blackribbon

The residents at the same hospital are discussing unionizing. I suppose they are "trades people" too. I will agree that we are treated like we are trades people. Sad, considering my other degree (BS) is in engineering and the nursing degree was si...

I am theoretically anti-union, especially for professionals. However, as staff nurses we have no say in our working conditions like other professionals. I am very pro-contract so that we can have some guarantees that protect our patients and allow ...

I have missed the call in response to an application. I called back in less than an hour only to be told she wasn't there. Called the next day and was told that it wasn't the right day for my application...and so on with wild excuses, until I was t...

Mag is stopped for the birth. Mag is restarted after the birth and run for 24 hours after the birth. Most my postpartum mag patients are allowed ice. Some are allowed clears. And a few are allowed food as tolerated. I have always thought it was ...

I went into nursing after my husband died (of cancer) in my arms. I have many widow/widower friends. We live the rest of our lives with the last image of our loved one. The funeral doesn't count because they don't look like themselves anymore. Clea...

I am a gyn/med/surg nurse cross-trained to care for postpartum patients. Besides floating to the postpartum unit, we often get the overflow PP patients, the NICU moms, and other special cases so they are not next to the rooms full of families that a...

We usually start with 3 couplets and get an admission so we have 4 couplets by the end of the shift. We do not attend the delivery but if the L&D is busy can get the couplet one hour after birth instead of the normal 2 hour wait. We do have a N...

I had a patient who was given an enema in the ED before being sent to the floor.

Morbidly obese patient...very morbidly obese. Pt admitted for cellulitis in her legs. She also had a known hernia that wasn't being address on this visit. I found her in tears because she was concerned about "the hole in her belly button" and how ...

If we get an abnormal BP that isn't expected, the NA calls us and takes another one 30 minutes later (assuming we aren't talking about critical levels). If they are critically high, then I grab my personal manual cuff and go check myself. If I see ...

Just a comment... I am "only" a ADN at this time because this is a second career and my husband died so I needed the fastest way to get to work earning money to raise my kids alone. I did already have a BS in Bioengineering and years experience in h...

I hate when I go through the whole list of meds....verify that they aren't refusing anything and they are okay with the meds before I open them..and after I give them the cup of meds, they start asking me which pill this one is and oh, I don't want t...

It depends on how comfortable you are with the topic. FYI: I have hated every psychology class I had to take and loved psych nursing class as well have some actual psych nursing experience. They are not the same class or topic.

In nursing school, I undressed in front of the washing machine and left my shoes by the door. I don't do that as a nurse now but isolations precautions and universal precautions come as part of my regular habits. I also wash my hands before I pee si...

Well, if you are taking two classes the first semester (pharm & fundamentals of nursing) and get C++ or less in both, you have effectively failed twice and are out of our program. We got one failure (which means a 79.9999%, no rounding) in your w...

Can I add, that "adrenaline rush" that you seem to seek won't turn off anymore on its own so I am anti-anxiety and depression meds to be able to go to work. I love what I do but I realize it isn't healthy. I always have too many patients and am on ...

I would love 4 days off...however, the day after working is all about recovering, it isn't really "a day off"...and if your shift is split like ours usually are (not 3 days in a row) then often 2 of those off days are spent recovering. Is it really...

The incubators and warmers that may need to be moved in NICU are definitely heavier than 10 lbs. A standard E cylinder of oxygen probably weighs more than 10lbs full (it is 8lbs empty). And LGA (large for gestational age) babies often end up in the ...

I think that you belong at a small hospital or in a different type of specialty. People are often given an extra week on orientation but it does not sound like you were ready to safely work independently yet if you were making these small but signif...

The best way to handle this is to be a good nurse. Stop focusing on him and focus on your patient care and patients. He has the right to observe and if he was observing me, I'd simply introduce him to my patient. "This is Don. He is one of the te...

Okay...I don't work in one of the highly specialize areas but I do work med/surg with a huge variety of patients. I see the result of good and poor LTC nursing by the condition of the patients when they get admitted into our service. We often spend...

My favorite discharge order was not a funny one but a compassionate one. The hospital was in a very poor neighborhood with a lot of homeless people. The patient was homeless and determined that it was safe to allow him to be discharged to his chose...

Not a order, but after a friend of mine called the surgeon who placed a stent in her patient went home without talking to the patient and the patient was freaking out because she had blood in her leg bag but not in her urine. She said that she was "...

Co-Ed Behavioral Health Unit. All patients were involuntary admits. Two patients were found having sex in a room on rounding (early 20 year olds)....glad I wasn't working that shift. MD orders were that the two patients were not allowed to be in t...

Honestly, I would have told myself to explore other options and find a job that had paid vacations (not PTOs that you had earn), guaranteed schedule (didn't call off at the last minute for low census), no unpaid on-call status, and didn't act like th...