LaurRN

Why would you not believe what a stranger said? That is called judgment, assuming they must be lying for whatever reasons you've created in your head.

Thank you

Thank you.

There was not a code going on at the moment. The charge nurse definitely would not have been able to come if there were. It had happened earlier in the shift and she was busy with the paperwork is what she said. Also trival is not a word. You must keep meaning to say trivial. I didn't understand the first time cause it didn't make sense in context. Also it was not a "complaint of coffee," it was a request for something uncurdled. I was calm and collected people! I was nice! I smiled!

The caffeine was for his migraine. It wasn't a food request just cause he felt like a hot cup of coffee or something. Also, he was not wearing his badge out of his room. He clipped it to his gown for 10 minutes while kidding around. Boy I feel like everyone is so skeptical!

Thank you for your reply. I tried to hold off on telling them! I swear! Haha. I don't know why everyone thinks this code was in the ER! We were on the floor, and It wasn't happening at the time we spoke to the charge nurse, it happened beforehand. She was just busy with the paperwork afterward. Good tips. I appreciate it!!

The manager actually did not know because he did not have to call out. He does not work full time there. Also the milk was already in the coffee so we could not ask for more milk. My boyfriend was frustrated that he had migraine pain and they would not treat his pain because a specific doctor had left a message not to order anything for pain. We found out later this was a mistake. The coffee would have been acting as his medicine because of his migraine pain, so I consider that to be somewhat of a priority. i'm quite sure YOU understand the priority of pain control when someone is virtually crying in pain. What they were telling us was that they would not make coffee, not that it would take time, but that it wouldn't be done at all, so I calmly asked for the charge nurse to ask if it could somehow be gotten somewhere else. It was nighttime so the cafeteria wasn't open. What do you mean something "trival?"

Is it so hard to believe that judgments can be made and patients can be treated poorly at times?

Actually my boyfriend's manager was NOT directly involved in his care. She was several floors away, so there was no reason for her to know about his care or even his stay. We never made unrealistic requests or demands. When his pain wasn't treated and they diagnosed him with a migraine, he requested coffee for the therapeutic effect of the caffeine. We did not know there was a code going on when we asked to speak to the charge nurse about the curdled milk. No we did not make a "stink." I am a nurse. I know how hard healthcare workers work. We were polite and did not ask for much. And the charge nurse was not the charge nurse in the ER. None of this happened in the ER. I am completely aware that emergencies are priority. I think you are misreading this situation. It sounds like you have been treated very poorly by some patients which is a bummer cause it gives all patients with needs a bad rap. My boyfriend had altered mental status so I was the one requesting to speak to the doctor about his pain, being his advocate since he could not remember anything but was clearly in pain. We were extremely polite and had some great experiences. Unfortunately, when report was given from nurse to nurse, a judgment was passed along and employees did not decide on their own if we were worth caring for.

My boyfriend was a patient in the hospital where he works recently and we both had a terrible experience. Besides giving him coffee with curdled milk in it and refusing to make more because "that's just the way cream settles" and "we're out of coffee" and "we only have one CA". And no, they would not let me make a pot either. We were mistreated in a dozen ways, including holding back meds assuming he was a drug seeker, employees telling us we were "a big issue on the floor," refusing to page the doctor and requesting that I do it from my cell phone, not returning when they said they would, asking him if he was "refusing treatment" when he said he didn't want IV Depakote for what they thought was a migraine because he had taken it PO before and it didn't agree with him, etc... ARGH! He ended up trying the IV Depacon at their request and he broke out in a whole body rash and they kept him another day. He returned to the ER 2 days later with complications from the rash and the doctor said "I'm not giving you prednisone." I told her, "the doctor who was just here just gave him a dose." She said, "OK I'll give you prednisone but only if you promise to follow up." I don't understand the "care" at all!! IT was awful! When we asked for the charge nurse, she was awful to us too, saying people had more important things to do because there was a code. After he was discharged and went back to work, his manager said she received an email from that unit saying he had questionable behavior during his hospital stay. It was totally exaggerated. For example, I had brought his badge to the hospital so I could park in the garage, and he put it on as a joke while laying in bed. It stayed on maybe 10 minutes. They complained about this saying he was misrepresenting himself. They said he tried to get into the medicine room, which isn't true (he was admitted with altered mental status so how could they judge his behavior anyway!) Is this ILLEGAL that they told his manager he was in the hospital? And talked about his behavior? I would think that is a breach of HIPPA and that they are also damaging his reputation without cause! Please help! Thank you!

I would seriously consider quitting my job. They put your nursing license at risk. If something happened it would still be your responsibility/fault. I'm so sorry this happened to you! Truly.

I was a monitor tech for a little over a year while in nursing school. The experience was really beneficial. I now work on a telemetry unit and all those hours of watching the monitors really helped me get comfortable. If that's an area you want to work in, it's an excellent experience...It's one thing to memorize the rhythms, but it's another to see them over and over and be able to recognize them right away after a while. However, I do wish that I had spent some time as a nurse's assistant, because that is an area I feel uncomfortable with being a nurse and being on the other side, as funny as it might sound. I don't know what it's like to be a nurse's assistant. I don't know the little tricks in turning patients and ambulating them, and how to make an occupied bed without hurting my back, etc. I don't know what it feels like to be delegated to, so I am not good at delegating. The communication you learn working on the floor has some great benefits too. I missed out on that. This is what I said to myself when I made that decision you are trying to make: I am going to have plenty of time on the unit in my career, so maybe it would be good to delve into an experience I might not (probably won't) get again. So I chose to be a monitor tech. And I'm glad I chose that. But I don't think you can go wrong. It certainly seems like you would have a schedule that worked out well for you in the nurse tech job. That's a big thing to consider. The downside for a lot of folks about doing monitor tech work is that you are sitting in a room you can't leave. Not to pee, not to take a walk, not for anything. You are sitting most of the time. Me? I loved that! Haha, I had my Dunkin Donuts iced coffee and my star gossip magazines for the times when I got caught up with my work. So it's just a matter of which works out best for you right now. They will both benefit you, so don't fret. Either way you're going to gain some great experience. Hope that wasn't annoyingly ambiguous haha.

it's so comforting to know i'm not alone! believe it or not, i came on here today to write almost the exact same thing i just read by you. i am a new nurse. i graduated in may but i took the summer off. i started my job in october on a telemetry unit in austin tx. i am in a 5 month orientation program called versant. i still have about 8 weeks left on orientation. needless to say, it's not going as great as i'd hoped. even though i am this far into it, i am always behind even though i try soo hard, and my 'preceptors' who orient me are always saying, "did you do this? you really should have that done already." it's so overwhelming! like i am being followed around by people whose work i am doing, being told how to do it and absolutely every little thing that i did wrong. and i have trouble fighting back for myself because i don't see the point. i don't want to argue. and i am just honestly scared to stand up for myself. i hate confrontation. this goes for the cas too. i can't delegate because i am so freaking nervous. i'm getting so much criticism at such a vulnerable time for somebody just thrust into this new incredibly stressful career. more positive feedback would be so much more beneficial, even if i still had things to work on. i don't need to be told i'm not perfect - i know already! i know what i forgot and yes, i know how important it is! i just don't think of the things that come so easily to others' minds! the task of organizing so much new information that you just heard for the first time, and memorizing it right away, and thinking critically about it for 12 straight hours... i just don't know if it will ever come to me even though, like you, everybody keeps saying it will come with time. i leave in tears too, at least half the time , as i did this morning after my night shift. this morning they were hysterical tears because i had hope that this shift would be different. i always hope that "this next shift" will be different. i again felt like everybody thought i was an idiot. they were treating me like i just didn't know i should be doing things, when i really just couldn't handle all of it. i will miss something, like checking the results of the third set of cardiac enzymes an hour after they're sent, and then i get told how important it is, and i know how important it is. i just didn't remember with all this other sh*t i was in the middle of! literally! what am i going to do about that? i should remember to do all of the thing on my mental list. but i don't/can't/haven't. should i really be in nursing? i didn't have time to take any kind of break tonight, or eat or drink anything, which is so bad for the emotions! and you being pregnant it's probably doubly bad! i have never been pregnant but jeeez if i think pms is bad i can only imagine how difficult your hormones are making your life. but yes, i always feel guilty taking a whole 30 minute break, and never get my two 15's..ever. i ask myself, why did i go into this field?! i was on msn one day and there was a link to the list of the most stressful jobs. i'll bet you can guess what the big numero uno was on that list... why-- it was my chosen profession of course! and i think about how i should have gone into some type of english major. that's what i was better at. or maybe marketing, that's what i enjoy. why did i choose something i wasn't any good at? how can you enjoy something you are no good at? i wanted to make a difference, and now i feel i am making the world worse. i am losing my compassion because of ungrateful patients and insensitive coworkers. i hate admitting that! "everyone says it will get better.. but all i can think is yeah right you probably weren't half the idiot i am. i even have thoughts of leaving the field altogether. but i just started and i worked so hard to get here." this is how i feel exactly. i feel like i'm just not smart enough. and i know my confidence is terrible and there's a chance if i just got my confidence to kick in it wouldn't be half bad. but the comments from other nurses who don't seem to have ever been where i am are just so damaging. last night my preceptor told me, there's no reason why i shouldn't be helping the cas out with their work, and i have no problem with this. in fact, i am doing a lot of it because i am too chicken sh*t to delegate! i empty toilet hats, put patients on the commode, change their gowns, help them eat, clean them up when they are incontinent, all of it whenever it presents itself. she says offer to help them, but i can't do any more than i already am! i am up to my ears in charting that needs to be done, and labs that need to be printed and analyzed, and medications that need to be double checked and rewritten and filed (it's all paper charting where i work). not to be rude!!! but aren't they hired to help me? i'm just drowning. and i feel like i have nobody to talk to because i feel like it's all my fault and i'm such an idiot. every time i try to tell someone, i feel good for like, 2 minutes. then i know they see me floundering and i feel worse. so i don't want to make this painfully long but i just wanted to say hey- i feel what you're going through. maybe we can make it through together, knowing there is somebody else out there feeling just as bad and having just as hard of a time. i know that we have to be nicer to ourselves. i'm working on that. i don't want to give up. i want those people to be right when they say it will get better. how could it not, i suppose? but it's really tough right now. anyway i don't want to try and give advice, i just wanted to send some heart your way. :) congratz on your baby-on-the-way :-d

Thanks everybody! The input has been very helpful.

Hi all, I am a brand new nurse one month out on the job. I went in to a patient's room today to disconnect the IV antibiotic and flush the line, and I put on gloves. The nurse who orients me said she never wears gloves to flush an IV and asked me why I did. I was told that you always wear gloves whenever you are in any situation where you could come in contact with blood. Am I being over cautious by wearing gloves for simple flushes? What do you all do when you are flushing lines? I couldn't find an official protocol in any of my books just for a simple flush. THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:redpinkhe