MrsCaseyRN

First, this thread is OLD! lol! I got an email saying there was a reply. But look at the post before you, 2008, I think. Anyway, as long as you have had chicken pox, I'm pretty sure you're ok. That's what my OB told me. I've been through 2 pregnancies as a nurse. As long as you take proper precautions/ handwashing ect, it should be ok. With my first pregnancy I was very worried about this. Still, if I work with a pregnant nurse, I will take isolation pts, combative pts, not let her lift...why? Because to me its as courtesous as holding the door for someone, or allowing an elderly person to have your seat on the bus kind of thing. There are people out there that are angery. They have this attitude like "Just because she's pregnant..." and don't want to budge to give a pregnant woman a break. I don't get that kind of sour attitude especially among nurses! But what can you do? Personally, I noticed the most unhelpful coworkers were those that either didn't (or couldn't) have kids or people that felt like they had to work during their pregnancy. In otherwords if they felt over worked during their pregnancy then, they'll be damned if any other women be given a break while pregnant. Check with your OB, but lifting at this point should still be ok. Regardless, I still don't let pregnant coworkers lift if I can help it. And if someone is combative, I don't let the pregnant coworker be where swinging limbs might be. I suppose if you were on a very small unit, that the extra staff might not be available, but generally speaking. I just see nothing wrong with cutting a pregnant woman some slack. I mena you are out there working! I knew a girl that quit her desk job when she found out she was pregnant, at like 8 weeks! lol Because she truly believed that being pregnant meant sitting for 9 months. Meanwhile there is a girl in my spin class that's like 7 months pregnant and she spins better and harder than I do! There's always going to be some bitter crows that will not allow you to have any special treatment just because you are pregnant (granted the staff is available, thats a different story). I wonder if they do not hold doors for elderly people because they do not want them thinking that just because they are old doesn't mean they can't hold their own doors! haha. Ah, I'm sure I'll get flamed for this. Also, I probably should have reread this thread before posting. All and all, it is scary being around isolation pts while pregnant, and I believe it that whenever possible pregnant nurses should not be given iso pts, but if you have no choice, check with your OB on the specifics, use appropriate precautions, and if you truly, truly feel that you are putting your baby at risk, especially if your OB has warned against certain things and your job still asks you to do said tasks, then don't do it. But if you are going to refuse to do something or takea pt at the recommendation of your OB, I'd get that in writing, so you have proof, should they disapline you for refusing to do your job. HTH P.S. Please excuse typos!!!

I'm not going to justify how I feel, or why I have a hard time believing people's nursing stories. I don't really care what your resume consists of, that doesn't change that I'm sitting on the fence (that means I don't have an opinion on your story either way. You're not the only one in the world with a bad labor experience. What I went through to have my son was scary. And I did have a run in with a resident, on an issue that ALL of my nurses and my primary OB backed me on. I did not, however, let this ruin my son's birth experience.

LOL, my friend was a garbage man too (he has since been promoted) and basically everything about his job is better. I can't even say "well he has to pick up others people's garbage" because I have to clean up other people's poop and vomit!! Thank you to everyone who posted. I will be thinking long and hard about that the grass may not be greener on the other side. That is a good point. There was one of you (BabyRN2B)that said I should "GET OUT" and they didn't know if I was maybe in OB. If you read my OP it said I was getting out, and I don't work OB. Then that person went on to tell a horror story about their nurse and how hubby was calling nurse supervisor and so on. This is what I'm talking about!!! Maybe you're nurse was the nurse from the underworld, and your complaints are valid. But how many times have I heard pts say the SAME thing when it was the pt who was demanding and ridiculous and the nurse was actually a good nurse trying to handle the situation. I'm sorry you feel the nurse forever ruined you're labor experience, but maybe the nurse walked away and will never forget you as one of the most difficult pts she ever had. Of course you don't think you were difficult, no pt ever does. Again, maybe you were 100% right but I've just heard soooo many stories where the pt makes the nurse out to be some kind of uncaring monster, when in reality it was the pt who was so over-demanding and rude that its a miracle the nurse didn't quit then and there. So in a post about why I am leaving (and I am leaving) nursing, you further emphasised (sp.?) what I'm saying. I'm not saying that every nurse is great, or that no pt has the right to complain, but I'm saying its like the boy who cried wolf. So many people complain about nurse when there warrents no complaint, that when someone actually has a valid story, I don't even believe them.

I need to ask other nurses if they are as dissatisfied with nursing or is it just not for me? I've been a nurse for 2 years and I hate it. (I am going back to school for something else, I will not be a nurse that hates her job and does it for anyother 20 years.) I am an RN and have worked in the hospital (tele & med/surg) and LTC. While there are differences, it seems that they all have the same issues that upset me. #1 I feel abused from every angle. I feel like a servant to my pts, family can be so demanding and rude, some doctors can be more condisending that family (but even one it too much, a Ph.D. doesn't give anyone the right to belittle others.) Management is, well management. Short staffing the floor and aloof to issues. It seems these issues (which I've seen on many boards, are "just a part of nursing". There's always that nasty doc no one likes talking to, or that crazy family member that makes our day nearly imposible. Is it over sensitive of me to not want to deal with this anymore? #2 I feel like the general public is moving towards a "anti-healthcare" attitude. People sue for everything. It seems that people don't feel we are entitled to break (as we've discussed in another post), I've seen first hand many times that the public wouldn't care if you were 9 months pregnant, they expect you to lift mom single-handedly out of the chair and into bed, and NOW! because they "don't want to wait" for you to get help. The nurse doesn't even need to be pregnant, she could be 110lbs and "mom" could be 400lbs and her 25 family members (8 of which are young strapping men) will demand you get mom up to the commode NOW!, and all 25 will stand there and watch and god forbid the guy across the hall is coding!!! Even another human being dieing is not important enough for you to derail from getting their 400lb mom another package of gramcrackers..and so an and so on. And all the while they think the nurse is LAZY!!! I hear this very often. (This actually happened to me at a diner) the couple behind me and my husband were having a bash fest on how lazy and stupid nurses are. They never considered that maybe a nurse was in earshot! My husband lit into them, and they apologized but said that the nurses at a local hospital "killed" their grandpa. I asked about grandpa who was 89 y/o had a "failing heart and kidneys" but "was doing well untiL he went into the hospital". I want to DUMP MY SOUP ON THEIR HEADS!! This seems to me to be very common that people blame nurses(or docs) for inevidable deaths. #3 Short staffing that's only getting shorter...need I say more. #4 Missing time with family. I will admit I knew about this before I got into nursing so I can't complain. But since I've had my son, I no longer want to miss holidays. I'm sorry, but my pts are not worth the times I will miss with my family on holidays. I want to be home christmas mornings with my son and 10 year from now I won't remember the pts I had on xmas but I will remember that I missed his first xmas (or second or what ever). #5 Liability. I knew this too, so I can't complain, but people make mistakes Cashiers ring you up for the wrong amount, cooks make and waitress serve the wrong food, I'm sure plumber or contruction workers have been called it to fix something but after wards it still leeks or whatever and they have to be called back to do it again. I'm not saying that nurses are the only profession that our mistakes can be very dangerous, I'm saying that even the smallest mistakes, one that would never hurt anyone, gets everyone up in arms about it. And pts and there family expect nothing short of God caring for them or their family. A nurse on the floor I used to work on went to take a blood sugar on the wrong pt. The family was there, it never even got done. They stopped her, but the pt was confused and wouldn't have been able to tell the nurse she was a BGM. The family had a melt down and reported her and she got in a lot of trouble! Its not like she was about to give morpine to this lady. I know a mistake is a mistake, but there's no forgiveness in nursing, not matter how tiny the mistake. We can not make mistakes, as per the general public. Well, I'm careful, but I'm not perfect. Sorry to sound so negitive. Am I just looking at this all wrong? Does anyone else feel this way, but it doesn't bother them?

I love how the 2 here the are nursing students are on their high horses :saint:about how they will never be rude to pts. I suppose the rest of us should hang our heads in shame and learn from those that have never actually practiced as an RN yet. Come back back when you've graduated and put in some time as a RN, we'll see how perfect of a nurse you actually are. Its not right for nurses to be rude, I agree, but you are in no position to judge....I'm out of here. This thread is silly.

Not all places are that bad. On SNF you should have like 20 pts....not 26! I work in LTC. when full we have 60 total. If we have 3 nurses that 20 each and if theres 2, that's 30. But the CNA's handle tray passing. It sounds like the dining room duties are really cutting into your time needed for nursing tasks. Just leave. Scope out some other places and find one with a better system. Also, as you become more expereinced, it will get easier. Good luck

Sounds to me like the OP thinks he/she understands what its like to be a nurse, even if the OP is saying he/she doesn't. If you are not a nurse (and nursing school doesn't count) you can't really understand the stress that nurses are under. I find it hard to believe that all the nurses at this ER were just so wicked that they were rude to all the patients for no reason. I find it easier to believe that you do not know the full story. Other people on this website may disagree with me when I say this, but I feel that this is a forum for nurses to come vent, share stories, and not feel the pressure to defend ourselves. To come to this website to ask why nurses are so angry and to ask if we are one of the nurses that ***** your patients, or what ever you said, well, I find that rather offensive. None of us were there with you, so we can't tell you specifically why Nurse X said when she said. So really you are coming on here to vent that nurses are rude?? That's how i see it. Honestly, if you want to put down nurses, you can go to any other website out there. Because the general public is so ignorant to what we do as nurses and people want us to eat poop with a smile, that they are quick to put us down. (If we don't smile while eating the poop) Again, I might be the only one that feels that way, but that's just how I see it.

Ok I will explain... Daughter asked me how many times a day mom is getting her ABTs. No big deal, easy question to answer, right? However her PRIMARY nurse has the chart, and she's about 10 feet away. I said, lets go over to so-and-so and we'll look. Daughter tells me she just asked so-and-so and she told her 2x. Ok, I say, so-and-so checked the chart, which is what I'm going to do because your mom is not my pt, is there any reason why you want me to check? Because when I asked that nurse (as she points to another nurse down the hall) she said she thinks it was 1x. I told her that that nurse should not have tried to answer, that she may have been trying to remember from other days that she had you mom, but w/o the chart and since she was not the primary nurse, the other nurse should have sent you to so-and-so, the PRIMARY nurse. oh, says the daughter, she did. And after the PRIMARY nurse answered me, I went back to her anyway... (I check with the other nurse who tells me the daughter says the primary nurse did not answer her, and the other nurse says that she told the daughter that she hasn't been her moms primary nurse in over a week, but last she remembers the ABTs were 1x a day, but she should check with the primary nurse to be sure because in a week, her mom's care could have changed) Now remember I'm the third nurse she's asked... I explained the the daughter that she must communicate with the primary nurse. When the nurse gives her answers from the pts chart that is the most up to date info we have. It seemed as though the daughter was trying the test everyone. I assured her that random nurses do not care for her mom and that her care and meds are of course given properly, by the nurse that is caring for her that day. However, this behavior has continued. No matter how much time you take with her, or how much attention, or how much you address her needs. She walks up to the next nurse and acts like she knows nothing. And this happens shift after shift. If she has that much distrust of staff, she needs to move mom somewhere else. Is that clear now?

Maybe I should have gone into more detail and typed even more paragraphs...The daughter got her answer CLEARLY from the primary nurse, and really wanted to read through these reports AND has been continuing the same behavior since my OP. She asks any and all staff the same questions and recently I spoke with her about addressing the primary care nurse only. I came on here to vent about the fact that this women is being so manipulative with staff that a family meeting is in the works (since the OP). I really don't appreciate you telling me that it sounds like we could have done more.

No, I just meant it in a sarcastic way, that the hospital I used to work for was the same, and that this type of treatment towards nurses is so common that it exists at many hospitals around the country. :nuke: Where have they gotten the idea we should punch out then stay and work (chart)?!?!

Have we worked together?? It can't possibly be that many hospitals are treating their nurses poorly...nah, can't be that.:icon_roll

This must be a joke...that was pathetic. I need to pick my jaw up off the floor now.

Thank you for that. I used to work in the hospital but switched to LTC for schedule reasons and I've heard that sooo many times that #1 I'm starting to feel useless, and #2 I want to scream "Then why aren't there more LPNs in the hospitals!!!!" Please don't flame me for that but when you are told over and over that your RN schooling was a waste of time because LPNs can do all the same things, you start to get a little bitter. Also RSR is regular sinus rhythm. At least that's what I was taught (tele certified a year ago, BUT no longer reading tele) I've never heard of it describing a notch in QRS...

I worked full time as an EMT while going for my RN. I had no choice. It wasn't that bad though.

I agree. Actually, I believe anyone caught drunk driving (DWI, DUI) should never be allowed to drive again. A no tolerance policy. But even then, some of them would drive w/o a license anyway.