Higgs

Agree. Hang in there, kiddo. It'll get better as time goes on and you get more experience. Sure, you'll still have those days when something really gets to you, but that's normal. It's when you have pts like the ones you talk about and don't give a crap -THAT'S when to stop being a nurse.

Sitting the new Med/Surg CNA exam in April and just started working through the practice questions in the book. Came across this: Question 29 - the correct answer is to give an analgesic before assessing an abdomen to ease discomfort. Question 30 - another pt with acute abdomen and the answer rationale states that an analgesic should not be given before assessing as it may mask symptoms. So, what *should* we do, then CNA..?

I ask purely as devil's advocate...would your responses be different if it was your sister's boyfriend...?

Not heard this term before. I know of some nurses that are possibly the least empathetic people I have ever had the misfortune to meet. Cant imagine them giving a damn about anyone or anything - Gawd only knows what the patients think when they enter the room...

Hi Guys Anybody worked here or know a bit about this hospital? Staffing ratios, atmosphere, population, workload, communities, what it's like bringing kids up here etc etc Any help would be great. Thanks happy holidays!

Well said previous poster. If they don't like how we do care - even after we've explained why, they can go and find a hospital that will let them do what they fancy. It's not a prison, they can leave whenever they want.

...just hope you remember to clean the superbugs off your phones before you go home...

lorazepam does the trick

...interesting to note that the pt was happy to wait for his next dose (ie the 2mg he was given was enough analgesia for the 4 hours) - begs the question of whether he needs his pain meds reassessing...

I think what the doc really meant was the pelvic outlet is too narrow, but perhaps she should have said what she meant, instead of trying to dumb it down and just confusing people. As for the other issues you raised...dunno...but the doc shouldn't have related her own horror stories. Imagine if you needed surgery and your surgeon goes, 'Oh yeah, i had this op years ago and boy, what a hard time I had: pain, blood, infection - sheesh, I'm lucky to be alive...' Not very professional really.

...so if the consensus appears to be that a needle is made less sharp by drawing up meds - whether via a rubber stopper or not, (though, personally I dont see that pushing a needle through a rubber stopper will dull the needle point to the extent that a pt can feel the difference) then why do we continue to use insulin syringes that don't have removable needles...?

here we go...wikipedia has this: " It is more recently being used to treat neuropathic pain, as a second line agent, particularly lancinating pain from A* fibres. It is more recently being used to treat neuropathic pain, as a second line agent, particularly lancinating pain from A* fibres.' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valproic_acid

dont know for sure about valproiic acid, but I know that gabapentin is an anti seizure med used for pain control...maybe it's the same mechanism...

Eeeeewwwww.... I guess it really does take all sorts to make a world...

I'm British educated and trained and work in BC - came over with the Provincial Nominee Program a touch over 2 yrs ago. Getting a job offer - no problem. Getting immigration status- no problem. The thing that held up the whole process was jumping through the hoops with the CRNBC. I know they have a job to do making sure that applicants meet the required standard, but they do it very inefficiently. It took over a year to get my application through the system and there are people I know that took longer. Any email questions I sent were replied to in not less than a month and the replies almost without exception didnt answer my original query. For example, I was told I had to be finger printed and have my fingerprints sent to the RCMP for checking (I was told to have it done by my national force at Scotland Yard, but Britain doesnt have a national police force and I didnt live in London) - I had never been to Canada so how the RCMP could check my fingerprints, I'm not sure. I pointed this out to the CRNBC who then said (eventually) I didnt have to do it, it was only for applicants within Canada. In the end I phoned up to ask why it was taking so long to process my application - I had a job waiting and had immigration papers - the guy I spoke to said I had got lost in the system , but he said he could fix it. Thank heavens he did or I'd still be waiting. I work with a lot of internationallly educated nurses, and we all have similar stories about how slow and inefficient the CRNBC are. And pay 300+ dollars a year for the honour...

You just got the 'pre-new-job-wobbles'. Relax, you'll be fine.

Dear moderators, please remove this message from the website. Thank you.

Agreed. It may or may not make any difference at all, but if it means I don't need to spend valuable time (or someone else's) trying to re-insert a cannula into a pt with no veins/oedematous arms/lots of fat/ etc etc, then it's a wise and prudent thing to do.

Sorry to hear that everyone's grammer is bad. Hope she gets better soon...

...you need to be aware that a N95 mask might be a problem, depending on the shape/spread of your 'tache... I have to shave off my beard for the yearly fitting - but grow it back again. If I ever need to wear one at work, I'll it shave then...

...the act of dying (ie the moment of death itself) is not painful at all - it's the disease which leads to death that can be painful. Death is not always painful, and doesn't have to be - depends which disease you have and how well managed (or not) it is. Some diseases which are fatal do not hurt at all. Additonally, it's different for everyone. No two patients follow the same path. Morphine PCA pumps tend not to be used - if you are referring to the pump which the patient presses to get a 'boost' of painkiller. As the patient becomes unresponsive as they draw near to death, they will be unable to press the button and, sad to say, there are some families out there who will press the button many many times in an attempt to 'hurry up' the process. We use morphine pumps (and many other types of drugs) in a driver which delivers a controlled dose continuously - without the boost function. It's a very fine process of checks and balances to get the dosage just right, but on the whole it works well. hope this helps.

In palliative care we use it (amongst many things) for reducing GI secretions eg with intractible obstruction or terminal diarrheas... ...I guess where you work determines what you use it for...

If you're not sure if you want to be a nurse or not, then you shouldnt go into it. Dont waste years studying for something that you may not want to do. If you're not 100% absolutely positive you want to do nursing, then don't go for it - you'll be doing yourself and your patients a disservice.

'Dear XXXX I am writing to hand in my resignation from the post of XXXX with immediate effect. I am hereby giving a month's notice (in my experience a years employ means about a month's notice) from the date of this letter and my last day at work will be XXXX. I have enjoyed immensely my time at XXXX and have been made welcome and felt very much part of the team. I wish you all well in the future. Yours, XXXX' ...something like that has done me well many, many times. Congrats!

Clearly the bean counters have private health insurance for themselves and their familes. If they should get ill then they'll be off to a 5 star hotel/hospital with hot and cold running caviar, roast swan to eat and no nurse shortages... They'd only ever do this to a healthcare system they've no intention of using...