hoolahan ASN, RN

Not a bad day today... started back per diem today. 6 cases, all in the same township. Not my usual zip codes though, so I did waste some time and scheduled visits akimbo, instead of in a line like I usually try to do. 8:00 am:6 pt's, one n...

Hi, as a newly appointed moderator, I want to live this forum up a bit. I just resigned my position as a HH supervisor, to go back to the field. I have been a nurse 20 years, 17 in critical care, mostly cardiac critical care, and the last 2.5 years ...

Does anyone in case management or in particular disease management have to meet productivity "numbers?" As in how many assessments per week, contact with members per week, etc... My manager is completed focused on numbers and doesn't give a hoot abou...

How many of you have ever removed Jackson Pratt drains? If you have never removed them yourself, but have watched them be removed, you would feel comfortable doing it on your own? I would esp like to hear from any home health nurses who have done thi...

I have been on about six interviews this month, and I am appalled at the stupidity of this process. Does anyone at all think up original questions any more? My last interview consisted of a woman, who couod not have been less bored w the process, as...

I feel like I should be called the Orkin Nurse, and instead of a backback, I should carry an arsenal of roach-killing chemicals. I need a roach repellant perfume or something. Yesterday MONSTER roach appeared too close to my coat, and I swear I coul...

Has anyone gotten their assignments yet? On the road yet? Are you using laptops or paper tools? This is my first year. Everytime we hear the data is ready, it has to be re-run, so we continue to wait for our assignments, getting more anxious as the a...

OK, I am doing home health, and I have a question. Ordinarily, I expect a pt to be on one kind of med per category. Eg, if I got into a home and pt has Lopressor and Toprol XL and is taking both, it is pretty easy to figure out why they have been diz...

OK, I've been doing HH for 2 1/2 years now, I have only had one of my own pt who had enteral feeds, and he just could NOT understand how to use the pump, so we ended up doing bolus feeds. So, maybe I am stupid, but I have to ask this ?. How often do ...

I am wondering what are your favorite references for home health nursing? Favorite journal, web site(s), or favortie book? I like Home Health Nursing by Robyn Rice as a book. Also like Mosby's pt teaching handbook, have it in my car, read it at red ...

I had a great day today, but did have a problem removing someone's staples. Lady is s/p R TKR, and that alone is bizzare, I have never had a surgeon want us to remove staples for TKR. I have done lots of hips and other areas, but never a knee, so may...

I have a study guide for Nursing Research that I used for the excelsior BSN program requirement. If anyone is interested or wants more info, please pm me Also available, for free, (I would just ask you to reimburse me the shipping) are these texts......

Today, while in the office, several of us were siting there calling our pt's setting up visits for the day, and our supervisor came up to us, and said, "So, are you both feeling OK? Healthy, and everything?" Huh?? We looked at each other and looked a...

I don't know of anything like what you are asking for. I can only offer that titration should be based on the half-life of the drug, and the effect it has within that time frame. In the CT unit I worked in, docs ordered titration, or weaning, of ino...

There has been an abundance of people on the bb posting and requesting advice about cardiac symptoms. What disturbs me is that when it happens it is usually not a member I recognize, and usually someone who has just joined. This makes me wonder if th...

40.5 cents a mile. It went up 3 cents and gas went up 60 cents a gallon! Not much left over for wear and tear!

Just do what many of my patients do, they get a notebook, and just write in it. Some family's leave me notes in there, or questions, and I answer them, usually only things like "Please order more 4x4's and gloves" and I write "OK", and they usually w...

I find this to be a very accurate portrayal of the attitudes I have encountered. Is it right? Of course not! But why fault the program or writers for doing an honest job? To sugarcoat it is to do a disservice to the struggles of nurses. If you ask me...

Ah, rub it in why don't ya! Just kidding, that sounds cool. Are you finding the diabetes and HTN measures very time consuming? I am assuming you are doing these, but I know the commercial MCO's do less measures than the Medicaid MCO's, which is where...

She means Rustyhammer, one of the admin's on this forum, used to do home care. We have several male nurses at the agency I work for. It has never been a problem. It really isn't any different than the same issues you would face in a hospital. In some...

Well, we got our assignments the end of the second week of March, and I got most of the appointments scheduled the following week. I have 4 counties in NJ, a total of 700 charts and over 250 sites. I have been on the road for 2 weeks, and the weathe...

I think it's the infant because isn't like 80% of an infants total body weight water?

I empathize with the situation. I agree that he should be let go. Your staff needs to know that you will follow up with your expectations, and it will give them faith in you, that you will not allow one self-important person to infringe on everyone e...

OMG, your agency is just like mine, except that we only covered one county, and we never had to cover the whole county except for rarely on the weekend. That kind of traveling is too much. I would go to them and say no way. Let the supervisor's do th...

I plead the 5th.