plumrn

bossynurse101 has my vote. That is the major difference I have seen in my years of nursing. When I was a new nurse, all I worried about was taking good care of my patients, and in turn, they were so appreciative and there was such a gratifying nurse/patient relationship. Not nearly the stress that I feel today and the feeling of distrust you can sometimes sense.

Just wanted to say how sorry I am for your families experience. I think you are on the right track with your plan. Hope your father gets the care he deserves and answers to all your questions. My Mom was in the ER recently and then admitted due to nearly passing out twice. I saw so many disappointing events occur that it really scares me to have any of my family in the hospital again without someone knowledgeable in healthcare to stay with them. Lack of experience in the staff, delays in care, sheer lack of compassion- I'm getting mad all over again. I really believe some of the problems- but not all- are caused by understaffed, overworked staff.

This is so maddening! They come directly from the doc's office. You would think that you would have all the orders you need either with the pt or being faxed to you shortly, including all home medications that the doc may want them on. Instead, the sick pt is trying to remember the names of their medications, there are no orders and the doc's office has already closed, etc., etc.

I was squeezing the blood bag trying to get it to go thru the leukocyte filter a little faster (? I think that's what it was called-it was several years ago), and the filter and the bag separated spraying the room with blood. What a mess! Blood everywhere! I thought I would never get all that blood cleaned up. I wasn't even squeezing it that hard. Learned a lesson there.

I went to class/clinicals Mon-Thur, and worked 0645-2315 on Fridays and Saturdays. Sunday was my only day off and I used it to do all the papers and studying for school. It worked for me. I was really tired when I got home at midnight on Saturday nights!

Was that the Nurses Book Society? I used to have a subscription to this one years ago. I loved it! I bought so many wonderful books. I then realized how much I was actually spending over time and cancelled, but I had the subscription for years. They would ship the featured book(s) to you every month or two if you didn't return the decline card back to them. Later on, they would let you decline on line, which was much better. I did get a few books that I didn't really want when I was late (or didn't) return the card. But, they would let you return any book you weren't happy with. Sorry to hear they are closing shop.

I thought if in doubt, & no way to check quickly, you treat it as hypoglycemia? Hypoglycemia comes on fast. Hyperglycemia is slower and you have more time to react and realize what is going on.

If they pay you for your lunch, they can keep you from leaving your unit. Our policy says, employees are strongly encouraged to take their assigned lunchbreaks IF the unit workload allows. Our facility takes out a 30 minute lunch deduction automatically and, therefore, you can leave if you want to. However, it would be abandonment of your pts if you don't have someone that you can report off to that will take responsibility for your pts while you are gone. So they got you. If we aren't able to leave the unit for our lunch, or get called during our lunch, we turn in a 'no lunch' form so that the 30min lunch deduction is cancelled from our timesheet for that shift.

To begin with, your pt load is too high. Surgeries with peds mixed in is too high acuity, especially combined with such a high turnover of pts. Your staff turnover will never get better with all that going on. It sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. The hospital could decrease the turnover of nurses-saving them money- if they would lower the nurse to pt ratio to 5, increasing the pt and the nurses satisfaction level. Even at 5, on a busy surgery floor, that may be pushing it. Good luck. Let us know if you find something that helps with that incredibly hard load.

There are several companies that sell uniforms out there. Look at the uniforms they wear in hotels, fast-food restaurants, grocery stores, etc. They are usually no-iron & wrinkle free, and some are very sharp. They don't look anything like scrubs. I wouldn't want to wear my own everyday clothes to do ANY job in the hospital.

Sometime back our hospital was going to make nurses start wearing all white again, because patients/visitors couldn't tell us from housekeeping/dietary/pharmacy staff, etc.. We argued that nurses have worn scrubs longer than anyone- that is why everyone thinks anyone in scrubs is a nurse- so the nursing staff should be the ones who keep scrubs, and everyone else should change. (there are a lot of nice looking uniforms for these other disciplines).

I agree you have a right to ask for a licensed nurse. I think you just went a little far, or overboard in your explanation to her. It seemed a little accusatory?

I thought verbal orders were a no-no with Jcaho now anyway? We are only allowed to take 'Read back telephone orders'; no verbal orders allowed. It it different elsewhere?

Scary to me. A friend of mine had the surgery and he has been in ICU several times with complications from GI bleeding to renal failure. Wonder if the Lap Band procedure has many complications? Anyone know?

I agree with you. LTC nurses do tend to get attitude from some in the healthcare field, and I don't understand it. They have such an overwhelming job with few resources to support them. We have pts that are very hard to care for, but were at the nursing home a few hours ago with 70 other pts for that nurse to care for with maybe an aide or 2 to help. Bowel problems can quickly become serious for the pt with respiratory or cardiac problems. Once they are compromised, it is very difficult to do anything to 'get them going again', when they can't breathe just lying still with the HOB up. The bowel assessment including the question 'last bm?', is there for a reason, and we should follow up on it as needed.

That's wonderful! It is not the norm I can tell you. We are pretty close to you with usually start with 5, may be up to 7 before the shift ends. If you stay at 5 it's usually because you discharged 2 and got 2 back. The turnover is what really keeps you busy. We also have a CNA for about every 10 pts. The charge usually takes 0-3 pts. We are rural and have mostly LPN staff, so it is difficult for the RN to take any pts and keep up with everything the one and only RN has to do.

I love mineral makeup. So quick and easy and looks natural. I have very dry skin and have to moisturize my face every night and a light moisturizer in the morning. Brush on the makeup, mascara and light swipe of lipstick. I wear my hair down, but it just touches my shoulders. I iron my scrubs the night before (just a habit I have never been able to break). White Nikes and away I go.

Most nurses don't work into their 60's (I don't think??). Some days I think I'll work until retirement age of 67. Other days I don't think I could make it to 57! I think the money will be better the longer I work, but then the freedom to do whatever I want, whenever I want sure sounds nice.

I got a similar one in the mail, but threw it in the trash. They know nothing about me or my career except that I received a certification- like thousands of others. How prestigious can that be? Sounds like just a money-making idea someone thought up, that prays on our desire to be recognized? Not that there's anything wrong with that if you have the extra money lying around.

I remember doing C&A's (clinitest and acetest) on urine samples Qid, ac and hs. The results told us how much insulin on the sliding scale to give. Amazing to think about now! I remember telling anyone, and everyone that called or asked about a patient, how they were doing without ever thinking about privacy, and amazingly never had a pt become upset that we did. I remember doing colostomy care without gloves, 'because it will offend the pt' to do it with gloves on. Besides, gloves were not as plentiful in those days, especially not available in every room. I remember dressing up in full gown, mask and gloves before entering a pts room that had AIDS. We even kept a bottle of bleach in the ante-room to rinse our hands with after caring for them (which dried and cracked our hands so that we actually were making easier to transmit all kinds of bacteria). I remember having enough help that we were able to take breaks AND lunch, and were able to complete our care and charting before it was time to go home. We only had a few IV pumps on the floor and they were reserved for CHF'ers, medications drips, and the very young and very old. We 'stripped' our IV's with the time down the side with the expectant time to run out at the bottom. We pushed Aminophylline in a huge syringe IVpush-very slowly! Scary! I'm sure I'll think of more later.

We usually draw names and do a Secret Santa. It's fun and no one gets their feelings hurt because they didn't receive a present from anyone.

Somehow it is never easy to relate everything you did in a shift, but you know it was CRAZY, and you don't want to face it again. Thru the years I have had bad shifts where I did not want to go back, but usually it always worked out it wasn't as bad the next day I worked. Hope it goes that way for you. Just tell yourself it's over with, and you did the best you could.

How do you test a peg tube for placement? A bolus of air? If so, wouldn't you hear the air even if it wasn't in the stomach? We always check for residual, but I've never checked any other way. Someone teach me something here. I'm embarassed that I didn't know this.

Gosh, I remember having the same fear! I always had someone to go to when I had a worry about a pt, and felt like I wasn't going to have to be the 'decision-maker'- the RN would be. After becoming an RN, I was right away given a charge position - Eeek! Everytime a pt had a problem and I handled it, I would give a sigh of relief and felt like I was dodging bullets! But, slowly I became more at ease and my critical thinking skills got better and better, because I was challenged and they had to. Relax. What you're feeling is normal and will fade away over time. And remember, you are not alone. There are always other nurses, including LVN/LPN's, that you can consult with and decide the best route to go for problems that come up.

Doctors office, clinics, management, teaching, school nurse are a few I can think of. However, in some of these you may be cleaning the rare event. The chemo & dialysis nurses occasionally have to assist someone, but not an everyday occurrence. Good luck finding your dream job.