TylerDurdenRN

IF...you have no kids and no day time commitments like me, just live 7p-7a even on your days off. It really isn't that bad, you'll never fully feel normal on night shift if you revert to normal sleep cycle (day shift sleep pattern), you always will feel like your staying up late working, rather than just plain old working. Plus its healthier on your body.

Why didn't you run the piggyback by gravity after the pump malfunctioned? Seems like that should have been the first step.

Ok so you are pointing out a perceived problem, what is your solution to that problem OP? Its easy to point out a problem but hard to find a solution. I don't think interviews are that bad.

As a Nurse who is a male, I say, Yes, I would marry a Doctor who was female, now only if they were willing to marry a nurse.

I am assuming a lot would have to do with hospitals, and magnet status. That, and the fact that with the influx of new grads, why pick a Diploma/ADN when you have more than enough .....QUALIFIED..... BSN grads applying. Just seems like simple logic for management to me. May not seem fair to some new grads of course, but the logic is very simple. If two new grads apply, have the same GPA, both interviewed well, and basically have the same resume', except one has a BSN and the other does not, who are you going to hire. SP they are making their lives easy by just putting up "BSN required".

I agree with The Commuter. This is my Career, it pays the bills, I do it for the paycheck, I wouldn't do it for free, if I won the lottery I'd quit. That doesn't mean I don't care about the patients, it doesn't make me evil, and it doesn't mean I am not passionate about my job. I am a caring individual throughout my every daily life no matter the situation, as are the majority of people I know. outside of nursing. But I've bills to pay, school was not free, also the car, rent, ect.... All these, "you shouldn't do it for the money" people need to kinda get a clue. If its not for the money, then do it on your off days for free while you work another job for the money. If its a passion or some calling, that shouldn't seem like a ludicrous remark I just made. I work in a university hospital, the paycheck is signed by the president of the university. So the University pays my salary.

I think its annoying being called a "male nurse", I'm a nurse. I think people will find any excuse or arbitrary reason why someone got the job, promotion or better pay over them, whether it be fact or fiction. It's a classic self defense mechanism.

I can understand your feelings, I worked days and still do, on a 3 weeks nights, 3 weeks days basis (awful I know, but such is life). But I will say, nights is a different kind of busy, you really have to work it a while to understand. I respect both now because of this swing shift I work. Days are crazy indeed, I remember saying that same stuff in my head, but I've seen the other side and realized its just different. I like love and hate both for different reasons, know what I mean?? I'm equally beat from both when I head home. I also want to state that I am extremely mad at myself for posting this, ever since that day every night shift has been awful, very sick unstable patients and multiple admissions and crashes. Like some people in my community read that and said, "you know, them lazy overpaid RN's do nothing but sleep and play games at night in that brand new ICU they built, well I'm gonna eat 3 chocolate cakes, throw away my insulin, turn off my Bipap for 5 nights in a row and turn off my home 02, and I might as well finish this bottle of percocets now, there's 20 left and they expire tomorrow" Touche' Patients. You won this round.

I work ICU and It was interesting, a real eye opener to what happens in the ER before you get them in the ICU, gave me perspective about what to expect and what to prepare for. Because some times things are lost in translation in report, and cross training and now working contingent in our ER lets me know exactly what they look for, what they will know and what they are concerned about most. ER nurses are amazing at dealing with triaging what's important right NOW, and getting things done fast, and amazingly efficient under high amounts of stress. So you should be pumped, being able to see the complete hospital progression from ER to ICU to Medsurg/step down really improves your nursing skills and your understanding of the way different specialties of nursing think they way they do. I volunteered, but they should make it mandatory, for reasons I just stated, no nurse would be worse off, everyone no matter the experience level, would learn something. Good Luck!!!

Amazing, haha, I am going to try that for sure. How low were you able to get it?? You have to give me something to shoot for.

Hospital states 2 RN's on any ICU floor at all times. Orientee RN's don't count. We only had 2. Come on guys I don't need a lecture, I was hoping to hear what other funny things you guys did in this type of situation.

So I worked christmas night in a MICU and we only had 2 patients. Only 2 RN's were on staff so it was a 1:1 ratio with both patients doing well and sleeping most the night. Also we had an RN on orientation so really we had 3 RN's. I was up most the day doing normal christmas visiting so I got minimal sleep. I got tired fast, and I found myself doing the most ridiculous things to stay awake after the conversation ran dry with my fellow employees. I was drinking as much water as I could, hoping it would make me have to pee, which would keep me awake, While in the med room around 2am I did about 50 push-ups, that only made me more tired after about 20 mins. Also I was sore the next day, sad, I have to get to the gym, wait I have to get a gym membership first. I cleaned every room to perfection(and I'm not one of those neat freak RN's) I would sit in my chair and try to sing lyrics in my head word for word, my coworker saw me at one point slightly rocking my head to the beat in my mind. She got a good laugh out of it. I was slightly embarrassed.... I called the ER about 6 times to talk with some former co workers. I think they realized why I was doing it and gave me a few "wake up" calls as they so lightly put it while they all laughed at me in the background. I think I checked on my patient 1000 times, she must have felt I was a pretty creepy nurse walking by that many times. She told me at one point that she wishes she was sicker so I would have something to do.(I love patients with a solid sense of humor) I wrote a record amount of nursing notes. I mean seriously, I had time to proof read them all, Charles Dickens ain't got nothin on my nursing notes. I would pray for a call light to get me up and moving. It was like a race between me and the other nurse when one did go off, like the chair caught fire beneath us both at the same time. I'm pretty athletic, I usually won. I played with the ventilator with the RT for about 15mins to try and learn some more settings and things. If I was a little more bored I might have intubated myself and set up the vent just for giggles. Or research....I've always want to know how awful it must be to be on a vent. I drew some pretty good art on the back of my kardex. Mostly of 3D cubes and blocks with shadows, I'm still drawing at a 1st grade level. I wiped down every surface there was in the whole ICU.(again I'm the farthest thing from a neat freak), It was gross how brown the wipes would be. Seriously, I might turn OCD after that night. In the end we got an overdose at about 530am and it got me wide awake and saved me. I really hope the review this chart and documentation of mine because it was immaculate, I mean, Florence Nightingale never charted or gave patient care the way I did that night. I do rotating shift so it seems like I go through this the first shift on my rotation through nights every time, and looking at all the things I do, I find them hilarious, almost embarrassing, but mostly awesome. SO..........what do you guys do on those days that its not that busy and you didn't get much sleep, I know you all are usually busy as 99% of the time we are too, and never face this, but when you do, what crazy things have you done to stay awake and alert?

In the end will still all pass the Same test. I've seen the difference in classes for ADN and BSN, and those 12 classes (at least at our program) are money makers. Ones like Leadership Issues in Nursing?, Research in Nursing? Ethics in Nursing? Transitions in nursing? I remember all those classes and they were truly worthless. Argue to they death that that are worth something and I will still disagree. I wish I would have done Diploma or ADN and worked while doing an RN to BSN for those 12 classes. Rather than going strait through with my BSN. Because honestly, as a BSN grad, I will be the first to admit that it was more of a pride thing for me, being able to have RN BSN on my badge. Never once did I notice a difference between me and that 2 year diploma grad in leadership skills, ethics, or any of those dumb classes. Those are skills my Dad taught me, not something Penn State University taught me. So I say, it doesn't matter, and my bosses have agreed every time I ask them about it.

"Maverick" nursing made me laugh out loud. Awesome. And I agree, if parameters are not written, and the order says a generic start at X and titrate to maintain MAP > X nursing judgment has to come into play when titrating such drugs. If i saw an order that seemed out of range, especially with a drug like vasopresson, I would not only of course assess the patient for why such an order was written, I would check the MD's notes, call up the pharmacy and ask about dosing and possible adverse effects(we have amazing pharmacists who go out of their way to find everything possible out for us), look in a drug book, and call the MD to ask their opinion. I have no pride about these things, calling the MD's and saying "I don't completely understand this order, please explain it for me" not only educates you, but its just safe for the patient. But seriously, the nurse that went up that high without calling an MD or at least doing some research and talking to other employees, needs to seriously be called into question.

Is this a rhetorical question? It is obvious she was joking, you even stated she was joking, right after you ranted about how much you despise this person. Which to reiterated multiple times. Reading the examples I saw no true disregard of patient safety on her part, lack of professionalism perhaps. You personal opinion that she is no the best worker, and is arrogant, over confident, and rude, are just that personal opinions. I can tell you right now, you are going to run into tons of people the rub you the wrong way, thats a fact. But you have to sit back and ask yourself; Are they causing blatant patient safety issues, are they causing staff safety issues? Or is it a personal vendetta you feel about this person clouding judgement of a situation. She was joking about the camera, I think you already know that. Her comments at work, if they are exactly as you post do come across as pretty unprofessional, but trust me, those type of comments will catch up with her, as more people will get fed up with it over time, and more people you work with will start feeling just like you, and that girl will either have to change, or eventually see the consequences of her actions, either by discipline, or a floor of co-workers having little or no respect for her. If you absolutely must say something, talk to her first, don't go behind her back to MGMT first, thats very petty and unprofessional if you ask me. But be forewarned, going to talk to someone about their own personality, personal comments, or actions is dangerous territory, know how to handle it first. Especially if its someone with a lot of pride, like you have described. But as a very opinionated person myself, I would much rather have my co worker approach me about my attitude, rather than HR, and I know I would try to change, even if i at first would be upset with the person calling me out. In the long run I think I would respect them for not getting MGMT invovled and letting me work on it myself. Lastly, I appreciate a good vent on this site, and I understand what its like to work with someone you described. So I can understand where your coming from. But my 2 cents, keep it to yourself. Sometimes you gotta let these type of people burn themselves. If you see a lapse in patient safety, talk to her personally, if she doesn't respond professionally, then take steps to have MGMT evaluate the situation. But until then, just keep on working at your highest level without worrying about her.