mollie

Hello , I started out on a renal floor and I love Hospice. I think it is a great honor to help our patients to have as good a death as possible. And to be able to help the families cope with coming to terms with the fact that life will always end with death at some point and we all must find our way of coping and dealing. I would suggest you shadow for a day. That was how I made the final decision. Hope you find the perfect position with the perfect company!

Hello, i wanted to ask a question and I do not know how to post it as new so I hope it is not impolite to jump on this post??? (I am pretty ignorant when it comes to posting and such) I wanted to find out if any of you knew of travel agencies that offer Hospice positions? I would like to do a 13 week in the Cape Cod area for family reasons. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

When I turn 90 years old or even 80 years old I do not want anyone treating anything if I am dnr! Which I most certainly will be. Why would you even think that a patient who went to the trouble to have a dnr put in place would want to have infections ,ect treated? Why? Does dnr mean the only death you are allowed to let me die is death by MI? Not for me! There is a time to live and a time to die. I really don't think we embrace death very well as a society. We want to keep people alive at any cost no matter how much they are suffering. That is part of the reason are health costs are so out of control. My mother-in law has been being "kept alive" for 5 months after a heart valve replacement and bypass sx. She has been miserable! But they keep" trying one more thing". It is heartbreaking. She is 84 years old and went from walking a mile a day and going to church and having her hair fixed every week and visiting with friends to being confused unable to pull herself up in bed and unable to eat. But she did not have a dnr in place. and from what I'm understanding you to say it wouldn't have mattered anyway.We each have a right to our opinion of course. And I don't have all the answers. But I agree with the md "she is 90 years old with a dnr" Can't she be allowed to die?

I don't agree that having problems with how to deal with death disqualifies one as a hospice nurse. We are all going to die some day and we must come to terms with how to deal with it. If caregivers, nurses, ect, find rituals helpful as a coping skill, that is excellent. If the nurses and staff want to gather around a dying patient and honor his passing, this is humanity at its best. And then to be able to leave and continue on with other tasks at hand shows very healthy coping mechanisms in place. It is a gift to be able to "feel" both the good and the bad. And to embrace anothers heartache and then to let it go. This is what this forum is helping me do. Finding how others cope, being able to share doubts and fears without fear of being judged as not good enough, is what I need from fellow nurses and for the most part what I find here.

We also only draw troughs. I remember in the "old" days when the md's ordered Vanc like it was candy and I would go from one town to the other trying to give q 12 or q 8 vanc in 2 or three locations and do all the peaks and troughs and get them rushed to whatever lab in whatever town!!! After one horrid Christmas weekend when I was the only one on call, I went in the next morning...and QUIT!! I don't regret it to this day. And I can still remember how nightmarish it was!! :) Things are better now though. I'm prn and only take call when I want to ( and I do my share to help out the overworked full timers). I am blessed!!! ( but still exhausted):chuckle

What do you do for internet access without a land line? thanks:balloons:

Hi everyone, I was wondering if anyone knew if there is a need for rn's in Iraq? Or if you might know where I could look for any information. So far surfing the net hasn't yielded any results. Thanks

[Dear Pam, How sad for you and your dear family. There are no words to say how my heart goes out to you. My mother died of cancer a few years ago. I had quit my full time job to help care for her because she lived in a different state. I went prn and flew back and forth every 2 weeks or so for several months so I could help and then would fly back to work for a few days, see my husband and sons and fly back again. In spite of all my effort, I was not there when she died. When my sisters called to tell me, it felt like someone hit me. Even though I knew she was dying I just still couldn't believe she died. And I did not have a mom and I wanted a mom and I still want a mom. My thoughts and prayers are with you. and I cry with you.

Thank you for your concern. I did call the lab and they said 24 hours. So I got dressed and went and brought it right in. It was a huge relief!!!

Can anyone tell me how long a sample of blood (for a pt) will last if left in a car? The temp is approx. 40 degrees. I totally forgot about the specimen and just woke up and remembered it. I can't believe I forgot it and it makes me sick! Also now I won't get any sleep for the rest of the night and I have a full day tomorrow. I guess I was distracted because my son is leaving to go to Iraq today. I should have brought it directly to the lab, but I had 2 more pts close to this one and tried to squeeze them in. I had a very tramatic visit with my next pt. A schizophrenic younger guy who met me at the door dressed in only a t-shirt. Nothing on below. And he was very aggressive and scary acting the whole visit. But that is really no excuse. The pt. was a hard stick and I just dread telling my team leader and having to go stick the poor guy again. This is a terrible way to start the day. Oh well, working myself into a frenzy. Thanks for any help, and for the vent time.

My heart goes out to you, my friend. My mother in law is still on a vent after almost 3 months and is just suffering. But small bits of "hope" keep family members wanting to try "one more thing" and who can blame or judge them? I pray for you and your dear family during this time. She must have been a great mom to you...I can feel your love for her in your post. Death is not the end. She is held gently, ever so gently in Gods' loving hands. I weep with you.

Hi Hunter, I love your name! It is so cool! Nursing is hard, but anything worth doing is :balloons: hard, right? If things are not a little or a lot hard then they are usually boooooring! I do not like boring, do you? Home health nursing is sooo fun. I feel like a real adventurer most days riding around in my little red car and getting to meet and care for all kinds of fellow human beings. :rotfl: What is your favorite subject in school? :p Study hard and be kind. :balloons: :balloons: :rotfl:

wow, it is interesting to hear about hh days. I live in a place where it does not snow much, but I was raised in snow country and I miss it. (some parts of it anyway) :) I guess I shoudn't complain about the rainy hh days, huh? I work prn for hh and most days I love it. One negative would be seeing the same patients over and over again. It can get a little boring sometimes, but it is a nice change from the hectic pace of hospital work and I just keep reminding myself of that. A typical day? : "ring, ring" Hey, can you come in? two nurses called in sick and another just quit. Sure, I'll be right there! Get there, transfer my stuff to whatever company car they assign me that day. Get my list of patients. Usually 6 or 7. Then fill up the gas tank, record my miles, and try to figure out a reasonable route. It is fun really, figuring out where to go and who to see in what order. And it is wonderful to not have someone breathing down your back all day. I pop in a cd, swing by dunkin doughnuts (for coffee only, of course :)). Then it is usually a 20 or so mile drive to my first visit. I read the directions and follow them as good as I can, but why don't they realize that signs get blown down, trees get cut down, houses get painted different colors?? It makes it quite difficult at times for us prners. But I just pull out my cell and call the office and usually get where I'm going o.k. The last line of my first visit says "chickens won't bother you" and I see why. There are about a hundred chickens every where and all the little gifts they love to leave are everywhere, too. As I pull up to the front of the mobile home, there sits a huge huge pitbull. In the yard a man is working on an old truck. I roll down my window a bit and ask "excuse me sir, does your dog bite"? He slowly (and I mean slowly spits a wad of tabacco on the ground and says "wallll, sometimes he does and sometimes he don't, with no sign of a smile, but plenty of signs of tabacco juice dripping down his chin. I kind of sit there and say well, sir is today a day he will or won't? He says I guess you'll just haveta see mam. So I search for my dog biscuits, throw a couple out the window as far as I can and grab my bag and run for the trailer. I make it...this time! Inside the trailer is a middle aged lady laying on the couch under a worn dirty blanket. Although she is very ill looking, I can see that she is a beauiful lady who has lived a hard life. Even in the mdst of squallor and filth, her smile is lovely. Her couch is very low and there is no chair that is not filled with newspaper, food, cig. butts, ect, so I kneel on the floor to get her vs. My knees become soaked and I say something like oh my! (not what I really want to say):) She looks at me and says Honey, I don't know if that pee is from me or my dogs. My cath is leakin again. All of a sudden I hear little whimpering sounds coming from under the blanket and I gently reach to lower the blanket as 4 little doggies start growling, barking yelping and of course peeing! She has an open sx wound from an abdominal hernia repair, as well as a supra pubic cath leaking like crazy. Her wounds are all gross and infected. ( I wonder why). She is on vanc iv, rocephin Im, wonder why they are not getting better???? As I change her abd drsg, the dogs stay right where they are. I ask if they can be moved till we finish, but she becomes very hostile at the suggestion and I don't push it. I wish I could've had a report before I started this day, if you know what I mean! Well this visit takes quite a while , but there is a definite sense of satisfaction as I finish putting the nice clean drsg on, finish the meds and clean up a bit. As I start to leave I ask her if the pit bull will bite. She says he does bite but gives me a certain name to call him and says if I will call him this name in a certain tone of voice, he won't bite, but I throw my biscuits anyway! As I get in the car my first thought is to get to a store to get some baby wipes so I can clean up my smelly pants, and I only have 6 more patients to go!! But I love it. HH is adventerous, fun, exciting most days and fufilling!

Hi Carrie You sound alot like me. I worked with a bully nurse who won the supervisor over by buying her many many gifts. When my son was in Iraq, she would laugh about all the boys coming home in body bags. She wanted my 7-3 shift and was able to make my life miserable because of team nursing. I couldn't take it anymore, started making mistakes, ect. I left nursing for a few months and finally went back as a home health nurse. I don't have to put up with so much of that now. I am mostly on my own and find it rewarding and fufilling. that is the beauty of nursing...if you don't like one area you can always try another until you find something you like. Try this Carrie, before you leave. We need good nurses who care about each other and the patients. Don't give up!!

Thank you all for all of the input, it is really all very helpful and provides me with useful information to present to the family. God bless you guys!