ernurse4ill

Wow, NurseRatched..... What a blessing that letter from your grandmother is...to you and now to those of us that read your post. Thank you so much for sharing this. I sat here picturing you, as a little girl showing your grandmother so much love. I have tears literally streaming down my face. I hope that most of us go into nursing for those same reasons. But sadly, there are many who are looking for a quick buck. They usually weed out though. I am in your age group and have been nursing for 20 years. I worked for 15 of those years "paying my dues". Working 12 hour nights in the ER. Doing my share of weekends and holidays. That is just how is was and what I knew I had to do. I couldn't expect to start out on days and have it all. I made a change in my career when I was "kept" on night shift because I was "experienced" and did not need "extra help and watching". I watched as 2 nurses were hired in with no experience to straight day shift even though I had made it clear that I wanted off nights. I was a 15 year veteran to the nights and growing weary, became diabetic, etc. so it was obviously affecting my health. As a result, they lost their seasoned night nurse completely because I made a career change to Occ Med. I now work M-F, day shift with no weekends or holidays. I work PRN in the ER when I want and choose to now because ER is my passion. Sadly, facilities are losing good nurses because they are not treated fairly after years of dedication. Did I blame the new nurses? HECK NO! They were lucky and took what was offered to them. I would have done the same thing. I blamed the administration for allowing this kind of unfair practice. Funny thing is, right after I left, the staffing became much better for the night shift because the seasoned nurse who did it all those years was gone and the other nurses refused to work without extra help. Sorry for the rant, but I agree with so much of what nurseratched said. Many of us love nursing, but can only get burned so much before drawing the line in the sand. Thanks again Nurse for sharing that beautiful memory with us! :thankya:

I like the above layout for staffing, but I do not think it is very realistic, especially in the ER setting. There is absolutely know way of knowing how many patients will present in a shift. Especially in a rural setting. You may have a night with no patients at all or you could have a night where all the beds are full and you have overflow patients to deal with. All can be just as seriously ill. Other than having nurses on call constantly, I don't see how this can work. And many times when you have a crisis going on, by the time the on-call nurse arrives, the worst is over and she would not be needed any longer. I was a night ER nurse for many years, so I have seen both sides of the coin. I wish there were an easy answer.

At the risk of sounding dumb, in 20 years I don't know what code white is?

OMG!!!!

i think what the original post meant about "reproduction cp" is if we are able to "reproduce" the chest pain by palpation, deep breath, movement etc. i could be wrong, but that is how i read it.

Sue I am sorry that you had to go through what you did, but thank you for posting this. I, like many others, have always been told not to carry my own insurance. After reading through the last 9 pages, I called today and got my own. I have mine through State Farm. It is a rider policy on my homeowners. It is costing me $37 per year for $500,000 coverage. My question for all of you is this..... do you believe this is enough coverage?

Ok, I don't think you should try to have it both ways here.... FIRST you say that the patient was in no acute distress and doing quite well with sats in the low 70's. THEN you say this about her condition was too poor for her to sit in the waiting room. Which is it???? I agree that the medic should have listened to you, and at least discussed it without dismissing you. Perhaps explained why she HAD to act in the manner she did. BUT if this patient was serious enough that you were concerned that she could DIE in the ER waiting room, then I suppose short term O2 to get her to the hospital would not have caused any great harm, at least temporarily!

Willow, you need to ignore the idiocy of some of the posts. It seems like most are truely responding in a caring and interested way. A couple of these posts just prove why you are concerned to begin with. My husband is a chronic pain sufferer and has been treated badly too. I pray that those standing in judgement never have to endure what you and he have.

Vlsgrl, ICE stands for IN CASE of EMERGENCY... you list your contacts in your cell phones as ICE1, ICE2, ICE3, etc and the theory is that if you are injured or ill, they can look at your cell phone to be able to contact your next of kin etc. I have it in mine and my husband's also. Not sure how widely used it is, but I believe it will eventually catch on. :wink2:

ABSO-FRIGGIN-LUTELY!!!!!!!

Is there anyone here that is overweight that wears crocs for long periods of time? I am just wondering how they hold up then? Also, how long do they seem to last?

I am a Type II diabetic that just recently started insulin. I was very non-compliant for a few years. I too had every excuse known to man for not taking better care of myself. As a nurse I should have known better. It took me becoming gravely ill with a 500 blood sugar to finally start DOING it. I also was a Coke Classic addict. I have not had one in over 2 months. Am I proud of that? YOU BET!!! I was bitter and angry the first couple of days in the hospital. Then I made the CHOICE to make this a positive for myself and my family. This is my chance to get healthier as well as my families. (after all if I cook healthier, it can also help them). Granny I have noticed that all of your responses have been bitter and argumentative. There have been many posts that I felt were kind and helpful, yet you attacked them with bitterness and "I can'ts". It seems to me that a good portion of the problem is in your mindset. Only YOU can change that. Noone can help you unless you want to open your mind and heart to it. I am sure I am the next to be chastised or berated by you. And that is ok. Because nothing you say will affect my life or attitude. I wish you well on your diabetic journey. But only you will determine your outcome. :)

The pt. screaming of ear pain...one look w/ otoscope reveals a live cockroach...irrigated out and still alive...pt asks for spec. cup to "take him back home" OMG!!! I have never had one ask to keep it!

All I can say to this one is OMG!!!!!!!!!!

I worked several years of 12 hour night shift. We always alternated years being off. I also have a daughter from my first marriage so I not only had to deal with work schedule, but also his plans. I simply told my kids when they were young that Santa came on a special day for them because he knew that their mommy had to work taking care of sick people. They believed me and it made them feel extra special because Santa came especially for them. This way we could have Christmas on ANY day. Worked for us, and I was never so selfish to expect others to give up their family holiday.. My daughter is now grown and also in the medical field.... so now it becomes even more complicated to plan when we are both off, but ya know, it only matters that we are together and sharing family time. Not the DATE.

I see why you would think that about ER nurses catwoman, but that is not how we think. Like several have pointed out here..... the ER nurse is usually the first line person. We deal with the police, drunks, drug od's, psych's etc. BEFORE they are stabilized, taken to jail etc. I have said that I believe it should be the inherent right of ALL nurses to refrain from using their last name, but DEFINITELY should be seriously considered in ER and PSYCH. No one here is saying that only ER should have this done. :)

When I tried to do the search, it wants me to pay money. Am I doing something wrong? lol

Granny, I am very glad that you survived your episode! I personally worked with a young single mother who was stalked outside of work. It is even more scary when you think that your small child could witness this behavior or worse.... be injured! Having said that, I do not believe that this could ever be "overblown". I too have worked ER for many years and completely believe that there are, at the very least, certain areas in the hospital that should require safety first; such as ER, Psych, etc. The other areas should, if they feel in harms way, be allowed to omit their last name as well. It is not, in my opinion, un-professional to have your first name and title. If the patient needs to identify you, they can certainly get enough info from Barb, RN working ER on Aug, 9th @ 2230, taking care of Joe Smith. Come on, even the large trauma centers can figure out who we are talking about. Just my humble opinion.

Me too Tigger! And to be honest I have always said that I believe that to work in ER or ICU, you should have no less than 2 years Med Surg....gives you a good solid base before specializing. I try very hard not to appear on a high horse either Tigg, but it sure seems that there are some nurses that will imply that we are regardless. So I guess that is THEIR problem, not ours. As for the code teams.... I worked Level I trauma centers, Level II, and local small 5 bed ER's. As the ER nurse, I almost always responded to codes. And you are right, most times, there is not a floor nurse there unless it is her patient and then typically she is documenting what the team is doing. Even in the small hosp. the ER nurse and Dr did the code and the floor nurse charted etc. Just the way it was. I hope floor nurses are getting ACLS now and also are able to practice it. Just having it is not good enough. In my humble opinion.........

Floor nurses are supposed to dig deeper. We HAVE to do a complete head-to-toe assessment on the patient. The ER got the patient alive and now the floor's whole reason for being is to keep it that way. Your ER dx may be waaaaaaaaaaaaaay off of what is actually wrong with that patient, and it's OUR job to not only figure that out, but to actually KEEP the patient from crashing AGAIN. WOW! Angie I worked as a Floor Nurse before going to ER and I wish I would have been as GREAT as you are describing that I could second guess the ER docs diagnosis. Perhaps, just PERHAPS, the diagnosis was CORRECT and now that they are STABLE, you see a SECONDARY diagnosis? I hate to pick here, but .... We ALL work hard. We ALL have our own problems. But to second guess a diagnosis unless you saw that patient drug through the ER doors and the condition they were in, is to say the least, a little overbearing. This is my humble opinion after a few years of floor nursing and 20 yrs of ER.

I am sorry that you and your sister had such bad experiences. That definitely shines a bad light on the rest of us! And to be honest, I had no idea that Protonix caused a positive THC! I am now in a position that I do drug screens routinely and have been told that Cocaine and THC are the 2 drugs that have no cross reactants. This is something I will be talking to the drug screen company about. Zantac will however cause a + Meth test. Shocker huh? Obviously there are good and bad in every department. ER nurses DO get jaded. It is very hard to avoid. I have always said that if you get to that point you really should move on. It is not fair to the patients OR your co-workers.

All I will say is "AMEN"!!!!!

Sure hope you are joking Hoop.... some people may take you serious though and it is stuff like that that keeps the "rift" between specialties!

I agree somewhat with this, but at the same time, we do not know how he was treating his wife prior to here suicide attempt. I think that due to the history, they all need counselling to move forward through this. whether that means together or separate remains to be seen. (((((((hugs)))))))))) to the op, my brother attempted suicide in december, was flown unconscious to a level 1. I can empathize with what you and your family are going through. there are sooooo many various emotions for all of you. stay strong and give it to god, he is standing by waiting to hear you. take care and I will keep you in my prayers!

well said indeed! sask, i come here as a nurse of 20 years, 15 of which have been critical care. i totally agree with this last post, but also want to add that as an er nurse, i have seen patients crash sooooooo fast. unbelievable to say that you can give adequate nursing care to that many patients at once, much less total care to that many. please re-read your post. you came off as trying to make this new grad feel inadequate. in reality you only looked egotistical. all caring nurses take pride in their nursing care and ability. you do not have to make someone look inferior to make yourself appear as super nurse. it is time that nursing stops eating their young! good luck to you. hope you would never again be put in that staffing nightmare!