KMRN81

Hi there! Hospice RN for 5 years. It depends on the setting and acuity level of the hospice. In the home hospice setting, you will probably be doing lab draws, dressing changes, managing Pleurx and/or Aspira drains, inserting foleys, that kind of th...

I think clarification is needed on the type of suctioning you are talking about in order to gauge a more accurate response to your survey. For example, deep suctioning = mostly a no-no due to increased production of mucus from agitating the mucosa. O...

I'm seeing this post so late in the game!! I work at an inpatient hospice unit and we use it for select patients. I LOVE this thing. First of all, as mentioned by some other posters, it's not for every patient (agitation/restlessness, frequent ambula...

I've heard great things about Kaiser. I hope you love it and best of luck! :)

I prefer 12 hr shifts, hands down. The 8 hour shift nurses often leave around 5 pm, only to get stuck in rush hour traffic! No thanks! I love commuting during off-peak hours, and having 3 days off in a row helps me recharge and relax in between my 12...

Just a lil funny for ya :) Most of us drove in on Friday afternoon and were able to get out Sunday night or Monday morning. The night shifters and some of the aides & kitchen staff dug everyone's cars out. We gotta take care of each other! Hope e...

I live 25 miles from work. This weekend is my weekend to work (of course, lol). I'll be heading in Friday and will plan to stay all weekend. The stress of driving in the snow is worse than just sucking it up and getting to the unit before the storm. ...

The same thing happened to me. Despite my workout routine & healthy eating, I gained weight. You may not have much luck dropping the pounds until you switch to days. Just an unfortunate byproduct of being awake at night and how it messes with you...

Oh, I see what you mean! Different than what I expected! Hopefully it's nothing but a scratch from something else. Easier said than done, but try and relax a little. Whether you were scratched by a needle or something else, it can't be changed. I'm s...

You may have scratched your knuckle on the sharps box itself when prying off the lid. I probably wouldn't ever attempt to open one though, they aren't really meant to be r/t that exact possibility!

After your first semester of nursing school, many states will allow you to become licensed as a CNA. For every one of my classmates who worked as a CNA in nursing school, we all transitioned into the RN role after we graduated. For those without CNA ...

OP, that sounds like a tough situation, and I'm sorry you feel bullied into the nursing profession. I encourage you to to seek a career you would really love. Nursing is not the type of profession to get into if your heart isn't in it. I could give y...

I'm curious - does your hospital have a hospice unit where nurses manage only one patient? I've never heard of that. I'm an inpatient hospice nurse and our ratio is 5:1.

I'm curious - does your hospital have a hospice unit where nurses manage only one patient? I've never heard of that. I'm an inpatient hospice nurse and our ratio is 5:1.

How often are you "in the numbers" when running charge? I work at a very busy, high acuity inpatient hospice center (very symptomatic patients, some trached/vented, PLEUR-X drains, tons of PRNs, multiple drips; very complex issues requiring lots of ...

Inpatient hospice is much different than home hospice. A vented patient will be transferred to us from ICU for withdrawal from the vent to allow natural death (with the appropriate comfort medications). We don't make adjustments to the vent settings ...

I went to nursing school to be a hospice RN. I really enjoyed all my clinicals though! I do inpatient hospice care and will probably stay in this specialty my whole career. I absolutely love it. I get a great mix of technical skills (vents, trachs, P...

I feel like I'm a detriment to my patients on the days I'm running charge with a full assignment. I'm just not available as much as I should be. And I'm really not able to be a staff resource except putting out fires instead of preventing them from s...

*sigh*. I have another to add. Was running charge today AND in the numbers with 5 pts, frazzled and calling for report on a new admit w/diagnosis of metastatic uterine cancer. The patient had kind of an androgynous name, and without thinking, I asked...

Hahaha! These are so great. The dumbest thing I EVER said was back in nursing school. Although I've said some pretty dumb things since. Anyway, it was my mother/baby rotation and my clinical instructor all but *shoved* my whole group into a new mom's...

I usually answer with "it's a calling". (And it is!) They usually respond with "it takes a special person"...and I respond that we are all special people with unique gifts. I could never do some types of nursing (burn unit *shudder*), nor could I ima...

That sounds rough!! :-( Is there any chance you could transfer to inpatient hospice? We work 3 12s and overtime only if we want to. Some of our nurses work 8 hr shifts days, evenings, or nights.

I agree with everything BerryHappyRN said. I'm an inpatient hospice nurse - kind of the ICU of hospice care. We see so many types of breathing changes at end of life. It's possible that the hospice nurse was giving everything possible but the respir...

Hello fellow hospice nurses, I'd like your opinion on the upcoming changes being implemented by CMS. Particularly, the "Medicare Care Choices Model", which will allow certain Medicare beneficiaries to pursue both hospice and curative care. Here is t...

Hello all, I know this thread goes back a few years, but I wanted to share my experience with hospice for those who might be interested in going into hospice at some point! I'm graduating from nursing school this fall and my plan is to become a nurs...