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I know I already replied but I feel that having a good personality is important... Even if they are just talking about how good you are as a person.. I think that should make one feel good. This job is so stressful, it's the residents and patients who tell me they love me and are happy to see me, those people keep me going, I can't downplay it or I would go crazy lol

My guess is the UTI issues as well as infected wounds. I'm really on top of dressings.. I'm always working closely with wound care nurses and keeping them updated and if a wound is not healing properly I call them right away to get the resident on the service

This may not be helpful at all but I would just keep being polite and empathetic no matter how dramatic the patient is. I can tell that you do have empathy and this patient was just really acting out. Whenever I have difficult patients I always refer back to an experience when I was a patient in the ER. I was 16 years old and I was there with lupus nephritis flare.. I'm always very patient and quiet when in pain because I deal with lupus pain every day and I am used to it. There was a girl in the next curtain area with suspected appendicitis who was refusing NG tube, refusing lady partsl exam to r/o any other issues. Refused scans. Just wanted pain meds. She was really acting out and I got really frustrated and complained to my dad about her and called her nasty names (not to her, but was telling my dad). my dad said to me, "I've never seen you be so in-compassionate. Do you know what appendicitis feels like to someone who doesn't know how to deal with pain? This may be the worst pain she ever felt" And I realized he was right. I didn't put myself in her shoes. And when I did I wasn't as frustrated with her and was able to tolerate her dramatics a little better. Anyway she finally started cooperating because her nurse just kept being very stern and polite and showed compassion. Sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn't. But I learned that putting myself in others' shoes does make me cope with the angry patient a lot better, even if they are still not cooperating. Sometimes you can't just make the patient less dramatic with one line and sometimes you will have to just "put up with " so to speak, or do what you did with the police escort which was the right thing to do.

I agree that patients will say people are good nurses if they like them as a person.. But sometimes (in my experience) it has gone beyond that. I have had families and patients who were really difficult to please thank me for talking them through decisions that were difficult because they saw that the end result was in their best interest.. That takes more than a friendly personality. I also notice that attentiveness goes a long way.. Not ignoring things.. And being very prompt with monitoring. Don't underestimate yourselves.. When someone tells you that you are a good nurse.. It really may go beyond your personality

I'm not trying to split hairs here but your perception of this is rather skewed. Sending a nudie pic and cutting are so different. I have an adult friend who cut. She was in fact suicidal but was cutting to get by while formulating a plan which I later found out. She hadn't picked up her phone in days.. I went to her house and one of her cuts was so deep it required stitches and got infected. She was so hesitant to go to the hospital because she was afraid of nurses being apathetic or judging her. She was so afraid I had to call 911 while she went into full blown panic attack. Was it exhausting for me? Yea! And it was exhausting for months and months after that, while she was in recovery. I worried day and night. But she got the help she needed and not just medical help. Physically treating it is only scratching the surface.. Only getting them better physically so they can go back to self harming. She went inpatient for a few weeks.. Got lots of insight and protection while vulnerable, and continued outpatient counseling and still does to this day. My point is, no matter how old someone is they still deserve proper treatment and empathy. They are still human and have issues that need to be addressed. And my other point is to anyone who thinks cutting is just a trend please don't make that generalization. It's a cry for help and often a valid one. No matter what you're opinions are you always have to act on it like its a critical and serious matter.

I guess it depends what type of people you work with.. But I would take it as a compliment

It makes my day. Makes all the hard work worth it. :)

Also just throwing this out there but FDA approves lots of Otc amounts of meds daily that are not good for people.. I was told taking 2g tylenol daily for my RA would be safe by the doctor and the FDA also approves it. But my LFTs said other wise.

It is If you get to eat and actually recharge but if you're being interrupted for non urgent things then no. I don't think so

Updates, patient is doing well. :) she had large Amt of e. Coli in urine and has UTI but no kidney infection or sepsis! Also- Regional director is fumed that they dc'd everything and I said, in all due respect I've heard a lot about AL being cited for doing invasive procedures so maybe from now on we should just make arrangements to take her to urgent care or just send to ER. She said that's not the protocol and that if it's emergent that I need to do certain things under certain circumstances. So I said, "I understand, but in order to do this the right way can you please sign off on these things as I am very cautious of doing them in AL but if you sign off that you approved the skilled care in these situation I will gladly do it. She said that's fine. I'm holding her to that. Thank you all for the input!

That's why I initially wanted to cath her but they d/c'd the UA and the cath, and by the time I came back for my scheduled day to work she was not in good shape. But she's on IV ABT now and doing better

I understand why you're interpreting this that way but I care a lot about my residents. she did recieve tx the minute I got back after my time off. i checked her and sent her out to the ER. Can't blame me for being frustrated at this job. Nothing is all about me, but one should like their job and not just say, "im gonna put up with this because it's all about my residents" It's all about my residents/patients when I'm At work.

That's really great advice! Thank you so much

I certainly don't think this is all about me.

It was normal but I still didn't wanna take any chances.. She shouldn't have had to suffer like this but at least I know she'll get the care she needs now even if I do get reprimanded