salsa12

I'm not disagreeing with you, but I think you're missing my point.

D**n! Who has time anymore to check all the orders on everyone, during the 24 hour chart check?? I agree, it is prudent, and may prevent a lot of problems, but, heavens to Pete, if I did this, I wouldn't have a single minute leftover for patient care!

Is there any way you can float down there for a few shifts, or volunteer to pick up a few extra, in the ED, just to get a feel for it? That may be the way to go. Lots of ERs are short on staff and willing to take nurses from outside the department on an "as needed" basis, even without experience-just be sure they are made aware that it is not your normal department. Then you can see how helpful the staff are there, too!

Job flexibility. A lot of us are able to choose the days and the hours we work.

I really admire you for going to the ICU so soon after graduation, but maybe it wasn't such a great idea? You aren't a failure if you go to med-surg for a while, especially as a new grad, and it sounds like you'll be happier and less worried. Maybe that's not what you want to hear, but think about it. You can always go back to ICU, later

Oh, dear-I'm so sorry this is causing you so much grief. If worse comes to worse, find another program, move if you must. You may want to speak frankly with a faculty member that you trust and ask them if this is going to be an issue. Like the previous poster suggested, it probably won't be (when I did my clinicals, I don't think the institutions checked up on me, or knew me from Adam) but you wouldn't want to be halfway through a program and get snagged up over this. This doesn't have to derail your dreams but it may set you back a bit. Good luck!

Gah! It's people like this who make nurses look like baffoons rather then the professionals they are, and I can't believe management puts up with these people. Behavior like that absolutely kills morale and is ultimately harmful to patients. While I'm here, I'm really ambivalent about "killing" someone like that "with kindness". While I've used this technique myself a number of times, because it effectively diffuses the negativity and leaves me feeling like the superior being (which is good) it also doesn't do much to stop the behavior in the long run and in a way you are actually rewarding the person for acting like a jerk.

Good point, thanks.

Yes, it could just be a garden variety sensitivity but you never know for sure. A lot of information regarding chemicals at our work is not readily available. The point of the article was to make the info more accessible.

Yep, your job has run it's course-don't worry, it happens. Time to find greener pastures and good luck-remember the only thing constant in life is change!

Scary-I take it for granted certain chemo drugs are going to be bad, but what really scares me are the everyday chemicals we use without a second thought. The washless hand sanitizer that I use gives me pause-it is causing my skin to be in a constant state of breakdown and I get rashes all the time-not sure if the rashes are related to the cleaner, but it has certainly crossed my mind.

It tells me something that while some doctors pay tens of thousands of dollars a year for their liability insurance, nurses can get theirs for about $100.00. That said, I'm always thinking about the potential lawsuit, like a lot of other nurses. What really spooks me are the potential minefields we must navigate all the time and they don't even occur to us until it may be too late. Having insurance gives me some peace of mind, at least.

Unfortunately, it sometimes takes days to get cultures and/or pathology reports back to even be read. So, the nurse doesn't happen to catch it immediately-what is one more day, I guess? I've taken care of more patients than I can remember who suddenly were put on iso after I had had them while they were not in iso. These are patients that tested positive for MRSA, C-Diff, H1N1, TB...I think I've been exposed at one time or another to all of it. I just try to keep my hands clean and not do anything too unsanitary. There's a lot of folks out in the world who are carriers, too.

Are you thinking of suing?

Well done! Bullies need to be smoked out and not tolerated, like they are in so many places because people are too cowed by them. There should be no tolerance of that kind of behavior, especially in nursing and medicine in general, where more than just egos are a stake! Thank you and keep up the good work.