Integrity size 8 1/2 size EEE and wear orthotics in them. The bigger size allows for the orthotics and the consequential swelling of my feet after standing 12 hours in a Trauma room. I have bilateral neuromas, arthritis in my toes, bunions, and heel spurs. (old Nurses feet, for sure) I have been wearing this shoe for 9 years and nothing else compares. After 5 months they start feeling "flat" and I buy a new pair. $75 on Zappos.com

Mine had to do with some of the cultural differences, spellings and different pronunciations of words from the USA to Canada. Code Blue, we know. I didn't know what VSA meant when I moved up north. "Vital Signs Absent" I lack imagination.....

I want to "Thank" all the LPN's out there that "raised" me right. It was an LPN that taught me how to access a porta-cath, to multi-task a million things at once, to not let things get to me and it "will always get better, and if it doesn't, the shift is over." Thank you, Thank you! I have had my BSN now for 18 years now. I still don't know the answers. I don't care if you are a nurse's aide, LPN, or the secretary/unit clerk.....I will ask if I don't know. We are a team and we are in this together.

:smackingf Nursing instructors....sheesh. Do what they want while in school. Goal is to pass, right? All the nurses I have known in the past 34 years usually wear it around their neck. Then we discovered the oils from our skin causes the tubing to get stiff and crack. Then they came up with the nice colorful covers for the tubing....so we can wear the scope around our neck. Never see 'em on TV wearing a cover on their stethoscope! Oh...then you get old(er) and ya can't stand to have it around your neck because of the arthritis and neck strain ya've acquired over the years from lifting, pulling, pushing, and long hours and even THAT little bit of weight is too much! :grn:

This is hilarious, but sadly a ring of truth. The busy ED where I work will sometimes have an admitted patient stay several days until a bed opens upstairs. We give breakfast, lunch and dinner, and the whole time the patient is on a stretcher with the lights on and the screaming, crying, moaning, cussing, bodily explosion sounds 24/7 are going on. Poor patients. We have a toaster and a microwave. But I find them not on my priority list when a patient from Triage is brought CTAS 2 anaphylatic reaction. We need stronger Unions for Nurses and more men in the profession.

My Daughter in Nursing School just received the flu shot. Minutes after receiving it she started having a burning across her RUQ and Rt. upper lip. Family doc told her it was nerve pain and it was a cross reaction with the dominant chicken pox virus in her body and put her on Acyclovir for 7 days. I am confused. Never heard of such a thing. After 34 years, I have not, and will not take the flu shot. Never had the flu either.....even when they're hacking and spewing all over me in Triage I thought for sure I would get it. I'm afraid of this vaccine for the children.