tinyonern

LOL...when I started at one hospital we had a DON who believe a nurse, is a nurse and we floated from the NICU to L&D (until they refused to have anyone from NICU until they had been cross trained), ICU ( because there is sooo much similarity between a 250 male MI and a 800 gm premie), the burn unit (many people threw up) or respiratory ICU (the spit pit, until people started worrying we could bring really nasty bugs back to our unit). We finally got a DON who wouldn't float anyone who hadn't cross trained and it was decided that cross training would be among certain types of units...like mother and children, etc.

This has been a fun thread, talk about a walk down memory lane!! It is amazing how far we have come in just the 42 years I have been a nurse. So many things that were experimental now standard or passé! OMG poseys with metal keys...we all had one in our pockets in case of emergency. I still have one on my key ring...

My diploma school, which was hospital based, (graduated 1974) had a white school uniform with the school name on pocket. Our caps were how people were able to tell year. Vertical stripe blue, first year; vertical yellow second; another vertical blue for third year seniors. Graduation horizontal black strip around the top of cap. Pulling the stupid caps!! Our senior year we basically did all everything the nurses did for entire shifts. ! unless there was a problem. Med nurse for entire floor, charge nurse, team leader. Our instructors came around once a shift. The actual nurses for the unit helped (a vast majority had graduated from our school). Just (as I remember it) the year before I started, you couldn't be married, and had to live in dorms. If you stayed after graduatation, for I think three years, your entire tuition was taken care of. If you didn't but had student loans, if you worked in certain areas, a certain percentage was paid off each year, and you could pay off almost the entire amt by 10yras. On top of that the nursing loans were 3%. Best education EVER (although I hated it at the time). When I graduated, and got license, I was able to function. Still some culture shock, but still. Testing lipid levels by spinning a HCT, and checking for excessive white "fat". Running and reading HCTs ourselves.

I'm retired now, but graduated in 1974 so definitely COB! I remember so many of these. Loved my cap (symbol of HARD work), but hated wearing it. Remember knocking it off my head on traction bar and being very grateful it hadn't ended up in something nasty. Do they still use Cir co elective (not sure of spelling) beds??? Man, I hated those things. Once saw a pt slip nearly out of bed when being turned. For those that don't know, these beds were using for spinal injury pts.

Working in the NICU and washing isolettes every three days. Mercury, glass thermometer that got broken frequently (like several a shift) and then chasing down the mercury with paper and bare hands. Sending isolettes between patients to be sterilized. Setting up Baby Birds, including I:E ratios by hand, using stop watch, and without a respiratory therapist.

I had to leave work several times with migraines and severe wheezing because a co-worker worn perfume. I mentioned it to her, and she blew me off. Finally, had to go to supervisor (couldn't afford to lose any more work). I love perfume, but must be very careful so I don't cause my own problems. Because I know how horrible it is to have a reaction, I never would wear any type of scent to work.

Be very, very careful if you go the insurance company route. It isn't physically taxing, but mentally it can be so stressful!! There were quotas, time constraints and an overall horrible work environment. This was at one of the largest companies. There were about 15 people in my group, and last I heard, only one or two were still with the company. Everyone else had quit to go elsewhere. Several "quit" under severe duress. Several of my friends went to another company and are very happy. I loved in-pt. psych, but it can be physically taxing and dangerous. 12 hr shifts in general can be hard on your body (although I know lots of people who like them). Best advice I can give, no matter what you chose to do, is keep yourself in good shape, and do what you can to stay in good health. Good luck!

Canigraduate, I can't begin to tell you how angry your post made me. Really?? It would have been fine had you just written "I think we would all appreciate..." Why was it necessary to be snarky?? I just don't understand why it is so important to be nasty...why is it so hard to treat people as you would like to be treated?

Excellent, well-written article. I do find it ironic however, since I feel this same verbal behavior existed on one of the threads recently. Several of the "older" established posters were condescending, then I felt, nasty. Sure, there was some defensive behavior from the of the baby nurses that was ill advised. However one of those attacked made some very good points, but she was also ridiculed and devalued because she new to the site. Wow, how to make people welcome! I do get the frustration of having to deal with newbies that come in with know it all attitudes, been there done there; but having examined some of my behavior I realize I must take responsibility for not making those same newbies feel valued. I don't know the solution, but perhaps a start would be if we all try to treat each other as we would like to be treated, especially when tired!

I have a bit different response to the OP. Obviously, it is important to leave work at work; but I believe part of the reason it is hard to leave this incident behind is thinking about WHY what you did didn't work. I am an experienced nurse with 40+ yrs, most spent in NICU and acute adult psych. in my opinion you can never stop learning and trying to improve your care. Having said that is there a way you could turn this into a learning situation? Perhaps having one of the critical response team or ICU do teaching rounds on the patient?? Or a doctor on the diagnosis with possible outcome and things to watch for? You might learn that everything you did was exactly right, so in a similar situation you should feel more confident. Or you might learn what actions you might have taken to prevent the critical incident or at least improve the patient response to your treatment.

When I was working with seniors, I was horrified at the number of them that said they had stopped taking their meds because Dr.Oz said "...." When questioned whether he who had never seen or spoken with them or their Dr. who knew their medical history would have a better idea of what meds their should be on, freq the senior would get sheepish and be oh, probably my Dr. Well, DUH! Often the senior would not even have told their Dr. That they weren't taking the med!

I stayed in the NICU, in the same hospital for over 20 years. Technology was always changing and there was never any lack of things to learn. That being said, we also were the last generation to get a pension, so as one approached the time when one could retire with the pension (at least 50, and and years of service plus age = 75), you stayed even when things were not perfect. I did switch to acute adult psych for 8 years in the same hospital, then retired. Nursing has changed, along with all of the of the working world.

I HAVE had patients try to kill me when I was caring for them! We had a HIV patient in psych who would try and bite you or spit in your face. Or the patient who had treatment resistant TB who refused to wear a mask or stay in his room. How about getting kicked in the head and chest? There are many infectious disease and because of our global society they will come to us. Arming our selves with the best knowledge possible is our best protection.

It is a specialized team who have trained to to care for this type of pt. No one will care for these pts except members of the team.

This is a response to designer-mommy. Take a deep breath, and realize you wouldn't have been hired if they didn't think YOU could do the job. Working in psych requires people skills, (well, all of nursing, but psych esp!) which I'm sure you have refined in working retail!! There are NO stupid questions.