zofran

Lol.....I just asked my husband if he knew the name of his BP medication. He only knew "It starts with an L."Lisinopril! Made him repeat it until he remembered. I will test him on it in one week.

They were going to fire you for not scanning fluids? That seems weird. I forget to scan fluids a lot.......is there more to this story?I would forget about this place and look for another job.

The pt will stop having BMs when a stool sample is ordered!

Potassium pills will become smaller so all these little old folks will be able to swallow them!GoLytely will not be a huge gallon jug but a small pill!Ativan 2mg po will be a nursing order so we can give it to anxious family members!

If the patients blood pressure is normal you don't have to hold the medication. The BP med is keeping the blood pressure normal. The doctor would not want to be called about holding a BP med for a normal pressure.Good job OP for checking with the primary RN. Your teacher seems weird. Our job is not to "sell" the patients into taking their meds in this situation.

Yiyayiya,This post is two years old. You keep posting how you will refuse all these procedures and how you will take medical personel to court for battery. I hope you don't end up at the hospital where I work. Yes patients do have the right to refuse....but why show up at a hospital and refuse care? Doctors don't order tests and procedures to torture people.

Removed my comment...sorry.

Thank you so much for this post. I work med surge onc and I can't believe how some nurses ignore prn pain medication! When I call them on it its "They were sleeping," or "she does not like the way dilaudid makes her feel" Wake these people up, assess for pain, and do your job for godness sake!!!!!!! If they don't like dilaudid, give or ask for something else!

It happened to me too. Mine was a insulin needle....I gave the pt her dose and some how that needle ended up in my finger. She was a 19y/o jehovas witness with uncontrolled DM. Thank God. It will be OK. I know I learned to slow down! Hugs!

Welcome to day shift! The families can really mess up your day. I agree with the posters who said that it will get easier as you keep going. Remember, the only thing you can not pass on to the next shift is your charting.....You can only do what you can do. Try not to stress over it when you leave. I have been working on days for about 6 years and could have written your post too on some days. I recently went to on call....now I tell them when I will be there. I feel 100% better about my job now.

Dumb rules/managers like this are the reason I quit my hospital job. I used to quote pts and visitors frequently because like the OP said, it does convey the attitude better than the RNs own words. And it is sometimes necessary to quote visitors. Sometimes they make it impossible for the pt and nurse to have any interaction. Good luck OP...I am still looking for a job I can stand!!!!! LOL, Zofran. PS. Yes, I am broke but happy :)

I feel your pain OP. I am not an ICU nurse but I have the same problem with my morphine/dilaudid gtts for comfort care patients. We have the same kind of orders you do......For example they go something like.....Morphine gtt-start at 2mg hour and titrate for comfort up to 20mg hour. The thing is we always have a second order with them for Morphine IV 1-10mg Q1 PRN. So one day, I was setting up a morphine drip for a dying patient. I didn't want the patient to have to wait 1 hour to get her damn morphine dose. I set up the drip and went back to the med room to grab the vial of 5mg/ml morphine. The most experienced nurse yells out---Why are you wasting your time!!!! Watch this!!! She grabed a syringe with a needle and stuck it through the port in the tubing. She drew out 5mg/10 ml morphine. Then she took the needle off and gave it to the patient. We go to chart it and there is NO WAY to chart it. The computer wont LET US. The OP is not a bad nurse practicing way beyond her scope people. She has a COMPUTER problem. Good luck OP. Edited to add---Be careful what you wish for though OP. I am sure if they fix it they will make two nurses come into the room and document that you gave that damn bolus. (or maybe you have to do that with ICU type drips anyway?)

Everybody got a bit too upset..... The first thought that came to my mind when I read the title was FAMILY! LOL

....thanks everyone. When I spoke with my manager about my concerns, she basically said that I was most likely going through a rough time at home and I was "bringing it to work." She also said, "There are alot of jobs out there for nurses like you who have experience." I guess she is not smart enough to understand.....When you take away a secratery, a transporter, and give the CNA's twice the ammount of patients, and you DONT REPLACE THEM (to save money) there is NO ONE LEFT to do those jobs. Except SUPER RN! Savior of the world!!!! LOL She knows damn well that I am HAPPY at home. I am OVERWORKED when I show up at my job. Her crazy staffing HAS NOTHING to do with my home life!!!! And YAY, I hope there are plenty of jobs for experienced nurses like me. I just wont pick one with an ******* manager who has UNREALISTIC expectations. Ha ha ha..... thanks again people.....You all have helped me open my eyes. I have been on this message board for about 3 years and I thank every single person who has posted anything. It helped me see that I was not alone, that I was not crazy or a bad nurse who has problems with time management. It is the JOB not ME!!!! So THANKS ALLNURSES!!!! You ROCK!!!!!

Well, I have never felt better. I finally just said ENOUGH. I realized that I am doing the job of at least 11 people. Yes I am an RN. So WHY and HOW am I expected to be a secratery, transporter, pharmacist, housekeeper, doctor, customer service rep, social worker, case manager, CNA, and waitress. (I could add dietitian, nursing student instructor, and PT/OT) There is NO HUMAN way to play all these roles with a smile and no overtime. Just NO POSSIBLE WAY to do hourly rounding, give report in the rooms, chart in the rooms, and answer the phone and call light at the nurses station. I would like to meet the SUPER NURSE who can physically be in TWO PLACES at once. (and not pee or eat for 8 hours) I am a good nurse. I care that my patients have to wait 30 minutes for pain medication and 6 hours for a post op walk. I care that STAT meds and STAT lab draws sometimes take 2-3 hours to get done. I worry, because as a good nurse I KNOW that some of my patients belong on tele or in ICU. I realize that 90% of my job consists of rounding up the proper people to FORCE them to do their job. I also realize that 99% of my job consists of DOING other peoples jobs because they are "At lunch, on a break, too busy, have too many other patients to see, don't feel well, are pregnant/breast feeding, or are on facebook." If I could go to work, do assments, treatments, medications, catch changes in condition, and chart my findings, I would be the happiest person on earth. I would be a NURSE. No I am not rich. I have to work to help support my family. I finally realized that my mental health and well being comes before the money I make. Yeah....I am going to be broke as hell before I find another job. It is going to suck. I don't care. My husband and children support me 100% I have shelter, food, water, and love in my life. Now I have time to find a job as a NURSE. Or who knows what will happen....... I am free!

I think this thread took a wrong turn..... I am aware Suboxone is an opiate that can be abused. I am aware that some people will find a way to abuse it. I am also aware that if the correct dose is taken properly, Suboxone will take away the powerful craving that almost always leads to relapse. This gives the addict the ability to focus on recovery. If used properly, this medication can be a tool in ones recovery, not the only answer. It is attitudes like "Suboxone gets you high" and " Suboxone is an opiate" and "You are trading one drug for another" that scares people away from a very good treatment option. Addiction is a disease that people DIE from. Would you rather have a person alive on suboxone or "clean" but dead from a relapse OD. Congrats to the LPN who posted for getting your life back. Good luck with getting your RN, I wish you the best.

Jackstem and others, Thank you for the thoughtful replies. I did check out the You-Tube videos...you are right, he is great. I liked how he demonstrated with the hoses and the bubble gum....made it easy to understand. Have you read any articles by Dr Jeffery Junig? He has some really interesting things to say about opiate addiction and suboxone. You can also see some of his videos on YouTube by searching "suboxone." I have seen alot of addiction...in close family and at work (RN hosptial). I have seen how these people are treated by the very people who are supposed to be knowledgeable about the disease of addiction. Doctors cutting off pain meds after major surgery "because they are seeking" or witholding IV pain medication because the person came in positive for marijuana. Nurses who will not give pain meds one minute early because the pt has a known history of addiction. I could go on and on. It is begining to make me sick. As for Suboxone...I don't think it is the magic pill everyone is looking for either....I just think it is a huge step in the right direction. All I can do, as a human being and a nurse, is make sure I have the correct and current knowledge regarding the disease of addiction. So thanks again you guys. You all gave me something to think about. Zofran

LOL Mag, I have been active on this board for a while and I have never thought to search that way! So thanks for the tip! I actually tried it and the last post I saw relating to jackstem and suboxone was from 2009..So maybe he has new info or something. And I don't mind you chiming in at all....the more the merrier. I guess it just sucks that some people in recovery judge the people on Suboxone so harshly. The traditional recovery model idoes not have a very good sucess rate. In fact, it has a very low sucess rate. I think we need to make some changes in how addicts get treated. I can't stand it when I read or hear people who say that addiction/alcoholism isn't a disease. There should be no debate on it. It would be like saying diabeties isn't a disease. Anyway, thanks again Mag, take care.

Jackstem, I have been reading this message board off and on over the years and have always been impressed by your knowledge, writing style, and the great support you give people on this forum. I was wondering what your stance is on Suboxone use for opiate dependence/addiction. (Maybe you have already discussed this here somewhere but I have not seen it) I believe Suboxone is a unique medication that is largely misunderstood by the general public and many health care professionals as well. For example, Suboxone has a "celing effect" that methadone and other full opiate agonists do not. I think all nurses, addicted or not, would benefit from a little lesson on how this medication works. I think Suboxone is just the begining of a new way of treating addiction...I would love to see the day when addiction is treated like the brain disease it actually is. I am concerned that some health care professionals, AA/NA groups, treatment centers, and the general public think that people using this medication are not "clean" or are not in "real recovery." If HTN can be controlled with a medication and lifestyle changes, why not the disease of addiction too? If a heroin addict(or a fentanyl addict:)) can use Suboxone to give him some freedom from the obsession and craving so he can focus on recovery and get his life back, why is this not "real recovery?" Jack, you always give such thoughtful and educated responses so I thought I would ask what your thoughts are.. Thank you, zofran

"why is this an either or situation? doesn't every industry aside from the post office and the dmv where you come in contact with other people have an element of customer service? if the teen flipping burgers for minimum wage is expected to smile and bring a certain level of customer service then shouldn't why can't the (nurse/doctor/technician etc....) who is asking you about your last bowel movement? the patient upon entering the door has to drop trou,share very personal intimate details about their health and body to an entire group of strangers and any interns/students/observers who feel like waltzing in. why is it wrong for patients to want a certain level of customer service? i'm not implying you should be treated like or doormat or be required to put a mint on their pillow. but customer service is a part of basically every service/business i can think of.............. i'm not at all in favor of medical staff being viewed as a maids,butlers or servers from ihop in a nursing uniform. but what i've noticed with the encounters ive had personally with medical care is that if you are a patient youre basically on the medical staffs "territory." this type of view leads to people being "cared" for but it's like oh well we didn't get your meds screwed up so we can post your ass on facebook, invite the janitor in to watch your pelvic exam all while propping the door open to not miss the chinese delivery guy with the beef chow mein!!!! again why is it either or? if a doctor smiles, if a cna says good morning, if an intern asks a patient if its okay to observe, if the lady at the admission desk turns off her personal cell phone is the whole hospital going to collapse in on itself? will hospital staff spontaneously combust? will patients resort to cannibalism? i just don't get it? i don't care if you work in the medical field i don't care if you walk dogs for a living....... i"m just saying every service/industry/business i can think of has a customer service aspect to it. "it is no longer simply something schools/administration talk about, it is expected." uhm....yeah.........why shouldn't it be expected? this tells me this is something that should have been happening for years but staff for their own reasons ignored it....now its shocking because management is actually following through.......now its the freaking apocolypse:eek: the funny part is i've read several posts on here (various threads)where medical people think they should be celebrated and have a street named in their honor simply when they manage to not laugh in the patients face about a particular situation or conditon..........now to have to actually smile when you walk in the room....."a doctor who belittles a patient will not be tolerated"?!?!?!?!?!......crap like that should have never been tolerated!!!!!..oh the humanity!!!!!!!" ima, if you were a nurse, you would understand what we are talking about. we are not talking about just smiling or showing common courtsey. of course we do that. (well most of us) we are talking about the fact that we are being asked to do things for the patient that go against good nursing judgement so they will be happy, and fill out a survey saying how great the place is. do you understand that it goes against every fiber in a nurses being to give diabetic patients with blood sugars in the 300's a large piece of cake? but they want it, and get mad when they dont get it. and they whine and they say you are a mean nurse. and we get in trouble if we don't get the damn cake. furthermore, laughing or making fun of a patient on a nursing website for nurses does not mean we are mean, bad people. we come here to vent so we can go back out there and deal with the diabetic woman who wants cake in a professional way.

"I will be honest here..... I read the first post, I immediately scrolled up to see how old the poster was and the years experience. Then I rolled my eyes. As I reached the end of the posts, I had this vision of a very arrogant, self-righteous young person who delights in her (his) sense of superiority. " THIS is what I was trying to say..... I was also going to suggest what Fungez (i think) suggested....If it NEEDS to get done (it is a JC requirement) add it to the chart and have the nurse check mark a box. Honestly, THATS ALL WE HAVE TIME FOR. Unless you are going to take away another task. As others have said, pt education happens all the time and in many different ways. Yes, pt education should be documented somewhere. Make it EASY for us. Then, open your eyes. Look for ways to make the nurses job EASIER in other ways. This is what we want.

To the OP, you remind me of a young (and fairly new) nurse on my floor. She walks around complaining that no body can get anything done "right." She is always finding mistakes her fellow co workers have made or nit picking about little things that didn't get done. For some reason, she is always able to sit at the desk, completely oblivious that everyone else is running around like crazy. She, like you, believes that nurses who cant get done on time have "time management issues." Yes, her IV tubing is labeled and her meds are on time but I have to wonder if she is really seeing the whole picture and/or actually getting involved in the patient and their response to their illness. As you should know OP, the RN role is not task based. We use our assessment skills and prioritization to determine what needs to get done, and what can wait. OP I would encourage you to explore what kind of nurse you really are......a critical thinker who can appropriately determine what REALLY needs to be done. Or are you just getting through your shift, going from one task to the next? Wait, are you an RN or an LPN? Hmmmmm....

Kim, (and soundofmusic too) I could have also written your post WORD for WORD. I have worked onc/med/surg for 5 years this summer. I also spent time wondering how others seem to be doing this job without going completely insane. So I started paying attention.... I noticed that some of these nurses are just not doing their job. I am not sure how they are getting away with it. There is a nurse on my floor who refuses to get up and off the computer until 800am. ( We get out of report at 730) If pts call for pain medis at 735, she says they are not due until 8 (even if it is time) She sits all day and manages to get out on time. I have seen full bags of antibiotics in the pts garbage that were charted as given. I could go on and on but I wont. Our floor has had more falls this year alone than in the past 4 years combined. We once had 2 different pts fall in one shift. On the flip side, I have seen RN's crying in the breakroom, locker room, and at the nurses station too. Totally overwhelmed and broken. So here is how I see it. I am an experienced ethical RN who has come to the realization that there is NO way I can do a safe proper job on my unit. More experience or a vacation is not going to change the conditions on the unit. It is the ENVIRONMENT, not me. So I am leaving. (and I'm not the only one sista) In fact, tomorrow I am taking my resume to a different department. The straw that broke the camels back for me....I went to my manager and asked i(in a non threating way) if she had noticed that many RN's and CNA's are having a rough time lately....and what did she think about it? What could we do? She told me that most nurses who have trouble at work "don't take care of themselves very well" and "many who have personal problems will bring them to work" And that "they can find other places to work if they cant handle it." I was almost embarrased that she thought I was dumb enough to fall for this line of B.S. So Kim, realize that you are not the only one. Can you really do everything they are asking you to do, safely? Is it humanly possible? Not on my unit Kim. Nurses with 20+ years of experience are saying the same thing on my floor. They have seen nursing change for the worse, first hand. They say they can't leave because they have invested so much time and money into staying a building their retirement. I say good luck to them keeping their licence over the next few years. Not to mention keeping their sanity. ,

If I could I would give you ONE MILLION Kudos!!!!! Why only smokers? There are rule breakers all over the hospital. What about people with drinks at the nurses station? Just wait. Nurses with CHF, DM, HTN, Asthma, high BMI, etc are next. You "bad" CHF person!!! You ended up in the hospital because you drank an extra liter of fluid! We are not going to pay your bill because it is your fault! And yeah, where is this 25 dollars going???? I bet it will go to managements "long lunch" fund, or to redecorate their damn offices. I would QUIT this job. And yeah, I smoke too.

OP, I feel your pain. About two weeks ago I had a patient's husband treat me like crap too. He kept rolling his eyes at me and giving me dirty looks. I am not sure why he didn't like me....possibly because one time his wifes pain medication was 15 min late. Anyway, when I said goodbye to them at the end of the shift, he says "I really hope I don't see you tomorrow." I couldn't believe he said that. I was so upset, it was a shift from hell anyway....I called in sick for the next day when I was on my way home. I don't understand why some of these patients/doctors/visitors feel like they can treat the nurse so badly. I am sick of it. And to the student nurse who took the husbands blood pressure......we are told never to do that. What if something went wrong with the guy? You having took the blood pressure and "ignored" it, would be the first person they would want to sue....I tell visitors that I can't touch them and advise them to go to ED...Also, all the time in the world wont bring some of these unreasonable people around. Some people are just plain MEAN.