SCRN1

You can't judge a person's pain level based on whether they're sitting in a recliner watching TV, talking on the phone, laughing, eating, etc. I have had to have numerous orthopedic surgeries, including two total knee replacements on opposite sides of one year. Following those surgeries, I was prescribed Percocet. During the time of the knee surgeries, I was on Percocet following the meniscus removal and until many months following my 2nd total knee...so over a two year period. I never took more than I was prescribed. I was able to do all the things that patients do that nurses accuse of lying about their pain level. I'm also a RN and have heard many nurses being so judgmental. Life does go on, even while in pain. I suffer daily with chronic pain and am currently on no pain medication (my choice because I want it to work when I have another surgery), but I can't just crawl in a corner and let life pass me by because I hurt. Also, because I never took it more often than prescribed, I never took it if I could tolerate the pain, and I never took more than was prescribed, I never became addicted to it. So, instead of the GOVERNMENT cracking down on pain medications and leaving those who need it have a tough time getting any relief, I think it should be left up to the doctor to prescribe if they feel a patient needs it. As others said, it's not your job to judge.

I've been using my pump for over a year now. I do like it much better than having to take injections and I love having more freedom with when, where & what I can eat again. Yes, I have a cell phone. But I don't wear it.

To answer the question as to how she got the insulin is that it's very rarely locked up on our floor. Actually, it sits right out in a basket most of the time on the counter where we draw up meds, recheck meds pulled from the pyxis, etc. I don't know how we've gotten by with this for so long. But that's how she got her hands on it and helped herself. I have verbally told my NM about all of this. She's always saying how much no one is perfect and beyond making a mistake. It's like she is trying to discourage us from writing anyone up and the people who complain about anyone end up getting talked about. So far, no harm has come to anyone and I hope it never does. But if she does one more thing outside of what she is qualified to do, I will write her up. I told my NM that it scares me that what she does could cost me my job and my license. I told this tech the other day that she shouldn't be calling herself a nurse until after she finishes nursing school (having a hard time in it) and passes the NCLEX and gets her license. I informed her that it is illegal in this state to call yourself a nurse if you aren't licensed and should something happen to someone who believes her that she's a nurse, she could be sued. I caught her allowing the EMTs to give her report when they brought us a new patient. I informed them that they needed to give the report to that patient's nurse. The tech went on to say, "I am a nurse!". So, one of the EMTs went on to tell her anyway...didn't even pay attention to the title on her badge. Luckily, the charge nurse walked in at that moment and witnessed the same as I and told them, "you can't give report to her. She's not a nurse. She's a tech". Later, this tech came up to me and told me it makes her so mad for someone to say she's not a nurse. That's when I told her about it not being legal to call herself a nurse in this state unless she is a licensed nurse. She said she is licensed. I told her, "but you are not licensed in the United States. Therefore, you are not yet a nurse here."

My question is about nursing in 2008. I think we all have had to learn the history of nursing while we were in nursing school. My main concern with this (other than hearing her talk about it) is that she is misrepresenting herself to patients, who believe that she has the same qualifications as a licensed nurse here and will allow her to do things she should not do. She has also helped herself to giving someone an insulin injection after checking their blood sugar, has turned off IV pumps when they were beeping & forgotten to tell the nurse, and many more things that she should not be doing.

no, i doubt it. the oxygen was just the latest example of why i don't think she's the equivalent of a nurse here. she says all kinds of things that make me wonder. she knows nothing about any medications, she didn't have to take any of the kinds of classes we do here, like anatomy/physiology, microbiology, pharmacology, any of the prerequisites, etc. she just said that the nuns woke them up early and walked with them from room to room while they practiced their skills. from how she sounded, they basically only did all the things that a tech here can do. she has commented before that a nurse over here is more like a doctor than the nurses in germany.

We have a nurse tech who is from Germany. She's forever telling everyone...other staff & patients...that she was a nurse in Germany but the United States won't let her practice nursing here without going back to school and earning a degree here. She is currently in her first semester of an ADN program. From a lot of the things she says and does, we don't think she really went to the kind of nursing school we have to go to here. She says she spent 4 years in nursing school, being taught by the nuns. I asked her just yesterday if she had to take classes like Anatomy/Physiology. She avoided giving the actual answer, but just said, "maybe our school was a little different than here". So, that told me NO. The other day, she came to me and said, "that patient said they couldn't breathe good, so I turned their oxygen up to 6". I told her to NEVER do that again and explained why. I could go on & on. I (and others) are really getting sick of hearing her talk about being a nurse and how good she is at being a tech. She does get her vitals & baths done quickly and is good about many things AS A TECH. But she also refuses to do anything else with patients that aren't assigned to her. She will sit & read magazines if no one is available to listen to her tell how good she is. I've told her before that they aren't just "your patients/my patients"...that they all have needs and if someone else is tied up with another patient and someone else isn't busy, then that person needs to attend to the needs of the other patients. She also loves to say, "I'm just here to help the nurse with the patient's I'm assigned to. If other techs can't do their work, then that nurse needs to do it, not me." Anyway, back to my original reason for writing this post...does anyone know if the requirements to become a nurse in Germany is different than in the US?

Patient's are put on Plavix after having a heart cath with stents being placed. But, they should not take it within 5-7 days before having a CABG. If they are already on it, our patients usually remain in the hospital until they have been off of it for that long...called a Plavix washing. With this patient taking it, it cost them an extra day in the hospital. On our PCU floor, that's at least $5,000.00 per day. If the insurance company refuses to pay for that day because of a med error, then the hospital may have to eat that cost and may be a big reason you are being fired. I'm so sorry to hear this has happened to you. I agree with the other poster...I would've called the doctor too to verify that the Plavix was ordered. Even if it was, it's still the nurse's responsibility if they give something ordered when they know it's not safe. I think you have learned a valuable lesson with this and wish you luck.

Congratulations on getting your life back!! Good luck working your new shift! I've worked all shifts and think that has got to be the busiest shift of all because it's usually when we get the most admissions in any of the hospitals I've worked in. Positive side of that is that is that it seems to make the shift go by faster. Now that my kids are old enough to drive themselves to school and anywhere else they need to be, I wouldn't mind working that shift since my body clock would like it more. But where I work, we only do 12-hr shifts. So, I guess you could say I do work half of that 2nd shift, lol.

Regardless of whether or not it was from latex (which the straps are rubber instead of plastic), I still think it's something in them that she is allergic to. I know there was one other person who said that they also had that kind of reaction. But if it's something that anyone can get, just think about how many millions of pairs of those flip flops have been sold and there's only these two we've heard had a reaction? If it was something that was causing it to most people, it would've been all over the news. Also, I don't think she should sue Walmart because of an allergy. Anyone can develop an allergy to something at any age even if they've been exposed to it over and over all their life. If someone is allergic to peanuts and doesn't yet know it and goes into Walmart to buy peanuts do you think Walmart will give them a free allergy screening before allowing them to buy them?

Where are you applying? Are you applying at hospitals? I can see having a hard time finding something at somewhere like an office without experience or if it's a specialty area somewhere. Have you tried applying for Med/Surg at a hospital? If you could get at least a year's experience there, it may help you out getting something else.

That is horrible. But I wonder if it could be from a latex allergy instead of reaction from lead. I didn't think contact with lead could be that fast. They used to put lead in white gold jewelry and I never heard of anyone's skin breaking out that fast from jewelry unless they had an allergy to something in the metal.

I don't know how long it takes, but here's a link where you can call and ask them. http://www.nursingboard.state.nv.us/contactinfo.htm I'm considering taking on a travel job there. Maybe we'll run into each other sometime.

I don't think 4 weeks is long enough for a new grad either and 2 weeks at night is just scary!! I've worked nights myself for years and there have been many nights I was busier then than I've been on days. It sounds like you're precepting the same nurse I currently am. She dwaddles when she knows there's an IV to be started, a dressing to be changed, etc. Her excuse is, "I haven't started my charting yet and I need to get this done". No more letting her off that easy! I've told her the charting can wait, even if it means doing it after she reports off at the end of the shift, but the patient needs take priority. She didn't like that, of course. But, oh well, that's the way our job goes. Yesterday, when we were talking about a patient's dressing change that needed to be done on a Stage 4 decub, she asked me, "who's going to do it?". Without pause, I said, "you are". I heard her saying something about it later to our nurse manager. I laughed and said, "I wasn't gonna let you out of that one" but pointed out that we didn't push her out there on her own. (I stood right beside her assisting and giving her step by step instructions, while there were two other nurses also helping to hold the patient on his side and also assist.) She's been with us for over a month now...with me the past 3 weeks...and she's still not ready to take 4 all by herself. I don't think she even realizes all the things I'm doing for her that she will be expected to do alone once she's off orientation and I keep trying to remind her when she says, "I'm already doing something", that soon, she won't have a preceptor as a back up and now's the time to learn to handle a load by herself. She's only up to 4 patients at a time (with LOTS of help) and needs to get up to handling at least 6 because there could be days when she'll have 8.

I've also seen them at Uniform Advantage on Hwy 378 in West Columbia and at Adams Bookstore on Assembly Street.

Is anyone else doing this where you work? I work per diem at a local hospital to a particular floor. They recently just started doing BID shift there. Actually, those shifts start in Sept., but we just had to start bidding online for them this past week. The way it will work is that the Nurse Mgrs go ahead and fill in the schedules using only staff with benefits and agency nurses. After that is done, the "holes" in the shifts are entered into the computer and then per diem nurses and any other nurse wanting extra shifts go in and bid on those shifts. They had started this at another hospital I worked at but it went a little differently. Instead of the NMs filling in the schedule with regular staff & agency, they also included their per diem nurses. THEN, whatever was left over went online. Does anyone have any idea how this may end up working out? I have a feeling that if all of us per diem nurses are going to have to race each other to the computers in order to get the shifts we want and then not get them, some of us may start looking for work somewhere else after awhile. There are lots of per diem nurses at this hospital and I think the hospital may be shooting themselves in the foot by going about this the way they are. It's like they're saying agency is more important than the per diem nurses who've been loyal to their floors. Going agency is looking more attractive to me now...in addition to a better chance of getting the shifts I want, I'd also get paid more AND with benefits. Hmmmmmm!