rn500

I'm sorry you are in 4 point leather restraints sir, but I am not going to scratch your balls for you.

I am starting to think about this as well. Have you found any sites you could refer me to? Thanks

Man, mid-40's, ETOH detox in 4 point leather restraints. I come in to draw blood from his PICC line. He yells "Hey! Get me out of here! Get these things off of me! I can't even scratch my balls!" I can't help but laugh, and I reply "Yes that is a bummer." Then he looks at me and says "Can you help me out with that?" I declined.

I work in L&D in an inner city hospital, so you can imagine some of the stuff I hear.... My favorite was a woman who came in clutching her crotch yelling "Oh my pee-pie, my pee-pie!"

I have a few duties to add: Waitress for family members Housekeeper Answering service (Dr Bigtime:"Call Dr Blowhard , and tell him I said...") (Dr Blowhard:"Let Dr Bigtime know that...") Data entry I'm sure there are more...

Oh man, it is nice to hear that we are not the only unit with this ridiculous crap going on! Well, not nice really... but you get my drift. I work in a large OB unit where we truly have NO visiting guidelines. It is a *!% free-for-all here, because we are supposed to be a "family-centered" birthing center. Okay, that was a great idea about 20 years ago, when people still had parents who taught them some manners and before many people have seemingly lost their *+#$! minds. (can you tell this gets me riled up?) Meanwhile, we are a large hospital smack-dab in the middle of a major, poor city. People can come and go 24/7, no age limits, no limit to number of people in the room at one time. Our rooms (LDRs and PP rooms)are set for ONE "support person" to spend the night. How many times do i come in and find people (including children) sprawled across the floor on blankets, the post partum mattress kept in the closet, pillows, etc. Yes, this would make for an interesting time in an emergency, wouldn't it? I personally don't go for that crap, and when I put my foot down, I get "well the other nurse said it would be okay" or "they let us do it last night". GGGRRRRR!!!! The stories I could tell! Toddlers running the halls all night, sometimes left alone with the recently-delivered mom to care for (I found one sleeping across the foot of her passed out mom/pt's bed one night - I had assumed one of the many visitors was going to take this kid home with them), a couple weeks ago there was a kid about 9 or 10 who kept popping those roller things out on his shoes and roller skating up and down the halls, can auntie/grama/baby Joey have a blanket/drink/sandwich/insulin/Tylenol/diaper. OKAY-OKAY- here's my favorite! Pt calls me to her room- her baby-daddy, who was in a wheelchair, was naked in the bathroom and needed help with his bath. SAY WHAT? 'Baby daddies' come and go at all hours, along with their buddies, cousins, you name it. We used to be "locked down" between the hours of 9pm-6am, anyone could still come in but you had to get buzzed in. For the last few months we have been on lock down 24/7 after several "incidents" including a death threat from a baby daddy to a nurse. I have given up trying to figure out what the bleep is wrong with these people. We finally have talked our management into "looking at" changes to our visiting policy. It will be interesting (and probably very frustrating) to see how far we get.

I had a kid to support as a single mom. I was killing myself working as a fast food asst. manager and making practically nothing, no insurance either. So I thought, hmmm... what would be a job where I could make decent money with insurance, get tuition assistance, and I could go to school locally? TA-DA!!! That is my inspiring story! 19 years later, here I still am.

OH I SWEAR I WILL NEVER COMPLAIN AGAIN ABOUT MY OB PTS CALLING ME!! You guys are killing me here! OMG my sides hurt!

My "squick" is from back in my ER days: unattached or barely-attached body parts. Even the little stuff, like people who accidentally cut their finger off with a saw and bring it with them in a baggy. I don't know what's worse, that or when they are just hanging by a few icky threads. GACK! Can't do it, no sir.

My absolute favorite: (as I am about to give the demerol/nubain/morphine etc that the pt was just asking for) "Is it going to hurt the baby?" YES , THAT'S WHY WE GIVE IT! DIDN'T YOU KNOW WE CAN ALL HARDLY WAIT TO BE SUED?? I know it's healthy maternal instinct kicking in, but it DO make me cringe!

*******BIG BIG SIGH!!!****** Oh, this is so aggravating. How to explain to a man what labor and delivery is like? Even if they've seen a thousand of them, there is just no way to make them understand. This is a woman in her MOST VULNERABLE POSITION EVER (physically and emotionally), and she often just does not have the strength or presence of mind in that state to fight for herself. Her "support person" whoever that is - FOB, friend, mom, whatever, should be there to LOVE her, CARE for her and be her PROTECTOR (as in watching out that her wishes are known) while she is going through this. I have been an L&D nurse for many years and it just irks the hell out of me when pushy family members and friends try to run all over everybody. I've actually told people "GUESS WHAT? IT AIN'T ABOUT *YOU* TODAY!" I am just fine with keeping people out that the pt wants out, but some nurses aren't so good at it. I'm glad you are sticking up for yourself. Too many women don't.

Alanpe- I think I understand what you are asking - if there is a bad reaction to something that we take the initiative to start without an order (like an IV), how do we explain that to the patient? Also I think you are asking who obtains "informed consent" from the patient for a procedure we don't yet have an order for - am I right? I have only worked ER and L&D, so I don't know how other units work. But in these areas we get to know over a period of time what the routine procedures are for a certain complaint, and what the Dr will want. We should NEVER give medications without an order - although I know we have all had our moments when we have "bent" that rule a little. And you are right, if I started an IV before I had an order and the patient got cellulitis or something from it, there is always the chance that could be used against me I suppose. I have never had that happen, but it is something to consider. As for informed consent, that is something that is pathetically neglected in the 4 hospitals I have worked in, anyway. As far as I'm concerned, the doctors should be the ones who explain things to the patient IN TERMS THEY UNDERSTAND and then get the consent signed. But it never happens that way. I personally feel that is a serious problem.

I just want to let all of you with no small kids at home who have so kindly switched to work holidays for those of us who DO, that you are ever so much appreciated, and I plan to do the same for others when my kids are all grown. As for the whole working holidays thing, it sucks, but that's the life of a hospital nurse. My kids have never known anything different, and we just work around it. But I do work nights, which makes it easier, I think. I would hate to have to be gone 12 hrs on Christmas day. Some of the schedules you all have talked about though are SO unfair. The most fair way to do it *I* think, was practiced at one place I worked. They had 2 "teams", A and B. This year, A team works these holidays, B works these, next year they switch. That way you always know ahead of time which holidays you will be working. Usually every other, and you either worked the eve OR the day, never both. As for taking time off during the holidays to go visit family, most places I've worked did not allow any vacation time between Christmas and NY, and if there WAS any it was given on seniority basis. I think that's only fair. I hate to be harsh, but if you can't make that work for you, don't go into hospital nursing. It ain't ever gonna change!

Nurse Heather - as to your question, I find that in many cases, babies do go home with mothers who have tested positive for drug use. Apparently, that in itself is not a reason t keep a baby from going home with mom. What happens after they go home, I can't say. We do social service consults on a lot of our moms - teenage, drugs, and other problems - but it rarely results in a protective service situation. Everyone on this thread has been very positive and upbeat about dealing with pts like this on a regular basis, but I must tell you that after a lot of years it wears on you. Or on me, anyway. While I am taking care of a pt, I set aside my feelings and try to be as helpful and compassionate as I can, but I have found over the years that it is SO hard not become cynical and maybe even somewhat bitter over what some women do to their poor unborn babies. For me and many other nurses I work with, we have to work at overcoming it daily. I think in a way, I am LUCKY that I went through some similar experiences as a young unwed mom - no drugs, but struggling with welfare, food stamps and the way people percieve you - that has helped me try to keep in mind that I have NO idea what these women's lives were like before they stepped through our door. But I'll tell ya, some days it's just plain hard. We do alot of letting off steam to each other behind closed doors. You may ask, why do I stay in OB then? I guess because I know that every where you go you will run into pts whose "life choices" are not the same as you would have made. I don't think there's any getting around that. And maybe I think that I still have some worthwhile contribution in me to make to these girls. I don't want to discourage you, it's just the realities of the nursing life over time. The babies are still sweet even after all these years! You will often find one or more of us wandering to the nursery during a lull in the night, just to rock a baby for a little while.

Do you guys have one of those big square plastic guides that have all the dilatations on there, 1cm thru 10cm? It's like a flat, white and blue (at least ours were always white and blue) thing that can be hung on a wall? My trick when I was first starting out was to take that in the room with me when I did my exams with the pretense of showing the pt "see? this is how much you're dilated", but really I was sticking my fingers on there for my OWN benefit! That really helped me learn.