smile_through_it

My first loss in the ER.. 70y.o. comes in hypotensive and vomiting large amounts of blood. Alert and oriented x4. He was a DNR but wanted blood. I rapidly infused two units of blood... And his blood pressure continued to decrease. In a matter of 30 minutes he was confused and in 45 minutes he was unresponsive with a HR of 28. He had no family to be with him. So I stayed and held his hand and said a silent prayer. He was only in the ER for 56 minutes when he passed. That one was tough for me.

When I worked in memory care we had a retired RN who would come up to the staff and ask if she could give you report for the night. She'd also push other residents around in wheelchairs.

I don't have all my credentials listed on my badge but I'm darn proud of every single letter in that alphabet soup. :) I've worked hard to get where I'm at. But I do agree that when you have more letters than your name it can get confusing!

I remember when I was fresh off of orientation. EMS brought in a guy who woke up throwing up blood. He was 86. No family around. AOx4. In about 10 minutes he was hypotensive. He agreed to let us give him blood but was a DNR. I couldn't get the blood in fast enough. I kept asking him questions about his life so i could keep him taking. With in 25 minutes he became confused. Then he became asystolic. I held his hand while he took his last breath. No family to call. Just me and him in the room. I said a little prayer and then began to clean him. I thought about it every day for about a month. I still think about him. I hope I made his last moment on Earth as peaceful as possible.

I have worked both on a cardiac floor and the ER. On the floor it stinks getting that change of shift admission but you have no idea what is going on in the ER. The three hour time lapse since the bed was assigned could be due to the cardiac arrest that just came in or the three traumas that are unstable or the two other ICU patients I have that are crashing. The ER is unpredictable. I understand that the floor can have rapidly changing situations as well and we try to understand that but we also get push back from our charge nurses to get the patients to their rooms because there are thirty more patients in the waiting room. Floor nurses have also given me push back when I get report from my nurse and have to give them a report on a patient I've known for five minutes. I see both sides and I honestly don't think there will ever be a "good" solution. I hated admissions during shift change when I worked cardiac and I hate it working ER.

I have never even thought to reuse it. We have plastic ones but ew, I wouldn't want to clean a BM out of that! I flush the majority of the stool down the toilet but then I pitch it.

I went to PA college before the name change and feel I got a very good base of knowledge to start my nursing career. LGH is not required to hire you but employers like that you have been using their system for two years and have a better understanding of policies and protocols. I liked that I didn't face to stress about getting into clinical and started clinical in the first semester. I have a friend who is going to HACC right now. She is a smart student and studies a lot, her grades are low As or high B's. She has not gotten into clinical for two semesters now because so many people applied. If you choose HACC every single class and every single point counts. Good luck!

Tonight I had a pt who twist his ankle, walks two blocks then call the ambulance. When he gets to me he says he can't stand and pivot due to 10/10 pain and can't scoot to the bed... So we slide him. MD comes in right away, does the whole assessment (no swelling/redness/evidence of any trauma). MD leaves and says I'll give you pain meds. As soon as he left pt asks to WALK to the bathroom. He gets up and walks without event a limp to the bathroom... I was so irritated. He got 650mg of Tylenol instead of the Norco originally ordered.

I also have POTS. My case is not super severe but I sometimes become symptomatic. I take medication that helps. I have worked on an inpatient cardiac unit and am currently working in the ER. I think it would be a good idea to take your concerns to your MD and see what they can do for you. Good luck!

I had someone yelling out and moaning in pain and self inducing vomit. I would pull the curtain shut, she would rush to the sink, turn it on and then a few seconds later turn it off, rush back to bed and then 'vomit' the sink water all over the bed. This was her 32 ER visit for abdominal pain and vomiting in 3 months... When I told her we would not be giving her narcotics she quickly stopped yelling and moaning grabbed her bag and said to her boyfriend 'well I guess we are leaving then!' She suddenly stopped vomiting and was now able to walk despite her 500 out of 10 pain!

When there is a code blue in the hospital the residents respond. It always makes me giggle when they are flipping through their medical books and the experienced RNs are like 'um, what do you think about epi/amio/shocking?' And the resident is always like 'oh, yes let's do that now.' It makes them feel like they are actually running the code when really the nurses are keeping it together. Everyone needs to start somewhere.

I worked on a tele floor and now am in the ED. I see both sides of it. When most pts come to they ED they have family in the room and they usually don't want to say 'excuse me nurse? I wet the bed.' They want to wait until family leaves and usually that's when they get a room assignment. It also is very hard to roll a patient side to side to get them clean when the litter is not wide. The beds on the floor have a lot more room to change sheets. I'm not saying its acceptable to leave a patient soiled but, sometimes it happens.

One night another nurses pts labs came back with glucose of 43. I go to help and grab the D50. We go into the semi-private room. Pt is alert and talking but nurse is to give d50 per order. We keep the light off because we did not want to wake pt on other side of the room. I am talking to the pt as my coworker tries to push D50 into a 22g IV.. if you've never tried its hard! She assumed the syringe was stuck so she disconnected it and proceeded to jam the plunger into the syringe and coat my face in D50. We are laughing hysterically and the pt just keeps saying 'whats so funny dear? Are you okay?' I love nightshift!

I had a 23 year old with abd pain.. her mother answered every question I asked. Including that she was not sexually active and she didn't miss her period... well when mom walked out of the room the patient informed me 'what mommy doesn't know doesn't hurt.' Which may be true except I can't treat you if you lie!

My confused patient last night told me he just got off the phone with the police because he saw the marijuana I was carrying and he knows I'm selling it.. the 'marijuana' I was carrying were his flowers his daughter brought in for him the day before! :)