DG5

After you get to know your residents and their routines it becomes a whole lot easier. Some residents wait by the dining room before breakfast, some are in the lounge and some are always in their room. There are a few priorities first, like taking th...

Also ditto to never writing down that an order has been received telephonically when it clearly hasn't, I would also never accept an order over the telephone from a doctor or hospitalist that would say for eg: "Sepsis protocol" because as it has been...

For the elderly, there is no easy way, especially with polypharmacy and those that needs their meds crushed etc. It is better to be safe than feel pressurised with time. Can you speak to your superviser - it seems like it is a workload issue.

I don't quite agree with darkangel 05b's comments that a "lot of the older nurses seem to get lazy in their ways" - a rather sweeping comment.I don't think doing assessments thoroughly is related to the length of time you have been a nurse- it is rel...

Same thing happened to me and I had worked in Canada for a few years before coming back and re-entering nursing again. Its just the way the provincial contract is set out, but once you are in the system it is really nice to know that there is a Union...

Years ago a friend of mine said the doctor had diagnosed her 7 year old with "Minimal Brain Damage" but he was as bright as a button. I've later come to realise this old term was what is now called Attention Deficit Disorder- thank heavens they chan...

Tddowney and Tachybrady have it right here - listen to this letter very carefully - it says that there WOULDN'T be a nursing shortage if nurses performed duties that were conducive to their pay. I think T. Ball is emphasizing the fact that nurses lea...

Haven't read all these posts but some of my memories are: 1. getting my hair measured by the "matron" to make sure it was so many inches above the collar 2. passing a "flatus" tube per rectum to relieve gas 3. keeping cabbage leaves in the fridge to ...

Use every minute you have with something useful to do or observe. When you get a patient up say, onto the commode in the am, use that time to make an assessment, make a bed, wash her face/neck/back/underarms, etc, place a pull-up pad or pad with refa...

This is not a silly question. Its something most of us still battle through after years on the job. But we find ways of coping with things that come with the job we do. I try to focus on the patient all the time, and when I do that, I realise that t...

I think you feel in LTC that you have to hold everything up and it is easy to forget that there are other RNs and LPNs who are also there on the next shift/s to carry things through. Don't forget that you are part of a whole team. Good luck - it soun...

There needs to be a family conference including the S/W and the doctor. The family will have a very hard time accepting this but they could be offered pro-active bereavement counselling through hospice. Sounds like the family need active intervention...

Regardless if she perceived you to be unprofessional, it was unprofessional of her to say "unprofessional" in front of your students.

Yeah - a long time ago - someone got a gunshot wound in the shoulder/upper arm and was bleeding profusely from the brachial artery. I stuck my hand in there and the ambulance took 45 minutes to get there. Fortunately he survived but I was up to my el...

I always use the dorso gluteal. I was taught to find the superior iliac crest, go 5 cm diagonally from there into the dorso gluteal muscle and thats the mark. Is that still ok?

Does your facility have a union contract? If it doesn't I would get out and go and find a job that is under the provincial contract, not a private one. Under a provincial one there usually are remedies, especially for health and safety of your reside...

The thing that immediately comes to mind when you ask the question: What sets you in a direction you shouldn't take as a nurse is thinking that you are not part of a team, that you are having to carry the weight of everything on your own shoulders. T...

yes, but sometimes the decision itself is not so cut and dry...work is the np courses as well as the job. the np course is working towards bettering her family...becoming the kind of nurse maybe she feels god wants her to be...the job needs a person ...

Perhaps you need to give it a bit of a chance, as the previous poster stated, to bring the chaos into perspective. You wouldn't want to make a rash move right now when there is a window of opportunity for you to find clarity in the situation. I have ...

I was doing my practicum in an orthopaedic ward and the nurse asked me to go downstairs to another ward and ask for a long weight. I went down there and the nurse said "I'll be right back with it" and she went off and I sat and sat for the longest ti...

Yes, it would be nice to hear from the OP now so that we know she is okay.

At the highschool where my daughter is, a nurse only comes once or twice a week. My worry is that by the time the school staff try to figure things out, calling 911 may be too late. Its a really scary thought.

My pet peeve is giving meds crushed in applesauce and then leaving the resident to the bitter aftertaste without offering a glass of water to swish it all down. Its such a simple little act, and a perfect chance to give them their much needed fluids.

We have a duplicate form with all the info written up down the side ie: name of resident, Dr, facility and signature of person who processes order. Then we write the date, time and order and also put TO Dr. Blank/Joe Doe RN or VO for verbal order. We...

Venting to a co-worker has its place but in this situation, it was a remark that was made without the nurse knowing the ramifications thereof. If the OP had been made aware FIRST of what had happened last year, and THEN the remark was made, perhaps i...