nurseygrrl

We have great carts. Top drawer holds OTCs, accucheck supplies, etc. Second drawer holds patient meds and syringes and narcs. Bottom drawer holds overflow. We get our carts from the pharmacy we contract with.

A good topic would be infection control. When handwashing came about, use of gloves, universal precautions, disposal of sharps, and now safety needles. How it has all changed over the years. Good luck!

Haha! Too funny! I would be sure to ask what the normal staffing is and how many patients you will be responsible for. It's a hard job for a new grad. You will have a lot of responsibility. Usually different shifts have different responsibilities. At my place the night shift is responsible for obtaining specimens and making sure all orders are being transcribed. They also do our weekly supply order so ask what special responsibilities you will have. Good luck!

Sometimes others forget that we are HUMAN. I wonder if the people that are reaming you out could do better? Probably not. I know just how you feel. As nurses we have to prioritize and write things down, but that doesn't work all the time. Think of it this way, if you had 10 patients would you be making these little errors? No. Management expects us to do the impossible. Just do your best and remember to keep things in perspective. You're not alone!!!

I am an LPN and in my facility, management sometimes forgets that we are governed by our scope of practice, not our bosses. They like to ask us to do a lot of things beyond our scope. I think it's important to let these nurses know that while you are sure they are and have been more than capable of these tasks, for the protection of your license and their licenses things will have to change. Better you tell them than the BON.

First of all, 22 is so young! You have your whole life ahead of you and nothing to feel bad about. I got my LPN 12 years ago with all intentions of moving forward to an RN. I never did it! My advice would be to go for the RN off the bat. If that's what you want and you're going to be putting the time and money in anyway, I would just go all the way. I wish you luck in whatever you do!

Thank you all so much. I haven't been to this forum in years and thought of this wonderful community again because of how I've been feeling and I am grateful. It is so nice to know that people really care and understand. Please keep the suggestions coming, it is really helpful!!!

I had a friend just recently teach me to ask the patient to cough and the meatus will 'wink' at you. Placing something in a patient's lady parts can get you into a lot of trouble for a lot of reasons. No good.

I haven't heard of not being able to wear nail polish. My facility really has no restrictions. Some nurses even have fake nails. I would go crazy without nail polish!! I love my dark colors. Black, ruby red, purple. I keep my nails on the shorter side and very neat. My manicure is never chipped and sloppy.

Thank you For the suggestions :) I took some time off very recently and it didn't help. I really feel like I just want to walk into a book store and apply for a job LOL. It just feels like nursing is constant worry and fighting. You're asked to do the impossible all the time and chastised when you forget to do something or make a mistake. Then you have the lunatics! Just the other night a patient's son threatened to 'get a gun and come back and shoot all of you' if his mother fell out of bed. Administration did nothing really. It was on the evening shift and when I came in the next morning, a CNA who was there for the incident reported it to me. This is just one of many examples that illustrate why I need a big change.

Hello all :) I have been an LPN for 12 years and I really do love nursing, but over these years I have seen so many bad things. Sad patient stories, being hit and threatened by patients and families, meanness by co workers, administration, families of patients and patients themselves. It is very anxiety provoking. All of you reading this, I'm sure, understand what I mean. I feel it is time for me to get out of nursing, even if just for a little while. Has anyone done this? Any suggestions where to start? What type of jobs to look for? I know it will be hard to find something that pays as much as nursing, but I think it will be worth my sanity!

I started out in home care which I didn't like because I felt more like a maid then a nurse so I left that and went into LTC. I liked the unit I was on which as short term rehab. It was fast paced and you had new patients all the time, but after a while I realized it wasn't for me. I've always wanted to work psych. I moved to a different unit last year at this time and I absolutely LOVE it. I have 2 wings one of which is HIV and the other is psych. I am in heaven and have found my niche. The HIV is great because it is still so new and there is so much to learn. My facility sends me to seminars which are really interesting. The psych is great because I have just always loved psych patients. I fell in love with psych in school and all the others thought I was looney because they hated it.They all went gaga for OB and I didn't enjoy that rotation. That's the beautiful thing about nursing...something for everyone!! As a side note, I find when a nurse really loves what he/she does they are SUCH a better nurse!!

I work in an SNF and we definitely use our care plans! Even if you don't use them in the sense of writing them out and having them on the chart, it is very helpful in your thought process when you admit a new patient and have to assess their needs. Care plans CYA!! Half of my unit is psych and we use them most on our psych patients. We have one man who is very resistive to care at times and becomes violent if pressed. He has a care plan on his chart for Potential For Agressive Behavior. Our care plan outlines exactly what you do to get him to comply with care while keeping staff safe. It is essential if there are float staff on the floor who dont know the patient. Care plans are definitely not a waste of time!!

I hope you find a much better job. No one needs to deal with stress that severe. I wish you the best!!

stidget is right...no induration...negative PPD.

There is no way I would leave my daughter with someone like that. You made the right decision and if it were me, I'd report her. I thank God every day for my wonderful mom who watches my daughter for me. Whenever I hear stories like this one, I appreciate her even more!!

Karen... Congrats!! It is an awesome accomplishment!!

I work the 7-3 shift with alternating Thursdays, Tuesdays and every other weekend. I like my schedule because it's good to have days off during the week when I can get errands done and also to have my daughter at school so I can just veg. What I don't like is not always having 2 days off in a row and also not being able to go out late on the weekend nights that I work.

That's an excellent idea! Thank you! I'll implement that tomorrow...

Thanks for the replies :) Thanks for the suggestion of asking the pharmacy to repackage it, but it's impossible. We don't have an in house pharmacy and no one would feel comfy giving the methadone to a driver to take back to the pharmacy for repackaging. I guess we'll have to tough it out until our next order when I'll make sure that man is taking 14 pills a day!! :rotfl: In response to Pam... 1. I am in long term care. This patient unfortunately will probably not be leaving the facility and if he were to do so, we never send back narcotics, they are destroyed. 2. We are a latex and powder free facility and we also do not use meds for multiple patients. Mr. Jones uses Mr. Jones' methadone and Mr. Smith uses Mr. Smith's methadone etc. 3. We were provided with 2 seperate doses because I suppose the pharmacy thought it would be easier to take 8 pills a day other than 14. Methadone only comes in certain strengths. :)

I have two questions regarding narcotics and the regulations we follow when dealing with them. 1. A patient of mine was admitted with an order for 70mg methadone BID. The pharmacy sent us blister packs with (3) 10mg tabs per blister (30mg). Then they sent a big bottle with 40mg methadone wafers. They sent 60 wafers to last the month. Here's my question...how do you count the wafers? What we have been doing is putting on gloves and transferring the wafers into a sterile specimen cup with as little hand contact as possible. Do any of you have any better suggestions? 2. When I am giving out medications, I first go into the room and do my morning assessment, take vitals as need be and ask my patient if there is anything he/she needs or wants. This way if they want a pain med or compazine or something, I can get all their meds ready at once. If at the time I am asking, they say they do not want their narcotic (one that is prescribed as a straight order) do you still have to pop and waste it? I never did that before. I always just didn't pop it....But recently someone told me that was wrong. What do you think?

There is plenty of teaching to do as a nurse. You teach the newbies, you teach your patients, sometimes there are student nurses at your facility whom you can teach. I love the teaching part of nursing. Maybe you can go for a specialty that puts a lot of focus on teaching...Good luck!!

Your daughter's reaction doesn't sound like a positive PPD to me. I get the same sort of reaction after a PPD and I was told that it is a reaction to a component of the serum. I wouldn't worry...Let us know how you make out!

That is an awful story. I work for a skilled nursing facility and am VERY proud of the care our patients recieve. Our staff goes above and beyond the call of duty when it comes to our residents. Being that we see them everyday, they are like our second family. I cannot imagine staff treating their daily charges like that! What a horror! We take the best care of our residents that we can, short staffed or not, we all pitch in and get the job done. I have half HIV residents and the other half psych. Most of my HIV guys are from the streets and come to us in sad, sad shape. They are so appreciative of anything we do for them because they aren't used to the TLC. Some of them are so sick that they have had G-Tubes placed, can't talk, can't walk...we get them up and running again for a much better quality of life. Our psych guys have been coming to us from old psych facilities that have been closing down left and right. Most of them have been in and out of these institutions all of their lives...and most have been treated HORRIBLY...It feels good to be able to show them that we care. My point is...How can people treat opther people so badly?!?!?! Don't they have a conscience?

Randy... Your pictures are great! Makes me wanna do it even more!! What a great thing to be able to help those who need it most. That's what being a nurse is all about. Thanks for sharing the pictures!!