Indy LPN, LVN

What makes a glove sterile is not how it fits, but how it's sterilized. That lady is handing you some weird BS, in my opinion. My hands are tiny, and maybe some XS non-sterile gloves fit decently, but it would take a size 4 sterile to fit me. I pu...

You could call them and ask, since they made the job offer, would another unit in the hospital consider hiring you? It's worth a shot.

I'm not too keen on the chloroform, but the rest of it sounds like it would do the trick. I'd wake up three days later, on earth or in heaven, and presto! Cough is gone!

My favorite song to hear on the way to work: "The ****** is Back" by Elton John. And sometimes I mangle a Johnny Cash tune: "golightly on the ledge babe, golightly on the ground... I'm not the one you want babe, mag citrate's where it's found" Las...

Ha! That's the first time I heard AIDET mentioned outside of my hospital! It's an entire program that basically means smile at people you pass in the hallway and talk nice about the oncoming shift. Seriously.

Tell your coworkers to mind their own business, wear something that moves with you when you bend, squat, walk etc and does not ride up or fall down, and wear a top that comes down to about the hip line so that it camouflages it a bit. Whatever that ...

I don't really have any complaint with the CIWA protocols, I am grateful they exist and enable me to sorta get a handle on the ETOH'ers when they decide it's time for withdrawal. It's a lovely thing. What I really dislike are the patients! This i...

Also in the epic category: a 3 way foley to irrigation that just won't run clear, no matter how much you dump in there. It drives the tech crazy to hear "do NOT touch my foley tonight, I don't care what you see. I can't keep up with it if you do." ...

Hm. A Bard bag with a urometer will hold 4800 cc of urine. Granted, it will be completely round and the urometer will be sticking out and pointing up, but it will hold. Will the hanger-do thing stay on? No. I know this because I helped empty a co...

Once I was in home depot with my hubby and he said "it sure is quiet in here"... and I chastized him for it. "Shh! don't SAY that! I like it this way and now it won't be!!" He looked at me really funny and said, ok honey but we're in a STORE. I ...

I have used Horizon, really old brown Baxters, the colleague- both the triple channel ones and the single channel ones, and now use the sigmas by Baxter. Horizons were ok, except the big "pillow" magnet thing in the middle of its lines would do an a...

Having worked with a number of couples that worked together, I have yet to meet one that was functional. And by working together, I mean same shift, same unit, same days. There is always one that does a larger portion of the workload, it may or may...

Marla, I have faith that you'll get through this okay.

People are afraid to deal with mental issues because they aren't an easy fix, and out of fear, but also from denial. "That is not me, that is not my family, that is dangerous, etc." Then they get upset when it affects them or someone they love and ...

I am one of the nurses who tells people they are not supposed to be "pain free" at all times. I tell preops they are going to have pain, but we will try for taking the edge off. I tell postops it's supposed to hurt. I tell chronics you aren't supp...

Tell them a written report will help you get your shift started sooner, and save them from having to interrupt you once you have gotten started?

There have been quite a few that were memorable. My first DIC patient I wound up sharing with another nurse, we did hour on, hour off for him- the hour out of the room we would snack, pee, chart and watch telemetry a bit. The hour in it was drips, ...

I recommend the Sylvia Rayfield books- one on meds and one on basic nursing. I recommended them several times, to folks who didn't pass NCLEX the first time. They passed using that course. This is only good advice if there is still time to take th...

Fruit of the Loom long sleeved tee shirts are comfy and do help. Also LL bean makes silk undershirts if you have a pricy budget (I don't, well I might could try one but I keep forgetting about them.) Uniform stores sometimes sell jackets out of fle...

I got influenza A this year from a patient, and gave it to my husband before either of us knew what hit us. Our entire household was vaccinated. It wasn't a good week. I shudder to think how it might have been with no vaccine. My daughter took one...

I've seen patients get 80 mg IV Lasix as an IV push, given over oh, ten minutes or so... Of course for those patients, there was backup potassium ordered. There should have been as well, for your patient on a Lasix drip. It takes a day or two to get ...

When I was in school, the focus was on pass clinicals, get good grades. Period. So for some reason I do remember some things about my patients from clinicals, but I couldn't tell you their names and they don't produce much of an emotional reaction ...

And on the practical side of things, don't put solidifier in a full container of nicely acidic bile from the suction thingy on the wall. Seriously. Dump a little down the toilet first, or you'll get chemistry in foamy puddles, then when you're done...

I have learned to ask people to differentiate by saying, ok so does it make you itch, get a rash, or does your throat swell up and give you trouble breathing? If yes, allergy and that's that. If the answer is no, say ok what do you not like about t...

I have had a lot of experience with quads, ALS, etc. I dread them, I find out as soon as I can what things they are picky about and how they want "it" done, it meaning everything, and whether or not they have autonomic dysreflexia and how it manifes...