NursePaula

i worked in a place that wanted the departing nurse to go into the room, introduce the next nurse and say, "mrs smith this is nurse jane, she has been a nurse for x number of years and she is going to take "excellent" care of you today and you will love them". in the meeting i asked what if i did not believe that? they were mad and thought i had a bad attitude. i would not talk bad about another nurse to my patients and would always try to make excuses why the call light had "rang for an hour straight" on the previous shift when i knew from working with this particular nurse that he/she was playing games on the computer most of the shift:angryfire, but i would not out and out lie and say they would love them because of the excellent care they would be receiving. needless to say i got the heck out of dodge as quickly as possible after that. scripting is fake and our patients are smarter then that. they want certain phrases to pop up often so that when polls go out patients repeat the words they heard so often. paula

another thought, what if you became too close to a patient (a nine month old beautiful little boy), and although we are trained to not do that in this case no other nurse wanted to see him because they were afraid of being too close. long story short, when he died i felt as if i had lost a nephew and hit rock bottom with depression. i did not divert but it would have been so easy. five years later i still know that if i had not had a husband and a sister that i trusted then things could have been so different. and hospice brings out tough emotions when you watch a young mother dying....not just 99 year olds die in hospice and although it is the most rewarding job i have ever done i know that i can never work there again. just some thoughts from a little different angle...not only are narcotics freely there, but the stress and sadness at times are so overwhelming.:twocents:paula

i worked at a carpet yarn factory in my previous life and what i found works the best is avon moisture therapy hand cream for extremely dry skin. leave it on the bedside table and slather up real good every night before bed. i never have a problem even since becoming a nurse. my husband works in the woods hauling logs and gets chapped hands from the cold and this also works for him. cheap also:yeah: paula

I knew from as long as I can remember that I wanted to be a nurse. I took the long way and married, had two children, divorced and then went back to school with 2 young kids and 2 young nephews to support. I cannot imagine any other job. I love what I do and love the patients, co-workers, and my supervisor...most nights I go home and think WOW, they paid me for today:yeah:. Yes, occasionally I think that I need to make more:cry:...but that really is rare.

i am actually "called off" today. we can be put "on call" which amounts to being ready to go in at any time, and we are paid about 1/3 of our regular pay while sitting at home, then if we are called in, it is at time and a half (overtime). i hate it sometimes and other times i love hanging at home. i would rather be called off. a few years ago when i was a single mom in a small ob department, that was tough during our slow times, i never did have any vacation time built up. makes it a little easier now that i am married. the hospital that i am at now is going thru some transitions that is messing with the census, but with the economy how it is i am just thrilled to have a job. can you work some agency work during the slow times??? just a thought. good luck, paula

hugs to you and the little one. this must be very hard on you also, being far away, but also feeling like your cousin is your sister. being a sounding board for your cousin is important right now, and she wants to hear that she has asked all the right questions. also, sounds like the two of you are very close and it wouldn't matter that you are going to become a nurse, she wants your experience as a mom, and she trusts you. it sounds to me like you are supporting her in the way that she needs and we all need to lean on someone during times like this. :yeah:even after you finish school and start working it is amazing how many "specialties" are out there for nurses. many times you will have to say "i just don't know that". hang in there, my prayers are with you and your family. :redpinkhe (maybe some of the harsh answers were just from someone having a bad day.) paula

i love my job, i love my manager and i love some of my co-workers and like all the rest except one that works the opposite shift of mine. rarely have to give or get report from her. i have had a rough year in my personal life with some deaths in the family and my manager and co-workers have been so understanding about needing to be with my family. have had some major changes at work, but have been fortunate enough to retain my job.

yes, you made a med error, but more importantly...you realized you made a med error. i always think about the errors that i am sure we all make, but do not know that we made them. by realizing the error, and most importantly owing up to it, you protected your patient. it is not easy to admit that an error was made and that is what makes you a great nurse!! learn, and move on. i would let you be my nurse any day!!:redbeathe paula

I absolutely agree with what everyone has written so far. There is not one person that I know that would want their family to be told if, at the end of their life they struggled in any way. That is only inflicting more pain on the family. I think that we owe it to the patient that died to help their family to not feel guilty about eating, using the bathroom, or whatever. I also worked hospice for several years and I cannot even begin to count the times that the family never left the bedside (and I mean for days!) and then the instant they do, the patient passes. And I have even been known to encourage the family to take a break, with the explanation of something like, "Mrs Smith, your husband has been caring for and protecting you for 50 years (or whatever) and it is possible that he is hanging on now to try to protect you so that you don't have to see him pass. I will sit right here and not leave his side if you would like to take a little break." Much of the time they do pass rather quickly when the room empties out, and hopefully frail Mrs Smith at least took a minute to eat/go to the bathroom, etc. Just my Paula

i always watch, and i always make the other nurse watch me. i never want there to ever be a doubt if something comes up. by making sure that i follow the rules on this then this gives no one reason to doubt me, and i also don't have to doubt them. long story short...i worked in a unit several years ago that an md was diverting. he was the "sweet, wonderful" doc that everyone loved, so the entire unit was lax. i think that he "fooled" every nurse on the floor at one time or another. i had to write myself up :banghead:because i gave a drug that had left my sight for a split second...he switched the syringe and gave me normal saline:no:...that was probably one of the best lessons that i ever learned.

i work in a 40 bed surgical (post-op) floor. we have the "wallaroo" outside the patient room with the fold down "desk" where the charts stay. we are allowed to take one chart at a time to the nurse's station to sit to chart if we want, otherwise very easy to enter a short note as you leave the patient rooms. (ours is not locked and we have no problems with people getting into the wallaroo that are not authorized cause you stick out like a sore thumb.) personally i love :redbeathe these things, saves time and steps, and it is easy to jot something down as you leave the room. after doctors write orders they are put in a rack by the doctor(which has wheels and can be pushed around for a couple of the doc's that do rounds with the charge nurse), at the nurse's station near the unit secretary. once the unit secretary enters orders into the computer for labs, diets, etc. and faxes things to the appropriate place, s/he puts it in a rack directly in front of them where the "nurse" then knows that orders are ready to be noted. works very well. takes minimal amount of time for the docs to get into the habit of where to put them.

Walktheline, It really works, but like the oral meds takes as long as your nails to grow out. Cut your nails, clean them up and then Vicks twice a day. About 6 to 9 months later no more fungus. You will actually start to see healthy nail growing in. I worked at the county jail here for a couple years and got the MD to start ordering this for the inmates when they complained of fungus and it worked there also. Cheap, no side effects (except I bought a box of gloves at the drug store so my husband didn't rub his eyes on accident when he went to bed, etc.) Good luck!!! Dr Gott is where I heard about this originally in the newspaper column...My pomeranian dog wasn't too happy since she couldn't sleep under the covers without her eyes watering...

this is going to sound like i am off my rocker, but i swear it is true. my husband starting using vicks vapor rub for toe nail fungus and just rubbed the extra on a callous and his heels and honest to goodness, soft heels, callous and fungus gone. he is diabetic so i did check with the md to make sure it was okay and he saw no reason why not.

Sorry that I am so slow in saying thank you, have been very busy. I am trying to be very positive and upbeat. So far things seem to be about the same except for some of the coworkers no longer there. We are slower, but that too is not much of a surprise. Our town is less then 100,000 people and there are two hospitals in town. Unfortunately the one newspaper in town has always considered us the "red-headed step-child" so to speak so they are extremely bias when it comes to reporting anything concerning the 2 hospitals. I will keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best....Thanks again for your insight. Paula

Hi all, I work at a hospital in Northern California that was taken over by Prime Healthcare on November 1st. Can anyone tell me what the company is like to work for in general. Do you feel like quality healthcare is able to be done in their facilities? This hospital here was on the verge of closing within hours, so for that I am greatful, but at the same time ALL employees were fired :bluecry1:on the 31st and 80% of us were invited to reapply. This means the union (which wasn't much good anyway) no longer exists. There did not seem to be any rhyme or reason to who was let go and who stayed. I am trying so hard to be positive, :confused:but there is so much negative going around about them. ANY input would be very helpful (encouragement also). Thanks in advance for whatever info you may have. I want to work in a positive environment and so far it has been hard but I am trying to remain hopeful...