SuperPsychdRN

I'm proud to be an RN...so I have no problem telling people at all if they ask.

"Am I the Nurse? Oh...I'm not the nurse...I'm housekeeping." :) "Sure...Why not?? I'll go out on a date with you. Even though I'm happily married I just can't get enough of dating all my male patients and you are SUCH a catch!"

Yes, we also have strict medical clearance guidelines before admitting and they also try slipping them by us too.

I'm so frustrated at the inadequate care I see some of my patient's receiving in the ER's before arriving on my unit! I know Psych patients pose many challenges in the ER but come on! I've seen everything from a missed & untreated broken hand, to pieces of glass left in someone's head, to a patient arriving from the ER so dehydrated from not eating or drinking for days that I've had to send them right back to the ER for fluids, to a patient arriving after a car accident bleeding from his ear without even a CT done. I know this is certainly not true everywhere or for every ER, but it seems the local ER's near me do the minimum work up so they can move them out of the ER as fast as possible to an involuntary pscyh bed. Frustrating!

Remember patients are in a unique position of having very little control and relying completely on the professionals who are taking care of them. They can be nervous, scared and frustrated and having difficulty understanding their nurse adds fuel to the fire. I think to say they are lucky to even have a nurse is insensitive because my guess is if the patient they can't understand their nurse they probably DO feel like they don't have one at all. To me it would be the same as saying a patient were lucky to even have a nurse, say during their labor and delivery, even though they had a nurse without labor and delivery experiance.

This may sound harsh, but I wouldn't even have compassion the first time it happened. Falsifying data is unacceptable and she has no business representing the nursing profession.

Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions and best wishes with your online studies :)

Thanks so much for the quick reply! :) It helps to hear from others who have first hand experiance. I've been putting off contacting Chamberlain until I'm really sure I want to start. I mistakenly emailed for info on other online programs, leaving my home number, and I've been harrassed non-stop since. They call day and night. Frustrating.

Do your previous college credits count?? For instance, I see Algebra is there and I took an Algebra course 4 years ago as part of my RN degree. Is the program flexible with your work schedule? Is the 3 quarters they advertise realistic with a part time job?

OMG...that Nurse should be fired! No question.

Wow....an unwashed bottle? Sounds like Jenny was looking for something to gripe about. It's her problem, not yours. Make sure you wash all the bottles next time and give her nothing to complain about. I've found other coworkers who talk that way, look for fault in others work and have superior attitudes do so because they are insecure.

I'm also interested in this program. Any helpful posts/advice would be appreciated!

Find an area of Nursing that you love. Sounds like where you are at now isn't a good fit. Best wishes... :)

The adult unit I work on uses SOAP charting. I personally like it. The Subjective portion is so important to psych charting as is the Objective portion. We also SOAP chart to the patient's treatment plan by picking a problem or goal off the treatment plan and addressing it in a SOAP note.

Based on your objective data he does sound like he's still in withdrawl. Withdrawl tapers should be individualized and I agree with other posters, everyone is different. Stick to your guns and keep reporting your objective data.