Amysuenu

I started a job earlier this weeking on a dementia unit at a LTC facility, lasted one shift and after that would not go back due to a similar situation. I was shocked to see an LPN who was training me not gloving when doing wound care, applying misc ointments to patients and not washing hands as dilligently as I was and had been trained to do in nursing school. This isn't the only reason I left, but I was absolutely disgusted by this not to mention various areas of the facility!

Hello everyone! I'm hoping I can get some suggestions on a cultural topic for my Death & Dying class I'm taking. I had requested my topic being on death and dying of the Catholic faith, but my professor is concerned I may not find my information on it. Some other topics already chose include: Jehovahs Witness, Amish, Cherokee Indian, Muslim and Chinese traditions Any suggestions are welcome and appreciated! Amy

I forgot to mention the medication. It was Buspar and they were a new admit. This was at 14:30 and the pharmacy generally delivers by 1800.

Hello all. I wanted to post a question to all of you and get some feedback regarding a situation that occurs on a regular basis at a facility I was recently employed at. Ok, this facility receives it's medications from an outside pharmacy, but does carry certain commonly used floorstock medications. I was working as the med nurse on this unit and a new order had been written for a patient for a med that we don't have on floor stock due to it not being a common drug we use. I was told to remove this exact med from another patient's drawer and give it to this other patient. I felt very uncomfortable doing this and would not follow through the request. This goes against what I was taught in nursing school and also didn't feel it was ethical. My other concern was who is this patient paying for this medication that want me to give to this other patient. I addressed this and was given a look of a complete idiot! I was concerned with this fact. I was told not to worry about it and I could just replace it at a later time. This leads to another problem, the same nurse is not consistently the med nurse and we are often assigned to another unit, if the census is high. Is this standard practice where you work? I never came across this situation w/ my previous employer. Also, since this situation arose I have since been terminated and the reason I was given was due to a med error; however, that med error was never discussed prior to my termination, nor did I actually see the paperwork related to this.

I was hired as a Med/Surg nurse fresh out of LPN school and don't regret it for one minute. I loved it & truly can't wait to do that type of nursing again. I enjoyed the variety of patients and the skills I gained were invaluable. It's a shame the hospital system I worked for decided they didn't need LPNs much anymore. I ended up losing my job because of it. I just started working as a psych nurse. That is an area I don't see me being in for a long period of time.

I was very fortunate to get a job on Med/Surg right out of nursing school. I learned so much and it was a great foundation. As other posters have mentioned it is hectic at times, but it is with any unit. There is much diversity of patients and illnesses/diseases.

Math was a bit of a struggle for me, but I found as far as systems the cardiac and respiratory which were taught together. As far as clinical I had a hard time initially in the LTC setting, but learned to adjust and not be afraid of some of my patients. I soon realized being there made their day much brighter.

I am 100% certain that my posting on here isn't why I lost my job! Anyone that works there knows and has seen what has went down over the last several months.

Ahh the Evil Empire (UPMC)... I hope these people can sleep at night knowing how us nurses have been treated and the risk involved with patients when the nurse to staff ratio is so high. Injuries... I'm still recovering from a a back injury 6 weeks ago from trying to reposition a patient when we had no aide (the norm most of the time). I went to dr. appts and was to do PT,(which was stopped before even started) then all of the sudden I'm told I'm cured. I wish these people would endure how my back feels and the need to take 1000 mg of Naproxen qd just to help with the inflammation-then there is the muscle relaxers at night when it's real bad. The most pathetic thing is how the UPMC Northwest facility has gotten so cheap with pt snacks. It has came to the point of near rationing (couting out packs of graham crackers, saltines and peanut butter)!!! Heaven forbid if all the patients on the floor would want them that day!!! No more soup, cereal or made-up sandwiches for late admits or just hungry patients. My demise, as well as 7 others, was dealt on the 29th. We lost our jobs as part of the overall corporate cutbacks... I hope the patients don't mind even less nurses caring for them...

Wow! That is sickening to know this "fat cat" makes this type of money and employees are losing their jobs left and right as well patient care suffering. I hope people like him can sleep at night knowing he has put good people out of jobs, including it now trickling down to affect the nursing staff as it did me. I lost my job as a nurse at UPMC Northwest on 5/29!

from what is going on at upmc northwest as of this date-the 2nd med-surg unit has been closed for 3 weeks and the staff from that unit is floating (without float pay) and have not been given any straight answers as to when or if it will reopen. [/font]

I'm happy to report after checking with Pearson VUE, I passed! The $9.95 to find out early was great for my nerves.

I took my NCLEX PN exam yesterday here in PA and was so nervous leading up to it. It truly was a stressful week and the night before didn't help with the motel room I stayed in that the heating/cooling system in the room failed to work and then once I get settled in bed, the smoke detector decided to start chirping-so I had to take the battery out of it... This lead to about 3 hours of sleep max leading up to it! I think what did make it better is when I went to check out and they ended up giving me my room for $45.99. I was in shock when my test shut off at 86 questions and I had no math! I feel what I did review in Mosby's helped as far as the format of the exam. I was surprised that I only had a couple SATA,, several Psych. infection control and prioritizing. I did have a few meds that I wasn't familiar with that I really had to think about. The one thing that did stump me were lab values-of all things Potassium! Yes, I know the very basic, but I really got worked up over it and started second guessing. I then went into deep mode thinking and pretended I was reading patient lab values and doing report to jog my memory. I think my foundation working on a med-surg unit helped with the infection control questions and the fact we get many patients that have a history of MRSA. I'm now just holding my breath. I wouldn't be as worried, if I were not working, I don't want to have to go to an aide position with not passing. So the waiting game begins and the stress level continues to run high. Good luck to all of those who are waiting on results as well.

:typingHello all. I will be starting at UPMC Northwest on 9/15 as a Med/Surg nurse. I was wondering if all of the UPMC facilities follow a dress-code such as one color for each specific unit or whether you can wear what scrubs you want. I'm not sure if I should go ahead and order them or wait. Any help you can give is greatly appreciated. Thanks, Amy:nurse:

Hello, I just graduated from PN school on August 15th. I was just offered a position on Med-Surg and start September 15. I enjoyed Med-Surg in clinical and learned so much. I look forward as this being my foundation for nursing right out of out school.