tiggerforhim

When your patients are alive at the end of the day.

The Stand, anyone???

Actually, I didn't have much of a problem, if it helps get catch terrorists. We are at war, you know.

Well, the tactics being used are definitely reminiscent of Stalinist Russia. You do realize that the political assassinations/mass murders were aided and abetted by tactics like this - informing on those around, whether neighbors or not. It was a very good tactic to get rid of an opponent, you know, just drop a line into the little bird's ear, and watch them get hauled away. Of course, then you yourself would get hauled away ... but oh, well, never mind. I don't object to health care reform, just this particular way of doing things. And yes, I've lived in a former Soviet republic and was spied upon as well.

Here's the actual text from the blog page: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/Facts...ubborn-Things/ Halfway down the page: There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can't keep track of all of them here at the White House, we're asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to [email protected]. Hmm. Stalinist Russia, anyone? Also, try redstate.com for another view on the health care situation.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/Facts-Are-Stubborn-Things/ Halfway down the page: There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can't keep track of all of them here at the White House, we're asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to [email protected]. Hmm. Stalinist Russia, anyone? Also, try redstate.com for another view on the health care situation.

Massive lactulose stool when I was in my first trimester...makes me wince thinking of it.

Hugs and prayers for you! God Bless!

Well, when I was in Kazakstan, a former Soviet Republic, the old babushkas (grandmas) would have a fit if they saw me sitting on the steps of a building or the floor, as they told me I'd never have children. Also I was told ice in drinks give you sore throats, shaking hands across the threshold of a door is bad luck, and sitting on the corner of the table is also bad luck or reproduction problems or something like that.

Try pushing your patient into the shower in one of those PVC shower chairs that's also a bedside commode, giving them the shower, and then realizing you can't move the chair because the pan underneath the seat (which you conveniently forgot to remove and holds about 30 gallons or so), is full to the brim. Then try removing the pan and, because of it's huge weight that you are unprepared for, proceeding to drop it on the floor. To add insult to injury, this bathroom is built walk-in, with no walls around the shower area, so the bathroom and a quarter of the patient's room proceeds to flood (not to mention your lower body and shoes are well soaked by this point). I spent 30 minutes mopping up that mess with blankets before the floor was dry enough to mop, if you get my drift. First, however, I did get the patient back to bed and dressed and dried off before starting to clean up everything. I did discover scrubs dry very quickly, though, much faster than shoes.

Well, it's nice to think of the patient's rights, but the previous poster is right. If the residents were allowed to lie in bed all day, not eat, and only use their wheelchair, in no time they would have pneumonia, constipation, more falls (from no exercise and muscles weakening), bedsores, skin tears, and death. I'm not trying to be stark, but these complications are all preventable by mobility and nutrition. They need to get up and move around. Lord knows, it's not an easy job you have, especially with people who might actively resist you, but it's part of your job description to do that and what your head CNA tells you to do (unless it will be injurious to the patients, of course).

Or spend some "quality time" with your man....happened to me after putting on my hands....WE know better now!

Um, Tom, Caucasians (sp?) CAN be sicklers, it's just much more prominent in the African American world. Speaking as a former peds nurse and one who currently works with sicklers, I can say with authority that not all of mine are African-Americans. Now I haven't seen into any background to see whether they have African-American in their backgrounds from way back.

Excuse me, just because YOU indulge in the above said behaviour, don't put that on the rest of us! I really hate the 'shame the hypocrite back' attitude. I have my own issues (doesn't everyone?) but you are quite mistaken in assigning blame and broken laws to other people. You might have drunk underage; I did not. You might not care about seatbelts; I've cared for what was left after being ejected from the car by no seatbelts. You may download movies; I pay for mine. And before everyone gets all riled up about me being self-righteous, settle down, I'm not. I've just made the choices to be as responsible as possible, I handle people's lives, don't you want me to take yours into my hands with the same amount of care and respect? But I also am not making choices that will seriously impinge on other people's rights or, more importantly, safety. And that's what it comes down to, you know. You may have a 'right' to do things you want to do, but it really stops being a right if it threatens my health/safety, or, more importantly, my childrens', and then, well, momma bear comes unleashed. And I agree with some of the other posters, you can be considered impaired and under the influence of something even if you have a prescription for it. I don't normally get all fired up, must be the full moon. One last thing: IT'S ILLEGAL!!!! Complaining about it won't change that, but can land you without a get-out-of-jail card and no dice to roll, not to say anything about losing your license. EDIT: I'm going over to the Humor forum now. Sheesh!

Saw this order a lot on the ortho floor post knee/hip replacements.

You've got great opportunities either way. However, and this is my opinion based on my personal experience, cross-training is a great way to get a wide variety of experience that will allow you to truly discover your niche. Some nurses go all to pieces if they are put in an area that's not their specialty. My first job was a float pool nurse in a major Magnet teaching hospital. I was assigned to a large variety of units, and had I stayed there I'd have gotten the training to be an ICU float nurse. However, I gained an amazing variety of experiences and discovered where I truly loved working, which was Peds, and when we moved, then I took my next job as a Peds nurse. My current job has me working with chronic illnesses of a variety of rare diseases, but a large component is still kids, and I work with them as often as I can. So, I guess, my point is, getting the basics down in a large variety of settings can only help you if you decide to go on and specialize in one area of nursing. As long as you're not afraid to ask lots of questions in all different areas, you'll do very well. In any case, you'll learn so much in your first year of nursing I don't think it will matter much if it's small hospital/wide variety, or large hospital/specialty. When I took my Peds job we would get sent to other Peds floors for staffing issues, but because I'd had a great experience in my first job, I loved the floating, and looked upon it as an opportunity to learn something. Just my 2 cents.

Look, in an emergency, with everything else we have to do/remember, if the patient does not tell me about, I'm not going to worry about it. Even if it's not an emergency, I'm probably not going to make it my priority, especially if there's nothing to indicate. If you decide to keep your mouth shut, don't blame me afterwards. If I knowthe patient is Jewish/Muslim, that's a different story. Also, like a lot of posters I've read here, I didn't know about the porcine source for heparin, so, again, with everything else expected of us, I don't have time to look up the origins of my meds. Just my 0.02, bluntly.

Heh. You go, girl!!! My mom (who has a wonderful tendency to blurt truth out in a very insulting way) told me " You're so much nicer now you're not on night shift!" Yikes. Well, I got to the point I couldn't sleep on my days off, so I found a job as a disease manager working for insurance companies. They offer 8hr, 10hr, 12 hour shifts, but no nights, weekends, or holidays. I call my members on the phone. I get (for where I live) nightshift pay for my dayshift hours. So hang in there and stick with the new job and schedule! Weight Watchers is awesome! God Bless, Rachel:bow::bow::yeah:

Excuse me. Any place can have unprofessional people, no matter where you go or which organization you work for. As a former Mayo nurse, I have to say that at least at the Minnesota campus, which is where I worked, I was completely impressed by the professionalism of the staff and the physicians. I was a float nurse, fresh out of nursing school at that point. They took me gently, oriented me much longer than the typical float nurse to make sure I had my feet under me and wouldn't kill anyone, and then let me go when I was well trained and able to take a full load. They had every confidence in me and returned my confidence as well. I absolutely loved working for them there and if I didn't want my kids to be close to their grandparents I would be working there still. As to the OP, you'll get a great experience either way, but the critical care experience at Mayo is really not something to be missed. You can always go for ER afterwards if you find you hate it! Something else I discovered at Mayo is that life is too short to be doing something you hate. So, if you don't like your job, change it!!!

Just FYI - Orientate (while driving me crazy too, like STATs, arrrgh) is actually the British english version of our word orient. Don't ask me how it got started in nursing!!!

My crazy psych professor for general psych (college) pronounced acetylcholine as assy-TOO-ka-lene! Drove me nuts! She also vaccumed her house naked (don't ask how I know), would tell her classes about her love life with her professor-at-the-same-college husband, came dressed up to a Halloween party as the 'moment of conception', and would make her students in the Marriage and Family class start out the semester giving all the slang words they'd ever heard for sex, male, female body parts, etc. She was nuts!!!! And they didn't fire her!!!!:bugeyes:

Great great something or other (aunt or grandmother) named Lamiddy Nileptha.

The point is, if the patient had been getting it Q3, then your not giving it very likely would plunge them into a withdrawal syndrome, and then at the 6 hour mark, they would need even more medication than whatever dose you would have given them which is what they were using to stay on top of the pain. That's the point. If you can't see that .... oh dear. This has nothing to do with beliefs (at least from my point of view). Well, maybe it is, because my BELIEF is that you need to give whatever they need to stay comfortable....and I'd rather err on the side of caution than having to deal with people in severe pain, conscious or not. P.S. sorry for the 3 posts in a row, but this is something I really feel very strongly about.

Thank you. I'm not slamming suespet, but please, please, please, give the meds! I also work with a population with chronic pain (RA, SLE, MS) and when they tell me of the pain, and the crying and sobbing and what they've gone through with their doctors NOW just to get appropriate pain relief to function, it really frosts my cookies (ha) when people want to withhold meds from nonresponsive people who can't speak up for themselves. I educate patients nearly every day about pain management because they are so afraid of becoming addicted. I am a Christian too, but I have to remember that God does not want his children to suffer, and therefore I have no problem giving the pain meds. If I was in that situation, I'd want all the medication I could take to keep the pain under control.

Amen sister! I have worked with a pediatric population who also (the little ones) cannot always communicate their issues, so I gave them regular doses of meds to relieve their pain, even though they couldn't tell me. It's not the same, exactly, but same principle. Just because they 'look' comfortable does not mean they are.