NocturneRN

One of the problems with this whole discussion is that the saying isn't "Look at the patient, not the monitor." It's "TREAT the patient, not the monitor." This distinction is important, because the first version implies that it's an either/or situ...

Here's a less dramatic reason for treating the patient rather than the monitor. I have PVCs----lots of them, on a regular basis. Sometimes I feel them; sometimes I don't. Nurses often get concerned when they see me on a monitor, because they don't ...

I'm an introvert and a pretty obvious one, but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy interacting with patients and staff. In general, being an introvert just means that you're most relaxed and comfortable when you're in your own company. If you feel that ...

I'm currently on the last leg of getting a BSN. (After 35 years in this profession, my employer decided to make BSN's mandatory. Not exactly mandatory, mind you, but just mandatory enough that I'm considered unqualified to work anywhere in the syst...

I just had to mention this: on the list of trending threads, this "Code Blue: What Should I Do?" topic was immediately followed by "Just need to vent for a few minutes."

There's also that old adage to consider, "There's no such thing as bad publicity." Is it possible that this woman said something outrageous with the intention of getting people to tune in to the show? Because, if she did, it worked.

Good point, Kelly.tiller, but I do sort of expect non-nurses to realize that nurses use stethoscopes, at least. I also sort of expect people who watch the Miss America pageant to recognize that it purports to search for and recognize an "ideal of f...

With all due respect, Commuter, was it really necessary to describe the (perfectly reasonable) angry reaction to Ms Behar's comment as being "butt hurt"? Look, I agree with the previous poster that flinging personal insults at her serves no purpose...

She's a professional educator, who most likely has experience being a patient and a hospital visitor. She's just pointing out (as any teacher would) that anything that gets in the way of educating the new nurse is likely to have an adverse effect on ...

Really? I'd interpret from it that she's asking for information. Then I'd provide the information, and help her do the procedure. Problem solved.

Hey, I'm an old nurse, and I don't take offense at the term "battle axe," if the nurse it's being aimed at is in the habit of eating his/her young. I've experienced my share of bullying preceptors, too. One stopped bullying when I broke down and t...

********************* I'm afraid I've got to disagree in this instance. In my workplace, the rule is that you don't interrupt a nurse who's pulling or preparing medications. The preceptor was wrong to interrupt in this, unless she was interruptin...

I once found a 30 mg Dilaudid PCA cartridge in my scrub pocket when I got home. I promptly went back and had someone witness the waste. That would have been a very hard thing to explain if I'd been caught leaving the building with it!

Wow! I'm going to suggest that to the ER doctors and NPs, the next time one of our usual suspects asks for Dilaudid.

Could you just say, "You're in my thoughts"? Most of the time, I think, patients just want to feel that you care about them, and will continue to care about them even after they're not right there in front of you.

I was an unemployed foreign language teacher, doing substitute teaching, and also working as a retail clerk and emergency radio dispatcher. The down side of nursing: I love foreign languages and teaching, and would have loved for them to be my life...

******************* "Pumpkin"? That sounds a bit patronizing.

Talk to your unit's (or department's) clinical instructor. It's not a violation of HIPAA if the purpose of learning the outcome is to improve your nursing skills, and if names or identifying numbers aren't used. I'm an ER nurse, and whenever we tra...

MrChicagoRN, you need to get your terminology straight. Men don't carry purses. They carry "messenger bags." (They also don't tuck in their T shirts, as depicted in that picture, if they have any fashion sense.) What do they call themselves? An...

Well, it's also possible that the unit you work on has a dysfunctional environment. That's a management issue, and there's little you can do about it, except put up with it (or switch jobs, if you get thoroughly tired of it). I was a new graduate ...

I'm going to remind you of what I was told when I was a brand new graduate, struggling in my first nursing job 35 years ago: Your nursing education, as difficult as it was, gives you only enough knowledge and skills to enter the field. At least 60%...

JoseQuinones, it wasn't so long ago that people WERE called "female doctor" or "female lawyer" (or, worse, "lady lawyer". Eventually, though, it became so common to see women in the medical and legal fields (in something other than a clerical positi...

I agree with PsychGuy. I work in an ER now, but some years ago I worked in psych. The ER is just a holding tank for psych patients: you can't do anything with them; you can't take the time to build a rapport with them; and there are just too many ...

I remember having similar feelings when I graduated from nursing school many years ago, and started on a busy surgical floor. I had 10 patients, with the help of a CNA who had a habit of disappearing into the lounge and knitting. She was a lot olde...

There is no one specific personality type that's suited to trauma nursing. (I know that, because I'm a trauma nurse and my personality is about the opposite of what you'd expect.) But many of my coworkers ARE type A personalities (as someone else h...