dolphinRN

There is a lot of time, and the person you are at 20 is not the person you are at 30 or even 40. and the older you are, I just think you enjoy the whole experience more. Even the Wal-Mart tantrums! :p I wholeheartedly agree with enjoying the experience more. I have teenagers from a previous marriage and 22 month old twins from my current one. I do know that I take the time now that I didn't with the older ones to just sit and watch them, truly enjoy them. I had a tubal after my second one was born because I knew I didn't want anymore kids with my then husband. I was the primary breadwinner and also did most of the work at home, including the parenting. He was just like an older kid. When I divorced, I honestly hadn't thought about having more kids. However, the right guy came along, we did IVF, and wound up with the twins. I wouldn't give them up for the world. Would I have done this had I married someone else? I honestly don't know. But hubby is VERY active in the lives of ALL of my kids and I don't regret it, even when people make comments of how crazy I was to start all over again. It's my family, my choice, and just because you wouldn't do it, don't pass judgement, right? :)

If we were more financially stable, dh and I would probably have had at least 2 more. I have 2 from a previous marriage, had a tubal due to knowing I couldn't afford any more when I was married to their father who didn't work (we won't go there), met my dh and we decided we wanted more. We went with IVF, it took the first time, and we have 2 adorable 18 month olds. We were very fortunate and I wouldn't give any of my 4 kids up for the world. Yes, it can be very trying with 2 teens and the younger ones, but we love them all and make sure to spend time with each of them.I do agree though that if people can't afford to have a lot of children, they shouldn't. Being on welfare isn't a good way to bring up kids, IMO.

A good friend of mine made my scrub tops when I was pregnant with twins because the only ones I could find premade were drab solids. I did choose some 100% cotton, but also the 65%/35% poly/cotton blend. There really are some simple patterns out there. If I had more time, I might try my hand at making my own, but working full time with 2 teenagers and 2 17 month olds......

Don't get me wrong; I treat all the ward clerks with the due respect they deserve. As was mentioned, I ask politely if they can do something or if they are truly busy I will do it myself. I have never treated any of them in a rude manner. The problem that we have at our hospital is that the ward clerks do not fall under nursing. Several years ago, their boss decided that it wasn't necessary to keep the ward clerks assigned to a specific floor. That seems to be where a lot of ours lost ownership in their work. None of them have truly felt like part of the team on the floors and unfortunately some of the nurses haven't helped by treating them poorly. Ward clerks are a very important player in a floor's team and DOES deserve respect just as much as anyone else. Sure, clothing doesn't make the person inside, but it is one of the things others first see and get an impression. It's not just in hospitals, but in society in general where "Casual Friday" has invaded all days of the week. A ward clerk should dress more professionally than jeans and t-shirts and yes, it is a dress code issue our hospital needs to address. And I agree that ward clerks aren't paid what they truly are worth.

Where I work, we have one Ward clerk who is worth 5 times her weight in gold. She is always professional in dress and mannerisms and truly makes the ward run VERY smoothly. I have jokingly called her Radar, but that is what she is like: she knows what you want before you even know for sure. Everyone enjoys working with her. Then there's all the others. They come to work dressed in jeans, t-shirts, etc., which I feel is very inappropriate in their line of work. None of them seem to want to take a vested interest in their duties nor resposibility in doing their job right. And then they wonder why so many people prefer working with the finest. A ward clerk can definitely make or break a unit.

I honestly don't know if they have a back up system in place. I've been helping with timekeeping for about 8 months now and the only time I have seen on call changes made did not involve someone being off sick. Again, we have very few instances where the on call team do come in, but it just seems odd to allow someone to continue to be on call when they are too sick to work a regular shift. Yes, odds of them getting called in are slim, but what if it happens??? Do other places have back up systems in place? Again, I don't work the area. It is just a patient and staff safety issue that triggered in my mind.

The main reason for my question is because I recently have started assisting our timekeeper with posting the time for various areas. The manager is constantly asking him to override the not available for those who call in sick so they still get paid to be on call. I agree that if you are too sick to pull your regular shift, you are too sick to be on call, but it doesn't seem to be the practice where I work. It isn't a major hospital where the on call team is called in routinely, but I still feel it is not a safe practice and wondered if this was common elsewhere. Thanks for the replies.

I have a quick question regarding your hospital policy on being on call after calling in sick. Does your hospital allow you to still take call if you call in sick for a regularly scheduled tour?

I had a foot surgery a few years ago that went bad. The podiatrist went in to remove "tissue" the size of a man's thumb from my heel and while he was in there released a tendon. When I was released to go back to work, the hospital had moved the ward I worked on to a revamped area that was not nurse or patient friendly. Either way, with averaging 5 plus miles a day on my foot at work and having a high pain tolerance, I wound up spending months getting the pain isolated with a different podiatrist. He states that I have a major foot instability but also sinus tarsi syndrome. My foot pops and is painful throughout the foot, but mostly in the heel/mid foot region. It seriously pops where I have never heard a "normal" foot pop. I wear a support when I know I will be on my foot for a long time, but I am now assigned a desk job because the foot isn't stable enough for me to work on all day and manage the weight of lifting patients, pushing carts, etc. I read online that one of the procedures they could do is a triple arthrodesis. Have any of you had any experience with someone having one? Has it helped them regain "full" use of their foot or have you seen more people with complications afterward? I do plan on seeing an orthopedic surgeon who specializes in feet, but after dealing with a screwup the first time around, I'm very skittish. I used to enjoy walking even after all I did at work and now that I have 16 month old twins, I really would like to get back into some shape to play with them. Thanks for any input.:)

I actually has one of my nursing instructors do this in front of me when we were working together at the same hospital. I was a NA at the time and still in school. My last floor assignment was with older Oncology patients who have very poor veins for decent IV sticks. My husband caught me one afternoon when we were at the mall admiring this guy's veins. They were big enough to put a 16 gauge in without a tourniquet. So I guess admiring nice veins on people is one of the bad habits I acquired.:chuckle

I've been at the same hospital for almost 17 years, just different Med/Surg units and "desk" jobs since my foot won't hold up to the pounding I gave it on the floors anymore. Yes, this place has its ups and downs, but all facilities do.

I work in the VA system, not the one in NO. It is true that they pay BSN more. In fact, once you are there working with an ADN, your salary cap is lower than what you can get with a BSN. The other trick with the VA system is they definitely do take your experience in mind when they offer you a starting salary. Hire on as a new grad, you don't start out the same as an RN. The one thing I have always liked about the VA is the five week vacation a year. Yes, this starts when you hire on as an RN. You earn 8 hours of AL and 4 hours of sick leave every two weeks. VA does have payback opportunites for education. I do not know the full details because I haven't looked into them.

I work in the VA system, not the one in NO. It is true that they pay BSN more. In fact, once you are there working with an ADN, your salary cap is lower than what you can get with a BSN. The other trick with the VA system is they definitely do take your experience in mind when they offer you a starting salary. Hire on as a new grad, you don't start out the same as an RN. The one thing I have always liked about the VA is the five week vacation a year. Yes, this starts when you hire on as an RN. You earn 8 hours of AL and 4 hours of sick leave every two weeks. VA does have payback opportunites for education. I do not know the full details because I haven't looked into them.

Thank you both for your replies. He has had a lot of stress going on right now as well and I thought it might be from where things are so tight around the nerves. He was able to get an appointment to see a doctor tomorrow. I will just make sure to press that they get the studies done sooner than later. I know this has him frightened of what it could be because most things he'll just shrug off and fight me when I suggest he see a doctor. I didn't even need to twist his arm this time.:uhoh21:

Thank you both for your replies. He has had a lot of stress going on right now as well and I thought it might be from where things are so tight around the nerves. He was able to get an appointment to see a doctor tomorrow. I will just make sure to press that they get the studies done sooner than later. I know this has him frightened of what it could be because most things he'll just shrug off and fight me when I suggest he see a doctor. I didn't even need to twist his arm this time.:uhoh21:

DH came up to me last night after the children had gone to bed and decided then to tell me about something that happened to him earlier in the day. It scared him enough to make an appointment to see a doctor, but I wanted to see if anyone had heard of something like this and has any information. The only way he could describe it in lay terms was a seizure. But that's not what really sounds like what happened. He was sitting at his desk, sat up straighter to stretch his back, and he felt like this electrical impulse hit him right in the middle of the back. He lost all muscle control, arms and legs moved on own and when it was done, his head was on his desk. No loss of consciousness or other body functions, in fact he got up and was able to walk down the hall without a problem. He wound up with a pretty bad headache afterward. This is the first time this has ever happened to him. Awhile back, he was having dizzy spells, but at that time he also had a severe sinus infection. Has anyone heard of or seen this happen? Is there any place I can find out information? I'd like to know a little something about it before the appointment just to know what type of procedures are appropriate. Yes, we have insurance, but with twin infants and 2 teenagers, money can get tight. Thanks.

DH came up to me last night after the children had gone to bed and decided then to tell me about something that happened to him earlier in the day. It scared him enough to make an appointment to see a doctor, but I wanted to see if anyone had heard of something like this and has any information. The only way he could describe it in lay terms was a seizure. But that's not what really sounds like what happened. He was sitting at his desk, sat up straighter to stretch his back, and he felt like this electrical impulse hit him right in the middle of the back. He lost all muscle control, arms and legs moved on own and when it was done, his head was on his desk. No loss of consciousness or other body functions, in fact he got up and was able to walk down the hall without a problem. He wound up with a pretty bad headache afterward. This is the first time this has ever happened to him. Awhile back, he was having dizzy spells, but at that time he also had a severe sinus infection. Has anyone heard of or seen this happen? Is there any place I can find out information? I'd like to know a little something about it before the appointment just to know what type of procedures are appropriate. Yes, we have insurance, but with twin infants and 2 teenagers, money can get tight. Thanks.

I am a fan of mostly old time Rock and Roll. People look at me like I'm crazy when I say I calm down after a busy day at work by listening to AC/DC or Pink Floyd on the way home. I am not a huge fan of Country music, particularly the new Country. I do like the older like Charlie Daniels, David Allen Coe, Johnny Cash, but none of the newer stuff. As for ©rap.....:puke: My cd collection (over 300) is extremely diverse. I have some from the newer groups, but can't say I'm too impressed with a lot of the new female vocalists. They all sound too much alike and use to much synthesizers. Very few really have the quality voice like Madonna or the Wilson sisters (Heart), Stevie Nicks..... It just doesn't seem like the newer groups have the raw talent of the older ones. Look at the staying power of Aerosmith. I also agree with the comment about American Idol. Just not impressed with any of them as a whole.

In the past 10 years, I have lived more than 20 miles away from the hospital where I work and both houses have been down the hill from the only way out of the neighborhood. I drive a car, not an SUV, and have always made it in to work. The strange thing is, all of us that live further out seem to make it in without any problems. The ones that call in are the ones that live within 5 miles of the hospital. Figure THAT one out. When we are expecting bad weather, the hospital does allow those that want to stay over to do so. Staff are also reminded that until enough of the next shift shows they are not to leave.

We don't have someone that does this as their only role. If it is going from VA to VA in the VISN, wouldn't it be at the VISN level and not just for the hospital? I don't work with the BCMA system in my current role, but I do remember all the whining that the nurses did when it was started and whenever changes were made. What would be nice is if all the VISNs would do something like this, but also incorporate CPRS. Get a nurse who is very computer savvy in the position that also is a good teacher that doesn't frustrate easily. As for if it is a worthwhile position....it would depend on your feelings about not being completely involved in patient care, the traveling involved, if you would miss the differential....

Sorry, I didn't know where else to go with this and it is my first time starting a thread. I was reading the article about the infant who weighed less than a can of soda in September (one of a set of twins) at Loyola in Chicago. At the end of the article, all the credit goes to the doctors that work there for the many small lives that they have saved over the years. Not a single word of praise is offered to all the nurses and other hospital staff that did the actual hands on care of this little miracle. :angryfire I guess I will never understand why there will always be the people who won't understand that a doctor is only as good as the nurses who carry out his orders. Sorry, I just felt I needed to vent and this is one place I knew that would understand.

One of the first patients I had when I transferred from a surgery unit to oncology was a man in his mid 40s dealing with AML. Any time he was admitted for treatments, one nurse would state that he only took his Demerol to escape the truth ( I thought that this was his business). He had a very supportive family who would make sure he had everything he needed to make his stays as comfortable as possible. He would always bring his boombox and a huge collection of cds. I always enjoyed taking care of him because we would talk about life experiences and also about music, which we had in common. We would discuss our favorite songs and why. One that he enjoyed was REO Speedwagon's "Live Every Moment". He always made the comment that if he couldn't be home when it was his turn to die, he wanted to be at our hospital. Unfortunately, when it came time, he was too sick to make it to our VA, so he died at the one closest to him. When I found out, I couldn't think about him for a long time without a tear coming to my eye. It also took me awhile before I could play that song without crying. I can listen to it now, but I still think of him and that has been nearly 9 years ago.

Where I work, they consider it a priviledge to work a straight off tour. You are "responsible" enough to perform your duties without the Nurse Manager watching you. If you screw up, they will pull you off the tour. The only tour that rotates is the day shift. The only place you can work straight days is in the clinic or specailty areas. Day people either cover evenings or nights. It is not a true rotation. When all the off tour positions are full, the only time you don't work days is to cover when one of them is on leave.

Maybe what you are saying about the taxes is true, but I have had many people show their pay stubs where killing themselves by pulling a ton of overtime did not benefit them anymore than limiting to a few shifts a pay period. Maybe it had something to do with what status they claim when they are hired. That is why I limited mine, but especially because of family. I agree that if I couldn't afford a particular house or car without overtime, I wouldn't risk it. To pay off schools or other bills faster or for extra around the holidays, yes. My concern about the people that work all the overtime is that they don't overdo it to the point where they are so exhausted that they start making a lot of errors. That is what i feel needs to be watched more than what they are doing with the extra money. Patient safety- and your own.

We are paid every two weeks and I found that it was better to work no more than 24 hourd of overtime a payperiod or Uncle Sam got most of it back in taxes. I did start out working overtime to pay off some bills a while back, but when you have a family......