Smitty,RN

Assisting with a bone marrow- Watching the doc turning and pushing the huge, handled needle with all his might- into the bone- I cant stand it!! I can handle vomit after the fact, but I will retch if I have to hear it and smell it!

Our nurses are in disagreement with our pharmacy policy that "opened multidose medication vials will be discarded by the manufacturer expiration date- unless the practicioner suspects contamination"- I thought that once a vial was opened- especially insulin- it loses its potency after 30 days... We have a 10 ml vial of Compazine on our cart that expires in 2004!! That really bothers me that it could be used for so long- especially if used infrequently... Am I crazy? What is your policy?

As a dayshift nurse who has done nightshift in the past- My hat's off to you PM people! I can't do it- I would take Benedryl in the am and sometimes sleep the whole day away- I was always grouchy...Glad I am on days even though I do feel the workload is heavier. In contrast to someone's post that the admissions are heavier at night, that is not true in my hosp. We have one more CNA during the day than they do at night- But the night shift does all the "paper-work" for the new MAR's, etc. I appreciate that it is harder at night to get support from ancillary depts. It also must be a pain to have to call and wake up certain doctors in the middle of the night! Shame on administrations that don't take night shift hours in consideration with meetings and celebrations. My hospital does- with early meetings so night shift just has to stay over a little- and when we have celebrations or special dinners- they always repeat it at night. :)

I work on PCU- in a relatively small hospital- We also have Amiodarone drips- Our patient load is 7-1, we take VS q2h for cardiac drip patients. We also take "stable" Tridil drips-

The hospital I work at is very "customer service" oriented. I understand that these days patients are really clients and they can choose where they decide to go for care- If they aren't happy they wont come back. BUT! Where is the limit? On a recent customer satisfaction campaign everyone was commissioned to respond to every request with, "Certainly, my pleasure." Oh, please. Our secretary used to announce over the call system when the meal carts arrived- "Nurses, put down your stethescopes, and put on your aprons" ------------------