RedInScrubs

I don't pray with patient either, and I don't pretend to. Were I polytheistic, I wouldn't ask someone to pray to a god they don't believe in just because it makes me feel better, and I wouldn't ask them to be silent and pretend, since that would largely just be disingenuous. People need support, but they don't need empty gestures or pretending.

I was an CNA, LPN, ADN, then BSN. Didn't really understand the differences in scope and skill sets until I had the education that gave me the perspective. Very little has to do with the tasks associated with the scope; trained techs can task. The mentality and critical thinking skills that come with increased education that allow the tasks to become higher quality, safer, and more efficient make the difference, not the individual tasks themselves.

Working both CVICU and cardiac, ours are 1:1 until extubated, then they're 2:1. I don't actually think that is asking too much, really, since they're usually transferred to the cardiac floor, where the staffing is 4:1 (5:1 on nights, more often than not, with new admissions for just about everyone) within the first day after being extubated, unless their pressures can't come up or something like that. Why keep a 1:1 when within that shift they're often transferred, and often even have their chest tubes removed prior to transfer? We have many of those walk to the cardiac floor down the hall, and barring some post-op anesthesia compilation, they're generally stable enough to handle a higher staffing ratio.

Just watched episode of "Fringe" where they, a team of non-medical personnel, put in an emergency trach without any sterile tools or gloves,and magically, the non-doctor knew where to place the incision and the trach tube so the ubconcious dude could just breathe, all on his own. I could not stop yelling, haha.

I'm not sure I totally get the point of threads like this. I've known I was an atheist since age five. I've known I wanted to be a nurse since about then, as well. The two were never conflicting. Yet I now work in a Catholic hospital, because in rural areas, many of the only hospitals available for employment are Catholic. I spend every working moment surrounded by Jesus on the walls, have my boss tell me things like "God bless you!" when I pick up a shift, and have patients tell me all the time about the Christian God and various related religious things because of where I work, and not ONCE do I bemoan the fact that I feel rather oppressed. Yet I come to threads like this and all I hear is "Wah wah, I'm brave for talking about Jesus and God and Christianity and if people give me crap for it I don't care because I'm a warrior in the face of a war against Christianity.' What war? I have Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons knocking on my door several days a week, usually while I'm sleeping after working all night, and the only place to get acute care treatment in this region is a DEVOUTLY Catholic institution. My insurance through there won't even cover my birth control option because the hospital won't support it, and I have to drive and hour and a half to the nearest Planned Parenthood to get what I need. That, my Christian friend, is something you won't ever have to do, and I guarantee you, no Atheist would make you do in the name of their lack of belief. The willing blindness and self-martyrdom of the religious sometimes is just staggering to me.

Oh, lord, So many still using the DOS-based MediTech.. I am so sorry.. I used MediTech DOS-based when I first started, we switched to the web-based, which was a thousand times better, but still really muddled and difficult to navigate, since most of the stuff is buried under various menus and folders and everything takes 20 clicks to get through. Information in general is really hard to find, and looking for it bogs down a lot of time. Currently, the facility I'm at uses Epic, which I like more than MediTech. Ours actually is integrated with Alaris for pumps and most of the Rovers we use for vitals and ICU, so that's actually very handy. It all talks really well to the technology, and it's *mostly* user-friendly. More user-friendly than MediTech for sure. Of those three, I prefer Epic, since the information seems a lot easier to access, and it seems to integrate well with other systems.

When I was in school, I thought this. Then when I started working as a nurse, I realized just what exactly they'd spent two years pounding into my brain, and why they did care. It's a lot more clear when you gain their perspective.

Sounds like a good discussion question for homework.

That is actually the reason most atheists DO want to engage or reveal it. The term "active disbelief" seems to imply a very consistent action that is required to continue the existence of a lack of belief, like prayer is a means to continue and strengthen a belief. As an atheist, I do not put forth any effort into continuing my lack of belief. If anything, since the age of about five, I had to consistently force myself to try and believe, rather than not. The act of not believing was and continues to be much more primal, passive, and built-in than believing ever was. I also don't believe not because my good conscience tells me not to, either. It wasn't even so much of decision to not believe (because that implies that I did believe at some point and that I had to choose to NOT do so, like the default setting is belief), as more of an acceptance that, "Oh, I don't do that, and I'm just going to stop bothering to pretend any more, because geez, that's a waste of energy.." One of the reasons why many atheists now are struggling to bring it up is because of the general idea that people who don't believe have to work against something in order to have a purpose. Why does my lack of belief feel threatening to anyone? I don't work against anything or even hate anything. I'm not the opposite of a Christian, because my humanist values encompass many of their values. I am not against any god, just by not believing. I just exist. So why should atheists just not bring things up, and continue to do the great things many of us do, and leave the world continuing to think we're somehow "threatening", just because they don't know enough of us to be able to change that rather inaccurate definition? I, for one, look forward to the day when I'm not forced to feel badly for declining a prayer that someone ASSUMES I'll do, and then have it turned on me like "But this will make me happy, even if you don't believe, what harm could it do? You're being more hurtful by turning me down, so why not just care about me and do it?" That'll be a great day.

Preach on, preach on.

Most favorite is med-surg, hands down. It can be chaotic, the turnover is nuts, but you just get so many challenges, you never get bored. Even on the same floor, you are constantly given a load of patients that tests your ability to adapt and predict based on very little. Algorithms that work on the cardiac floor tend to not fit well at all with so much variety on the med-surg floors. Least favorite is a toss-up between psych and skilled nursing/long-term care. I get tired of patients who either don't remember me most of the time, or cycle between moods and personalities so often that I spend most of my time on edge worried I'm going to get attacked.

1) One day you'll move across the country for a crazy little person who isn't even born. It'll be a good decision. But you should have more confidence in it, and yourself, because you ARE better than her dad thinks you are. 2) Enjoy the music education major. It won't last, but it'll be a heck of a good ride, and you should appreciate it more, because nursing school later will suck. 3) You should tell people you love them a LOT more than you do. 4) You can't fix him. He won't fix himself. You'll figure it out. Be a lot more patient with yourself while you're realizing it. 5) You need to learn the value of "No". 6) You'll kind of become your mom, and that's okay. Because you'll be able to differentiate the parts you don't like and the ones you do, and celebrating one part won't mean you'll embrace the entire dysfunctional package. 7) Tell yourself you're awesome. Because you of all people need to believe it, and you don't say it to yourself often enough.

"1)__ Do you take the flu vaccine yearly? If you do not, what is the reason you do not participate (if you don't mind answering this question)? 2)__ Does your employer have a mandatory influenza vaccination policy as a condition of employment? If yes, where do you work? 3)__ What concerns do you have about the flu vaccine? 4)__ Do you know if anyone who has been released from their job because they did not get the flu vaccine?" 1) I do, but largely because my employer mandates it. 2) I worked for one of the Trauma II centers in Colorado, who required it, though not as a condition of employment, and a second Trauma II which requires it. You may refuse, but you have to wear a mask for the entire flu season if you do. And they know, because they put stickers on your badge if you get it. 3) I don't have concerns. I do know that last year, I ended up with vomiting and diarrhea for 24 hours directly after getting it, then was fine. Linked? Eh, I still have to get the shot, regardless, so even if it was, I can't refuse. 4) I don't know anyone who was released from their job, though they do enforce wearing the masks every shift if you don't have that sticker.

I learned that Epic is WAY preferable to MediTech in terms of user-friendly setup and use. Also, I changed the theme to Galaxy. Because purple. And sparkles.

For 13 hours, a general average day is 12,000. A really bad day I had nearly 18,000..