nurses4all

I wish I had more time to help with patient care, but I find that I spend about 2 hours my shift actually assessing patients and passing meds, and about 4 hours are spent charting on them and calling docs. The other hour is spent giving or getting report. Anyone else see anything wrong with that picture?

True, but please don't lose sight of how many lives you'll save by your actions. Hang in there, Whistleblower. You're a hero. Especially to all of us who have relatives with a mental illness. :kiss

Stuff happens. If a coworker has an emergency, we'll try to get report, but we don't require that they chart before they leave. We'll just split the assignment and pick up the slack. We all use "cheat sheets" and can figure out the important stuff from the coworker's cheat sheet, the chart, and the taped reports. We can also figure out if a med was given by what was checked out of the Pyxis and when. I feel sorry for some of you whose managers don't realize that you're human too, and deserve to be treated better.

I'd probably pass out watching that too, katie! But that problem doesn't mean you won't make a great nurse. I hated getting IVs, for instance, so I made a vow to learn to give them as painlessly as possible. It took time, but I'm now the nurse that my coworkers come to when they have a hard stick. If you can just keep your thoughts on the benefit that a correctly done procedure will have for the patient, that might help. Good luck. PS I had a classmate who passed out during an epidural placement, but that was the only time it ever happened to her. So it might be just a one-time occurrence for you too.

I think it's a gimmick, and I'm not joining unless it becomes mandatory. I have plenty of CEU's and they're tracked just fine at my workplace.

http://www.mortonplant.com/frameset.cfm?id=1 If I lived in St. Pete, I'd work here. :) PS When you get to the site, click on "Career Opportunities," and then the nurse logo and see the film. It'll tell you why.

If my kid had asthma, I'd probably have freaked too. That's not overreacting in my book. Best to be safe; you did the right thing. Glad everything turned out ok.

My best advice would be to remind those of you who have back-saving tools available, to use them.

No, I didn't. It wasn't ordered for that patient. In the future, though, I'll make sure to get one. Your response was inappropriate. The line didn't clog, I never implied that it had, and yet you threatened me. This is the type of workplace behavior that needs to be changed. Nurses need to learn to nurture each other instead of attacking each other. I'm glad I don't work with you, Shin.

Yes, I am. Particularly when I'm walking down the hall and walking up the hall is the patient we successfully coded a week before. Call me vain, but I like to think we get a little credit for that. :)

I was told that it was because it's hard to treat a patient on the floor if the patient has a hemolytic reaction and falls. Then there's always the potential for a blood spill or a displaced IV, for instance. All valid patient safety issues. Our hospital policy says not to transfer patients with blood hanging either, Zac.

No, that is not a "safe solution." Teachers have enough on their plates. The union's support of this law would imply that if a teacher made the wrong decision or gave the wrong treatment, the teacher could then be held liable. However, schools are obligated by Federal law to make adequate provisions for any child's medical condition. Schools that knowingly neglect to provide that care--via a nurse--should be sued for neglect, just as a parent who failed to provide proper medical care would be in violation of the law, and would be held responsible. Therefore, you might be justified to call a lawyer and see what rights your child has in this area.

I have questions about insulin gtts. When you run an insulin gtt through a PICC line, if the rate is very slow (less than 20 cc's an hour), does the line need to be flushed with NS while the drip is running to keep it patent? If it was flushed, wouldn't that bolus the Pt. with the insulin remaining in the line? How many cc's would the Pt. actually get from what's in the line? And then, after it was flushed, considering how long the interior line is, wouldn't that cause the insulin to take a couple hours, if running at about 20 cc's an hour or less, to actually reach the Pt.? Thanks for your help. I hope I put this in the right place.

I have questions about insulin gtts. When you run an insulin gtt through a PICC line, if the rate is very slow (less than 20 cc's an hour), does the line need to be flushed with NS while the drip is running to keep it patent? If it was flushed, wouldn't that bolus the Pt. with the insulin remaining in the line? How many cc's would the Pt. actually get from what's in the line? And then, after it was flushed, considering how long the interior line is, wouldn't that cause the insulin to take a couple hours, if running at about 20 cc's an hour or less, to actually reach the Pt.? Thanks for your help. I hope I put this in the right place.