jett01

While it is never easy to confront someone in a situation like this it is important to do so. The behavior was inappropriate and was made even worse by the fact that the patient heard it. This is part of being a patient advocate. You want to make sure that you approach them away from patient care areas, keep your cool and focus on how their specific behaviors impacted you and the patient. For instance, you can say something like, "when you said..........I was shocked and so was the patient." "The patient expressed concern that they would not be cared for." You may want to take someone along if need be for support and if the response from the offending nurse is not appropriate then go to their manager. You will have earned some respect even if it may not appear that way at first. Good luck.

I was 39 at the start and very motivated to do well. Work hard and be confident. That will get you most of the way there. BTW, I was the only guy in my class.

Had another fella who had an order for a rectal tube prn with some parameters. He called me in and said he needed it. As I got some things together he rolled over like a little kid with a big grin on his face and said, "boy when they put this in down in the ER that baby cracked like a shotgun!"

One night shift had a patient roll out of bed onto the floor. There were three of us in there talking about the best way to get him back to bed. All the lights were on in the room. I step back from the fallen patient for a moment and the roomate tries to hand me his water pitcher and says, "Hey buddy could you get me some water?" When I responded that we had a guy down on the floor he looks over and says, "Oh, I didn't see him."

Dodge Dakota Quad Cab 4x4 with bedliner and tonneau cover bought new in 2002. Wife drives 2000 Ford Windstar purchased on ebay (saved over $4.000). Picked it up in Charlotte on way back from family vacation to Florida. Runs fine.

Ya wanna hear something funny? I've been asked to apply for a clinical manager position on my floor. It's a union environment too. When I say I've been asked to apply - they came to me, along with several of my coworkers. I'm trying to resist switching over to the dark side.

I get called often (but not harassed thank goodness) on my days off. I simply say no thanks and they move on. I will not run myself into the ground for an employer. Like they care. I look at it this way. There are many opportunities out there. Nursing is my career and I intend to continue with it as long as possible. My current position is only a job ... and if necessary it can be replaced.

BA in Behavioral Science (long ago). Graduated with ADN at age 40. Tough work, but a good move.

Unwind after work with the internet. Enjoy days off with my wife and soon to be 4 year old son adopted from Cambodia. When time permits I go hunting and play church softball. I'll also go out on the links occasionally and lose a few golf balls.

Med-surg/ortho floor since graduation 4 years ago. Trying to figure out where to go next to save my lower back.

Getting surgery now merely delays his goal of playing in college. Playing a contact sport competively (at a high level apparently) with a very unstable knee is an invitation to even more damage that might just completely kill his chances in the future. I tore my left ACL about 5-6 years ago. Heard the pop, limped around a little and never had it checked. I've been increasingly sedentary over the years and it didn't handicap me that much until I tried to play a sport again. The knee buckled within 15 minutes of my first church softball practice. Not an intense workout believe me. The result was a torn meniscus. MRI confirmed and also discoved the ACL tear. In fact, my ACL was totally gone-body just reabsorbed it. Doc told me that without the surgery I could live a sedentary lifestyle but would increase the likelihood of early arthritis. I will be able to play golf again this year, go turkey hunting up and down the steep mountain ridges and will (more importantly) be able to chase my son around the yard this summer. Will be post op 1 year in May. I've been lugging heavy orthopedic patients around for 12 hour shifts since Aug/Sept. Here's another thing. Post-op rehab takes about a year to complete for those returning to competition. The sooner he gets the surgery the sooner he's ready to go in college. Finally, the injury and a bulky brace will almost certainly affect/diminish his performance this year. The scouts will notice and they will notice the brace. They'll have questions. They may want to see medical reports. Unrepaired ACL/MCL/meniscus? Not worth a scholarship. Too much risk. Take the academic scholarship and show up at practice healthy and ready to impress.

You only have one license;you can always get another job.

If you can help it, don't bother doing a dressing change on a surgical patient until after the surgeon has rounded. If you do the change, the surgeon will be there in about 5 minutes to rip it off-almost guaranteed. Nursing care plans are not what drives patient care. There's no time to mess with them much anyway. You can't please everyone. Some days you can't please anyone. The saying that people don't care what you know until they know that you care is mostly true. Often the most significant things you do for people (and what they remember most later) is the "little things". Even on the worst days, what you do matters, a lot. You will change lives, including your own. You probably won't even realize it most of the time until someone tells you. Some of the best lessons you learn will come from people who don't even know that they're teaching you. Watch what others do, good and bad. Adopt the good. Going to the bathroom is less of an issue if you don't stop to eat or drink. There's a lot of healing in laughter if you use it appropriately. Stay away from the desk. The doctors with the worst handwriting complain the most when you call to clarify orders.

Here's a few. A few years back my mother was asking if we had seen the Julia Roberts movie "Sleeping with the enema?" I explained that sleeping and enemas don't go together. During nursing school we were discussing various disorders and the instructor began talking about chorea. I turned to a classmate and said, "if that occurs in your lower extremities would that be South chorea?" Occasionally I bump into former patients dressed (obviously) in street clothes. I've never been good at recognizing people outside a context I'm used to seeing them. My response to these patients is often, "I'm sorry, I didn't recognize you standing up with your clothes on."

$1.70 an hour where I work. How much extra per hour would make it worth it, really?

I work on a med-surg/orthopedic floor and we give toradol often. Usually 30 mg ivp for first dose (depending on age/renal function etc) with subsequent doses of 15 mg q 6 prn. Seems to work better than the morphine for most. I had an left ACL reconstruction in May and obtained better results from the toradol than from my morphine PCA.

I work on a med-surg/orthopedic floor and we give toradol often. Usually 30 mg ivp for first dose (depending on age/renal function etc) with subsequent doses of 15 mg q 6 prn. Seems to work better than the morphine for most. I had an left ACL reconstruction in May and obtained better results from the toradol than from my morphine PCA.

As an aside. My wife and I adopted a little boy (soon to be three) from Cambodia in 2002. I'd like to go back someday. Was only there a week. Very poor country with a sad history. How'd you get involved in Thailand?

Wow! Sounds like she came from the shallow end of the gene pool.

On our 37 bed med-surg/ortho floor RN's can have 4-6 patients of their own and responsibility for an LPN's patient group for a combined total of 10-12 patients. Two RNs must verify initial settings. VS q1h x 8 hrs, q 2 X 16 hrs, then q 4 until dc'd. Any dosage change reverts to q 1h. LPNs can get vs but RN has to verify settings at shift beginning and clear pump at shift end and give any iv pushes of supplemental meds. We generally use fentanyl/bupivicaine. No tele or apnea monitors are used. Settings tend to run from 8-12 cc/hr although they seem to be drifting higher. Toradol or morphine IV tend to be supplemental meds of choice. It seems the more teaching I do with patients about possible epidural side effects the more often these patients develop them. :) We begin weaning TKR pts off epidural on 3-11 shift of day two and pull it in the AM of day three. No duramorph used, just PO meds.

I'm off work now recovering from a torn ACL and meniscus suffered while playing softball. I also like to hunt - a 1200 acre parcel about an hour from where I live. I like to hunt alone usually. In 30 plus years I've had a few falls and other close calls that could have been bad. Guess somebody's looking after me.

Had a chance to watch a total hip recently. Saw for removal of head of femur. Drill for attaching prosthesis to acetabalem (sp? neuro flatulence tonight) Glue gun for cement. Hammer for seating and fit. I forget what else he used. Was interesting. Lots of equipment used and a whole set of different sized prothestics, different types and sizes of screws, etc. available for the doc to choose from. Seeing a total knee later that day was even more awesome. Helped me understand so much more what patients go through and why knee patients seem to have more pain generally than hip patients. Doc added even more equipment for knees, including chisels and different types of saws. Lots of hammering, chiseling, sawing and shaping of the bone for knees.

Coming to the thread a little late but here's my two cents. I worked in the mental health field for about 15 years, I've also been a real estate agent, sold cars briefly and was a mortgage loan officer for about 3 years. The sales positions were taken primarily for financial gain. I soon discovered I wasn't a good salesman and when I did make good money it wasn't very satisfying. So at the age of 38 I sat down to think through what I would do next. At the age of 41 I graduated from nursing school and applied at three places choosing the better of two offers (came with a $15,000 commitment bonus for three years) Here are some of the reasons I chose nursing, in no particular order. There is a need - jobs are readily available. Compared to what I was making in the mental health field with a BA the salary as an RN with an ADN was a significant improvement. There was no commission pay involved. I could go pretty much anywhere in the country and get a job. I can continue my education at any time if I choose. I would be doing something of value, something important. There are many choices within the field of nursing- I can change my career path without changing my field. I expected to be challenged and stretched as a person. I would have specialized skills that not just anyone could claim. I only needed a two year degree to get started. Now it is three years later and I've been a staff RN on a busy med-surg/orthopedic floor in a 232 bed hospital. Is it stressful? Absolutely. Are there politics? You betcha. Do I worry about hurting someone? I hope everyone has a certain amount of that fear somewhere in the back of their mind - I do still. Have I second guessed my decision - sometimes, but only briefly. Did I really make the right choice? Yes. Will I stay on the floor where I am now? Probably not forever. I'm looking at what I want to get into next. I've thought about home health, hospice, the OR. I could always get back into psych. I'm in no hurry, really. I have choices but I don't have to change. Despite all the stress and frustration involved it was the right decision for me. The job seems impossible much of the time. You just can't get everything done every night and some people are quick to point out mistakes. People can be rude - patients, families, doctors, other nurses, etc. There's also the stuff you have to clean up but you get used to that quickly and can go grab a bite to eat right after without a second thought. The thing that repeatedly makes it worthwhile for me is when someone gives me a heartfelt thanks for doing something for them. When someone takes me by the hand with tears in their eyes and says, "I can't thank you enough for what you've done for me" well, how can you top that? I had a hispanic woman recently tell me in broken english and through tears, "You so good for me, God bless you, you family" and then burst into tears again. Every day that I work I've made a difference in someone's life. Some days I come home feeling as though I didn't do a very good job or just had a lousy shift, but looking back at even those times there's something of value in the hours invested. You don't always immediately know the difference you've made in someone's life. I'm not tooting my own horn. These are the moments that get me through the tough times and the saying is true, "you can't truly help another person without helping yourself." I'm positively impacted by these patients. Make the decision that's best for you. I can only say that it has worked for me.

When I was in nursing school one of my first patients was a 91 year old LTC resident. As another student and I were seating him on the toilet, completly naked he smiled and said, "Ya Know more people have seen me naked since I've turned 90 than all the years before."

I've heard the phrase about needing more male nurses often in my 3 years as a staff RN. I take it as a compliment from patients and their families on a job well done. In my fairly rural area of the world patients & families are not yet completely used to male nurses and probably aren't sure what to expect. Maybe they expect me to gruff, less sensitive to their needs, I don't know. It may have something to do with working on an ortho floor with lots of heavy lifting too. Perhaps patients believe I'm less likely to drop them on the floor or something. The thing is the comments I hear come primarily from patients and their families so it is a worthwhile topic.