djh123

I like the 'verbal colonoscopy' term...

That's a tough situation, and I don't envy you. But on a lighter note, it reminds me of Davey's Waaaaaambulance thread, and a few current and former nurses in my current job. We were talking about one the other day. I like and respect her, but as another nurse says, she's pretty "Waaah".

That's what the people say...

To me, the n-word or 'Kamikaze' for a Japanese person is not what the 'PC' topic is all about. Those are just offensive and racist things. To me 'PC' is when you go far beyond that and make a problem out of nothing, such as what another commenter mentioned, 'Don we now our gay apparel', where gay only means 'happy'.

I don't disagree with your advice here, but at the same time, life is full of risks. After my mother passed away and I finally dealt with the house, I took pre-reqs at one school, then applied to an accelerated program at another school, which (to me) inexplicably didn't take me (I had good grades in pre-reqs, among other things). Then somewhat on a whim, I moved back to NM, where my ex and I had lived (but in another town), where I knew no one, rented a place that was larger and more expensive than I wanted to pay - so I was definitely in a 'sink or swim' situation. Didn't really want to go back to my previous career. Thought about quitting nursing school in 3 of the 4 semesters. Had a bumpy road finding my first job. But now, with almost 6 years experience and a decent job, and thinking about things like travel nursing, I think 'hmmmm, those late nights studying WERE worth it'. But as we're all saying, I can only speak for myself.

Oh my ... and I was only kidding about that, Old Dude.

Yes. I'd have to look up the lyrics to 'Baby, It's Cold Outside' to see what I think exactly, but without having done that, it seems like a bit much. What about the - what is it called? - micro-sensitivities, or something like that, on college campuses these days? Seems way overblown to me. Everyone is walking around with a chip on their shoulder the size of a boulder. My joke to myself, after hearing about the 'Baby...' banning is that next some misunderstanding idiot will complain that "White Christmas" should be banned...

We've all done it, bro ... glad it wasn't anything super-significant. Speaking of - and I always add this qualifier before I say anything negative about nurses I'm working with, and that is "I'm not perfect either", but on my last couple of work days, on 2 different units - therefore 2 different med carts - I found numerous instances of dc'd meds still in the cart, completed antibiotics (like 1-2 left on a card) still in the cart, and two different strengths of meds for the same patient still in the cart. Oh, and duplicate orders still in the system. Atb orders without a stop date in the system. Need I go on? I probably spent 30-45 minutes each one of those days just fixing stuff. And they wonder why I'm there late...

I hope it gets better or you get out of there. On occasion at my previous job (LTC/rehab) I'd have 2 units - 50-ish people - for 4 hours sometimes, sometimes longer. I'd always have a med tech in those situations, but still, it was just ridiculous. I could only do the highest-priority stuff and deal with any emergencies that came up.

Yep. You're a spring chicken. I got my BSN at 54. Go for it! Actually, I'm editing this because I see all of those 'don't do it' comments. Everyone is different. Only you can decide, obviously. For me, even though I'm only going to do this for a maximum of 10-12 years (and probably a bit less), I'm still glad I did it.

In my workplace, we'd probably need to use those 'points' to buy supplies. :^)

Partly because I've been through a great deal in the past 15+ years, I cuss more than I used to, but I don't do it a huge amount, and not much at work. But there are a few CNA's at work that cuss like Marines. And a LPN - whom I like and respect - and I were working on getting an IV in a quite elderly patient a while back, and she (the LPN) was cussing quite a bit in a low voice because she was having difficulty with it. A little voice in my head was saying '____, don't do that - she's going to get mad', and right after that, the patient angrily said she didn't appreciate that in front of her. My co-worker stopped doing it, but she did it again in front of another patient.

Stupid question, I guess, but you don't have aides to do any of that?

I do a mix of things that are relevant to the patients I see and other topics that I'm just interested in, or apply to my own health.

Hey, that jives with my guess for my workplace. :^) Of course, there may be McDonald's $5 gift certificates, y'know...

I disagree that her grades were that bad, particularly when you factor in the re-takes. I'll add a qualifier, though, that I come from an era before grade inflation. In my first degree (not nursing) I had a 3.25 and was damned proud of it... not many people had a 4.0 or anywhere close to it at that time.

Re: the immediate effect, I've always thought that about any food or drink - especially food - commercials. Whatever it is, the split-second it hits their lips, they just go "WOW, that tastes GREAT". No actual tasting first...

I don't know for sure, since I wasn't in my current job last Christmas, but I suspect ours is "You get to keep working here".

I know what viscous means; I just hadn't heard of a viscous shot, nor have I heard of 'depot' related to any kind of injection. But my experience is *somewhat* limited.

I have no idea what a viscous depot is (unless of course, it's Viscous Depot! - For All Your Viscous Shopping Needs! :^) ... but I did quickly find a website that said all viscous or oily (?) injections should be in the gluteous muscle. 4 mL does sound like a lot into the deltoid to me too.

If Nurse Dill can't handle it, is she in a pickle?

You almost, ALMOST, made me spit out my salad when I cracked up reading that. :^)

Ha ha! Funny, because I've frequently joked about amputation with patients and CNA's when some minor problem is there.

I've never watched medical shows much, except for Nurse Jackie, but when my ex watched "House" in its early days, I always cracked up at the team of 4-6 doctors spending a ton of time on ONE patient. Riiiiiiiiiiggghhht. Might happen occasionally at the Mayo Clinic, but otherwise, I doubt it. On the other hand, as John Fogerty wrote in the 80's, "I know it's true, I know it's true, 'cause I saw it on TV".

I only skimmed your post, but re: patients 'never being happy', that hasn't been my experience at all, but I've only worked at an LTC/Rehab and now at a Rehab. Sure, I've had some unhappy patients, and some unhappy and (at times) incredibly unreasonable family members (you know, the My Patient Is Your Only Patient And Don't You Forget It types). But I've also had many patients and family members who are complimentary and appreciative, occasionally to almost ridiculous levels. Not every day, but now and then. Just the other day a guy said I did 'miracles' (but ok, he's not quite all there). More relevant was a guy who said he'd never forget me, I was a great guy, that he was going to pray for all of us (other nurses, aides, therapy) ... it was almost embarrassing. I said hey, it's *all* of us that helped you, not just me, and he did agree. My point isn't to brag on me at all; it's just to say that I get quite a bit of appreciation and satisfaction, and it makes up for the ones who are angry. Most of the time. :^). Maybe it's the type of nursing.