Scubadiver

Folks, I turned 60 in January and am finishing my MSN in July ready to start my doctorate in October. You tell me, how old is too old given that I will be working for at least 10 more years????

I can't say enough thank you's for your response. I am a certified palliaitve care and hospice nurse. I work in an acute care hospital where I am the one responsible for giving the order to stop meds etc. The nurses thank me. Living involves having the capacity to make decisions. Being in a vegetative state does not denote living. That's just existing. I'd never want that for myself or anyone I cared for...

Tramadol binds to mu receptors just like opiates do. It inhibits norepinephrine and serotonin reuptake so it is far from being a placebo. However, we all react differently to drugs. If it doesn't work for you then it just means you need something else for your pain.

You say you know this is unethical yet can find times when it's okay to give a placebo. It is never okay to be unethical. If a doctor doesn't want to give someone an opiate for pain he/she always has the option to offer the patient something else and tell the patient what that is. Likewise, the patient has the option to seek legal recourse for un/undertreated pain.

As stated earlier, the AMA has come out vehemently against the use of placebos as being an unethical practice requiring the patient's consent. It's experimental, not treatment.

:nurse:I'd like to find out from those of you who went back to school either to obtain your BSN or an advanced degree: How long had you been a nurse when you went back and why did you decide to go back? I am writing an article on higher education and would just like to have some input from those who chose to do this. Thank you

I have been a nurse for 33 years and never once seen an order for a placebo. It is highly unethical. I am also trained as a pain resource nurse and am a certified palliative care nurse. As such I am well trained in pain management and the barriers to good pain control. That physician is one of them.

I think your instructor has it backwards. I am an MSN student doing a public health course. A public health nurse is a recognised specialty - either general (BSN) or specialized (MSN). A public HEALTH NURSE looks at the total effects of a specific disease/illness on the public at large. The community health nurse is focused first on her own aggregate community (individual, family) and seconly on her immediate community, and then more globally. The PHN seeks global care while the CHN seeks local care, (Aitchison, 2008). That would be me, Catherine Aitchison, RN, BSN:yeah:

I'm really glad you re-read your post. And I'm also glad you are re-looking at how you do things and that you want to change. Good for you!

Absolutely not. There are a lot of good nurses out there- hang in there.

For whatever reason, we don't have a problem with staff at this facility using their cell phones. In fact no-one even carries one - maybe it's because I have the good fortune to work with a group of professionals who don't see the necessity for holding social conversations at work.

Oh my gosh! I wonder how any of us ever survived before we had cell phones. It does make one wonder.

Why in the world would you "LIKE" to bash fellow nurses? What does that say about your work ethic? I'm sorry if this offends you but I have never in my 33 years of nursing understood people like you. I'm a critical care nurse / ED nurse - both areas known for aggressive-style nurses. Was I very assertive in the care of my patients? YES! Was I mean to my co-workers? NO! Why would I be - We had to depend on each other when the sh-- hit the fan - on a regular basis. New, young nurses? I could wait to teach them and watch them grow! Nurses that want to bash other nurses have no place in nursing "the caring profession".

FYI - Nurses topped the Gallup poll again for 2007. Nurses have been included in the Gallup poll since 1999 and the only time they didn't make #1 was when firefighters topped the list right after 9/11. Topping the Gallup poll every year for integrity and honesty says a lot. At the bottom of the barrel were lobbyists. Congressmen were 5th from the bottom - slightly ahead of car salesmen and advertising practitioners. Lawyers actually stepped up to 7th from the bottom.

If the policy states no phones I'm sure if you got caught with one, taking it from you until the end of your shift would be perfectly legal. If you come to work in purple scrubs and they're banned you can expect either to be sent home to change or to be made to wear OR scrubs. What's the difference? It seems to me that rules are rules.