greenykilt

For those of you that hold martial art belts and extensive experience, do you wonder if your response to a patient altercation. While even docile, would be trumped into something more because of your known fighting ability?

hi there, I have a probably odd question, I am a Krav Maga practitioner and my hands and arms tend to get beat up and down depending on my day. Either with bruising down my forearms, on my palms or surface "rug" or bag burns. I also practice crossfit but that doesn't leave noticeable outwards issues. I was wondering if any nurses practice Krav Maga and if you have a standard response if someone notices your war wounds. I would prefer people to ask me vs. assume my husband is attacking me, but I am unsure of my response. lastly, are there any tricks of getting your swollen hands back down quickly after a session. I have tried ice, soaking in Epsom, Epsom salt dressings. Et al. It is a sport I'm absolutely passionate about and don't want to curtail my progression with Krav. Thanks !

you and me both. Will always be haunted by those. I was a social worker for years. Have to take a sleeping pill to not wake up from nitemares. never EVER leave a child alone. They are VERY smart and know when your gone, they sense it , this I promise.then before you know it- that one time,turns into frequent times... I am not sure what is worse, leaving the kids alone stuff or the refusing to child proof the pool in the backyard parent...

You should never EVER leave a child unattended. This is basic life skills 101. And a RN to boot. I don't quite get it. I am sorry to say that I don't know how much I would trust a RN taking care of patients who can up and leave a 8 year old so they are not late 10 MINUTES. I was a social worker before and wow the excuses we heard. Always something and it ironically was ALWAYS for... you guessed it "ONLY TEN MINUTES" 10 minutes my as*. Its never only 10 minutes either. Just sounds "acceptable". I don't believe the integrity of this story.

You will do amazing! You will be very focused on having superb time management skills that it will flow alot easier than some of your classmates. For me- I find it very doable (and not hard and I do go to a challenging program!) and take a laid back approach as I can, I am the only one who is looking up while listening in lecture vs getting a hand cramp writing everything down. I find it more relaxing and I retain more. You will find your groove. I have 3 children, 5, 3 and I just had baby in December. So I have a newborn who is not sleeping thru the nite, sounds like a nitemare but with EXCELLENT organization of your personal life, your professional life will glide by. Start with getting a full physical to make sure your on top of your game! (will make you feel empowered to know you are healthy...) I do not watch tv, I do not waste time on anything like that right now. I am totally fine with that and in fact, find it less stressful anyway :) I have found that listening to ipod lectures while I run in the morning before I get the kids up and then myself to school is a GREAT way to start the day. I also am very health conscious and make protein bars, shakes and fruit n veggie smoothies to give me a power kick. I also take vitamin B-12 injections, liquid vitamins etc. Taking care of your health will allow you to do ANYTHING. I take 3mg melatonin at nite so that the few bits of sleep I get are deep sleep (and then the baby wakes me up...) You will do amazing edit- I also firmly believe in MYSELF, I am superwoman and so ARE YOU. I can do anything I set my mind on, I am relaxed and confident and SO CAN YOU BE. (I also listen to meditative relaxation cds, and hypno cds, for self esteem and etc, it really helps) I am SUPAWOMAN and SO.ARE.YOU

I have another masters (MBA) and find nursing school easier. What some of my classmates are lacking is time mangement skills. Or overstudying. Especially spending say 7 hours on a saturday on something very small in scale of subject. This time could be better spent making sure they are more well rounded vs allowing themselves to get sucked into some tiny detail. My observation is that keep a healthy balance during nursing school, including eating , excercising and sleeping well and taking a macro approach to learning is the key. I dont view NS as life of death to pass which surely allows me to be more relaxed and laid back which then allows me to get great grades, its a catch 22 for the reverse I know! some students are hanging their entire livlihood/family finances and etc on passing, so its adds an element of anxiety and stress. Anyway, what is meant to be- is.

you will find alot of interesting information from www.preeclampsia.org the non profit pre eclampsia (and HELLP and etc) site. Browsing the forums is very interesting as well.

another hard one is seeing a 1st of 2nd trimester baby lost to a mother who desperately wanted that child with all her heart and soul. All sorts of stillbirth, genetic and etc issues that will come thru maternity. It is hard to be non judgemental on things (for me its drug addicted or alcohol addition) of course I have a social worker background, so I probably more negative about certain lifestyles than maybe some nurses (because I used to have to really know my 'client' and their past and current history, made it very hard to not have downright disgust actually).

I say do it now. I just had my 3rd baby myself. If you wait the risk you run into is being very tired and "tied" up during your kiddos kindergarten and elem years, those are crucial and I will argue almost MORE crucial than other time periods! if you are a nurse you could work around important times while your kids are in elem school, making sure you dont miss anything. Is this your first? if it is, you will probabably have another.... and then you have to manage TWO children, juggling everything. I for sure say get it over with now. Just my 2 cents, many of my peers (I am 36 years old) are now almost 10 years out of school/work. Its very difficult to not feel lost, confused and look at a future that looks very challenging, they are all having to start again from scratch (wishing they would hae finished long ago) Being a SAHM myself recently, and having many friends who also SAHM, I will tell you that you will never ever know what could happen to your marriage, your husband, his ability to bring in money, all that could negatively impact your family in ways that you cannot even imagine. Having more education under your belt to guard against this possiblity, will only make you a stronger mother and wife for having options.

I want to follow up and thank everyone for your replies. I read each and every one of them and let reply sink in. All were valuable. Thank You. First, I have been given alot of thought to hostile working conditions. In my previous life, I was a social worker and I was also a VP of sales (I have a graduate degree in business, a MBA), I worked for a major computer manufacturer, made lots of money, had plenty of responsbilities and work place drama believe me. I have worked and lived overseas in places that are hostile to females and Americans. However, nothing has shocked me to the realization at how very bad lateral violance is within healthcare. Especially within nursing. I will also remind you that my husband is a dr, a cardiologist here in Houston. I add that because I think its important to the rest of my post and my 'realization of lateral violence'. A previous poster mentioned that you cannot stand up for yourself because of fear of losing your job in the "insitution" of what has become the medical profession. All of you are nurses because of what started (and for the most part is) a continued passion and love for humanity. So to "Stand up" against lateral violence (this case was extreme I understand) would mean sacraficing not only your job, but possibly your entire livlihood. Of course you cannot do this. You must feed your family, you love your patients, you keep your head down. You try. In my case, being that my husband makes a decent wage ( more than decent lets be honest) I do not need to make anything at all. I want to learn the "art" and "love" of nursing because my husband and I would like to travel and do medical mission work and I want to help later when I have skills. However, I spent alot of time reading various posts here in this forum relating to absurd lateral violence issues and in my experience, it seems almost exclusive to nursing and a few other medical careers. This must stop. I have talked to alot of my husbands colleagues about this issue, including many nurse managers and etc at his hospital and practice to get their input. Its rampant and its "institutionalized". I think I have found my new calling! I have a meeting next week (thanks to husband who can pull strings) to help facilitate somekind of committee or organization to stop/educate this absurd medical lateral violence! The dr I originally wrote about has been placed on a leave because I did in fact report her to the necessary people. But you know what, I CAN because I dont NEED to have an income, I am not bleeding my bank account to become a nurse and pouring out blood, sweat n tears to do so. I dont NEED to keep my head down so I dont rock the boat, because I have no fear of the future of my employement. I cannot tell you the rave response I have gotten from the nurses I have spoken to. I am holding a round table about lateral violence, I do not know much about it, I just want to understand it more and how to fix it. Thank You for your time

Well it went better than anticipated. I told her that what she did was unprofessional and embarassing. She said she has been working long nites on call etc etc. I said it seems her reputation is getting a bit murky from this type of thing and she was pretty quiet while she listened to me. Anyway, I said its probably a classic case of boundary issue with some burnt out thrown in etc. All is well and you will not believe this. Offered me a job at/with her practice. I said "thats nice of you and appreciated, thats not the direction I am going in right now but I do appreciate that" as she liked my direct style. Anyway I did not have to throw in the husband part as did not want to and really want to keep tha under my hat as it is. I dont need that against me in school. cheers!

Thanks everyone. I am a "older" student who has a MBA and previous VP experience and have been around many politically explosive, difficult and embarassing situations. But this one to me is inexusable. I am actually on my way to the hospital. I am dressed up , head to toe in a suit complete with heels and full makeup/hair. Why? because I have called the jerk dr's after call service, told her she needed to meet me up at the hospital to have a discussion about her personal ethics. She is meeting me up there in 45 minutes. No one puts baby in the corner (ok had to add that) also it probably will help that my husband is a well known dr up there, I have NOT told anyone this because I dont want to deal with that, I am going into nursing for the sole fact of doing some missionary work in 3rd world countries in women services, in which my husband will be doing cardiac care when we can. I wont even discuss what my husband thinks should happen, I am wanting to handle this one myself. Anyway, wish me luck. This is unacceptable. I am not only doing this for myself, but doing this to all the nurses she treats this way. So there ya go. Thank you

I can barely even breathe I am just outraged and upset and everything else. I shadowed in ob/gyn (my choice for working after graduation, if I am so lucky) and lucked out shadowing an amazing team of nurses. Its a big downtown hospital, very busy. Anyway, the backstory is that a first time mom was getting in induction, did not like her perinatologist, who is known to frankly be a big jerk and is legendary for being really rude, disruptive and awful to the nurses, paitents, other drs (and I mean other dr's saying they refuse to work with this dr anymore or refer their perinatologist cases onwards). SO,the patient was literally crying to not have to see dr ------- again, and the nurse said she had no choice but would be there thru it all, helping and coaching (it was really amazing to see her caring bedside manner!) Etc etc I ASSUME the nurse waited til the last minute to call the dr, the high risk dr whizzes in, I should say.. STORMS IN SCREAMING "wHO IS HAVING A BABY AND HOW DARE YOU NOT TELL ME" does not say or look at the patient, who bursts into huge sobbing tears. at this particular hospital, they handle lots of serious high risk (which this patient was not, just had the misfortune of selecting this dr by accident) so in comes the hi risk patient team. I at this point am behind the nurse (out of the way yet involved by looking) when the dr stormed in slamming stuff. Literally screaming. delivery happens. Perfect delivery, mom and baby fine, great. Dr then proceeds to stitch up the patient, the dr is still VERY IRATE and yells at the nurse who is holding a sponge says "Give it to me then if you cant hold it right" the nurse sarcastically says "ok dr X, I am gonna tell you right now I wont take this tonite" and here is where I come in. The dr takes the SPONGE filled with blood out of her hands and throws it down, BUT THE SPONGE HITS ME IN THE ARM and splashes BLOOD ON ME EVERYONE started arguing. The patient was crying again, thinking something was happening to HER I am STUNNED. no one apologized and the dr didnt even LOOK at me. The other nurses were horrorfied on my behalf. I do NOT know what to do. Maybe nursing is NOT for me. This is not how another human should be treated. And get this, the PATIENT who just had a baby and getting stiched up says "EXCUSE ME, if you want to argue you do it outside of THIS ROOM, do you understand me?" she was the coolest out of them all. If this is how high flying peri's treat their nurses , this is not my field, I refuse to be talked to like this and I refuse to have wet fresh blood flung at me. I quit. This is enough. I am switching to OT school. Done now I get to see if I get HIV or hep C right THANKS FOR NOTHING

Hello, Does anyone have opinons on these two different fields? Has anyone struggled with choosing between them? And if so how did you rationalize one over the other? What are the pros and cons of OT that you see, as a career and as a professional? Thank You- doing some research and info gathering.