DelightNP

Your words, not mine.

You're right. I should appreciate that someone's life ambition is to be Benjamin Bratt's private nurse. Hmm. I'm not knocking it. Really, I'm not. But in my practice and in my life I always encourage women to define themselves as whole entities and not in the context of what they can do for a man.

Actually I've read the entire thread and it wasn't directed entirely at you, I'm sure you've seen all the so and so's private duty nurse blah blah blah before your post. Mine just happened to follow yours. I just think its sad that when a person has the opportunity to define herself and her life's ambition, she would instead choose to do otherwise. Just my .02, and I'm entitled to it.

Come on now, you don't have anything you'd like to do for yourself, apart from swooning over a celebrity? Pathetic.

A paleogeologist. And work in a museum. Or a librarian.

Your experience is great, but your academic record is not. How competitive is the program you're applying for? I'd try to increase the GRE scores if at all possible... and if, for whatever reason you aren't accepted, I'd take a few higher level classes as suggested by another poster. Good luck.

Exactly. Why apologize for doing your job?

Try as I might, I just don't understand the argument that this behavior is exclusive to nursing or that nursing should be exempt from it. This sort of behavior is ubiquitous. I think we are our own worst enemies a lot of the time... and the image of a Florence Nightengalian angel of mercy female nurse who is "called" to the sick to heal and save them with no interests of her own is part of the problem. The sooner we realize that we are highly skilled, educated professional people and assert ourselves to management for the benefits and salaries we require, the better off we'll be, nurse eating or no. Besides, I happen to believe that Darwin wasn't all wrong.

I've seen that type of behavior in other fields, too, not just nursing. There are petty, vindictive, mean-spirited people everywhere. I think nurses do themselves a disservice by thinking of themselves purely as nurturers and not as skilled caregivers, and expect that everything will always be sweetness and light. Because, you know, nursing is a calling and not a profession.

I'm sure it can be done, I'm just not sure its the best thing, especially for a child with partial thickness burns. But then, I'm really rather conservative.

Precisely, Erin. I'd rather have a patient express a bit of pain than have a RR of 4.

I work independently, so I'm not anyone's NP except my patients'. However, I don't know if I would mind being Dr. X's NP or not. After all, you are colleagues. Interesting question... and its a shame this thread took the direction it did.

That's a hypotonic solution. And its generally used for pediatric patients because it can gently rehydrate them without causing rebound electrolyte imbalances. Peds are a very funny bunch. Its easy to go too far. In emergent situations, we generally use LR in boluses of 20 cc per kilo.

Erin, I don't think so. I agree that pain control is important, and pain is often undertreated, but I wouldn't want to go so far as to make the patient hypotensive and bradypneic. I've seen more than one patient treated a bit too agressively with narcs and need Narcan. Now that's a rude awakening. Its a balance between comfort and safety.

First of all, nobody can make you feel like an idiot without your consent. You have to trust your nursing judgment. I'd also like to say that all MDs/NPs/PAs aren't like that. I personally don't mind being called, its my job. You might remind the doc of that. One of the biggest problems I've seen with staff nurses in recent years is a reluctance to assert themselves. Be confident in your skills. I'd have to ask how you phrased your question, though: did you just say that your patient is complaining of pain should you give the Darvocet, or did you elaborate on the type of pain, the pain rating, the new onset, the inappropriateness of Darvocet for this type of pain without a workup, etc? Next time I'd send the patient out and then call that doc.