celticqueen

the way i see it sounds like you want to be a manager more than wanting to become a nurse - should be the other way around. there is no excuse for rudeness, but i think there is a trinket of rudeness on your part about your colleagues

OMG!!! what a terrible thing to have happened. my thoughts are with you, and i hope everything works out well

one of my patients rang her bell today just to ask me if too much salt was bad for her, lol

i was sexually assaulted by a patient a few years ago, not sure if that can be classified as dangerous?

whose bottler broon? whatever government are in power, the nhs suffers. The Thatcher government in the 80's damaged the NHS with the "internal market" privatization debacle, where trusts (or health authorities) were in competition with each other to provide services. The damage that was done at that time had a knock on effect on the way the nhs has been run since. There have been countless studies that prove high mortality/morbidity outcomes of patients results from poor nurse/patient patio - which is common sense, if there are not enough nurses to look after patients then ultimately the patients suffer. Look at the recent Stafford hospital scandal The report said the trust was short of 120 nurses in 2007 to 2008 - about 17 in A&E, 30 in surgery and 77 on medical wards. In 2006 to 2007 the trust had axed 150 posts - most of them nurses - to meet £10million cost-saving targets. I must agree with you on the Clare Rayner comment though

yeah i was thinking of SEN's , but we don't have them any more. I referred to healthcare assistants with NVQ's (as ours on the ward take blood, do simple dressings, monitor observations, do ecg's etc. i know of some HCA's even taking biopsies and other invasive things unser the supervision of doctors). I was wondering if they were the equivalent of LPN/LVN's, as the lady who started this thread is. I wonder if she could apply for band 3 or 4?

struggling to find the equivalent here in the UK - we only have RN's or healthcare assistants. Sorry i couldn't be much more help

i quite enjoy suctioning.....i like the sound the the gunk makes as it goes up the tube...kinda find it quite satisfying for some reason. I like it when i suction and hit a real big patch of something...and i think to myself "yeah, gottcha!!!"

me too; toes, inbetween toes and toe nails (fingernails too). i will happily clean up poop, sick, phlegm, bogies, pus, blood...anything but manky feet and nails (bleurgh!!!!)

OMG! i think i would have liked to slap her face!!!!

i had a patient who complained bitterly about the noise while we were dealing with an emergency the other day ( it was 08.00 mane) and we woke her up (poor thing). She soon changed her tune when i informed her that we had made just as much noise when we were trying to save her life too ( she had an M.I a few weeks previously). She certainly saw things from a new perspective after that

ooooh karaoke!!!

Is an LPN/LVN like a health-care assistant? ( I note the "V" stands for vocational) Alot of health care assistants in the UK have NVQ qualifications (national vocational qualifications), is this the same? Although healthcare assistants are part of the nursing team, they are not qualified nurses. To attain RN even they with their NVQ's have to do the 3 year nurse training. Hope this helps? :)

yeah, i seem to have what i call "my black cloud" that tends to follow me around: If a patient on the ward unexpectedly deteriorates or a patient has a psychotic episode, yep it's usually on my shift!!!!!! and it's not just at work either, just the other day someone fitted at the bus stop - having taken an overdose an hour before, but luckily the paramedics arrived just as my bus pulled up so i didn't miss it

This makes me really REALLY mad. The government are morons. Do they honestly think that by cutting front line staff and services that people will stop being ill, or that people will stop having accidents?????? Of course not, so who do they think is going to look after these people when they need to go into hospital????? magical pixie nurses?????? It will only end in disaster when someone dies because there wasn't enough staff to safely look after them; this will only endanger patients. The newspapers will have a field day - patient neglected and starved as no-one available to feed frail elderly patients or give them a drink, patients left in soiled beds, waiting lists so long it wil be near on impossible to get seen...oh wait thats what is happening already!!!!!! And when push comes to shove, who gets the blame for all this? not the government, but the exhausted and disillusioned nurses who try their very best on each and every shift to deliver the best care they can, that's who!

hahahahaha

PMSL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

one of my pts (called Ron) was taken poorly and i called the doc up to see him, he was called Dr Moore. Alittle later on i was behind the curtain with another patient, and Ron called out to me asking what the name of the doctor was who came to see him. I replied "Dr Moore", being slightly deaf he asked again who the doctor was. I told him again, but he still didn't catch what i said, so in the end i called alittle louder from behind the curtain "Dr Moore, Ron" (Dr Moron). I must admit when i realised what it sounded like i did have a little chuckle to myself!

ah!!!! i knew it!!!!!! i saw most haunted a few times (i'm from the UK), and i always thought derek was a fraud, especially the time he was "possessed" by a 18th century theater actor - still talking with his scouse accent - although he tried to make it sound grand and posh!!! lol

i don't regret becoming a nurse, but i have a love/hate relationship with the "job" itself - it is not for the faint hearted!. You will see the very best and the very worst of human nature, nursing is an emotional rollercoaster and you have to be tough to survive with your sanity. it's true that in your career as a nurse you will likely get hit, bitten, screamed at, intimidated and bullied by your patients and/or patient families, hell i was even sexually assaulted by a patient once - there is no respect for nurses, and when the **** hits the fan it's always the nurses that are to blame. Nursing is mentally and physically exhausting at times. managers and pointless bureaucracy make caring for the patient almost impossible, but they keep loading it all on more and more. i came into nursing to look after patients, not spend 3/4 of my shift on pointless repetitive paperwork! you will come across the most disgusting things you could even imagine - just check out some of the threads on here! lol. BUT! i love the fact that i am making a difference; i have actually helped to save many lives throughout my career; and for those that are near the end of their life i feel privileged to have been able to care for them and their families - it's very humbling. It's great to nurse someone back to health, to know that your actions and expertise have contributed to their recovery. Nurses have to be tough, but never cold hearted - the essence of nursing is compassion and empathy. my advice is to read the various replies on here, and take a look at the threads on the site and make up your own mind. Good luck with whatever you decide to do

yup! i'm with the rest of the gang here, i always aspirate IM's

i think every nurse does this to a greater or lesser degree. When you are rushed off your feet, you WILL forget to do things - you're only human - but bear in mind that nursing is a 24 hr service, and what wasn't done on your shift will be taken care of by the next shift. As long as you know you have done your best while you are there,then no-one can ask any more of you. Try to make sure your patient records are accurate throughout your shift, chronologically if possible - so that of you did forget something, the nurse on the next shift will be able to read it and act on it. Can you speak to a senior nurse in your area about this? i have been nursing for a while now, and i still feel the need to speak to my colleagues about any doubts that crop up - "did i do that ok"?, "could i have done this or that better"? "OMG, i forgot to do this or that!!!" lol good luck with your career, i'm sure you'll be absolutely fine :):)

i'm in the UK. we have the same problem with SOME healthcare assistants/ healthcare support workers. i have witnessed them taking handover from paramedics when the registered nurse is standing there waiting for the handover to be given to them. I have called for a doctor because i have been worried about a patient, only to find that the HCA is discussing the patient matter of factly with the doctor in the corridor, without even bothering to tell me the doctor has arrived when i was still tending to the patient. i have with a hca who tried to deal with a severly breathless and cyanosed patient on their own without even alerting me to the fact the patient was unwell - it was another hca that came to get me - not only could i have lost my licence if something went wrong, but they put that persons life in danger because of their over inflated ego. The line between nurses and hca is blurred beyond all recognition now. they are being allowed to do things that are traditionally nursing tasks, but they have no in depth knowledge base to know what to do when something goes wrong.

thanks to caliotter3. i saw the thread, and it just so happened that, because of the situation at work which i wrote about, i felt i wanted to put my opinion across. whether the thread was started 18 months ago or not, it is still very relevent to many nurses out there today, and therefore it could go on for another 18 months or more. i do acknowledge that i over exagerated the retired 50 years ago bit, but obviously suzanne didn't take it in the flavour of which it was intended

well i saw it today, so i replied to it. if it's out of date then take it off. i'm entitled to my opinion and to vent my frustration, if this is unacceptable i won't bother next time