Jellibum

32) you've used micropore tape to wrap presents for loved ones

I'm not overly religious, although i was brought up in a highly Christian household. I cared for this wonderful man who was one of God's onward Christian soldiers in the Salvation Army, post-op from L4-5 fusion. Anyway, wanted to write a note or two to various persons and then he asked me to help him write a new verse for a hymn... dictation style of course. he said i helped inspire him with my (& God's care). He was going to be D/C one day and he stated in the morning that there would be a surprise for me later @ the end of my shift... i told him not to bother and that it was my pleasure to care for such a nice man.You know the type, always smiling first thing in the morning despite the pain, and always with wonderful manners , & always trying his best to succeed with the physio and rehab etc. Anyway, unfortunately he had an undiagnosed ACA and died un-expectantly that morning. A courier came and delivered a dozen red roses, a teddy bear and chocolates with a card... from my wonderful salvo... it read "To the greatest nurse to me, with God's love flowing though you my wounds are healed and my soul is restored. Thankyou friend, thankyou for our loving chats @ 3am and for helping to soothe my pain - both of the heart and the back. These gifts are for you, the bear is to hug - to remind you that comfort is everything! the flowers are to remind you that a beautiful life is not without the occassional thorn and the chocolates are because i cant (he was a T2DM)!! Enjoy!and thankyou once again for everything! I cried and cried... i only looked after him for 4 days and 3 nights, but he touched my heart. :)

I agree with you caliotter3, yet i too agree with the OP, that the statement "Learn to tolerate abuse" is a poorly worded and i personally find it somewhat offensive (as does the OP, by the seems of it!)- no matter what the context.

i'm not sure if they sell it in the US but QV make a product called QV intensive lotion - it is a 50/50% soft white parifin/liquid parifin creme that is real good for the chronically dry. Also have you tried a soap alternative for your pts... a tad expensive more than soap but often its bubbles without the troubles. Sorbelene creme isn't bad and urea based cremes are good for helping fix the odd dry and cracked regions.

I have a glue allergy and i recommened top lignocaine (use the gel for foley insertion) 1% or 2% whichever - for instant relief from the scratching and a Rx for phenergan which will also help the itchy factor. DO NOT USE VICKS!!! and unfortunately benedril works a tad too slow, plus now it's a histamine type reaction, so you have to stop the initial stimulus (her scratching it!) before i will settle. IT HURTS esp if the skin is thin. as for the wound, i suggest kept going with the wet to dry dressing basically you want to cleanse, absorb and protect so... a mesalt, and mepilx or another absorbent type dressing for low to high exudating wounds. if post cleansing their is SOME granulation tissue, absorb and try to maintain consistent moisture and protect.

Can they make a volume switch on those pumps and call bells for O/N?? sometimes they're so LOUD!! Make a day room for ambulant pts and their families to go and sit/do stuff (TV, DVD, Playstation etc). Sliding doors for the bathrooms - no swinging doors as they NEVER leave enough room between the bed and the doorway. Night lights for the hallways that can have dimmer switches for the pts to get some sleep! and so they can be turned up when needed! Personal air vents over the pt bed - like those on airplanes for aircon/heating when required... Black out curtains, info kiosk (touch screen info) for pt's and families that shows general info for hospital-visiting hours,location of cafe/bank/shops, where to go for....???, ice machines and microwaves in a common accessible area... all bed areas to have lifting machines on rail network above the bed on the ceiling - saves trying to find a spare machine. Emergency pager system - saves finding a button that you can't reach or cant access - it's on your hip. Well, thats all i can think of for now... thanks :) that made me feel better!

i understand what it's like to feel that your skills as an rn are potentially being wasted by changing ppl in & out of day/nite clothes, pads & other such seemly small tasks. in saying this however, it is precisely these small and seemly insignificant skills that is as fundamental to nursing as the a&p. i too have the feeling some days that i cant do this again tomorrow or the day after that!! but, the good must come with the bad. i appreciate your honesty in this thread but, it came across a little harsh initially!i hope that your compassion for this profession grows and your negativity towards to seemingly small annoying tasks diminishes with increased understanding to their importance on your patients. put yourself in their shoes/their bed and grow/advance forward to the place you want to be. but please.... turn down that torch of frustration when your in class... it's blinding your vision to see the beauty in the world around you.

RNsRWe, thank you for putting it so eloquently - it's the point i was attempting to make... I just hope that LookingForward can do exactly that and ask the hard questions, make the tough (and often uncomfortable) choices and move towards the appropriate decision. It's not whether doing the CNA before makes for better nurses but it DEFIANTLY can help ppl figure out whether they can handle the physical and emotional toil that some of the tasks are involved with this incredible profession. Lots of love and hugs Jelli ..... now, i'm going for a cuppa....goodness knows i need it.....

Looking forward,as ppl & as nurses,we all agree that poop smells and cleaning it up (without looking at the person behind it) can suck...but it is something that is BASIC NURSING CARE! Sure,some of us don't want to clean up spills for the rest of our careers but the beauty of nursing is that you can always advance/change/expand into different areas once one gets dull. Each one of us has something that we dislike doing/or dealing with in daily care-i'm not fond of sputum and my best mate HATES false teeth! What i'm saying is that most of us here in this forum, appreciate your honesty at the dislike of certain aspects of nursing-even if the was it was written was a tad extreme-but perhaps when something as fundamental as cleaning up poop & "other gross spills" is SOOO scary maybe its time to ask some tough questions-WHY NURSING?? I hope that you can grow, whether it is in nursing or another profession. I believe that each person moving into the nursing profession should ask themselves why?? WHY HERE?? WHY THIS?? Most ppl will say "it's because i want to help ppl". But there are many other professions that do that... so WHY NURSING??

I'm just wondering what are some of the tasks specifically that "horrified" you?? What have you heard? Are these from the course coordinator or a lecturer or just your fellow classmates? Also, what kind of things did you dream of doing?? Please let us all know so we can help you one way or the other. I personally dreamed of being a nurse since i was 4 years old and cuddling little ones and making the sick feel better was a large part of that dream. Nothing has changed. I still love cuddles - now it's just from the young,middle-aged and my elders.... i still like making the 'sick' feel better but there are many ways to do that. cleaning up poop can be a way that my dream can help another (imagine you or your kin pooped themselves and had to sit in it....doesn't make you feel good) I remember one clinical placement where i had explosive poop splatter to clean off a pt and a wall. As a walked down the hallway with a plastic apron,plastic booties,gloves,goggles and with sponge & bucket in hand ... i thought to myself - I AM LIVING THE DREAM!! ... ok, cleaning up poop wasn't quite what i had in mind at age 4 but working as a nurse was! ALWAYS Look at the BIGGER picture! Many one this thread has said that cleaning up poop is a large part of the job... this is true. But the largest part of the job is figuring out what you can and cant do, and ways to cope the the gross stuff. These things may include cleaning up poop, but you can learn ways to cope and still get the job done. Most nurses have their dislikes - e.g sputum, vomit... and many more but they cope because of good training and coworkers. If it's the smell, put peppermint oil on the inside of your nose or on the mask and the smell is diminished! Sometimes... we nurses can get highly critical of each other, i just hope that we can band together as professionals and take a positive approach to help enable this person to either achieve their goal. This does mean that you (author) will have to face some truths of the job and knock down the unrealistic fantasies of Hollywood, but you can still havyour dreams!

This may be so and many of the guys/girls that i work with in the same boat... but this has taken them many years. Many (not all - just some bad eggs) undertake sponsorship programs that hold you for a minimum term and state that you can ONLY work for their agency with poor pay - much lower than their co-workers of citizenship/permanent status. Many of the Filipinos i have meet constantly state their unhappiness at the current conditions that they are under from some of these nursing agency's. In stating this however, many of the staff sponsored by the larger hospitals are more than happy with aussie conditions.

The first thing i can say to is WELL DONE!!! for hanging on so long in a place with so little insight. They obviously had no idea what they had! Being a mum who has been in a VERY similar position to yourself (overworked & liking the work --> & under appreciated) ... try find a supplement income, try not to lose yourself in tears (but let them flow, they help with the healing) & let this little "blonde bombshell" prove herself as more than just a body. Try to befriend her but as they say... "keep your friends close & your enemies closer!" Best of luck & keep the faith~~!!

This attitude is not helpful!! Ignore this sad person. It's true that your attitude at the present may not the presently ideal... because your scared of the 'gross element' of cleaning up bodily wastes of a larger proportion... but let me tell you, babies can make JUST as much mess as the adults. Plus, the 'oldies' can be just as cute as the 'little' ones.

Hi there, it is a small part of the job and the more that you focus on it the more gross it can get. Rather than focus on the $hite, focus on the poor embarrassed person you needs help and that your empowering them to get on with their day. $hite comes and goes (pardon the pun) but the kindness of a stranger and one that doesn't get embarrassed themselves is usually never forgotten.

i have a co-worker that refers to genitalia as "girl bits" or "boy bits"- i.e "don't forget to wash your girlie bits". i have also heard of a young 20 somethings female state she had a USB port - nothing like modern technology getting in the way!!

Tell me about it! Whilst working in Neurosurg HDU we had a blackout of all our equipment and our O2 & suction stopped working all of a sudden! We called Engineering and they told us it's ok - they'll all have it fixed in 1 hour's time as most of them were out to lunch! NOT GOOD ENOUGH!

It is okay that you cried. We all cry over the loss of somebody every now and then - whether we knew them or not. Death is apart of the job. I can be ome sad/happy,long/short,expected/unexpected etc. i have often gone home and cried all the way there because of a death. But, i've also gone happy. I hope that this is where you can "make your difference"

i understand what your saying but, i don't think that stating that she has to just "let it go" isn't overally helpful. whilst it has worked for some of us out there in the nursing world, the orginal issue is that she couldn't just let it go, hence the reason for this forum.

hi, i'm going to japan for my hunnymoon next year and i want to extend the trip it if can and work. however, my friend tells me that japan does not accept foriegn nursing staff. is this true or is there some way i can work in the land of the rising sun without teaching english?

few! gald to hear that you all made it safe and sound. i work in a dementia facitlity that gets aggressive pts. we have emergency buttons in each room but when you have two pt's linked togeter in a brawl with weapons - they're often not in reach. we don't have security (unless we call them) so we all carry whistles to rally the "troops". they're cheap, simple to use and heard all over the ward! talk about effective. might be an idea for others.

i normally don't say anything about being a nurse until i'm really angry! (which doesn't happen often). i normally state that i work in the health care industry if anyone asks what i do for a crust. i find that people are more likely to give away infomation if they don't know. also, i find that dr's are more likely to neglet your care because you (the nurse) are expected to know what's happening.:angryfire

samantha, i'm sorry to say that you will never really go a day without taking your work home with you, in saying this however, the way in which you will take it home/to heart will change. is what's keeping you up @ night: * the fact that you (as an individual) made a mistake (that you percieve you should have known the answer/solution/how to do etc to) or is it * the fact that you see a patients decline as an error on your part? samantha, we have all been there. a lot of skills come with experience/exposure and time (although me saying this will not help you feel any better) - and you cannot expect to have them all yet (even though we all want to wake up matrix-style with the info and dexderity already loaded ) i can tell that you are a great nurse because you care enough to evaluate your own practice but you have to gain some realism that there are somethings that are in your control, somthings are not and that there are somethings that will come with time. speak to your preceptor/educator/course or year level co-ord about your fears and anxieties etc. they are the best judge about what goals you have that are realistic, those that will take time and those expectations on yourself that may not be so realistic. my educator told me in 2nd year that, in her belief, it takes 5 years to make a nurse (not just the few it takes @ uni). most of all have fun, learn and remember that the learning will never end (but the stress of assignments does - thank god!!:w00t: ) sorry about the essay colleen

I've worked in both the hospital network and private practice (GP's and the like). I'm not too sure how it works there - but in Oz you can just mark/add what test you want and the pathologist/nurse usually does it however, even if they do cross reference with a computer - the doctor can order the additional test within 48 - 94hrs of the orginal blood test being taken (they usually keep the sample for that long). Personally, i'd just rock up to the place and plead ignorance - i.e. just state that you DID, in fact, ask the doctor for that test and they just forgot to writre it down. It's just a quick phone call away - takes 5mins and everythings sorted. :innerconf

Just remember that nursing someone is a 24/7 job. If you can't do everything but help the next person on the next shift by giving them options and help them to understand where your care for your pts is going. HAVE A PLAN OF CARE - both short term (this shift), Mid-term (during the next 74hrs) & long term. Check the medication charts and check for options!! E.G for pain/behaviour/constipation etc management. If it all gets too much (and it can @ times) - seek help from those who understand what's happening (preseptors/mentors/peer support etc.) talk about your problems and concerns - and remember that the hardest person is always yourself!

unfortuantly, this is all too common - i find anyway. the students are left to cope on their own without supports while the staff on the unit/ward are left to carry the burden without help either! the clinical educator/preceptor is just chatting up with old mates or is not even from the ward/unit and thus has little to no skills required in that area! whats left is that students are put down and abused just for wanting to learn. i know some unis in melbourne who have provided no clinical educator for some of their students placements and expected them to cope just as well as their peers with educators. the only way i found to cope is to just explain the situation and complain to student services at the uni (union - but that's going to change soon anyway!)