meluhn

meluhn has 16 years experience and specializes in acute rehab, med surg, LTC, peds, home c.

meluhn's Latest Activity

1. 

   Do you ever plan on leaving the bedside?

   meluhn replied to ajaxgirl's topic in Nursing

   Soundofmusic, You put that so well, all management needs to read this. This is the problem with nursing everywhere. They have unrealistic expectations that we can never live up to because it is physically impossible, yet we run ourselves ragged trying and end up feeling like failures because we can almost never be successful. I for one would never, evergo back to the bedside in a million years, you couldn't pay me enough.
2. 

   Calling all HH Nurses, roll call

   meluhn replied to hoolahan's topic in Home Health

   You are working for the wrong agency. My agency would never expect that of any nurse. That is ridiculous.
3. 

   What is your biggest nursing pet peeve?

   meluhn replied to ferfer's topic in Nursing

   haha. it sounds stupid to me too but somewhere on one of these threads where the subject came up, someone proved that "orientate" was actually a legit word and not just someone pronouncing it wrong.
4. 

   How well do you get along with your coworkers?

   meluhn replied to sasha2lady's topic in Relations

   Up until recently, I thought I had a stellar relationship with my coworkers but it seems that they are all a bunch of backstabbers after all. I am disappointed but I still need the job and so I carry on. It disgusts me and I wish that I worked with all male coworkers. I dont think I would have the same problems. Just remember, if someone is talking badly about someone else, chances are they are doing the same to you, just not when you are around.
5. 

   To nurses, do you wonder what might have been if you became a doctor?

   meluhn replied to LookForward's topic in Nursing

   I agree with your Aunt. This might not be a popular opinion but here goes. I have been a nurse for 17+ years. I now work in home care and love it, however; After all this time I still only make 55k/year. And more often than not through the years I have had jobs that I absolutely hated. In fact most positions I have held up until now have pretty much s*cked. In the hospital, private duty, ltc, subacute, (hated them all). I am now pushing 40 and wish that I had had the motivation and self discipline to go to med school when I was younger. I am thinking about an NP but now with family commitments and work it will be much harder to do. There is a saying, and I am paraphrasing, most people have regrets not about what they did but what they did not do. I say go for it if you really want to. :)
6. 

   Am I Babysitting or Supervising?

   meluhn replied to BSN_after_40's topic in Nursing

   Sadly, nothing in your story or the op surprised me one bit. Long term care is a very broken system. If I ran a LTC I would pay the CNAs and nurses substantially more than the going rate and only hire and keep the best of the best. I would have plenty of staff. If you make it a desirable place to work people will be less likely to jeapordize their jobs. afacility is only as good as the people staffing it.
7. 

   What do patients say that irks you?

   meluhn replied to NurseforPreggers's topic in Ob/Gyn

   Eeow, Does that happen often? I would have to jump off the table and slap him, or if I was the nurse, a knee to the groin would be in order. That is so obnoxious.
8. 

   More Americans Should Skip College

   meluhn replied to DoGoodThenGo's topic in Headlines

   That whole "taking a year off after hs" never works out for anyone from what I have seen. For me it just gave me more time to concentrate on partying and the only thing I learned was that I needed to get an education in order to do anything even remotely fulfilling. Maybe some kids are cracker jacks and can really shine and go up the corporate ladder or whatever to be successful, but I think the vast majority do need some sort of education or marketable skill. Gone are the days when a person could work his way up from the mailroom to CEO without at least a BS degree. JMO I do think vo-tech programs are a great alternative for some but the gender issue is still stacked against us girls. Boys have auto mechanics, hvac, electician, plumber to choose from. What do the girls have? Not much in the way of comparable income producing jobs.
9. 

   Scared Of Poop!!!!!!!!! Help!!!!!!!

   meluhn replied to nursingstudent424's topic in First Year

   Just a quick poop story... I was transfering a pt from toilet to wheelchair after they had a bm when my worst nightmare came true. They started to fall and I had no choice but to lower them to the floor using my leg which I had no choice but to strategically place between their dirty but crack to lower them down. It was either that or grab their upper body and squeeze but they would have definitly been hurt. I was quite traumatized by the whole thing and still had to fill out an incident report.
10. 

    Whats the worst that can happen?

    meluhn replied to melonbelly7's topic in Camp

    I did it one summer and the worst was one day a girl went into a severe asthma attack and had to take an ambulance ride to the hospital. The other major injury was a boy who broke his arm playing football or soemthing. Otherwise, lots of sore throats, lots of mini neb tx, headaches from not drinking enough in hot weather, mosquito bites, one ghonorhea of the throat (yup), a small lice epidemic in one bunk, tons of meds to give out, a yeast infection, a growth hormone shot, an infected ingrown toenail and other minor random stuff. We were lucky to have a parent/pediatrician on call at all times in the camp.
11. 

    pre-nursing mom of 3 needs advice

    meluhn replied to Lgoodson614's topic in Pre-Nursing

    I did an LPN program full time when my 1st one was an infant. I dont recommend it. I started doing prereqs for RN/ADN program when my little guy was 3 and in preschool. I would run to class for the 3 hours while he was there and then run back to get him. It just worked out that by the time they were both in school FT, I was ready to start the program. You might want to look into getting your BSN and just taking classes slowly 1 or 2 at a time. The ADN program is really hard and fast. Only you know what you are capable of and how bad you want it. I personally would be setting myself up to fail if I tried it with 3 little ones. It is not just the class time you will be away. You will be mentally absent too. Devoted to your studying, care plans and papers, unable to cook or clean very much. It puts alot of stress on your family and marriage.
12. 

    Need some feedback

    meluhn posted a topic in Home Health

    I just started in HH a few months ago and I am loving it. I just started case managing a case in which the pt is a 62 yo, lives alone in a 2nd story walk-up apartment and just had the whipple procedure done for pancreatic ca. He will be going for chemo when his incision heals. I plan on talking to the oncologist and my manager about this but isn't that going to be kind of rough getting home after tx? I know the prognosis for pancreatic ca is not good but does this procedure improve it dramatically? I am wondering if I should be concerned about his living situation. Should I get SW involved? Try to nudge him towards moving someplace more accessible in his compromised position? I dont know how much family support he has if any.
13. 

    What is a REAL Nurse?????

    meluhn replied to lvnjden4ever, R.N.'s topic in Nursing

    This is off topic but are you sure you want to leave that medispa to go to subacute? Please think this one through. Alot of people would kill for that job and I hope you are not doing it on account of all the dumb, judgemental people you have talked to.
14. 

    Calling all HH Nurses, roll call

    meluhn replied to hoolahan's topic in Home Health

    Mijourney, I like what you said about HC being a spiritual experience. I feel the same way, I am new to HH and loving it. Although the pay is way lower than the hospital, I am finding it so much more rewarding. There is something about visiting pts in their homes that makes you see them as human so much more so than in the hospital. Combine that with the fact that you are not giving meds out to 6-7 other pts and running around like a chicken without a head, and it makes for a very nice nursing experience. I am finding myself really attached to and caring about my pts, not that I dont in the hospital setting, its just that now I have time to. Dont get me wrong, it is challenging, just in a different way. I can definitly see myself staying in HC for a while.
15. 

    What have other nurses done that have freaked you out?

    meluhn replied to texas_lvn's topic in Nursing

    Haha. This alone doesn't make someone a bad person or nurse. Sometimes I have a little bout of narcolepsy in the afternoon while charting. I chart on computers and sometimes I doze off for a minute and it looks like thissssssssssssss#$^&*(KKK LOL Of course I can fix it before saving it. I am so afraid someone will think I am a drug addict or something. Does this happen to anyone else?
16. 

    Too Smart for Rehab Nursing

    meluhn replied to Lola77's topic in Rehabilitation

    I have worked in both med/surg and acute rehab. You use alot of the same skills. Last week in acute rehab I was monitoring a heparin drip, drawing type&cross and hanging prbc and ffp. You do have to have skills in all settings. I dont know why rehab gets such a bad rap.