Tadpole

Hello, Just came here to blow some steam off. I just put in a three day stretch with a chronic pain patient assigned to me that was a royal pain in the behind to take care of. This patient was on our floor for a ORIF of her knee. She also had a hx of fibermyalgia and was on all kinds of pain meds and narcs and junk to keep her zoned out most of the time. I tried my best for the three days I had her as my patient to take very good care of her and meet her needs, but for the most time she was very rude and nasty to me. It did not matter what I did, I could never do enough nor could I do it right. Here is the question I would like to put out there: Why do these docs keep ordering all of these highly addictive substances for these folks? I know that when I go see my doc he is very conservative about pain killers and does not want folks to become addicted to them. He will give you something for pain, but he won't keep ordering it over and over again for you. He also looks for alternative medicines to give to you that will do the same thing but are not addictive. Another question to throw out there: Why are most chronic pain patients "nasty" to deal with? They always have "attitudes" with the nursing staff. Most are downright rude to everyone who takes care of them. Many do not know the words "thank you" and are very demanding and critical of your care to them. Sorry if I sound like I am not compassionate. I really am. I just came here because this is a safe place to sound off about these issues. If anyone out there has some answers, please, please post them. I just want to understand better why these people act the way they do. Thanks.

Question: When your accuity ratings are reported to staffing at your facility, are they taking them seriously :) and staffing accordingly or are you feeling like they are just blowing them off? Curious to see how others feel about this one.

Hi Everyone Out There. I am new to this site and a recent RN graduate. I currently work as a med-surg nurse at a busy county hospital. In the future I would like to have a career as a wound care and ostomy nurse. Anyone out there got any good solid advice for me on how to proceed with my choice? Thanks.

Pet peeves....Nurses who like to cut down other nurses. Come on now, it's bad enough that we are all stressed out and streched out to the max with the high patient/nurse ratios and high accuity factors that we have to deal with day after day. We need to learn to be kinder to each other and a bit more forgiving. I truely believe that each and every one of us are trying to do our best at the jobs we have to do. So let's just get along and make life easier on ourselves.

Yes, I would.

Anyone out there got any helpful hints or tips to share with me about drawing labs from PICC lines when they are stubborn to give you the blood? Thanks