pkateRN

RN in an inpatient unit, not on call. in Ohio. 27 an hour, one dollar shift differential which makes it 28 an hour. I just started last week, came from a rehab facility.

Hi Guys, I'm a new grad RN who was hired into a palliative care/hospice unit at a VA hospital. I have no prior experience with hospice (or nursing in general) and was given very limited training in this area- only 4 days before I was on my own. Today...

last night a patient died right in my arms as I was holding him. that is one I need to give myself permission to move on from.

tewdles, I wanted to say thank you for giving the advice of "it is your loss professionally, not personally." that mantra is one i repeat over and over and as a result, the deaths have become easier to deal with. thank you for the perspective!

My second death was Wednesday, but I wasn't there for it...and for that I am thankful. I had been taking care of a man with leukemia for 2 weeks who was transfusion dependent before coming to me, and they decided to stop the transfusions. when I went...

you know, I've never really questioned why we don't take vitals.

thank you for the insight everybody. the nurse before me put in a subcutaneous port because all of the meds were subQ and he didn't want to poke the patient more than once. I gave one dose of scopolamine subQ and it worked beautifully. does the patch...

Marcy, I am in an inpatient unit in a VA hospital. the general name of it is the Community Living Center, which is mostly rehab patients, but we have 14 palliative/hospice beds, depending on the need. I know other VAs have their own freestanding hosp...

after typing the last response I feel like I should explain why I said "these residents are idiots." we are primarily a rehab unit, with one hallway of palliative and hospice. the residents generally have no hospice experience, so our most experience...

I forgot to add, our residents are idiots this time. we get new ones every 2 weeks and I have no idea where these people came from. this morning, myself and my charge nurse FINALLY convinced them to give this man a morphine drip. I could tell by thi...

I came in yesterday and to my utter shock, my patient was still hanging on. I was with him 16 hours yesterday until this morning because one of the night shift nurses called off, and I couldn't justify leaving him without adequate nursing care. when...

My first as a RN was last week. I took care of a gentleman who fought in WWII next to general mcarthur. he was holding on so hard, he had so much anxiety about dying. all the anxiety complicated his breathing and pain. when he finally passed, I breat...

today I was taking care of an end of life patient who is a 90 year old WWII vet. I was trying to make him comfortable, and as I leaned over him grabbed my boob and said "I'm sorry, I had to grab a titty one last time before I die" I was speechless!

The above poster is correct. I work at the VA and it takes months all the way up past a year to get hired in. the paperwork is outrageous, and background checks/references take them months to complete. you may be close to a year by the time all that ...

Hi guys, I wanted to get your opinion on this. I just took my boards in June and was hired on a sub-acute rehab floor in a large hospital. one of my patients has been there for months and is post-CVA, he also recently found out he has late stage canc...

update: raising this issue to my manager went nowhere. in addition, the patient's daughter is his legal guardian and was called into a family meeting where she decided that he is to have surgery in order to remove 2/3 of his tongue. he will also be ...

I have my MSN, and I am a bedside nurse. my education cost me 65,000 dollars, but I love my job thus far and certainly don't think it was a waste. I have the option to continue on, but I'm going to give it some years before I do.

Thank you for the replies. I should have made my original post clearer. This patient will usually take his medications for me, and if he doesn't, I go back and ask him a few times. He has issues with certain staff members- will only let specific peop...

OP, I have been there and I know how big of a blow it can be to your self esteem. during my last semester of school I precepted in the ER- I was in the direct entry MSN program. my preceptor and I started out fine, but things quickly went downhill. s...

Once, when I was in nursing school, I was shadowing the wound nurse for the day. The first wound-vac dressing change I was to do was on a man's scrotum. When he asked who would be doing the dressing change, and I said I was, he promptly opened his le...

hi folks, this is my first time posting here :) I precepted in a public hospital ER, where we were the safety net and often last resort for many patients. I once had a patient who was probably 18 or so, told me he had a migraine, and this was his thi...