CFitzRN

Okay got it. Thank you

Can you elaborate on that? Plan what things?

It infuriates me that any medical professional would even consider allowing any alarm to sound for up to 1/2 hour at a time without being addressed (and potentially ongoing indefinitely after the alarms are addressed!) Besides the liability for the nurses, this is fundamentally abusive to the patients. These sick people MUST have the ability to sleep in order to recover. Constant interruptions in their sleep could be the difference between recovery and death. This is just one example of why being in the hospital lately is worse than ever. They need to implement a central monitoring system, period.

Me? I'd take the 9-5 all day.long. No question whatsoever.

It sure sounds to me that you did everything right and in a timely manner. The fact you were so affected tells me you are a good and conscientious midwife, and one I'd have loved to have with me during/after the births of my 4 sons. I worked mother/baby for several weeks after graduating nursing school so I was pretty closely monitored and didn't experience anything as visually scary as that. My own grandson struggled badly after birth though, and spent a week in NICU. He was really struggling with his respirations. No one was too sure why. That was frightening. I prayed over him whenever I'd go spend time w him in the hospital. He is now a beautiful, smart, healthy 6 year old boy. I'm guessing your pt was a breastfed baby and likely wasn't properly latching, or mom wasn't making adequate colostrum? It happens. At least you were on top of monitoring well enough to treat the issue quickly with no repercussions.

It is very difficult to discern exactly what happened here. Also I'm not familiar with an ED program (ADN?). If you're asking whether to continue at your current school to get your BSN or pursue your ADN at a much closer school, I would probably go with the latter and then pursue the BSN allowing the hospital to cover your tuition. Can you clarify the allegation made to the Dean though? If you're determined to pursue your BSN, it may be that you just need to go in with hat in hand and get it out on the table that it was a poor choice you made under duress while ill. Just remember, nursing requires very critical thinking so in future, reason things out before acting.

The scratching & banging on the walls is pretty freaky ?

And that, right there, is the peace of God that passes all understanding. That's exactly what it is. His word is truth.

I am so touched by your story, especially how you turned to our Lord at the darkest moment possible and allowed Him to hold and heal you. I am so inspired. God bless you.

Oh look, more condescension. Imagine my shock.

The basic premise of this article is condescension. "We are right, they are wrong, so how do we make them do what we want?" And this is what I find with the gene-therapy pushing crowd. They won't consider any of the evidence that the gene therapy injection may NOT be what's best, or listen to the statistics indicating that some populations with the highest injection rates are acquiring more infections now. We "laggers" are educated and trained. We can think critically and make decisions for ourselves. We, too, consider the science and the research. How about you trust that we have valid reasons for our hesitancy and not treat us like children who need to be convinced to your side of the argument?

(To Doc WorkADay) I had somehow missed this, but enjoyed reading your story. Without going into detail (which would take the better part of a week, undoubtedly), I am a practicing Catholic who has experienced what no one could deny was an encounter with evil. It was targeting my young son. My husband - an engineer and a very logical, linear thinker - witnessed the entire encounter. His world view changed 100% after that, and it was the turning point in our family. It was a watershed moment that proved to us that God and satan are real, that the preternatural world is not just the musings of some ancient superstitious men. That said, you reacted to the attack in the only way that would have been effective. However, these beings do not usually go down without a fight, so be vigilant and please, never go looking for this kind of trouble again. You are wise to forgo any further ghost tour-type activities because, although they're usually done all in fun, the powers of evil are no respecter of men, and they will take any opening you permit by consenting to contact them. Just to be clear, I am the most normal, boring person there is, and if this can happen to me and my family, it can happen to anyone. Satan's most effective weapon is to convince people he does not exist and lull them into a sense of safety or unbelief. When they let their guard down (as in the case of dabbling in occult-type "games," seances, Ouija, witchcraft, etc) his minions will get a foot in the door. It may not lead to anything obvious such as what you or I experienced. It can manifest in a myriad of ways which lead to destruction. At any rate, thanks for sharing your story!

Broken families cause far, far more damage than most people will admit. Sure, there are a bunch of us who came from divorced parents, blended families, childhood trauma, and we didn't turn into mass murderers, but along with the soaring divorce/single parent rates now, there is also less support from the community, more isolation, declining social mores, increased violence in every conceivable area in kids' lives, widely-available obscene/violent Mediaography (which causes its own brand of misery), sky-high substance abuse, easier access to firearms - it all leads to the perfect storm of rage and a lack of conscience. Guns are most certainly NOT the crux of the problem, though they clearly provide a means to great harm - but until our society learns what love really is, what marriage really is, what selflessness really is, and begins valuing and strengthening the nuclear family unit, this is all going to get much worse.

I don't think there is any one singular cause of these shootings, but I believe one of the most obvious and stark causes is the breakdown of the family. Missing fathers and America's broken boys - the vast majority of mass shooters come from broken homes | Fox News

Rhetoric like that doesn't help. There are something like 300 million guns in the US, so even if all law-abiding gun owners turned over their firearms, there would still be tens of millions of guns out there, and unarmed citizens would be at the mercy of armed criminals. I have firearms that I've been trained to use, and I store them securely and safely, while also having quick access to them should I need to defend myself or my family. The way things are now, banning guns would do nothing except ensure that only criminals have firearms.

The kinds of nurses who immediately shame another nurse, yell, make a huge deal out of a mistake, are the nurses I would fear the most. They are prideful yet insecure, and they have a clear need to lift themselves up by tearing another nurse down. I experienced this as a new nurse in Labor & Delivery. I had a good preceptor (tough though) but other nurses tore me down for every tiny thing, for asking questions, for not knowing every answer. I was a new nurse! I didn't know everything (neither did they, but they liked to act like they did). I needed experience and support, not constant negative criticism. Needless to say, I didn't last long in the hospital. God was good to me and I found a series of good (better) jobs, more suited to my personality and without all the shrews and harpies who thrive on horizontal violence. I just don't get that mindset at.all. We are all in this together - let's support and help each other and make the workplace a BETTER place to be, not hell on earth.

Whoa! That's really good. I'm guessing you have to be really good at IVs... I'd need some refreshing. :)

Also, don't forget Nurse Case Management. Like Julie above, I work with clients on a Medicaid waiver program, but I work with medically fragile children. I oversee their aide or nursing services, respite, assist with coordination for needs such as DME, home or vehicle modifications, etc. Case Management has been a perfect nursing job for me. I work from home 90% of the time, and see clients in their homes the rest of the time (every 90 days). It's a great job.

I don't think you would bore anyone with your stories. This stuff is fascinating. The tall skinny thing in a dark open field in Minnesota is pretty freaky too, LOL. I love how this thread just keeps going... and going... and going...

I work for a Case Management agency contracted by the state. It is called RHA Health Services - look for it in your area.

i fall easily into this category and suffered greatly when I began my new grad position on the Labor & Delivery floor of my hospital. My inability to be perfect messed with my head really badly, and also made time management nearly impossible. I didn't realize my personality type was sabotaging my job but in hindsight it most certainly was. I am very grateful to say that God has provided for me many times over since then. I worked PRN in a family practice office, while working recovery for a free-standing Endo clinic, which was great. My next job was as a field staff supervisor for a home health agency - learning policy, writing plans of care, doing supervisory visits to clients' homes, teaching CNA level orientation, etc. Great job for me. That segued into the job I have currently - RN Case Manager for disabled children on a Medicaid waiver program. I work from home the majority of the time and see clients in their homes every 90 days. It's a lot of computer work and my assessment skills have become stronger (it's a whole different kind of assessment from the ones you would do in a hospital though). There are many options for nurses who may not be suited to hospital floor nursing. Case Management has turned out to be my thing, and I urge you to look into it. I wish you the best!

Honestly, that sounds like one of the first levels of hell. There are most certainly any number of other nursing jobs you can get.

Is there an overseeing doctor? Can you ask him to write orders for this OTC med for the men? Are the men not able to choose to use OTC meds themselves while in the facility? I have to say, I am very rusty with this because I do case management and have for a long time, so I don't know the policies or regulations with OTC meds in a facility like that one. You sound like a kind and compassionate nurse though.

I've read some comments but there are so many, I can't read them all. Instead I'll just say this: I could have written this post. I went to nursing school at the age of 42, after being a stay-home mom for 17 years. I sailed through nursing school, graduating with honors. Clinicals were sometimes scary, but mostly I got through fine. I landed a job offer in Labor & Delivery 6 weeks before graduation. I was thrilled. I passed NCLEX with 75 questions on my first try and I was done. I oriented on days (but was hired for nights). My first patient had a post-partum hemorrhage and it was horrific. Of course my preceptor and others took over and did what needed to be done, but I was blown out of the water. I kept at it, but I stopped sleeping. I was terrified on the floor. My coworkers were NOT supportive or kind. I would get in trouble for spending 20 minutes with a new mother teaching her to breastfeed. I would hesitate to give meds because I was paralyzed that I was going to OD someone. I was miserable and riddled with anxiety anyway, but then I started on nights. My preceptor told me I'd probably do better on nights because it was usually less busy (or at least, didn't have doctors and family members everywhere). It was okay, not horrible, and I think I would have eventually gotten it, but I was still not sleeping. I would come home after 13 hours and take a bath and try to sleep, only to "nap" for maybe an hour or two, then would be wide awake. I would freak out because I knew I had to be back at work at 7pm and I was completely exhausted. I was coming up on 90 days, and I knew there was no way I could keep doing this. I begged our nurse manager to find a position on days for me, but she said there was no way. I thought about transferring to days on another floor, but honestly, I felt like a miserable failure and I had fallen into despair. I had lost 25 lbs in 6 weeks and I was paralyzed with anxiety. Very unlike me, I made the decision to walk away. I have never felt more desperate or useless in my life. After a couple of weeks of thinking I had wasted years of my life, and then digging myself out of the pit, I started looking for work. I prayed a lot. Over the next few months, this is how it went: I did flu shot clinics for several weeks, then I took several PRN jobs in GP's and Pediatrician's offices and did that for several months, then I got a job as a recovery nurse in an endo office (they had a separate endo clinic) which was perfect for me, because the risks were very low, and then, after a few months of that, I was hired as a staffing supervisor at a home health agency. I got that job because I was told my intelligence and excellent communication skills were more important than my experience. I taught orientation to CNAs, I wrote policy (which took a lot of Board of Nursing research), I wrote plans of care for CNA-level patients, I did supervisory visits to CNA level patients, I interacted with pcp's and other health care team members for our clients, etc. I did that job for 2 years, and then for many reasons I won't go into now, I had to leave that job to home school my youngest son for a year. Once our school year was over, I thought I would never find another good job again, but within a week, I was hired as an RN Case Manager for a Case Management agency. I oversee the Case Mgmt for disabled children on a Medicaid Waiver program. It is a dream job. I work from home, I set my own schedule, I see my patients every 90 days in their home, I do all the annual work to keep them on the program, I make contact with their PTs, OTs, Speech therapists, DME companies, etc. I have been blessed beyond measure, but I believe God led me to nursing for another reason. I volunteer my nursing services at a free clinic on weekends, and I have been trained in obstetric ultrasonography and I volunteer in a pro-life pregnancy center a couple of days a month. Saving the lives of unborn babies has been the joy of my life. I guess I'm writing this to tell you that you are not alone, and you are NOT a failure. When you say "floor nursing is not for me" I know exactly what you mean, and I relate 100%. I am not stupid, and I am not a quitter. I knew I was in the wrong place almost immediately, and when it became clear it was not working for me at all, I had to walk away. I wouldn't advise everyone to just quit. In fact, there are many times I've regretted not pushing through the pain and fear and doing what I had to do to make it work. But at the end of the day, I found what I am good at and what is a blessing to me, and you will too. Don't give up.

Can you elaborate on "writing gigs"? What sort of writing jobs can a nurse have? Thanks in advance.