Redman

I was sitting here thinking and came up with a kind of crazy story for you guys. I was working as a paramedic on a military base and got a call in the middle of the night for a car accident patient ejected from the vehicle. So we load up and hit the road lights and sirens. We rarly got calls for off base stuff so we thought it must be in BFE or really bad so we were in a hurry to say the least. We get there to find a single vehicle accident and the patient out in the middle of the field sitting up arguing with the cop. I do my assessment his right leg is a little questionable we grab the back board and go to put him on it when we just cant roll him. I go digging around and come to find out his femur is staked into the ground beneath him about 3 inches deep.... the guy never complained of pain and to this day I dont know how he is but man was he feeling good that night .....

Probably the funniest patient story I have was this young Marine that came in with nausea and vomiting. He was in pretty bad shape. I was a Corpsman at the time(Navy Medic for those that done know) so the doctor prescibes phenrgan suppositories for the guy. So we see the guy back in two days he is feeling better but, cant go to the bathroom. So, we load this young marine up on the table and decide its going to require a digital disempaction to clear out whatever it is thats giving him this problem. So, I go to work and to my suprise I fined a suppository still in the foil package dig a little more and end up with 6 suppositories still wrapped neatly in there little foil covering and completely intact. Now, maybe the nurse just took for granted the guy could figure out that you should take the big square foil package off the suppository before he inserted it but, come on how bad did that have to hurt when he put the thing up there not once but SIX times.........

Well, I was just out of nursing school and working on a Telemetry floor and we had a patient pass away that was a DNR. So we were cleaning her up for the family and doing all the things you do when someone passes away. So, I was standing at the bedside and they decided to roll her towards me to clean her back up a bit and someone says "Didnt she have stomach cancer?" About that time this black fluid comes pouring out of this poor lady covering my shooes and scrubs and making a puddle about 4 inches deep in the corner of the room. They all kind of looked at me and I looked at them and said "Well, might as well finish up I am already here." We finished up and I got the priviledge of cleaning the mess on the floor up. Needless to day it was the perfect end to an already long long shift......

I am currently working at an FMC unit in Tx and when I first started I had some of those same issues. It just took time for the PCT and even the other nurses to trust my decision making abilities and skills as a nurse. When I was in training I tried to absorb as much as I could and ask a ton of questions. I asked questions at times I already new the answer to just so my PCT trainer would feel that I was more interested in the knowledge and skills she had to offer me. That being said after I finished my training and began my training with the other nurses I made sure that I helped out as much as possible pitching in and helping set up machines and other things that some nurse tend to put completely in the "Tech" realm of responsibility. I currently have a wonderful working relationship with 90% of the tech and nursing staff. I have been here 3 yrs and act as Charge Nurse on weekends and during the week for vacation times and such and have almost no problems. Anyway moral of the story is chip in and work with your techs they will work with you and you always get better results if your willing to be nice and try and treat them how you want to be treated.

The techs are on the same system at the moment. I am not sure of the pay scale for them I beleive it ranges from $12 - $17 per treatment.

Ok I am in Texas. The clinic I am in has 36 chairs with 1 isolation room we use for HBV positive patients. Each shift we have 3 nurses all RN and the charge nurse. Each tech takes no more than 4 patients. The PTC do most of the sticks on fistula and grafts. In Texas the it is against the law for PTC to hook up catheter patients. This is different from state to state. The only time I really feel rushed is shift change. We average between 6-8 catheters per shift and all patients have a set appointment time staggered 15 minutes apart. We have our share of unexpected things come up. We just pick up the slack for eachother so the patients dont have to wait. The RN do have to drop down to work as a PTC from time to time. Some of the nurses seem to think that this means they do there 4 patients and thats it. I still pass meds help take off and put on catheters and all the regular stuff we normally do. It is up to the nurse though. MWF we work 530 - 2130 shift TThS we work 530 - 1730. When it comes down to it I would do the job for free if I didnt have to feed my family and fight off the bill collectors. We try to make it as easy as possible for our patients because lets face it, the poor people are being stuck twice a day 3 times a week at a minimum for the rest of there days unless they get a transplant. I am not sure how this new system is going to go, I honestly just want to see how my check changes. I hate not having PTO but, luckily its pretty easy to swap days with people to get your hours in and still get your days off if you want vacation.

Ok now in our clinic we rarly if ever work an entire shift with this new system. If you are scheduled 530 - 1730 we are all gone by 1630 at the latest. The charge in our clinic doesnt take a patient load she is responsible for entering orders and doing her paper work. She also makes rounds in the clinic with our physician. I can only speak for the clinic I work in it is probably very different from one place to another. The floor nurses pass meds and split up the Catheter patients to be put on (PCT can not put catheter patients on in Texas) and put out the various fires that always seem to come up during a shift. Our Charge Nurse never has to stay after. I am not sure what is different about the system we have and the one you are in now. Currently all but one of our floor nurses is qualified to charge. So it is just roatated to the different nurses through the week. The other benifit to this is that if the charge is behind the other nurses know how to enter orders and help her get caught up on paper work. At the moment we are working basically 3 days a week. 2 16's which is 24 patients and one 10 which is 8 patients. so its 32 patients a week at 29 per patient so before shift differential ,which you still are payed but the formula they use is beyond me at the moment, and taxes you gross around $928 per week. Now they take off 30 min for lunch and 30 min for dinner on the 16's anyway. And we are gone every night by 2130 so the 16 turns into a 14 and the 10 is actually 8.5 since we are gone every day at 1630. So that comes out to Gross 25.42 per hour starting out fresh out of school with no other experience. The Cap per patient pay is $34 they take into consideration critical care experience and all that and grade it on a sliding scale. The thing I dont like is not having PTO or Berevment days. If you dont work you just dont get paid. Now in our clinic its pretty easy to swap days and make up your hours if you just want to take a week or two but, it might not be the case elsewhere.

I am pretty new to dialysis nursing, I think I am gonna really love it though. The clinic I am working in is run by Fresinius and has recently gone to paying there PCT and RN who work in the clinic per patient. So since I am new to the clinic I will be getting $29 per patient and this ratio is off the tech to patient ratio not the nurse to patient ratio. We average between 3.75 and 4 patient every 4 hours. My question is has anyone else done this? If you have what are the benefits and what do you think are the problems with this system? Everyone at the clinic is very nervous about it since no one has even recieved there first check using this system yet. Anyway, any insight you can give would be appreciated.

I got the feeling you were talking about the whole guy bathing a female thing. I do most of my own baths and have no problem. I work on a Telemetry floor and what I do is just maintain my professionalism no matter what. I go in explain what I am going to do, if the patient requests a female do the bath then I offer to do one of my fellow nurses bathes in exchange or beg one of our wonderful and way over worked and under appreciated CNA to do it for me. (this usually requires some type of food bribe. :chuckle )

I have been on the night shift for about 6 months working on a telemetry floor at the Local County Hospital and I have to tell you we stay pretty darn busy most nights. Though on our s**w nights we all get together and pick on our charge nurse and just generally have a good time. I think we are a rare kind of shift though, we actually like each other and get in to some pretty interesting conversations most nights. Honestly, I am usually not finished cleaning up for the day shift until around 2 am or so. (they seem to honestly hate each other)

I am an ex-Corpsman and current nursing student spent 9 yrs in, anyway I really dont like the alot of the views either canidate presents at the moment or in Kerry's case the lack of views. Anyway I dont want to start a flame war I will probably vote for an Independant.

Something alot of people dont realize it that the Marine Corps doesn't have any of its own medical personel. They use the Navy Corpsman, I am not sure if this also is the case with nursing personel working in hospitals but I would suspect it is do to them being staffed entirly with Navy personel. I was a Navy Corpsman for 9 yrs myself and spent most of my time with the USMC. So you may try the navy personel sites rather than the USMC sites for info.

I was a corpsman to my wife also hehe kind of funny how many corpsman go on to be nurses. :)