Meg88

Ok, as nurses, we all have thick skin. (At least most of the time) I'm sure you ALL know what I mean when I say, that every now and then, there is that patient or scenario that turns us all into a blubbering mess. Today was one of those days. This morning started out as any other morning did, prepping for surgeries. I had two patients, they were doing a living donor kidney transplant, both very nice guys. pt.A was receiving a kidney from pt.B, they were both nervous, it was early, and not too busy yet. I struck up some chit-chat. They were together, boyfriends. They gave me their story. pt.A was in renal failure, pt.B was healthy and had a quite remarkable physique. The two of them had met on a flight to Vegas, and fell in love, at the time pt.B was significantly overweight. Shortly after their relationship got serious, pt.A was declining, and the need to explore a transplant was at hand. As they put it "on a wing and a prayer" pt.B was typed, and low and behold. A six-for-six match. However, pt.B was quite overweight, so he took to a healthy lifestyle, and lost almost 80 pounds, in order for him to be able to save his boyfriends life, and donate. (Now I'm teary eyed) pt.B asked me to give them a minute in private, respecting that, I drew the curtain, but due to a bit of selfish curiosity, I loomed near, and was listening. I couldn't hear a whole lot, but what I did hear was pt.B proposing to his BF, I heard him say something like "You saved my life the day I met you", "Now its my turn to save yours", (then something I couldn't make out) "Will you marry me" We all had tears in our eyes. Gay, Straight, or anything in-between, I don't care. That was probably the sweetest most heartwarming thing I have ever witnessed in my 35 years on this planet. Right as we were headed for the OR, pt.B looks at me and says. "its not every day you can give someone a kidney and an engagement ring at the same time" The guys are fine ... I was so touched, I went back after my shift and brought them flowers to their room after surgery. I had to. They said that they are going to have their wedding exactly one year from today as a reminder of how precious the life of someone you love is. Oh lord, how I cried ... I was a mess, for a good few hours after. Still somewhat am! Stories like this make my heart break even more when I hear about all the hate towards the gay community. I just don't see how people can be so horrible to one another. I know people who spend their entire lives and don't have half the love as these two humans had for each other in one kidney!

This is NOT the way to make an impression on your FIRST DAY. So after much work, I am now officially a CRNA! WooHoo, Yeah! I worked as an RN in the ER for a few years before hand, while I banked some money to go back to school. So, yesterday was my first official day as a CRNA, now, there is an anesthesiologist resident there everyone was calling Dr.W. He seemed like a REALLY nice guy (pretty cute too) all the nurses said he was a "sweetheart" Well, Dr.W was gathered around a bunch of us, he was showing the nurses the engagement ring (really nice diamond band) he purchased for his soon-to-be fiance. Of course we were all giddy (and trying it on) , I mean come on, what girl doesn't love jewelry, LOL. One of the other team members passed the ring to me and I looked at it, and upon trying it on Dr.W asked my opinion and If I like it, I told him that it was very nice, but it was a little modern for me, seeming like he was being inquisitive I told him, it seemed a little "masculine". To which he smirks and says "Well, I guess its a good thing I'm marrying a man then isn't it?" :eek: I wanted to crawl back to the ER and die! I felt like such an a**. I almost couldn't even face him for the rest of the day. At the end of my shift I pulled him aside and apologized profusely. He gave me a hug and told me not to worry, and he wasn't offended at all, he told me it actually amused him for the day. Ok, I'm hoping you all will share a few embarrassing "open mouth... insert foot" moments with me to make me not feel so bad after today. Love reading all your posts!!!! *sigh* WHY, do all the good ones have to be gay???

It was ... Our Chief is actually a transplant specialist, so he is on Med/Surg ICU frequently, and has even bought us all pizza, and typically stocks the nurses station with candy around various holidays.

I don't work IN the O.R. however, anytime I see people in there, everyone seems to be wearing glasses.... then again, I guess its one of those things you don't truly pay attention to until someone mentions it. lol I would think everyone should be wearing them. IMHO

Nice ...

OK everyone, I've GOT TO share this. I'll try to keep it fairly abridged. I'm a fairly new (2 years) nurse. I work a BUSY med/surg floor. It was one of "those" days. We had almost NO meds on the floor while the central pharmacy was having an inventory audit, down 2 RN's and a CNA, every bed was full, lunch was an hour late, there were admin's lurking around, and ... you get the picture. We have a new resident (I'll call him Dr. W) that is a total !@#$%. One of those cocky, condescending, everything is stat, types. Well, he had a ton of orders (as usual), and on the very bottom, an order to stop IVF at 0800 on this particular pt, and to no excuse on my part, I just didn't see it. So at about 10 when he came around, he started yelling at me in front of other nurses and PT's, telling me how he's going to have to re-arrange his day because of me, and this pt is going to have to have his surgery postponed, (which I personally think was BS) and how I need to go report my mistake right now. I was on the verge of tears, not because of him necessarily, just because of EVERYTHING going on at once at work and at home. While this was taking place, apparently Dr. W, didn't see our chief of staff (neither did I) standing at the nurses station about 10 feet away. The Chief at our hospital is a VERY quiet, soft spoken man, but he's always been very polite with all of us, I don't think i've ever heard him even remotely raise his voice. The chief butts in with a "Dr. W may I have a word with you" and they leave, (for quite some time) suddenly I see the chief back at the nurses station, he comes up to me and asks me if I am alright and what exactly happened, he could see I was upset. He then gives me a BIG hug, and tells me that I'm doing fine, and not to worry. I have NO idea what was said in their meeting but, its been 2 weeks ... we still haven't seen Dr. W To top it off ... just this morning I find out that our Chief used to be a nurse. I knew we all liked him for a reason

The 3 words that should never be uttered : "Its quiet tonight"

At my hospital, ALL visible tattoo's must be covered.

Yes ... VERY, lol

Hi everybody, I'm a fairly new nurse, been working for about 18 months now as an RN I work in the ER, and I must say I do like the ER, I like the fact that there is a lot of different things going on, and I like the faster pace. I'm fairly small, though, I'm 5'3" and are an XS in scrubs, and I swear when people see me, they don't take me seriously, OK, I'm young (just turned 25) and I have been told my my CN and a few others that I am soft spoken. I am always getting a hard time from patients, I would say more than most of the other nurses. It doesn't bother me per say, I shrug it off and go about my day. There is another RN that works withe me, he's a guy, and not much older than I, but he's about 6'7" and built like a freight train, and nobody gives him a hard time. Do you guys find that Male nurses get more respect or do you think its the fact that he just looks like someone you would not want to mess with? Or both?

South Jersey ... We are looking at the Cherry Hill area.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Who would have thunk that Nursing LICENSE info would be under Div. of Consumer affairs rather than LICENSING ... sheeesh. This state's gonna kill me.

I'm hoping there is a nurse out there somewhere in the state of NJ that can help me. I am moving from MA to NJ with my husband for his job, and I am trying to transfer my Nurse Practitioner license to the state of New Jersey. I have scoured google as well as the state of New Jersey's website and I CAN NOT for the life of me find anything that says what I need to do to transfer. NJ's website just keeps me going in circles and bringing up info that has nothing to even do with nursing. I have never transferred a license before so I am totally clueless! Secondly, do I have to reside in NJ to transfer my license? Or can I work in MA while my transfer is in process, because I am staying behind at least for a little while to try to sell our house. ANY info would be SUPER appreciated!

Hi Everyone! My name is Megan, and I would like to go to nursing school and don't know where to begin. I would like to be a RN or Nurse Practitioner. Let me start out with a little history, a history that I'm not all too proud of. I graduated from High school, and went to community college for Photography, well, I started working with some real estate people, and ended up getting my real estate license, and doing well for myself, I REALLY messed up my college career, I was making three times what I would have ever made being a photographer, What can I say, I was a dumb kid. Then as we all know, the bottom fell out of the market and everything went down the tubes. After that I kind of went down with it. I found myself bored, and a 20-something year old bored girl is not usually a good thing. I fell in with the party crowd and screwed things up for myself pretty bad, got myself in a bit of financial trouble. So I slapped myself in the head, pulled my act together, and got myself out of what I got into. In the meantime, my best friend ended up passing away from Renal failure just after Christmas. I used to stop by and do for her whatever I could. She struggled for so long, she had 2 transplants, one rejected, and the other just "didn't work" there were days when I begged her not to give up. She fought for 5 years, before passing away. The night she passed away she said to me that she knew this night would be her last, and that not to worry, she was ready to go. She wanted to thank me for everything I did. In my eyes I didn't really do much, I drove her to an occasional dialysis, ran an errand here and there, and used to bring her dinner once and a while, and I knew if she was alone I would call her and ask her if she had taken her meds. For me, the little that I did do was one of the most rewarding things of my life. Then I started thinking of going back to school for nursing. I have a few problems though. I was a dumb kid. I've been out of high school 10 years, I screwed up in high school, I had the philosophy of, who cares what it is, as long as its passing, just get me out of here! In college once I started making money in real estate I just stopped going to class. Most colleges want your High school transcripts no matter what. Which scares me to death, I really really screwed up in High school, I didn't take it seriously... I KNOW i can do it. I knew in high school I could do it, I just didn't care. Should I start at community college? Then again, most community college credits don't transfer to higher schools, I want my BSN, perhaps go all the way for my Masters. How do I go back to school with a rocky college history, not so hot grades, and bad credit??? Its awful to say, but it took loosing my best friend to knock me back to the real world. Any help / advice you may have I would greatly appreciate! Thanks! - Meg :uhoh21: