MissIt

I've been reading a lot about this and think I should be doing ventrogluteal instead of dorsogluteal injections. But I am wondering if anyone has tricks for making sure you have the right landmarks. The procedures say "find the greater trochanter."...

I think for nurses with depression/anxiety, it is most important to find the speciality that is the best fit for you. I, personally, find hospice to be much less anxiety producing than other places I have worked. But, there are people who find it m...

It sounds like it is your particular facility. Are there any other in-patient hospice and/or palliative care options?

Or maybe consider taking an RN refresher class (ours was at the local community college). You get a med-surg refresher and a brief med-surg clinical rotation. I found it very helpful.

In my experience, inpatient hospice is a lot more like floor nursing. Our ratios are 1 nurse to 5 for days. From reading posts on here, it seems like 4-6 is pretty normal for days. Our patients can be very acute and we do a ton of education and fa...

Mine was the same last month, you needed 101 to pass. I used the core curriculum and the study questions and felt I was well prepared. It's been a long time since I've taken a long test like that, so I think that was the hardest part.

Tell them you are going to leave if you don't get help. The office will collapse without you. As long as you're willing to work this much, they won't be as serious about finding you help. Give them a deadline. I do think that if there is any way ...

How often you're on-call depends on the company. We have after hours nurses who do the visits, so our case managers actually don't rotate call. At other companies, the case manager nurses do rotate call. A good question to ask! Inpatient hospice ...

I took time off when I had my babies and, honestly, I wish I had at least done something part time. Being able to work as a nurse, even if I ended up not doing so, makes me feel better because I want to know I can take care of my family if I need to...

If you can't get an inpatient RN position right away, another thing to consider is finding out if the hospice company has any contract beds at local hospitals and try to get a position on that floor. At ours, it is the local hospital's oncology unit...

I work inpatient 7a-7p. Our facility is a mix of acute care and EOL. Mostly, we have patients who have been at home or the hospital and who have acute symptom management needs. I like it because you aren't by yourself; there are other nurses there...

I agree. You don't have to give meds just because they are there. Some people will even prefer to have a little discomfort over the meds at times. Did he sleep okay, seem restless? If he had a comfortable night, you did a good job.

I agree that hospice inpatient would be a great place to start. After that, many hospices have nursing positions in things like quality assurance, infection control, IT, etc.

You get scabies from skin to skin contact. So, it is possible, if your skin touched hers in a place where she is infected. Watch your wrists because it seems like that would be the most likely place you'd have had contact.

It might be useful for you to see if there is an inpatient acute care hospice unit around you. Maybe you could do a few days of your rotation there or at least shadow a nurse and see what that side of things is all about. If you want to do hospice ...

What I've usually done when I was trying to decide "what next" has been to find someone what I want to be doing and see if they'll let you shadow them or at least talk with them about how they got to where they are. You might also want to consider w...

Our public health jobs are on our county website. Just google X county jobs and search all the surrounding counties. Another way to get to know the health department and see what it is all about is to join your local medical reserve corp. It's a g...

Is there anything in particular that is stressing you out? Is it the time management, uncertainty about medication administration, rotating shifts, working so closely with patients? When I started, the rotating shifts really affected my sleep and I...

I drank half a mountain dew and had an energy gel (like runner's use) at 1400 yesterday and was much better, still tired and able to sleep just fine last night, but not struggling during my shift. Thanks you all!

I do realize that I am lucky to be able to work straight days and not have to rotate shifts, that really throws my body for a loop. But, I'm having trouble with the 12 hour days. First, 7a is just too early for me. I have to wake up around 5:30 an...

Thank you , guys. It makes me feel better that I'm not the only one!

Thank you both for your ideas. We definitely get most of our admissions later in the day. Hmmm... maybe staggered start times would be something management would consider. Thank you for the idea.

Very good point about increased respirations with anxiety. Somehow I missed that the respirations were increased.

It's very common to see high temps, sometimes there isn't anything you can do to get them down. It sounds like you did a lovely job trying to keep your patient comfortable. I guess for the breathing, it would depend on what you mean by a tough tim...

I did mine at a school health clinic. It was great! That will be through the health department. Also maybe try free clinics in the area.