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.

I thought I was the only person who detests House! One of the worst medical shows ever. St. Elsewhere was not bad, ER also not bad. One of the least realistic nursing representation...Dr. Kildare!! LOL just dated myself.

Esme12 - I too have MS. I had left hospital nursing even though I loved it, but it got too dangerous (worked acute adult psych). I didn't know then I had MS. I started working an insurance company's telephonic disease management program for CAD, diabetes with seniors. Lots and lots of pressure!! It was the worst nursing job I ever had. My symptoms, most of which aren't physical(except for pain), got worse. I can't write a name or number down without having to ask the person to repeat it about 10 times!! You can image how the seniors felt about this! Two years ago I went on disability. Once the pressure was gone some of my symptoms improved (the trigimial pain especially). I really really miss hospital nursing. I my last position was in psych, but for 20 yrs before that I worked NICU. I miss the babies, and my ability to make a difference. After 38 yrs as a nurse, my self-worth and identity was tied to working as a nurse. I cried the day I decided to not renew my active nursing license (this year). Applying for disability was horrible, being accused of malingering was embarrassing! I would work in a hospital if I could, but I would be dangerous...I can't remember doses, etc esp in a crises situation. Now I don't do much, esp if the weather is hot! I know I am lucky, really, in that my MS isn't as bad as some (using a cane for balance when I leave the house), but oh I miss being smart and being able to think quickly!

So refusing to hire a smoker is ok because cig smoke clings to clothes and bothers others. What about perfume? I have had asthma attacks triggered by perfume, never by the scent of smoke!! And what about vapers? That can be a nicotine product, so if tests positive what recourse do they have? And what about obesity? Bigger Health risk than smoking and just as obvious. So in the future you won't get hired if you're obese, have high pressure, smoke, have high cholesterol, have Type 2 diabetes (because you're obese)... Think about it.

Rudy - and when my hospital started a pilot, we were given a choice to work 8 or 12. None of those who stayed on 8 begged to go to 12, and in fact when we were forced to because it was more cost effective and made staffing similar, most of us cried. You love them great; not everyone feels the same way. I have to say, that after almost thee decades, 12 hr shifts were a contributing factor to my retirement; I was no longer able to physically work for that many hrs and a commute. I sense that kjtravelin is frustrated and tired and not getting much support, but a lot of disdain, from our oh so compassionate nursing community (snark).

I fail to see any huge inacurrent generalizations, or for that matter hyperbole. I don't know what part of the country you work in, but where I live it is hard to find a hospital that offers any but 12 hr shifts! In the early 80s it was almost impossible to find a hospital that offered anything but 8s. When our hospital switched, the explanation was that it would be cost saving.

I have worked both, and I have to say that I also HATED 12s. 12 hr nocs especially sucked, I never felt rested. I once even fell asleep standing up taking a temp (leaning on an isolette)! 12 hr days at holiday time always made me cried, because I missed everything with my family. As I got older, 12 hrs in a NICU were impossible, I just couldn't do it physically. So you are not alone. Unfortunately, 12s seem to be cost effective for hospitals, so don't think they will be going away. It is my personal opinion that people working 12s (even those who love 12s) get much more cranky and make more mistakes towards the end of the day.

The BSN only is almost an urban myth...when I graduated in 1974 from a diploma program, it was being said that within a few years one would need a BSN to be able to work. At that time the few BSN that I worked with were almost useless, one couldn't even take a BP! The diploma programs gradually closed because they were too expensive to run, not because they didn't turn out good nurses. After working for several years I tried a BSN program; at the time it was not adding anything to my knowledge base or my ability to function as a competent nurse, plus it was expensive! No hospital paid a differancial for having a degree. I ended up dropping the BSN program, although I have gotten a Master's degree in another area. Over the years of working, if you wanted to be in administration you had to get a degree...since I never wanted that I didn't see any reason to get the degree. The ANA has advocated the degree for years, as a way of creating professionalism, and indicating that anyone who didn't have a degree was an inferior nurse. All I ever saw was this attitude do was create division within the profession. After all these years I discovered that it didn't matter where you got an education as much as what you brought to nursing; compassion , empathy, a desire to help others, being able to prioritze and good time management skills. Having said all of this, I wish all new graduates the best of luck, and may you find as much joy in nursing as I did.

Anyone remember when Cher and Sonny named their child Chasity? People snickered but after some of the celebrity names I remember it is mild...Apple, River, George (not bad until you get siblings George and George). When we were picking baby names, the book we used recommended not getting "cute", citing family with last name of Beach who named their children Pebble, Sandy and Rocky. I always wondered if that was true.... I personally knew of a Justin Case. What are people thinking??

Strawberry Rose, Omega Maranatha Christan, UCI (actually we talked the parents out of this, to Irvine).

Very interesting case. My first reaction was bladder infection caused mild confusion, which led to mis-taking meds, which led to NMS or serotonin syndrome, which led to... I never worked with adults (hospitalized) other than in psych, and part of that was in gero psych. Towards the end of my working career I worked telephonic disease management with the elderly, and one of the things I tried to stress was having a safety plan in place. It didn't have to be elaborate, just a phone call daily from a neighbor, someone checking if they didn't pick up paper, pull up blinds, or something that they did daily that would be noticed if they didn't do it. This person might still have gotten sick, but maybe it wouldn't have been 3 days before it was noticed. In my experience, many seniors want to remain independent, not be a burden, and many aren't willing to have strangers in their homes, but are willing to develop simple safety plans with neighbors.