LilyBlue

Nope. In my world, they dumped the harder patients all on me because I didn't know any better. I would wonder why I was running around like a headless chicken while my coworker sat there doing crossword puzzles and occasionally smirking at me.

She sounds unstable. Slippers to work? I would definitely have a convo with the nurse manager.

I definitely think it reflects badly upon a professional (any professional) if they consistently mispronounce words. It's irritating to people, number one, so they get a fingernails on the blackboard type feeling, regardless if that is an appropriate response or not. Secondly, it just comes across as sloppy - if you can't pronounce the word, it's understandable that someone may wonder if you "get" the concept. I have a patient occasionally who always asks for her "Finnigrin and Dilauntin". It makes me clench my teeth, no matter how much I tell myself she is uneducated, etc etc. It's just irritating. I wish I could politely tell her that she's mispronouncing them, but that would result in a lower Press-Gainey score. LMAO.

Those shots etc are not done anymore. When your milk comes in, avoid breast stimulation as much as possible. If you get uncomfortably full, hand express a tiny bit to comfort. do not hand express so much that your breast becomes soft - this will ecnourage more milk production. Wear a snuggly fitting bra, but do not "bind" your breasts which can contribute to mastitis. Within a week, your milk should be nearly gone. I do feel the need to say, however, that your last breastfeeding experience has no bearing on this one. Babies are different; some have a difficult latch and others have a great latch from the get-go. If you don't want to breastfeed, then you shouldn't. But if you are basing it on your first experience - just be aware that it has no bearing on your second experience. Most people have less painful engorgment and "milk coming in" with subsequent babies than with the first, too.

I don't know, but I am completely sick of hearing about patient satisfaction and having management lay it on MY shoulders. If management was truly concerned about patient satisfaction, they'd have a lower ration than 1 nurse to nine patients. They just want to work me like a mule and ALSO lay all the blame on my shoulders, when they put me in a situation that I will never succeed at. It's a bunch of crap.

In answer to you original question - a government that values big corporations over healthcare for every citizen.

I have four days off a week!!! :)

I was given Toradol when I had a 6 mm stone blocking my ureter and causing hydronephrosis, and it helped tremendously until I could get lithotripsy. They gave me Dilaudid prior to that, and it made me feel so loopy, and so nauseated, that the pain of the stone was preferable.

I have the same hope...with more men coming into the field, I think benefits will start getting better. We also "get called off when not busy" (read: when there would be "only" 5 or so patients a nurse with every nurse there) and we have to take our vacation time to cover. So basically, we finance their whims. It sucks.

Holy cow, I am so sorry. If I had ANY other income I would seriously tell you you could have my job...bad as my job is. I'm so saddened that we desperately need nurses yet no place is hiring! What in the world is wrong with this country?

There is ZERO recession proof job. If an economy completely collapses (as other countries have experienced) you might have a job but that doesn't mean you'll get paid.

I will admit I definitely have no love-fest with most doctors. My hospital seems to foster an environment that encourages physicians to treat nurses poorly (or at least tolerate it well). Many nurses who come to my hospital from different areas can't BELIEVE how badly the docs here behave. I've never worked in any other hospital, so I do not know. However, I agree with whoever said that them being jerks does not correlate to them not working hard. I think the majority of them (in my experience) are jerks, but hard working jerks just the same. I also think the majority of them seem very, very unhappy.

I am the first to admit I don't understand the ends and outs of being a physician, and I greatly respect them and know they are incredibly driven and work hard. That being said, I sometimes feel that they rarely if ever put themselves in the nurse's position, either, and oftentimes do not respect her role. It would be nice if we could all go to an alternate land and switch roles for a while. We might come back a little more humble.

I don't know about whose job is harder, but I know that ours is more tedious. If the doctors had to be the one to get every diet coke, take every menial complaint, and talk to the families everytime they have a question, along with wiping every patient's butt, I bet they would either 1) be more responsive to requests for antidiarrheals and anti anxiety meds or 2) get the patient out of there faster.

Hmmm. Sounds like your husband is more concerned with you bringing home the bacon than being supported. That's an entirely separate issue but I can tell you that will not improve, either. I'm sorry you re going through this.

I would definitely go after your ADN degree. Success is always the best revenge. I would also personally talk to your coworker directly and tell her the gig's up. I would let her know in no uncertain terms that you are not stupid as to what is going on. And that it's over, as of now. Then I'd get your job description and responsibilities in writing. Good luck!

I have occasionally had to give "emergent" psych meds on a medical floor, (in one case with two doctors, two security guards, three nurses and a tech trying to wrestle down a 300 pound combative man)...it was IM Geodon, and there was NO WAY I could get to his backside. The doctor said "just give it in the arm!" And I did, very poorly probably...very difficult to hit a moving target...but I didn't feel I had a lot of choice, either.

The scary thing with IM injections, IMO, is even if you give the injection in the perfect place anatomically as described by academia, how do you know THIS particular individual doesn't have a strangely-placed huge nerve network? I mean, people have abdominal organs in the "wrong" place sometimes, surely anything else can be in the wrong place.... I received IM something (maybe Stadol?) during labor in my leg, and I had some numbness and tingling for about two years afterward. I didn't have an epidural either. The nurse's technique wasn't wrong I don't think...it's just that, essentially, you are stabbed. Who knows exactly what you are putting that med into? It's a muscle, for sure, but what else is there?

Being laid off, or NOT being laid off. They're trying to work skeleton crews. Not filling positions. Now the talk is cutting the support staff. Please oh please oh please mr CEO don't take my nursing assistant away. I can barely take care of the nine acutely ill patients I have WITH her! I really honestly am afraid for the direction this is going to take. I don't know which is going to be worse - to be given the boot, or to be left behind after many others are gone. How am I going to do any more than I do? I'm already not getting a break on a shift, not able to truly do my job well. It's getting scary. And no place is hiring.

"If you are so concerned about customer care efforts, why don't YOU go walk up and down the halls and ask anyone if they need to potty while I hang the emergent nitro drip and start the chest pain protocol. Or I'LL go go ask everyone about potty while YOU do the emergent things. See how this works? You're always harping on teamwork - you have a license - get to it! CUSTOMERS FIRST!"

"You might find this hard to believe but I really DON'T care what you do. Sign out AMA; I seriously do not care. You're hellbent on destruction and I really seriously don't care. It doesn't affect me remotely. So please either go, or stay, and quit your childish antics either way. I've got better things to do."

"When you bring in a visitor dressed in scrubs and tell me she's a nurse, and then demand different medications that your nurse friend thinks you should have, do yourself a favor and tell nurse friend to keep quiet. Better me to think she's a fraud than for her to open her mouth and remove all doubt. When i tell her the troponin is positive, and she says angrily "well I know that's a lie cause she don't do no drugs" that's sort of a dead give-away - Troponin is a cardiac enzyme marker not the newest designer club drug."

Thanks for your response. Does anybody have any experience with this? How did your institution decide?

The new grad, or the 30 year veteran who is making a ton more? Or does it go by performance reviews?

It's a mixed tele. Many are medical, many are cardiac/ACS/USA and many are truly steps downs fresh out of the ICU. You are right, I cannot and do not know my patients well at all when I have nine.