bluenurse85

I was asleep that day after a night shift. For some reason, I woke up about an hour early & couldn't get back to sleep. So I got up, decided to watch Oprah & have some coffee before I started getting ready for work. When I turned on the TV, I saw some of the news coverage & initially thought it was some kind of publicity for a movie or something. After a few minutes of this, I called my parents & they told me about the planes crashing, etc. After that, upsetting as it was, it was hard to stop watching the news coverage. I went to work that night & it was all anybody talked about. The next morning, I came home & turned on my television the minute I got into the door. I remember watching the same things over & over that day, horrified, but not able to stop. Hard to believe it's been this long. Seems like it just happened.

I actually read something like this in the paper once. This single mom was living in a place with very poor/limited heat & had to put cotton in the kids' ears at night. Supposedly the roaches would go into their ears for the warmth. Worst thing I remember from grade school is a kid sticking a pea in his ear & the pea was actually starting to sprout. .

Especially with the pt's history, those symptoms are suspicious & nothing to fool around with. She needed to see a doctor & you saw that she did. The suits n heels have no idea what it's like taking care of & being responsible for pts. The only thing they can comprehend is $$. Props to you!

Yep, & these are the first ones who will kiss management's butt-I've seen it hundreds of times. Ooops, I thought I hit "quote". This is in response to post #5 on the first page of the thread. Sorry!

I would agree with the poster who said networking. Nurses you work with have guy friends, neighbors, brothers & male nurses have buddies. You might do better with somebody who also works nontypical hours, like an EMT, fireman, policeman, waiter, musician, etc. Is there an issue really important to you? With this being an election year, find a candidate who supports that issue & volunteer some time-can be as little as an hour or two. I've met some really cool people that way. You never know who they might know to introduce you to. Good luck!

I think you called it in the very last sentence-Suits & Heels have NO respect for our time-or US.

Many years ago, I worked with a male nurse who started a relationship wit. h a pt. I'm assuming he had enough sense to wait until that pt. was discharged to refer to her as his SO. If memory serves me, it was more her doing, coming up to the hospital to see him after she was discharged (we worked 3-11 at the time). Pretty soon, they were living together. He was divorced, owned a small house, had grown kids close to her age. This "patient" also had at least one kid who was adolescent aged. When this all started, several of us thought that if it was a female nurse carrying on with a male pt, management would have had a few things to say but as far as I know, they turned a deaf ear to it. Next thing we knew, they were married & it didn't take long for the honeymoon to be over. He would tell us how she started burning through what money he had-important to mention had had some significant medical problems prior to all this, including a multiple vessel CABG so he was still paying off medical bills. He also complained about her housekeeping, leaving clothes in the dryer (I never saw why that was so awful). Then one day he came to work with this huge bruise on the side of his face where she supposedly threw an ashtray at him during an argument. He ended up resigning a short time later. I don't know what ever happened to the marriage. I'm sure this isn't the first & only pt/nurse relationship that ever was. Like many previous posters, I can think of a hundred reasons why this would not be a good idea. At the very least, if one just couldn't live without the other, it would probably be a very good idea to keep quiet about it. And as we all know, it's never a good idea to air dirty laundry at work.

I think Larry3373 called it. We already know this woman is a snitch & she's probably an ###kisser too. She has friends in management so nothing will change. You're SO much better than that.

I do all kinds of horrible stuff, but the most dangerous is probably sun worshipping without sunscreen. I love coffee, drink gallons of it & get a horrible headache if I don't have it. Also love anything salty/greasy, red licorice & cookie dough ice cream. My best shifts happen when I blast Rolling Stones or The Who on the way to work & I KNOW my hearing is starting to go. Ice cold Newcastle or a few glasses of Reisling are not bad, either.

Pt. with a blood sugar of 29, totally awake & alert, asymptomatic. He said "I thought it might be a little low. I was going to ask to have it checked next time somebody came in."

A good many of these patients have a stash of junk food the family brings them or the family enables them in some other way. One Xmas Eve, I had a new admission-a pt. w/a BKA. She was also legally blind, on hemodialysis, serious neuropathy and had C-dif to boot. She had refused her supper tray so her husband went out & brought back this box of fried chicken from Popeye's with at least 10 pieces in it. That was gone in less than an hour. Then, he went to the 24-hr Walgreens & came back with a quart of eggnog & she drank the entire quart in 30 minutes. Then, she starts complaining about how bad she felt, demanding blood sugars be taken & I guess I don't need to mention what all this did to her C-dif situation. Never mind the fact I had several other pts. to take care of, including two other admissions to complete. She took up all of my time & attention & I had to fight like h*ll to get to any of the other pts. I had to call the MD to get insulin orders because her blood sugar was over 400. When I explained what had been going on, he said "Just take the food away from her." Yeah, right, then the husband would bring her some more. I had tried to talk with him & explain healthier options, e.g. grilled chicken instead of fried, & in a reasonable amount, & his response was "Well, I got her what she asked for." Next shift, Xmas night, was even worse. The pt. had visitors all day, bringing plates of food, including a whole sweet potato pie, a plate of sliced ham at least 4 inches high, regular soda, cranberry sauce, all sorts of desserts-you name it, she had it. The nurse before me told me in report she had been eating all day & the nurse had to get orders to cover her blood sugars. The MD still didn't see why we couldn't just take the food away or tell the visitors she couldn't have it. It was more of the same that night, complaints of discomfort, massive diarrhea, blood sugars & so forth. The final outcome was that year, 12/26 fell on a Sunday. She started going into fluid overload mid-morning so a dialysis nurse had to come in to do an emergency treatment. Her last scheduled treatment had been on 12/24 just before she came to us. This pt. was a frequent flyer, ended up with an aka & a bka on the opposite leg.

Sounds like she is insecure and very possessive of that pt. Also sounds like to the CM & the parents, she's the coolest thing since popsicles. Bottom line, she is the one with the problem. I'd just agree with her to shut her up, then forget about it. She probably also takes great pride in the number of RNs she's run off the case. Personally, I think I might have to quietly stand my ground just to blow that for her. Good luck to you. People like that can really be sickening.

I've only ever heard of giving two weeks' notice for a staff nurse position. Maybe four weeks is a regional thing?

I've never seen or heard of this happening but it doesn't sound too good to me. I would have to agree with the others who state to cut your losses & go. Sounds like this place has all kinds of management & communication issues. As to taking the other pt., sounds like your intentions were good but it all backfired on you. Thing is, if you have some free time or feel like you could do more, there is ALWAYS going to be somebody who will welcome & appreciate help. Sorry this happened to you-I know it has to hurt. My question is, do you really want to work in a place like that?

I would just ignore them. If they are such hot shots, why couldn't they get the IV started? Sometimes it's hard to be willing to help out because of crap like this, but I tell myself I'm doing it for the pt. & the gossips/snitches can go blow.