Ethel

in the hospital where i work c-sections account for about 80% of deliveries due to the large amount of patients who are hiv pos. they unofficial statistics in some antenatal clinics are as high as 40-60% of antenatal mothers tested are hiv pos. a lot of hiv pos. women are having their second and third pregnancy despite their hiv status.

I had a friend who was a student and he worked on the geriatric ward. He used to take great pleasure in "helping" the patients eat their sweets etc. until one day........... one of the patients had what appeared to be chocolate clusters on his bedside table. When the friend picked it up to have one he found to his disgust that it was not chocolate but feaces. yuck.................... The moral of the story everything brown is not chocolate LOL

:uhoh21: at 17 nearly 18 all I wanted to do was work for the Prison Dept. but they would not have me until I was 18 and that would take 3months in my family you don't stay at home after completing school and not work so my Mom suggested that I try nursing while I wait to turn 18, then I was 3months into my training and decided I will finish that first. At the end of my training I was given a chance to go and work in the OR and I am still there thanks to people like my Matron at the time Miss M Gray. Who was one of the most kind and hard working people I have ever known.:offtopic: She also was the creator of a bag used in the OR to keep the bowl warm and moist during Aortic Anuerisms called the Maggi bag in SA not sure if anyone knows or has heard of it. I always wanted to be able to know my department as well as she did. Well the department of Corrections (prison depart.) never saw me but I know my Mom was right.............. This is where I belong:nurse: :thankya:

In my time in the OR I have seen a condom been removed from the bladder. Also had to remove an olive oil bottle from the rectum and a Coke litre bottle from the lady parts (pt was told it was an effective method of contraception???????)

:uhoh21: Why would anyone want to wear scrubs other then in areas where they are prescribed uniform???? They are comfortable but oh so ugly and shapeless:uhoh3:. I don't know if your scrubs are different to ours, but our issued scrubs have no shape and I think they were made for men. The pants are good to sleep in if you have no comfy PJ's:rotfl: . I think they are better sleepwear then OR uniform:o

Green Cross shoes are the most comfortable I have ever worn and they come in so many different styles that even the most conservative boss would be happy and those of us who enjoy things a little more stylish but still proffesional can also find something to wear. I can wear my Green cross shoes for 12hours+ no problem:)

I went to the z-coil website and I can't believe that anyone would want to wear shoes like that on duty. :uhoh21: They are truely do not look like something my boss would allow me to wear at work. I think they are better suited to kids and teenagers who want to make a statement:rolleyes: not sure what the statement will be.............................

:uhoh21: I was once on the receiving end of an IM injection which the person forgot to pull back. I was thus given the whole 100mg of Pethidine ivi which resulted in me having a respiratory arrest and nearly dying. So I am truely sold on the idea of aspirating before giving anything IM.

Well that refers then to at least 1/4 adult patients in our hospital and there is no special unit for them. They are nursed in our normal med\surg wards.

What are Bariatric patients I have never heard of the term. Maybe in South Africa we call them something else.????

Mine comes from a certain aneasthetist who calls all the females patients and staff Ethel if he can't remember your name. So is you don't know mine I also respond to names like Susan, Mavis, Nurse or Sister sometimes even Dear but that is not one of my favorites.

I really enjoyed wearing my white uniform when I worked on the wards. In our hospital the uniform issued is so impractical apart from the scrubs worn in OT and ER, but as we don't pay for our uniform and get new unifarm every 2 years I am not complaining. My only complaint is about people who do not wash and change their uniform daily.

My story happened on my first day. The Rn taking me on a round was busy explaining how you get a nasogastric tube to drain by milking it ever tried..... with that the patient said she was not feeling well and vomited all over my beautiful white uniform yuk green stomach content right down my front. All the Rn said was go to your room and change.... which I did the following day when I came on duty she said:"I knew you would make a good nurse" :stone still not sure what she meant but a lot of others did not last........................:rotfl:

In some hospitals I know the staff write up observations etc. at 19h00 at night and then at about 22h00 they all go to sleep. As my relatives have been is such hospitals. Dr in certain State hospitals go and do their own IV antibiotics at night as the staff are too busy sleeping to give the iv's. This is a terrible thing to say but very true. I child in the peadiatric wards mother took him home because she had to nurse him and the other child in his ward as the staff were sleeping. But the half hourly observations on both kids were charted for the whole night.......really scary isn't it..........

Dear Haunted It is ok if people don't think you look like a nurse out of uniform but when the hospital you work for gives you a uniform that makes you look like the office staff then all your patients think you are the ward clerk. or ?

It is so nice to meet someone else who does not freeeeeeze in OR. The policy in our OR is no exposed clothing but it is not really enforced. We also have OR jackets for use if needed.

New Years day 19h30. Complaint: "Sr. I have had this cold for three weeks and now I can't take it any more. Please can you help me?"

New Years day 19h30. Complaint: "Sr. I have had this cold for three weeks and now I can't take it any more. Please can you help me?"

We use a product called surfacide on our trollies but I have seen one of our Dr's spray it on a cloth and clean the phone as he does not like GERMS.

Not if you worked in OR.:rotfl: No eating while you are scrubbed Ha Ha. You will become unsterile. "Sorry sir we did not leave a swab in your wound only my sandwich."

I know that feeling. Our non-shift workers and agency staff get their lunch deducted off their time, but as we work 42hours including lunch we don't. If the staff who have their lunch time deducted (non shift) work their luch in due to a staff shortage they get their lunch at time and a half and the shift workers get time for time NOT FAIR.

In our OR we get 20min tea in the morning, half hour lunch and 15min tea in the afternoon that is for an 8hour day. On a 12hour shift we get 1 hour for lunch and the same tea times.

I was shocked as you were to see that inmates are having the vaccine and nursing staff in many hospital will not be having. I thought it only happened in South Africa where prisoners had more rights then the average man on the street.:angryfire

Only heard of roaches and moths in ears. They have to be removed under GA in bits and pieces.

My favourite story from OR is the guy who had to have the fb surgically removed from his rectum and it was still vibrating the surgeon was so surprised he asked the scrub sister to check what batteries they were using. "Duracel lasts up to six times longer" or so the advert goes.:rotfl: