GHGoonette

Yes indeed, PC is ruining our lives. Not just in America, but everywhere, and not just Christmas. I read today that in a certain British city council, sex education now has to include the gem that "boys can have periods too", so as not to offend those who are "trans gender" men or binary. Starting with 8 year olds, mind. Then there is the Morris dancing. An action group complained about a demonstration of this ancient practice traditionally held at the local fair, because some of the dancers wear (gasp) blackface. The tradition of blacking one's face for the dance presumably is some tradition related to the old origins of the dance, probably to do with its Moorish roots and chasing off evil spirits. This bunch of fruits actually succeeded in the dancing being banned from the fair. So now, we have a whole new generation of Mother Grundies ruling over us and dictating what we shall deem right and proper. It's a new intolerance, and so far it's getting worse than any that went before.

I'm not sure what Nurse Beth is hoping for here, or if there's anything further for me to add to some of the excellent comments already made, but there is one cardinal rule which all nurses should follow. If you don't know what it is, or what it's used for, don't give it. If you can't find out what it's used for and there's no one there to tell you, don't give it. And if you have given any elderly patient a medication which may have unknown effects, put them on a monitor. Even a simple SATS monitor would have been screaming the place down, the moment her breathing stopped. I have to question the level of pharmacological knowledge of any nurse who does not recognise a word that ends in Curium or Curonium as being of the family of neuro muscular blockers. Only succinylcholine does not conform to that formula, although its other name, suxamethonium, has some similarity. A horrible death, wholly preventable, and I grieve for her family and pity the nurse.

Hey Davey! Nice to virtually see you. I wonder if he's not due for a dementia evaluation? Could be EOA.

As to the dangers of addiction, it's probably less addictive than nicotine. People taking risks to partake? Just remember Prohibition.

Typo it is not, mmmmm. This thread you will read. Strengthen the Force, it will. Yessss! Yodaspeak - pg.3 | allnurses

Nurse, please tell me there was LSD in my premed....

Fascinating, this thread is still going! Here's my experience: My boss always provides the basic stuff for tea and coffee, but I could never tolerate chicory, so I've always brought my own 100% coffee to work. What a disaster. I found my coffee jar depleted after 3 days. Then I started bringing my own french press and ground coffee to work, and that solved the problem. Then I started a healthy eating regime. Found I couldn't bring low-carb, low-cal foods to work without SOMEONE raping them! Seems wherever you are in the world, people disrepect you and your belongings.

How much money did you say you needed to start your own Garden Service business?

PLEASE tell me you're not here to prep me for my inguinal hernia repair!

I don't care how stinky it is, bring me the hair removal cream!

My husband doesn't like me posting on ANY social media, but only because I burn the food.

You do realise this is a very non-specific question, don't you? OF COURSE it's a good career if you want to meet men! Men of all ages, professions, degrees of eligibility and attractiveness! Of course,most of them are off-limits by reason of their being patients, and others, especially doctors, who are either already married or who you wouldn't touch with a ten-foot barge pole. Then again, if you're extremely lucky, you might just get to meet a male nurse who is just the right age and sexual orientation for you, and you might just hit it off and go on to be happily ever after. I do know a few nurse couples like that, but they're few and far between. So yes, you will meet thousands of men during your nursing career, but you'll have to be very lucky indeed to meet your soul mate.

In South Africa, we are far from having mandatory flu vaccinations imposed on any category of health care workers. However, I am an advocate for the wisdom of getting my annual shot, but I have heard numerous arguments against it. Primary among these is, of course, "I once had one of those and I got flu worse than ever before". Probably because they were incubating the virus at the time. Another one which left me somewhat gobsmacked was "I heard about a married couple who went every year for their vaccination, and now they both have Alzheimer's". This from a colleague RN. In answer to the questions: 1: I always try to get my annual shot, but sometimes I forget, and once I had a raging bout of flu just as it was released and was warned against getting the shot by a doctor. 2: As explained, no, not in South Africa, and is unlikely to become so, at least not in the foreseeable future. 3: No concerns. On the contrary, it's nice to walk symptom-free among all the sufferers! 4: No, and I'm not likely to.

True, but boring. Very boring.

Here's the South African version: it's been around for quite a while, as it's the same one I recited at my graduation ceremony: Nurses' Pledge of Service Short,sweet and to the point. I like the one elkpark posted, though. Very nice.

Yeah well, now you're not talking so much about uniforms as distinguishing devices. My country still uses the old epaulettes to designate an RN, except in theatre. Regardless what colour uniform the nurses are wearing, the RNs wear maroon eps. Used to be the ENs wore white eps and the ENAs had distinguishing badges, but in an ever-increasingly PC conscious and consequently petty world, these have been phased out. I personally think it was a dumb, unnecessary move, and remains proof positive that those charged with making decisions on our behalf are not always the best qualified to do so.

Ooh - nastiness creeping in. I'm so glad menses are no longer a problem for me. My heart truly goes out to my colleagues in Theatre who have to stand, sometimes for hours at a time, without the opportunity for a toilet break. Fortunately for them, many of the theatre smells mask any unpleasant odours that might start to emanate from an over-full sanitary towel... Even more fortunately for them we don't wear white scrubs.

Just to be clear on this, are we referring to scrubs, ie pants and tops, or are we talking about the real old-fashioned dresses? Because if it's the dress you're talking about, then pantyhose will almost certainly be mandated. There will also probably be exclusions as to what shoes you are allowed to wear as well; when we still wore white dresses (made of 100% cotton and creased like you wouldn't believe) we had to wear brown or navy lace up shoes. That was still in my student days. The Rns were allowed to wear court shoes. Scrubs, however, are very comfortable and I wouldn't be bothered about which color they were. I think the biggest question is, who's going to wash the things? No getting away from it, we come into contact with fluids that stain, and which don't wash out easily. If the company is going to cover the laundry bills, then fine. However, before letting any hospital mandate what you're wearing, you should insist on a consultative process in which the nurses first debate about what is the most practical, and long-term cost effective choice, and then come forward with their decision. Non-nursing personnel should not be determining what nurses should wear. They don't know what the job entails, they don't know what our working conditions are like and half the time they don't even research the type of material that would be suitable.

Yes, the L&D should be equipped with a dedicated theatre for c-sections and other obstetric related procedures. Many smaller hospitals, like ours, do not have such a feature, unfortunately. The incidence of HIV also affects our c-section statistics, in that it increases the number of elective or planned caesars. Obviously, even if our L&D had its own caesar theatre, it would not be practical to utilise it for a number of c-sections following one after the other.

Oh, I don't know, don't rule out the nurses' change rooms when there's a bug going around....

I've recovered babies, but not newborns. They are usually taken straight to NICU from theater. Might be useful if you want to lend a hand after an emergency c-section.

How many of your patients are children? What percentage are still intubated when you receive them? Are they breathing? If extubated, are they maintaining respiration unaided? I asked a similar question a couple of years ago regarding the 2:1 ratio, and was told that it was "guideline only". I believe the NSW (Australian) staffing ratios calls for 1:1 if the patient still has an artificial airway in situ, and given the high acuity of PACU patients, even 2 staff members to 1 patient may at times be called for. A big question for all anaesthesia providers, to say nothing of the patients themselves and their families, is "Who is watching over me/my patient/my loved one?"

I thought the ad said "Giant Sale", not "Giant's Sale"!

Everyone warned me nursing would cut me down to size, but I didn't take them seriously....

Oops, just re-read my post! Not Norcuron, that's another neuro muscular blocker! NALOXONE! Also known as Narcan, opiate reversal agent, but you should know that! Sorry for the blooper!