SRbear

Doesn't time go by in the blink of an eye........I have not nor do I plan to get back into nursing. But what is keeping me out is this dang fibromyalgia. I did hear back from the board of nursing, instructing me to go to an addictionologist at my expense to determine if I could handle taking the oxycontin and be competent at work. All I could think of was that song..."take this job and shove it....." so, I told them after 28 years of hospital nursing.. I am DONE. It is really a shame that as nurses we are expected to work in pain, work double shifts, work when sick, etc, with no regard to what it is doing to us. I have no great words of wisdom, or answers to any of life's mysteries, but I do know that if we do not take care of ourselves.......who will?

That a hospital hallway is the best place to fart. That diarrhea is hereditary, it runs in your genes. That if you find a man on the hospital floor and he is not unconscious,and you shock him, he will cuss.....a lot. That it is fun to ask new grads about normal lab values, and then ask them what the normal alcohol level is. That if you are trying to put a foley in a woman, and miss, leave it in place, then get new cath and try again, you can then tell where you do not want to put it. If you are putting a foley in an 80 year old maid, try not to miss. Never laugh or snicker when you are putting a catheter in a man And never ever say out loud "would you look at the size of this thing" Treat your pct's with respect and help em out, they could save your butt. Never put an ng tube in, allow it to come out the mouth, and then allow pt to grab both ends and pull.

Thanks for your reply csemgr1. It is not right that the board is all powerful..as we all know power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Who does the board answer to, and who oversees their decisions. What is the worst, I think, is that anytime a boss, co-worker, or any hospital employee can call the board of nursing and file a complaint against you and the board does not tell you who, what, when, where, or why, and they say they do not have to tell you. What country is this anyway. Is this not America......nurses must live in a country far far away, or is that a galaxy far far away ? !

I had to go to the BON about a month ago because I had been reported to them. I was excorted to a small room with a table, and a young man asked me if I wanted to tell him about it. I could only assume it was because I was fired. He asked me to put it all in writing, which I did. I wrote that I was asked to take a urine drug screen because one of the nurses thought that the pain med her patient asked for and that I gave was not needed, that said pt. was not in that much pain..first off, to me, the pain is what the pt. says it is, and if it is ordered, and checking that pulse, resp, and B/P are ok, and that it is time for pt to have the pain med, pt. can have the med. I think because I have been in so much pain since 1991, and how I was made to feel by docs when I did ask for something for pain, I do have empathy with those pt's complaining of pain, and I never make the pt's feel bad about asking for pain med. Sure, some of those asking for pain med may not be in that much pain, but you know what, hospitals are for acute care, not drug rehab. If I observe that a pt. by his actions, does not exhibit those actions that would make you think the pain is really a 9 or 10, then it is my job to discuss my observations with the doctor , but not go on a one nurse crusade to stop all narcotics for certain pt's that I personlly feel are just drug seeking. If pt's are drug seeking, they do have some problems that need to be addressed, but not in an acute care facility. The nurse manager said I gave more narcotics than any of the other charge nurses, (so that must mean I was taking them, right). I did give a lot of narcotics, counts were always right, wastes were witnessed and signed correctly, but some of the meds given were not charted in the nurses notes. Reeason being, most of the time the nurses had not charted on their pt's yet, and said they would chart it later, to keep thngs in order in the notes, or I asked them to give me the chart and I would take care of it when they were charted up to that point. My one big mistake was trusting the nurses to chart the med given, and being so busy throughout the day, that I did not pick up and read every chart to make sure it had been done. I had no incident reports while taking oxycontin, and I think I was well liked as a charge nurse cause I did get out there and help. The urine drug screen came back negative for oxycodone (negative for everything else also, as I knew it would) Since I was negative for oxycodone, the powers that be figured I must have done something to my urine, even though it was taken correctly, with proper chain of command. I tried to explain to the manager that oxycodone does not always show up in a opiate drug screen, as only the true opiates are tested for...heroin, morphine, and codeine, all other narcotics are synthetic, and must be tested for specifically. (I looked this up on the internet, cause it shocked me too) So, my pink slip said i was fired because I interfered with an investigation, not because I was taking oxycontin. But is was let it be known to me that the real reason was because I was taking a narcotic, but that was not put down on my pink slip. So who then decides if I am an impaired nurse ??? No mistakes, other than not going back and checking the charting of pain meds, ( probably about 10 charts total in 2 years), not calling out sick more than a few days in 3 years, no pt. complaints, no complaints from the nurses I worked with, other than a few whines about their pt. assignments, and that no matter how hard you try to make things fair, some nurse is gonna think she got the short end of the stick ! But I did go out of my way to always ask if any of the nurses needed help, how things were going, and if I could do anything for them. And a lot of times it was.."so and so just called for something for pain, and I just sat down to do my charting, can you go give it." And I get fired. Did the nurse that hung a heparin bag on a cerebral bleed pt. instead of aminophyline get fired..NO, even though pt spent 1 week in ICU. Did the nurses aid that was caught making up vital signs get fired..NO, even though she admitted it. Did the nurse that drew up insulin in a tuberculin instead of insulin syringe and give it to the pt. get fired, NO. Did the nurse that hung the wrong blood on a pt. get fired..NO, even though the pt almost died. I could go on, anyone that has been in nursing for any length of time has plenty of stories to tell. Please, I do not mean to sound that I am perfect..I have caught plenty of mistakes that I could have made, but by taking the few minutes to double and sometimes triple check, I avoided a good many of them. I am up this late because my back, hips, and legs are killing me and I can't get to sleep. I miss my job...but do not want to have anything further to do with the medical field. One quick note..the nursing board said they did not have to tell me the charges against me, or who reported me. They would make a decision and sent me a letter. Someone accused of murder at least has the right to know and face his accusers, and get a fair trial by the jury of his peers. I have no rights, I have no idea what the nurse manager told the board, nor exactly what I am charged with...for all I know she might have told them I ran down the hallway butt naked.....at this point, sure wish I had.

I spent 4 days last week going through withdrawal from oxycontin. I thought I would rather have pain every day then to be labeled a drug addict. Now that I think about it, I am not sure why. I have already lost my job, my self worth, my self identity, my ablility to earn a living. If not a nurse, what am I? I go to sleep and wake up in pain every day now, and think it would be ok if I never woke up. I thought that the pain was the worse thing I had to deal with, not the relief from pain.....with the labels and attitudes from nurses in general. I just need to let those who think they would never let someone who, like me, takes (took) a slow release pain med for chronic pain, take care of family members, or God forbid, drive a car, that there was not an IV I could not start, a tube I could not put anywhere, a patient I could not comfort, or a problem I could not solve as a charge nurse. I had no incident reports at work, or traffic violations outside of work. Am I angry.. yes...at myself, at hospitals, at nurses, at the docs, at the world.

When I was asked to go for a drug screen, I told them exactly what they would find. Lost my job anyway. just told them too late.

Do you realize how many people out there are working and driving each day taking pain meds?? Wonder if we could find out the number of oxycontin precriptions filled each year or for other narcotics as well. We as nurses have been pushed over the last years, that pain is the fifth vital sign, and pain is what the patient says it is. Well that is great............but they really did not finish the teaching......like putting the cart before the horse. We need to treat pain..good...but do you stop working because you have pain, do you stop being a mother, daughter, wife, friend. We have some serious thinking and studying to do here folks. you can't treat pain, and then condemn those you treat.

Well....call it gone. When I started at the pain clinic (associated with the hospital, my doc was and still is head of anethesia there), and he started me on oxycontin, I asked him if I could work on it ,and he said yes. For 2 1/2 yrs, I ran into him around the hospital, he would ask me how I was doing. Granted I should have done the homework on the narcotic and working thing. But some anger is kicking in..did the doc not have just a little bit more responsibility in explaining things. He didn't seem to have a problem with me taking care of his patients.

I am sorry to hear about your back cubby. I kept quiet about the narcotic I had to take, and worked for 3 years as a charge nurse on a large m/s floor, and did a good job. Some of my at work nurse friends knew I was taking a narcotic, somehow nurse manager found out. Who knows? Anyway, BON, is now saying I violated nurse practice act.. NO way I can think of to fight this, looks like that little piece of paper that says R.N. ... gonna go in the shredder. So keep it quiet, work to pay your bills, and heck, you can even pay some of mine !! The very best of luck to you, and wishes that your pain will decrease.

Thanks so much all for the responses, and wishes that I felt better...so do I ! I also have that wish for those with chronic pain..cause ya just don't know what it is like to wake up each day, knowing that pain is your constant companion, unless you have been there yourself. I thought for years if I could just find a doctor that would give me that 'magic pill' that would stop the pain, everything would be ok. Well I finally did find a doc that gave me oxycontin, and the pain was relieved. But that 'magic pill", though it helped the pain and allowed me to move and work, created it's own set of problems..one being I lost my job last year. Funny...I can't move or work unless I take it, and I can't work because I do take it. Have a question...2 things I am unfamiliar with, FEMLA, ADA (mdfog10 mentioned these), what does this stand for and what the heck is it?

So, if nurses have chronic pain, they can't work if they take narcotic pain medication, so either they have to quit, or work in severe pain. Dang it..what an option. The irony is, most of my pain has been caused by being a nurse ! Then could someone please explain to me how Dr. House (yes, I know it is TV) can take lortab tablets while working in the ER?

I am currently, and have been, for 3 years, taking oxycontin for chronic pain. My question is, Is is legal for a nurse to work while taking pain meds? I am unable to work, or hardly move unless I get some relief from the pain. A nurse friend told me it is against the nurse practice act for a nurse to care for patients while under the influence of narcotics. Looks like I will have to stop working if this is the case. I have been a nurse for 27 years...what else could I do? What else would I want to do? answer to that last question is easy..I don't want to do anything else. Thanks for your time, and any help or suggestions.

well hey ya'll, and welcome to Georgia !! Last time I checked it out, Kennestone Hospital had lots of openings. Pay scale should be somewhere in the neighborhood of about $20.00 to $23.00 per hour, day shift.

I took call for thanksgiving....wednesday evening at 6pm, the office called and said I had a start for thursday, without going into detail..everything they told me was wrong, from how to do wound care, to pts. insurance. We only have 1 HHA working at the moment and she has been out all week...who knows who is bathing any of these patients. Last Monday, I finally got the 485's for my patients, after seeing those patients for weeks, and that had made it very hard for me to know what to chart as far as goals, and to know what to teach. As this way of charting is so different than in the hospital, I need all the help I can get. I still do not know how to schedual the patients, and have been asking for the start of care dates and frequencies on each pt., and even now that I have the 485's, I know some of the frequencies are wrong. It is truely such a mess. But I am going to stick this out for awhile...not let them walk all over me, give me too many pt's. to see in a day, or make my life miserable. So there !!!!!!

First, let me say, I have applied to a hospital...but it seems in the atlanta area, there is not that much of a shortage of nurses, and I need to believe that, because the alternative thought would be that no hospital wants ME. I had quit my last job due to some burnout, mostly because of the manager of that unit. I was at home for 2 months, thinking I would be getting calls from all the hospitals..this HH company was the only offer I got. I did go in with a good attitude, and glad to be making some money again. Maybe I did go into HH nursing with very unrealistic ideas of what HH would be like, maybe I did have the wrong conceptions of what HH nursing was like......but have I ever been slapped in the face with the realities of it ! And I do have a very stubborn streak, and I know I can do this job...it has just not clicked with me yet, how. And after reading the posts here, and just with some good common sense, I realize this company I work for is not the best, and I want to think this is the worst run office in HH, because if there are many more offices/companies run like this, HH is in serious trouble. More ranting in just a bit....need coffee.....