Chewie_123

Dr. Evilsizer. Answers to Dr. Evil.

For the purpose of nursing school, do what your instructor tells you. And this does sound like the most correct way to do things. Don't forget to switch the filter needle out before adding to the NS. In reality, most nurses I work with and myself draw 2/1 dilaudid straight into the NS through a filter needle. Lets face it, another .2mg or whatever probably isn't going to do hurt the patient, and anything larger than a 1mL sryringe is going to be a little inaccurate anyway. For anything in a higher concentration though, I always draw up with a smaller syringe.

As they say... C=RN. 4.0s are great, but not worth killing yourself for. The grading scale in nursing school is so skewed anyway, any passing grade is a good one!

Get comfortable with saying "no, thanks" and bring your own yummy snacks. Like bell pepper sticks or something.

White or navy blue for RNs Light blue for CNAs/PCTs Green for Techs/other support staff Black/tan for housekeeping Its really not bad, except they also make us wear big plastic magnetic badges with our designations on them. Many have been lost... I've started wearing navy blue canvas type fabric cargo pants and a white polo shirt a shift a week.

As I'm sure many others have said, there is no "nursing shortage." There is a shortage of nurses willing to work under the horrible conditions most facilities impose on their bedside staff due to a wide variety of reasons, most of them involving money.

Sometimes. Being a nurse is truly a dream come true. But the worse-than-high-school clichiness, bad management, highly-paid out of touch executives, cost (staff) cutting, overtime, repetative documentation, entitled frequent fliers, etc... really have been getting me down lately. When the noncompliant, admitted third time in 2 months for DKA diabetic patient threatened to sue me because I threw away their pint of Ben and Jerry's ice cream, I just about walked out then and there. As much as the image makes me sudder, I want to be the bedside angel who occaionally gets to make a sick patient better, not the handmaiden/whipping girl for horrible patients.

At the moment, I am most worried about medicare cuts. Less reimbursement money to my hospital will mean more budget cuts. But those budget cuts won't be made to executives or management, they will be made to floor staff, either by cutting staff, or cutting their wages. I just don't know how that's going to work with all the cuts they've already made... I think this will just drive more RNs and other staff away from the bedside, making the "nursing shortage" at the bedside even worse.

I think the problem is mostly grammer. I haven't had any kind of grammer related lessons since second grade...

Take a look at this video: And accept it will be part of your life for as long as you are a nurse.

Wow. I have been following this thread for a good two years... and this story is the one that has gotten me closest to puking!

I have 4 sets of navy blues I wash and rotate.

We have containers of Caviwipes in brackets every couple dozen feet or so, I can't stand finding them empty. We also use half-sheet of paper form to write down minor communication stuff to stick in the chart for Drs and other staff. I'll come in and somebody went to the trouble of printing the forms, cutting them in half, BUT NOT HOLE-PUNCHING them. Drives me freaking nuts!

"Nurse" is the only thing not broken in this profession. I am proud of my title. Changing it would only be a bandaid over a nasty open wound. We need to change from within first. We are a bunch of well-educated professionals, and need to start acting like it. Which for me, means banding together, standing up for our selves, and educating the larger world on what our real role is to get the respect we all deserve.

Half the unit has been closed for a quick remodel. As a result, we have enough staff to provide adequate coverage. :anpom: I have had some time to do some great, in-depth teaching that is so nice to do instead of the bare-bones stuff that is usually all I have time for. Did a nice presentation for a Pt. on a heparin gtt, complete with graphics. It was awesome.