Phase2Pro

Not all of them. Orthos, eyes, orals, vascular, and plastics do not have to void. Pretty much everyone else does. SDS unit in hospital which also covers endoscopy. Endos do not void either. About 40-50 cases a day and 30-40 discharge home same day.

I was accepted to the RN-BSN for UTA Online program to start January 2011. Anyone else starting with me?

I did not know it should be changed if they had had a hysterectomy-it make sense though. Thanks!

The reason those patients are not in pain and you are is this...they had a camera shoved up their butt and you had your face peeled down and pulled back up. Plastic surgery hurts a lot...colonoscopy not so much.

I don't understand "floating it in" either, and I've been doing IVs for almost 20 years. Are you saying once you get a flash to withdraw the needle, hook it up to the saline and then continue to advance it? Since moving into periop I do a lot of IV, but find I have a hard time with 18s. They always blow in my no matter what. My coworker have mentioned floating it in, but I don't really understand the concept. I hate to be dense, but...

How is this working out for you so far? Are you doing the online program or the the classroom?

Thanks to both of you. I appreciate the info.

When I first applied it meant you were a "RN applicant" until you passed the nclex exam and you had 90 days to do so. I got a job right out of school, had 90 days to pass the test, and was designated as an "RN applicant" on my hospital ID and that is how I was supposed to sign my paperwork, i.e your name, RNA. Hope that helps.

Background- I am a diploma level RN with something like 118 hrs of random college credit. I was applying to a RN-BSN program online and they want to know when I am going to take this test. I googled it and it came up as an aptitude test? I have been an RN for 17 years, what is with this test? Fill me in please. Thanks bunches.

Yup, I would never do that. When I withdraw a med for a patient, I give that med myself. I never hand off a med, ever. That is part of the irritation...I am doing my work and her work too. I did not realize that is what you all thought I meant was going on...er, absolutely not. She is having us withdraw and medicate for her, not just withdraw meds for her to medicate with (which I am pretty sure none of us is stupid enough to do!)

Thanks guys. Yeah, we "noticed" that she asks us to medicate her patients for her. It is pretty casually done..."hey, can you get him something for pain for me?" and of course, we administer it ourselves after a quick assessment. (We are in a small open ward type unit) But it is getting to be a big PITA and we realized her patients weren't getting the pain meds unless we gave it to them for her. I honestly have not noticed whether she gets anything else from the pixis or not. I made it clear yesterday that I am not comfortable with this practice and the other nurses agree we need to put our foot down about it. If she comes clean and it is an access issue then that is different and we can address it. I didn't know access would be restricted like that in cases where there had been past issues. If it wasn't restricted access, how would it indicated diversion? I am unclear how not getting in the pixis is indicative of diversion. Fill me in please. Thanks much.

Why one of the nurses I work with seems to not want to be on record in the pixis? She always asks someone else to get meds for her patients regardless of how busy we are. I can't quite figure it out, she will let her patient suffer until someone has the time to medicate the patient for her rather than just get the med out herself. It isn't laziness, it is something beyond that, I am sure, I just don't know what.

Once I said..."Did I get drunk and we get married during the black out? Because only my exhusband has ever spoken to me this way." But generally the doctors have been respectful. I did have one surgeon, whom I was not actually speaking to, literally stamp his feet and yell about a family member recently though. I had gone to retrieve the anesthesiologist to speak to the patient's daughter and the surgeon caught wind of the request and threw a tantrum. I was quite shocked, both by his behavior and by the fact that I had no idea why he cared in the first place. It was just a wait of breath and adrenaline on his part and made him look like an idiot.

I need to see the flash.

I live in the Salem Lakes/ Rock Lake area of VB which is a nice safe area near TCC and the amphitheater. I do not have trouble with traffic at all in the mornings and rarely have jet noise issues. I love the schools. I would have moved out of state years ago if I was not so attached to the VB schools.

I am new to phase II and I have a question maybe you can help me with. Sometimes it seems to me like one of the other nurses is so focused on getting the patients out the door that things are being overlooked that are detrimental to the patient. For instance, today once of our colonoscopy patients started complaining that their asthma was kicking up and the wheezing was audible without a stethoscope. Sats dropped from 97% to 86%. I asked her (stupidly I admit) if there were any orders concerning the asthma and she looked at me like I was crazy and said no they are here for the other end. I could not get it across to her that there was a problem going on because she was only concerned that it was post coloscopy and we just needed to get 'em up and things would probably clear up. Fortunately, they had their own inhaler with them and all turned out ok. I was not his discharging nurse but we do kinda share care in our phase II area. I am only 8 weeks into this area and it is totally new to me. Am I overly cautious or am I actually paying attention to my patients like I think I am? I am being told both things. If you think I am overly cautious...why is wheezing and a 11 point sat drop unimportant in someone just because the procedure they had involved the other end? Thanks

Try not violating it in a six bed ambulatory surgical "pod" where the beds are separated by curtains. You do the best you can under the circumstances.

School nurse for a private day school if you can handle that fifth day.

My last job had an excellent no prexisting conditions Anthem plan that was affordable. My current employer has both United Healthcare and Optima plan...both of which are good. I picked the UHC plan because some of the stuff done at the hospital where I work will be covered at 100%, like room and board. I am on COBRA till April. I tried to get an individual family plan in 2007 and was turned down for the prexisting conditions of migraines and post partum depression. Since I am done with the baby making and the migraines are undercontrol (finally) it really ticked me off.

It took me almost two months to get mine straight. As to the resignation stuff...my employer attempted to get me to sign a contract which indicated I was voluntarily resigning when they cut my job. I amended the paperwork to state my job was eliminated so my unemployment would not be affected.

Don't have much of a "story", but last we got our first real snow here since '89 or so. Everything closed down that could. It was amazing. Being from WV, I grew up with snow so I always find it laughable when people make runs on the stores for milk and bread when we almost never see flurries let alone accumulation. But we did get 10 inches last week and the city was pretty much shut down for four days or so. Virginia Beach, VA

I saw this online and was wondering about it too. Did you find anything out about it?

You can also let your classmates know that there are times that there may not be a CNA available. When I worked med-surg/onc night shift we did not have CNAs. It was just us and our share of messes to clean up. It seemed the day and eves got all the CNAs and we didn't get 'em because nights are "quieter". Yeah, right.

I am sorry for your loss. It is normal that you have distanced yourself. Some of the distancing is to allow you to cope and go on living your life and some of it is just because of the crap you dealt with. Try not to be too hard on yourself.

Yes! But alway stress how much more acute the patients are than they were 5 years ago. I have been in HH for 10 years and the acuity level has tripled. We now have patients with dopamine in the home and we did not have that just a few years ago. Also remember to stress how you have to be a great med-surg generalist to function well as a HH nurse and how you are out there on your own so you have to really know your stuff. If you can make them see what you have to know and do, they will put you in a different light. I know I learned and did more in the field than in the hospital. I worked hem/onc for a year and never accessed a mediport because the IV team always did it. HH had me doing it the first week. You just gotta sing your own praises.