MayLady

I guess I should have made myself more clear. I have no problem medicating people for pain, nausea, or itching as some of you seem to be insinuating. I pride myself in appropriately medicating people as well as responsibly medicating people. I am simply talking about the people who are lying comfortably in bed saying "I'm itching so bad" but hasn't so much as scratched. Or they say "I'm really nauseated" but are scarfing down a cheeseburger. To me, it seems that most pts on Dilaudid seem to want the additional med with it. I have had a sickle cell pt tell me once that it made her "more high" when she had the Benadryl/Phenergan with it. Please don't make assumptions that I'm judging, b/c I medicate them if they need it. I'm just asking if there's a trend elsewhere like we see it here in my hospital (discussed with other RN's on my unit).

Recently I have found 40mg tabs of Lasix mixed in with 20mg tabs and the exact same scenario with Lipitor. I addressed this with my supervisors, pharmacy, and other nurses to alert them. I pulled the med and pharmacy sent it back. They said to put it back and they would "fix it". yeah right. Handed it to the supervisor and filled out an incident report.

How do you feel about giving IV Dilaudid (or Dila-la as we call it :chuckle )? B/c in my practice, I see a lot of people turning into addicts when they receive it. They also always want Benadryl and Phenergan given with it...hmm..wonder why... I personally hate giving it and I hate that the pts think they are pulling one over on me saying "I have itching/nausea/etc too and push it fast". Ugh. I push slow and educate every time I give it.

I had a pt the other night ask me to rub her butt. I asked why and she said "I just like it massaged". Ummm....I don't think so.

Double Dribble - You just cleaned them up and oops...there they go again.

As a new nurse, I was orienting with a nurse who was kind of a brute to say the least. We had a pt that had a PEG tube and it needed to be flushed. I knew the procedure b/c it's pretty simple but before I even had time to grab my toomey syringe, she handed me one full of water, plunger and all. Knowing that you shouldn't use a plunger to flush the PEG, without thinking I removed the plunger...and promptly gave the patient a bath. To make matters worse, the nurse told everyone on the unit about it!

Traveling - When they can't make it to the bathroom in time