Biggirl71

I am employed in the Quality department of an LTAC. We use contract dialysis nurses to come in and perform dialysis on our patients. I am reading through a chart today and I find out that she infused 2 units of blood in less than a half hour on a pat...

Incident reports are important because they allow for trending of issues. So, if your patient is discovered to have something new; wound, abrasion, skin tear, etc. document it on an incident report. By doing so, you may enable the facility to purch...

I am a home health nurse and I work in and around Houston. I am here to tell you that I bring my husband with me on calls that are located in parts of town that I am uncomfortable in. I have arrived at some homes to be greeted by what appear to be ...

I use reverse psychology on patients over a certain age. I say to them, "Who is going to do these things for you when you are discharged home?" When they can't answer the question, I say to them, "We better start practicing these things now because...

I see the charge nurse as a resource not an extra person to do the work for all of those in her charge. The truth is, as nurses, we should be autonomous but also know when to ask questions. I would not expect my charge nurse to do something for me ...

Everything that I am reading these days is leaning toward the BSN as entry level for RN's. Because of the wicked nursing shortage (right now ~100,000) and the expected increase (~800,000) over the next decade, hospitals will demand that the RN's be ...

I just hope for the sake of the physician that those patients who are chemically addicted get his referral to the appropriate drug treatment facility because the first line of the Hippocratic Oath is. . ."First do no harm. . ." I full-on agree with ...

Who knows, you may fall in love with your new position and not want to leave. . .just a thought.

I would also like to add that anyone who practices above board would not have issue with counting. . .it just makes me wonder about these nurses. . .

I would stick to your guns and training on this one. Count, each and every time you take responsibility for the cart. Who cares what everyone thinks of you. The truth is, you're there to make a living not friends! I agree that it is illegal and a...

I am speaking to you as a nurse, not an instructor. I have a vivid memory of the first few days of class where the instructors talked heavily about "accountability." That lesson has resonated with me for 13 years! The instructors spoke about nurse...

I work for a home health agency in The Woodlands and a LOT of the referrals we get are for one-time assessments for insurance companies. The assessments are MMSE's for claims on long-term insurance policies. The other large part of our work is for ...

The thing that jumped out at me was the hx of ETOH. Usually, the patient will tell you they have a "couple drinks" and that generally means many more! I would be concerned that the b/p is going up day by day because the patient is NOT drinking. Th...

First things first. Arizona is a "right-to-work state." This means that an employer can fire you for any reason and without union protection, you are at their mercy. If there is an Accudose or Pyxis machine dispensing the drugs, they can run a rep...

Correct. Water-based is the way to go.

OK, I am employed part-time with a Home Health Agency in Texas and I am considered the Alternate Administrator (on paper). The very little I know is as follows: 1. You can design your own forms with your logo at the top. You can use Word to get ...

Texas is a right to work state and they are totally against unions. However, I am from Wilmington, Delaware and I come from a union-heavy family so I believe in the need for unions. When you are in a right to work state that does not like unions, y...

My understanding of forgiveness is that it is a decision, not a feeling. So when one forgives, it is a conscious decision. Forgiveness is not something that one will necessarily feel. So, we can forgive but we may never forget what happened to us....

Mouth care is a pet peeve of mine as a nurse. I would use anything available including Vitamin E, surgi-lube (which is the same as KY), some of the oral swab kits come with a tube of lip goo that sometimes looks like lotion. If you are working with...

I am so sorry this nurse is learning the hard way that the rules are in place for a reason. The truth is, anyone can report us to the board. It could have been one of her co-workers, her manager, the family, and even the physician. I have been a n...

After reading all of the posts, I am still coming back to the issue that you are taking out so many narcotics that it flagged you in the system. Who worked in your position before you? Did they have the same number of patients with the same narcoti...

I am not a "bitter dried up nurse that needs to retire" but I am a nursing PROFESSIONAL that commands respect because I have spent my entire adult life educating myself on how to best take care of those in need of my services. Gone are the days that...

What happened? You will find out soon enough. If it is for practice issues, it may take several weeks but the board will send you a registered letter. At that point, depending on the severity of the issue, they will probably ask you to do remediat...

I have been a nurse since 1999. I started out in surgical nursing and went into oncology. I was then asked to be the night supervisor of a 46 bed med/surg/tele unit. I did that for 7 years. I am now a nurse manager of a 65 bed traumatic brain inj...

Congrats to you! I have faith that you passed because you are so sure you did! Back when I took the test in 1999, I had to wait 2 weeks for my results and it was excruciating! I too got 75 questions and I left there feeling sure I passed. I'll be...