Fruit Sucker

New hospice RN here. I am really starting to wonder about a couple of our office nurses. I've been called out for "emergency" visits this week for: a nosebleed (pt on o2 with dry sinuses- caregiver did not use moisturizer as instructed), trembling hands, and a patient who coughed while eating but then stopped coughing and was fine for the remainder of the day. This is in addition to the prn's when family members call and state they "would just feel better" if the patient had two visits this week versus the one. It's getting to the point where I would rather give the family my cell number and have them call me directly so I can talk them through it instead of being called out for these non-emergencies when my schedule is already full. Are these people fricking kidding me? These are experienced hospice nurses, and they don't know from a small nosebleed?

I just placed another order at Uniform Advantage, and they gave me free shipping. Maybe it has to be over $100 for the free shipping? This is my second time buying their Butter Soft Scrubs. The first time, my employer made me embroider my scrubs, so now I can't use them anymore. Not doing that again. This time if they want, I'll wear a button or badge or something, but I'm not ruining my $25-30 scrub tops for future wearing.

Perhaps because I don't fit the qualifications she listed?

How are you sure what the instructor wanted? You aren't. I've had professors give out assignments that didn't require an in-person interview. And the nature of these interviews is such that it would be very obvious if the person answering the questions wasn't a nurse.

People on AN are very reluctant to help students with these type of assignments. It's really a shame.

Thanks guys. But the interview is set up in a way that it is approved to do through email. Again, if anyone is interested, please reach out.

Hi. I would greatly appreciate it if I could interview a maternity nurse, or any nurse, about her/his experiences with patients who are pregnant with diabetes. This is for a school assignment. I would be happy to compensate you $20 for your time.

Thanks guys. If I can squeak by financially until February, I'll be eligible for rehire at the hospital. It's not assured that they'll give me a position though. What is a potential employer allowed to ask me regarding my medical situation?

After graduating, I was hired onto a specialty unit where I worked for 4 months. During the 4 months I worked there, I started to have a medical problem that interfered with work. I had two syncopal episodes at work and just felt horrible at work. I ended up calling in 6 times during the 4 months I worked there, which resulted in my being fired. Although I was fired, I was told that my performance was exceptional and I received an employee recognition award. My patients all loved me, and the doctors all loved me...the other nurses, some of them did and some didn't. The last couple of months I've had a number of doctor's appointments and treatment and have started to feel better. I'm worried. I need to start looking for another job, and I know it will look bad that I was fired after 4 months for being sick. The hospital said that I am eligible for rehire after six months. I'm wondering if I should just wait for them to take me back, because maybe nobody else will want me. What should my plan be? I'm also thinking about applying to a different kind of unit, because working on this specialty unit with no experience was really quite stressful.

He sounds young. Nice how he assumed because you're female that you'd be crying about some trivial thing. I had a preceptor like that- she would try to set me up to not get meds done as fast as she wanted so she could berate me (usually in front of the other staff at the nurses' station.) She also expected me to know something inside and out if she told me once, and would, again, berate me if I asked for help or asked her to "please briefly go over this again". She also enjoyed berating me in front of patients for being too slow or doing something a different way than she did it. I ended up taking it up the chain and getting a different preceptor. There's only so much **** you can take.

This is an ongoing battle. We had five nurses quit because of this a couple of months ago. Management does not care about us. It's all we can do to get a float when our census goes up. They will not schedule enough staff ahead of time. Meanwhile, we all get told that our attitudes need to improve.

Well, unfortunately this is what has happened. The management threw a couple of temper tantrums at me last week when I decided to put a stop to this. Management came up to the floor to harass me while I was on shift and tell me that I need to be a team player and that they "really needed me" and that I let them down. The new schedule came out, and while I wasn't scheduled for OT, my schedule is a total s*** show. So the lesson here is that there's a price to pay if you really don't want to be called in constantly. It's not just as easy as ignoring calls.

That's why I put "not so NETY" as the title.

Four months into my first job as a new nurse. I found the ubiquitous NETY situation to be very different from what many have described. The experienced nurses on my unit are awesome. They know things, are happy to give advice/guidance in a quick, expedient way, and they don't give a hoot about personal stuff with other staff. They leave you alone to do your job unless you ask for help. The newer nurses, however, are a nightmare. Ask one to show you how to do something, and you'll be spending the next twenty minutes gritting your teeth while they enjoy the sound of their own voices. They're constantly doling out unsolicited advice that they think is very sage but that any idiot would know. They ask personal questions about your life that are none of their business. They talk about other people's personal information with anyone who will listen. They're nosy about what's going on with your patients. They constantly search out opportunities to make themselves look smarter than everyone else. For my orientation, I was assigned to one of these new nurses, who would loudly berate me for asking about something she had already told me about. Preferably in front of as many people as possible. She had extremely poor time management and was constantly flustered and would take it out on me. She refused to let me do any "cool" procedures because she wanted to do them herself. Patient needs a port accessed? Forget it, I'd have to stand there while she went on and on in a loud condescending voice. I had to go to my unit supervisor and request that I be scheduled with an experienced nurse. Why they would put someone with a new nurse for orientation is beyond my understanding. The rest of my orientation, with an experienced nurse, went along like a dream. Some of these new nurses think too highly of themselves, and some humility is sorely needed. And they really need to think about whether they are qualified to teach someone instead of insisting they be given trainees because they want preceptor pay.

My employer constantly calls me in on my days off, and it's making me want to lose it. I don't mean that they just call and say "can you come in" and I have to say no. I mean, they keep on calling and harassing me and texting and telling me how much they NEED me to come in. It's every freaking time I have a day off, and I'm sick of it. I end up working overtime that I don't want week after week. Today, inevitably, I called in sick because I am EXHAUSTED and my body can't take this (I'm no spring chicken). Well, my supervisor got a big attitude with me and continued to text me during the day and tell me that she needs me to come in. I finally put my foot down, and she catches an attitude and tells me that I need a doctor's excuse. Unbelievable! The favors I do for these people, and this is how they act. When I called in sick, I called in with more than enough time for the charge nurse to find a replacement, and guess what she did...she decided that the next shift would "just get by" and she didn't call anyone in. I've seen it happen before on my own shift, and the attitude appalls me. Our "self scheduling" is a joke, because they change everything that you put in anyway. They don't schedule enough nurses, and then when our patient census goes up by two or three, we're already maxed out on patient assignments and have to call someone in. God forbid they should assign anyone less than a huge patient load. I love my patients, but this crapola is making me dread going to work.