greeneggsnham

A few days ago, we had a motivational speaker come in to speak to us. Before his presentation and as I was sitting down, he made a comment about my SpongeBob scrubs (spongebob top and khaki pants) and how the outfit looked like pajamas. This was coming from a man who travels around and gives presentations, and does not work the daily mess and grime of nursing. I told him that my patients seemed to really like it, even the adults. I am in and out of my car all day long doing home care, in some of the diritest places, some without air conditioning, pets that climb all over you, insects etc. I was offended by his comments, but said nothing. I figured he was just another member of the sometimes ignorant public who has no idea what a nurse really does. Frankly, the issue of the white uniform should be a non-issue. I can't count the number of times where I was in my white uniform with my name tag that says RN in bold letters and sometimes with a white cap on my head and someone asks me "where is the nurse?" To me the old style nursing uniform conjures up subservience. It is simply a way of making others conform. I see the Nightingale look a part of history. I appreciate the uniform as that. I never wanted to wear the white cap and white uniform, I simply wanted to be a nurse. Maybe my opinions differ from some of you and I don't mean to offend. I don't see how there could be a universal uniform that all nurses could wear, our roles and tasks are too varied. At least in the military, there is a uniform for every role!

One night the Don of the LTC place where I worked handed over last month's MAR's and TX sheets and asked me to go through and find the "holes'' and fill them in. I filled out missing blood pressures, weights and accu-checks that I searched through Nurses Notes for and left the rest blank. I can't believe I got busted for not forging paperwork.

Sounds to me like this patient is not a patient in a hospital working with the staff to get better, but a spoiled diva (with a doting enourage) thinking that she is in a suite at the Ritz.

I was helping out a co-worker who had gotten far behind one night. She told me to go down and get this patient's temp. This lady was combative and had dementia, so I attempted to do a rectal. THERE WAS NO HOLE!. Turns out when she had her colostomy years before that it had been closed surgically. :imbar

One night in the med room of the LTC facility where I used to work, I felt a cool draft and felt a presence behind me and as goosed in the rear end. No one else was in the room with me. A resident had recently died and had a habit of goosing the rear ends of some of the staff for fun. I was a teenager and living at home the first time I saw a ghost. I was typing a paper for school and hte hair on my neck went up and I got a chill. I turned to see my grandmother putting away laundry. She'd been gone only a few months and had lived with us at one time. Guess she was still taking care of the family in a way.

lets see, lunch break? Oh yeah, thats when the pharmacy delivers medications, when Dr's offices call with orders, and when the Education department chooses to give us our inservices (and no, we do not get paid lunches)!

Definitely OR. Standing in one place too long. The blood and guts didn't bother me, but rather the arrogance from the surgeons and the way some staff members treated one another. I loved being in on cases, viewing the human body literally, but OR was a very hostile environment for me.

This is a situation that I found myself in before when I worked at a nursing home. I ended up calling the nursing home hotline on the facility where I worked. Then, I quit before they could fire me! The situation that you are describing sounds dangerous to not only the patients, but also your license. They did you a favor by firing you.