thehipcrip

As someone who uses an indwelling urethral catheter for bladder management, I'm exceedingly frustrated by how few nurses (and doctors who are not urologists, for that matter) know the proper procedure for collecting a urine specimen from someone with...

The OP never said anything about not feeling safe. In fact, she never gave her rationale for pushing the Benedryl 30m after the Dilaudid. Are there factual reasons for giving the two meds separately [e.g. the patient snows out when the two are pu...

Some folks are able to control evacuation using irrigation -- essentially giving themselves an enema through their stoma. One friend has had such success with irrigation that he covers his stoma with a large bandaid between the times he does his sch...

If this had happened recently, this is definitely good advice. But since the OP said she's resisted posting about this for months, re-opening the matter with her manager by requesting a sit-down this long after the fact is a really bad idea. OP -- if...

The OP states that the second nurse asked the first nurse for *her* birthday, the drug and the dose, not for a patient's birthday, drug and dose. Seems clear to me that the first nurse needed a refill of a personal prescription, and asked another nu...

Many urologists treating people with spinal cord injury consider collecting the first urine emitted immediately after a new sterile catheter is placed to be the best practice. This ensures that the only bacteria sent for C&S are those actually p...

Ack! Forgot my link. The NIH funded study that recommended using the 10 percent bleach solution and found that pseudomonas thrived in bags cleaned with vinegar can be found at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8466427

He should be on some anticholinergic medications to both prevent painful bladder spasms and to help prevent bladder shrinkage. Just because the ditropan didn't work doesn't mean others shouldn't be tried -- some people may need a combination of meds...

I'm not a nurse and I found both the correct name of the ABX and the answer to the question! This doesn't fill me with confidence about the competency of some of the new grads entrusted with keeping me alive.

If I discovered a nurse had unilaterally decided to 'stretch out' the time before I received pain medication that was ordered by my physician, I'd file complaints with everyone from her employer to the BON.

You should get in touch with the folks who cultured the 'privacy' curtains and released the study on how disgusting they are. The carpet results will make those curtains seem positively sterile by comparison. For the record, this wheelchair user has...

There are a number of people I know who manage their bladders with catheterization [indwelling and intermittent] using instillations of a wound-care product called Microcyn to prevent urinary tract colonization and infection. Several dozen people wi...

Riiiiiggght. And right now, your counterpart is posting a similar rant over at AllTeachers.com about how they should become a nurse because it's a high status profession, they're well-paid, and all they really do anyway is pass out pills. :) Sorry th...

The problem with software like this is that the geeks [and I use that term with the utmost respect ] who develop it have almost zero input from the actual end users, so they don't know about features like this that would make a world of difference wh...

Sorry, I had to come back to this thread and address the fact that a nurse thinks that cleaning urinary collection bags is "ridiculous". Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are the most common type of nosocomial infections, accounting for 40% of all infe...

A study funded by NIH and done at the University of Utah recommends cleaning all urinary leg bags with a solution of 10% bleach. The procedure should be two rinses with tap water, sloshed vigorously for at least 10 seconds, then filled 1/3 full wi...

From the meds alone, it sounds like the 20-something is living with central pain, a specific type of chronic pain that occurs as a result of damage to the central nervous system. I've been living with central pain for 33 years, and have had way too ...

It's evident from your efforts to better understand your opioid-tolerant patient's actions and concerns about the potentially dangerous side effects narcotic drugs can have on bowel function that you're a very caring nurse. However, I'm troubled by...

Something no one mentioned here is the use of Lidocaine 2% gel to make insertion less uncomfortable. Apply a liberal amount of lidocaine gel to the patient's meatus and leave it to start working while prepping your insertion tray. You can also mix ...

I never worked as a nurse, but this is what I told people in my line of work: I need you for the long haul, not just the short term. If you take on too much now, you'll burn yourself out. For your own good, and for the good of what we're trying to...

The way he went about it is abhorrent, but the info he suggested does make you a more attractive candidate in this tight economy. Stating on your resume that you don't smoke is very savvy advice. Employers are deeply concerned about keeping their he...

This is more than a little overdramatic, don't you think? It might not be a comfortable existence, but I speak from experience when I tell you that thrush and yeast infections resulting from extended tx with antibiotics are hardly terminal condition...

One night in my local ED, a nurse started the process of emptying my bedside urine collection bag without putting on gloves or using hand sanitizer. As a FT Foley user at high risk for UTIs, I ask her to please use either the gloves or the Purell be...

Having no one to help a patient bathe or having an inaccessible tub/shower at home may, in fact, be the reason that some patient seek help with bathing just before being discharged. There have been a number of times when I was released from a hospi...

What is the best way for a patient to alert you to and educate you about autonomic dysreflexia (AD), an emergent, potentially life-threatening medical condition most doctors and nurses have never heard of? Autonomic dysreflexia (AD) is a condition th...