GundeRN

I thought my anxiety was related to school and that it would go away once I graduated but it has only gotten worse as I have continued my nursing career. I probably would have picked another profession had I known how ill equipped I was to handle the type of stress this job entails. I currently only take a PRN Xanax because I can go months without issues, so daily med makes no sense to me. I have panic attacks out of no where and no trigger that I can figure out. I will have a few weeks in a row when it will be frequent and then I will be back to normal for a while. Still confuses me.

Another thing to consider is that you are often required to be cross trained to other departments. I for example am a radiology nurse, infusion therapy nurse, and help with stress tests.

I have been an RN with a small rural hospital, working in the Infusion therapy department. We recently had COC survey our facility and found us deficient in a research coordinator. They have asked me to fill the position but as I would be the first one, I am winging it. I have been asked to bring our percentage of patients on clinical trials up to 6%. Our facility is unable to do pharmaceutical trials and so my focus has been on trying to find trials that center on quality of life. Currently I have been just scouring clinicatrials.gov and emailing the contacts of potential fits. My questions #1 is there a better way to get this accomplished? #2 is there more to a research coordinator than this? What else should I be doing? Obviously I know nothing. Please help.

I am talking about people who are incapable of talking about their past. I am in hospice and work with end stage dementia patients.

So I know as nurses we are supposed to keep conversations about the patient, but what do you do when they don't remember anything about themselves or are unable to communicate anymore? I mean I can only talk about the weather for so long. Is it ok to start talking about your life a bit? I don't mean pouring out your life and struggles or anything, just small talk about kids singing at school programs or funny stories.

Last day today. I am not leaving hospice nursing but I am definitely done with case management. I think I will just do the per diem and casual at the hospital for a while until I figure out what kind of nurse I am. There has to be somewhere I fit.

So my plan was to stay per diem until I had worked a full 2 years in med surg before going into case management. I wanted a clear understanding of the job before going full time. But they needed a case manager sooner so I jumped and now I am regretting it. I love my job, I love this kind of nursing, but I am going crazy over the chronic low staffing. I try to schedule my patients to give me a few light days a week to get my paperwork in a row but when the office sees my light days they just pile on visits from other case managers who didn't show up to work or are at hours and I NEVER have time to get things organized. By the time IDT meetings come up I am scrambling to get everything done and the stress is ruining me! Every week I think it will pass, but every week it is the same thing. I NEVER just see my own patients. Someone is always gone. Our office carries about 50 patients give or take, and we have three case managers with two per diem nurses. I think we would be able to carry the load IF everyone came to work but I am starting to think that isn't every going to happen. I have only been carrying a case load since November and I am thinking of going back to per diem already. I guess my question is, is it like this everywhere? I am broken hearted that my desire to be a hospice nurse my not be feasible.

I think we as nurses need to get over our fear of offending the doctors. Sometimes we DO know better what is best for our patient because we are spending more time with them, or they are opening up to us more. Doctors make bad decisions and whether it stirs the pot or not it is our responsibility to advocate for our patients. One idea though, and one that I have used is to find peer reviewed articles about the subject and place them in the dictation room or doctors lounge. I have had doctors that are afraid of morphine and won't give it to COPD patients, the ones who need it the most. I have found the case studies on morphine and SOB and spread them around.

It isn't a matter of whether or not it is respectful to look at someone's body after death without their consent. This is about encouraging the execution of people for the sole purpose of making this "art" the claims are those bodies were sold by the Chinese government. Also, the people in Chinese prisons are not necessarily criminals. It isn't like they have a fair justice system over there.

I don't know, there is some shady business behind how they get those bodies. It creeps me out.

Stupid NCLEX, never matches real life. Morphine will never be first because you aren't going to make the person wait to get their oxygen while you mess with putting in an IV. One nurse is going to be giving O2, nitro, and aspirin while another starts he IV.

Well I can see why in the middle of a code people would be too busy to notice him filming. It's hard with people being able to use their phones.

Excuse me, all hail the nurses who share their last names for they are far better nurses, and people in general really.

I make sure my patients are pottied, positioned, and pain controlled, if lines are due to be changed I change them, if their bag of fliud will run out in the next hour I scan and hang a new one so it's ready to spike.. of course this is all if I have time.

I would not want my Pts knowing my last name.

I think that sounds great! Good luck!

Besides, most people want day and it's just not feasible. They aren't going to give them to a new nurse.

I know exactly how you feel, and I was just given a full time case manager position with hospice this week :) First of all, this is not going to be your life. Tell yourself this every day. There is a light at then end of the tunnel. It is temporary suffering to attain a higher goal. Stay at least 6 more months at your current job. It will get better. Once I hit the year mark I was amazed at how much more at ease I felt with the hospital job and by then a new crop of "newbies" will be the prey (sad to say, but at least you will be off the hook). Things that NEVER go away, it could take forever to get off night shifts depending on how many people have seniority above you so you are going to have to get used to that, or 12hr shifts , I decided this schedule just wasn't good for me. I also got really sick of answering call lights for none-nurse related things. I'm not saying I feel above toileting, turning, getting food, fluffing pillows, blah blah blah but seriously, this is what I felt like I did 80% of the time. Waste of education if you ask me. Hospice is great. It's not as good of pay but my life and peace of mind matter so much more. I am out and about all day and the time flies. Sure I work 5 days a week instead of two but I FEEL like I work less and when I ma home I have more energy. At work I do MUCH more symptom managment and have a lot more time to spend talking to my patients instead of just running from task to task. Hang in there girl, you can do it. There are greener pastures ahead. All those life changing ideas above are great ones but I understand how hard it is to make healthy choices when you are so drained. Find what personally recharges you and find time for it. This will pass!

I would break it down into five topics and talk about each one for two minutes. Comfort of the pt, communication between team members, time management, and thorouogh documentation. I would close with the comfort of the pt though. Since this is the primary goal of hospice it should be the final thoughts you leave them with.

So a lot of the nurses I have spoken with believe they have a greater chance of being given a warning, instead of a ticket, for speeding if they have their RN badge visible when they are pulled over. Who here has been pulled over on their way to or from work and been given a pass? Who has bee ticketed? Is there any truth to it?

This is encouraging to read. I am new and can't sleep when I'm on call even if I don't get a call. I am anxious about the phone ringing. Even my personal phone makes me jump. Right not it is almost 2am I have only gotten one phone call tonight and didn't need to go out. I should sleep because I have a lot to do tomorrow but I just can't when I know that phone could ring. It's good to hear that this goes away.

I didn't know anyone used Demerol anymore.

I don't know anything about dialysis so I may be way off, but do they ever do dialysis right after a MRI with contrast for someone with a reduced renal function? I have a friend who is sitting there on hold in hopes that her kidney function improves before she can have an MRI to see if a tumor in her brain is cancer. It seems to me like there has to be some way to get her this MRI faster.

I am disgusted by all the shotty work ethic. Wouldn't I love a personal day. And I have them too, I just ask for time off and take PTO BEFORE the schedule comes out. Or I make a trade ahead of time, not call off a few hours before my shift and leave everyone else running their butts off because I need a little ME time. How selfish. Now as for not getting any sleep, I could see it as an excuse if she worked the night before but not if this was her first night.

The problem I have with this is that you don't know how much that poke is going to hurt. "little prick" may not be a very good description.