Cat365

Ok apparently I’m over cautious. The whole red stuff out of the ear thing worried me. I’d never had that happen previously.

Do you worry about bursting the tympanic membrane? I witnessed an incident recently where the ear started to bleed and even though the dr said that nothing was done incorrectly I’m wondering if that’s what happened. The tympanic membrane couldn’t be visualized after this happened,but since the ear was so blocked up beforehand it might not have been there prior.

How do you handle ears that are so infected/dirty that the tympanic membrane can’t be seen? Do most ERs irrigate? If so, is it something a Dr does or do you do it in your workplace? What do you use?

It's not just small hospitals that get non-emergent things. We have "i need a pregnancy test, I threw up once six hours ago, I didn't have a BM today, I fell down and nothing hurts but I thought it should get checked out, and other things that really don't need an emergency evaluation at midnight.

We can't transfer to ICU without two people. One has to be a nurse the second can be a tech or security in case the patient codes on the way. So I can't see that ever being an issue with us. I agree with the poster that stated lazy people will always find a way to be lazy. I also agree with the person that stated you don't know what health problems the other nurse might have had. She might have a very good reason she couldn't push the cart. However, I'm not sure that if she can't push a cart she should be at work providing hands on care. In an ICU there are a lot of people that need rolled or assisted in other ways.

Sometimes you can find someone to trade with. Or you can ask to work Friday/Saturday instead of Sunday. I work every other Saturday/Sunday and 3/4 Friday's because this leaves me with the weekdays free. I have other commitments during the week that I either need to do or really enjoy doing. Other people in my department only work 1/4 weekends. That meets the minimum weekend requirements where I work. Each position/employer is different. Hopefully you can work something out. I'm not particularly religious but I can understand that there are things you enjoy doing. Odds are good that you won't have every Sunday off, but it's not hopeless that you will have the majority off. The key is to remain as flexible on other days as you can and not to complain and cause a fuss when you can't. Most of my coworkers are good at switching shifts to help out coworkers, but we stop doing it for people that don't return the favor.

Both ways have there advantages. With multiple preceptors you learn multiple ways of doing things, but each preceptor will have different expectations, different things they place emphasis on, and with a constant change in preceptor they don't have time to learn/evaluate you. In short I think having 2-3 preceptors might be an advantage, but a new person each shift is a hindrance.

When I stood by your bed as a student nurse and realized you had decerebrate posturing, unresponsive, blown pupils, and were missing ¾ of your skull. Not even when I realized that you had parents, a girlfriend, and a threeyear old daughter. None of which were currently accepting the fact that you arenot ever going to recover. I didn't cry then, but that night driving home I cried as I mourned for you and them. However, by the time I was home I had left it behind me. I didn't cry as I looked at your wife as she explained that you were childhood sweethearts and she had never considered a life without you.You were in your 50's and on hospice because of terminal cancer. Now you were having a hemorrhagic stroke and it was a bad one. She looked at me with desperate, hopeful eyes as she told me that she knew you were dying, but she wasn't ready yet, not yet. I cried on the way home as I remembered her eyes, but then I put it behind me. I didn't cry when I found out that the young woman who had laughingly showed me pictures of her children, the oldest of which was five, had died on the operating table while a doctor tried to repair an aortic dissection. I mourned for her family, and the children that would probably not remember her, but then I put it behind me. Patients and their families touch your heart, but you can't carry it home with you. I tell myself this as I drive home and put it behind me. So why is it that today, when the sun is hot and beautiful, I am fighting tears? I shop for brightly colored flowers to plant in my multicolored pots. I put my hands in the dirt as I plant flowers of red, yellow, purple, and white smiling at the cheerful display, but your voice is in my head. I mow the lawn while reveling in the sun on my face and play my headphones louder that I usually do to drown out your voice, but I see you in my mind. I have helped other patients that lost their unborn children and isn't that an awful term? Lost, as if they were misplaced and might still be found. Why is it your voice, your courageous grief for a child you truly wanted, and the image of your fetus, your perfectly formed, incredibly small baby that never took a breath haunting me? Is it because I couldn't cry on the way home?

The organs are not removed from a person before death. The patient undergoes a terminal wean in the operating room. The patient dies there and then organs are harvested. In fact if the patient lives too long after they are extubated the organs cannot be used.

The test requires a minimum level to show as positive. One puff several days prior would not meet that minimum. You could get the same level by being exposed to second hand smoke at an event.

I don't work for free. I actually reported a previous employer (non-nursing) job to the Department of Labor for requiring that. I rarely get a lunch. Maybe one out of twenty shifts and I always clock out as no lunch. I understand day shift is the opposite of those odds, but they are better staffed. In a year I've been mandated to work over once. I normally leave on time, but maybe 10% of the time I stay up to 30 minutes late because of incomplete charting or the fact that we had a hell night and my patients are a mess when my relief gets there. I work ER and it's considered bad form to leave without calling report to the floor, discharging patients that are ready, or leaving tons of undone tasks (a few are ok). I don't know what is accepted elsewhere, but that's how we roll.

Our ER is currently giving away free thermometers to parents. As well as education on fevers an proper medication. My fever conversations seem to go one of two ways lately. "He/She has a fever" "Did you take his temperature?" "No, but he/she feels hot." "My child has a fever." "Did you give them any medication for it?" "No, I brought them here."

It sounds like you did a good job. You provided accurate information and you looked up what you didn't know. A CPR board wouldn't have changed the outcome. It's hard as a nurse to accept that people will die. Everyone dies sometime. It feels like a failure, but you are not a god and don't get to decide when it's time. Relax, accept you are human, and acknowledge that as hard as we try we can't save everyone.

It's the fashion now to wear two different socks. You were just trying out a new version. My first day of college we were supposed to wear a white T-shirt with the college logo of it. Half way there I spilled coffe on it with the predictable result of it becoming see through. I had three choices. Go home and change, making myself late, wear it see through, or wear the bright red T-shirt in my car. I decided to wear red. Surely in everyone wouldn't be in that T-shirt? Of course they were. I stuck out like a bright red thumb. i have also shown up wearing two different shoes. My coworkers figured it out within thirty seconds and on one memorable occasion I was at work before I realized I was missing my bra. I need a bra. How on earth did I forget it?

I would discuss the issue with your family doctor. He would be the one to fill out FMLA paperwork. Unless you are also seeing another doctor about your depression. Are you on any medication for it?