purpil29

south louisiana here. gustav uprooted most of the trees on the road i live on. along with part of my roof. i now have mold growing on my ceiling. i got power back late last night and it is a good thing because gas to run the generator is like finding a needle in a haystack! i evacuated with my family some are elderly and some ill. i felt i needed to be with them. now that we are back (i had took a leave from work) iam going back to work to releave my fellow nurses. it is very hard to work and take care of all the crap gustav left behind for us to deal with but i think god never gives us more than we can handle. i hope everybody else down here is ok as well. also thanks to all who sent your prayers and thoughts.

i have decided to take a leave for a coulple of months and just stay home. i have no kids,no money problems,i am not sick,i am not lazy and i am not sick of nsg. i just want to try on the roll of fulltime house wife for a little while. my husband supports my choices. the problem is my fellow nurses. they cannot understand why? i have even had a couple of them ask how i could do this when nurses are needed so badly. i thought i was making a personal decision for myself. i never dreamed others would take it as a stab in the back. i am not leaving forever. i just wanted some me time. am i wrong for this?

sorry about the spelling im tired.

i have worked with hard working cna's that always did what i asked with a pleasant attitude but when i was off my relief had huge problems with the same girls that i was so pleased with. i asked them point blank why they did this to her. she was a nice nurse and good at her job. thier reply was that she did not repect them or make any effort to help them. i expained to them that it is not always possible for a nurse who is dealing with 35residents,meds,docters,labs,fmly,charting,and overseeing the care given by the cna to drop everything to help empty cath bags. althou i do when i can. i found out that a good many cna thought when a nurse was at the station she is just doing nothing. true in some cases but not in this one. i also talked to the nurse and told her what they were saying. the next week she was near a room when the cna was pulling a resident up in bed. the nurse locked her cart and took just a minute to offer assist and she and the cna were like best buddies. these small things spread and before you knew it all was good. this case turned out with a happy ending however i know cna that no amount of meeting in the middle would work with and for those there is only one way to handle it. give them directions to the unemployment office. hall them into your don office for every occurance and she /he will put a stop to it.

sorry to hear your going thru this. i wish you well and i will have my fingers crossed for you. keep your chin up and things will work out .

lpn in louisiana here. going on 6 yrs. pay is 21.50 per hour with a 2000 $ sign on bonus ltc/snf. i work the floor do mds and careplans and all new admits before five pm .weekends and holidays off. however,if you have floor exp.only you will likely get 16.00 per hour and the cna's get 8$ per hour...less at some places. rns get 30$ per hour w/e sup. don doe and hosp 28$ per hour on average with 5000$ sign on bonus. however,all of these change with exp.

i am an lpn. i do head to toe assessment on admit and i do the careplan for the resident the rn comes if i need her to stage a wound. the docter and rn sign off on the careplan q mth with the orders. i think the scope of practice for an lpn varies from state to state. i have a friend that sits on the board of nsg in my state (she is the only lpn on the board) so when in doubt i give her a call. also i think acute care an ltc differs.

it is hard everytime you see a hard death but the first does stay with you. your fellow nurses may have seemed to have good poker faces but ill bet they each have atleast one that is always with them. this is not a bad thing it just means you care deeply and that is a good thing. my first hard death was also a lung cancer pt and i gave everything i could ms q15m ativan gel and scop patches she kept holding on and the suffering was horrible! i was fairly new and was at my wits end b/c nothing was working to ease her pain. she had no family so staff rotated so she was never alone. a hospice nurse was in the facility for another resident and saw me about to break down in the med room. she talked to me as if i were the family and told me to just sit down next to her and hold her hand and tell her its ok now. i must admit i thought sure this will help.. but , i did it and my sweet pt seemed to just grin at me and she passed away. i was not happy about her death but very happy she was no longer suffering and i think i helped. i was very very grateful to that wonderful hospice nurse. however, i will never forget my pt and you wont either but you will get stronger and you will help many others during your career. i have no doubt you will be one of the great ones!!!

I Have Always Been Proud To Wear White As It Makes Me Feel Good (just Me) However, I Wear Navy Blue Some Days Just To Mix It Up. The Cna's Wear Anything They Want. One Cna Came To Work Wearing White One Day And Some Of The Nurses Were Upset By This. From That Day On Cna's Were Told They Could Wear Anything But White Or Navy B/c The Nurse Must Stand Out From All Others And As We Only Have Two Colors To Choose From They Can Have The Rest. Because Everybody And Their Brother Wears Scrubs It Is Sometimes Hard To Know Who Is Who. Someone Once Told Me That In An Emergency They Dont Have Time To Read Name Tags So Being Able To Spot A Nurse By The Color Of His/her Uniform Can Be Very Reasurring.

:heartbeatI WILL START AT THE BEGINNING. IN NSG SCHOOL WE HAD ONE STUDENT WHO WAS JUST MEAN! SHE MADE EVERYBODY WANT TO GO THE OTHER WAY WHEN SHE CAME IN THE ROOM! IF SOMEONE CRIED FOR GETTING A LOWER THAN DESIRED GRADE OR EXPRESSED THEIR FEELING OR GOD FORBID THEIR OPINION THEN SHE WOULD JUMP ON THEM LIKE A STARVING WOLF ON A RABBIT! SOMEHOW SHE GOT AWAY WITH THIS BECAUSE SHE KNEW WHEN TO TURN ON THE FAKE CHARM WITH THE INSTRUCTORS. A CLASS OF 45 STUDENTS ONLY 14 OF US BECAME NURSES. WE ALL SAID WE WOULD NEVER WORK WHERE SHE WAS BUT AS LUCK WOULD HAVE IT(YOU GUESSED IT)WE WERE ON THE SAME JOB AND TRUE TO FORM SHE WAS EVEN WORSE ON THE JOB. WE HAD A STRICT BUT FAIR DON WHO THOUGHT WE SHOULD HANDLE OUR OWN PROBLEMS AS MANY NURSES WENT TO HER TO C/O THIS NURSE. AFTER ATLEAST FIVE NURSES QUIT AS A RESULT OF THIS MEAN NURSE (STILL NOBODY STOOD UP TO HER) THE DON SENT OUT A MEMO ABOUT CHARTING SKIN AUDITS AND IN THIS MEMO 4 NURSES HAD DONE AN OUTSTANDING JOB SO THE DON NAMED THEM IN THE MEMO. THE MEAN ONE BECAME ENRAGED AND TOOK THE MEMO INTO THE DON OFFICE TORE IT UP AND THREW IT ON HER DESK THEN CURSED HER OUT!!!! THE DON QUIT A WEEK LATER AS THE MEAN NURSE STILL THERE! A FEW OF US HAD JUST GIVING UP AND DECIDED TO QUIT AS WELL,JUST LET HER TAKE CARE OF THE WHOLE BUILDING SINCE SHE DOES NOT WANT ANYONE ELSE TO FEEL GOOD AT WORK. BEFORE OUR 2 WEEK NOTICE WAS UP IN WALKED THE NEW DON(NO EXP IN LTC/SNF SHE WAS AN ER NURSE FOR 20YRS AND ALSO HAD SOME OR)SHE WAS ALSO AS NICE AS APPLEPIE. OUR FIRST THOUGHT WAS THE MEAN NUSREIS GOING TO HAVE HER FOR BREAKFAST!!! WE WERE PLEASANTLY SURPRISED B/C THE FIRST THING SHE DID WAS CALL US IN ONE BY ONE TO GET TO KNOW US WHEN IT WAS THE MEAN NURSE TURN WE THOUGHT THIS IS IT...AND IT WAS...MEAN ONE HAD BECAME VERY RUDE AND DISRESPECTFUL DURING TALKS AND THE SWEET AS APPLEPIE ER NURSE FIRED HER ON THE SPOT AND TOLD HER SHE WOULD RATHER PASS MEDS TO EVERY RESIDENT IN THE BUILDING THAN TO ALLOW THIS ATTITUDE!!!AS MEAN NURSE LEFT IN TEARS(THAT WAS A FIRST) WE ALL DECIDED TO STAY AND THE WORK ENVIROMENT WAS GREAT OUR NEW DON TOLD US EVERYDAY,"THANKS FOR EVERY THING YOU DO ITS NOT EASY TO BE A NURSE B/C IF IT WAS THEN EVERYBODY WOULD DO IT'. SHE WOULD WORK THE FLOOR WITHOUT A SECOND THOUGHT BUT SHE RARELY HAD TO... BECAUSE WE HAD HER BACK JUST AS SHE HAD OURS.

Hi All, I Always Heard People Say That Nurse Was Good,the Nurse Was Bad Or I Have To Hang Up The Nurse Is In The Room . I Always Loved The Way The Nurse Was Never Forgotten (except For Her Name) I Was On The Waiting List To Enter School And When My Number Came Up I Was Married Raising My Stepsons So I Put Off What I Wanted. Later I Found Out I Would Need Ivf To Have A Child Of My Own So I Did. I Became Pregnant And Five To Six Weeks In To The Pregnancy I Started Having Small Pains And Very Light Bleeding After Doing Avag Ultrasound The Doc Could Find Nothing Wrong But Said If The Symptoms Persist To Call Him. One Week Later It Started Again I Called And Spoke To The Nurse And Was Quickly Dismissed By Her. I Called Her Again The Next Day And Was Told Take Two Apap And Dont Worry! The Next Day I Was Sceduled For Another Ultrasound To Hear The Heartbeat (still Hurting And Popping Apap) During The Exam The Docter Turned 3 Shadeds Of Blue When He Saw It Was A Tube Pregancy And What Was In The Uterus Was A False Sac. He Scolded Me Asking Why I Did Not Call With Such Important S/s I Told Him If What Happened And He Sent Me Off To Surgery. The Next Day He Informed Me That Nursewas No Longer Employed There However, It Lit Something In Me B/c Less Than 6 Mths Later I Was Enrolled In Nsg Class And I Vowed To Never Dismiss A Pt C/o And Always Keep The Md Informed. I Love Being A Nurse. Some Pt S Even Remember My Name!haha!!!

I had the flu and a sprained ankle (what luck,huh) i work LTC i managed to get the first day off but was told that was it because i had nobody to take my place and the don refuses to work the floor EVER FOR ANY REASON. I went in limping and coughing not to mention feeling like i was hit by a mack truck only to find out i had no relief coming because she had something come up(message left with ward clerk and would not answer phone) anyway, as i was passing my fourth round of meds i had a coughing spell in the hallway that seemed to last for ten minutes when it passed i prepared the meds for the pt and entered the room where i found a very nice resident sitting there with cough drops and she said here take these you need them more than i do. i know it was not safe for me to work with the flu or the ankle but was made to feel as thou if i did not go in then nobody would be there. looking back i should have stood my ground and forced the don hand needless to say i lost all respect for my employer and quit shortly after.

this guy thinks higher of a dropout(quiter) than he thinks of you. is he really worth your time? i am not being ugly but when nursing is put down i take it to heart. NURSING is hard and sometimes thankless work but most days it gives you a sence of worth and pride. I had a pt with renal failure among other things, his wife sat by his bed day and night every chance i got i would spend alittle extra time with them i even bought the wife a throw blanket to help her be more comfortable he died shortly after and the wife went on. several mths later i was in line at a store i did not know but she was there with her daughter her vision failing as she heard me speaking to somebody in line she followed my voice with her daughter at her side as she approached me she had started to cry saying i know its you i said yes and hugged her we stood there talking for a long time and her daughter then told me that her mother told everyone at the funeral about the nurse who cared for her husband (and her) until the end. when i think of this i know i would never want to be anything other than a nurse and anyone with no respect for that could not be in my immediate circles. you will live and learn and as the days pass things will be very clear to you. i wish you all the luck in the world !

6 mths in. IT was a sunday,most sundays were quiet but not this one. family members everywhere all wanting to talk about loved ones(they had not seen in god knows how long) at once i had pt with sob, another with chest pain ,another with bloodsugar of 40,and an angry family wanting me to explain a bruise on moms leg they had not seen before but was called and informed of one week prior,another with a fall with head injury,all the while my fellow nurses were sitting at the desk charting and calling me to the phone which i did not respond to. i did not hide a cry at that time because there was no time!i gave o2 to the 1st one gave nitro to the 2nd while telling the aid to give the third oj with extra sugar and and after a very quick look at the 4th had aid hold compress and do vs while the ward clerk was calling ambulance for me.all the while the mad fmly with the bruise still raising hell at the desk. er nurse later called me to tell me off for not coming to the phone to give her a proper report (all paperwork sent with pt to hosp explaining)needless to say at the end of the day i worked 16 hours that day and cried all the way home. the next day the don tried to wright me up for not taking time to talk to the fmly about the bruise. i explained the day to her and told her to read my nurses notes after this i did not get written up but my fellow nurses did! i will never forget that day as long as i live!!!!

idk but i always thought LTC should have no more than 30 residents to a nurse, i went straight LTC i was trained by an agency nurse for two days then given my hall of 40 residents (no tx nurse) and state walked thru the door. i learned fast . however, after several months i moved to another home where 30 pt per nurse is the norm and tx nurse is on deck 7 days a week i was pleasantly surprised not all LTC FACILITYS are alike. i now do mds and work the floor when im needed. i always enjoy getting back on the floor.l