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.

I have a different reason to not pick up shifts. I worked quite a few extra shifts last year. Forward to tax time this year & I got my butt kicked by the Feds, being single with no dependents. Years I didn't pick up many extra shifts, made less money but got refunds. I would bet you all know what I won't be doing this year.

I agree with the others that it sounds like you're depressed, which is making everything seem negative. I've been there. I can't say enough for therapy and/or medication. Also hope you'll make an appointment to see your PCP-sounds like you're a very caring nurse to your pts. but not taking such great care of yourself. We all care about you & hope you're feeling better soon.

There have been a couple of pts on police hold in our facility, but it's been years. One had stolen a car, hit a pedestrian & killed them. The cops knew he did it because there were witnesses. This got really complicated because the pt. was actually a juvenile. What I remember about that is that the police said he had to stay on the unit & that only immediate family could visit. I don't remember much about his actual discharge, but I know law enforcement officials came for him. The other was an older guy who had been driving drunk, hit another car at high speed & killed all the occupants of that car. He didn't remember any of this when we first got him-the psychologist told him when he was close to being discharged that he was going to jail. That pt. was absolutely devastated when he found this out-he was actually a decent person in the hospital, but then, he wasn't drinking. I do remember both LE & hospital powers that be determined he wasn't a high elopement risk, so he was discharged to the police.

Very cool! Had to have me those rainbow ones with the peace symbol & heart.

I make the pants into cutoffs to wear around the house, mow the lawn, etc. Old lab jackets are really good for working in the garden, pulling weeds, etc-you don't get all itchy or bitten up by mosquitos. Plus you have pockets to stick stuff in.

Oh MAN! I second every single thing everybody has posted. Report drives me nuts, too. Some things I really love: How the previous nurse tells you in intricate detail how bad her day sucked then two hours into your shift, you find out somebody was having chest pain/spiking a fever/vomiting blood, etc. I'm all for being supportive but you have to tell me what happened with the pts. Another is how after you're an hour or so into your shift, it's obvious that the previous nurse never put a stethoscope to or assessed the pt. in any way-they tell you about incisions on the wrong side of the body, dressings that don't exist, etc. It's probably what a previous poster said, they picked another nurse's brain relentlessly & copied her assessment, only they got it wrong. Worst of all, the nurses who have their clever little "brains". I report roughly head to toe but the way I report doesn't match up to their little report sheet, so instead of listening, they wait til I address what's next on their sheet, then think I'm going to go back over everything else. One day I got really frustrated in a situation like this-in almost 15 minutes we covered only 2 pts. I finally said, if you can't keep up, write report on paper & fill in your sheet later. I totally get that a new grad or a nurse new to the facility needs more information, but these are never the ones that pull this stuff.

This thread has really caused me to rethink my position on some issues. I feel horrible that so many of my sister-nurses who posted on here are disabled in one way or another. What I know for sure is I will not complain as readily about how tired I am, how my back hurts, etc. after a shift because I know some of you would gladly be tired after that shift. Also am thankful for my fat legs that can walk a distance from a parking space, even if it's in a downpour or freakingly cold.

Service cats will: 1. Clean your aquarium-ditto, your birdcage. 2. Water & fertilize your plants. 3. Sort your trash. 4. Rearrange your pillows, throw rugs, etc. 5. Function as a "green" electric blanket. Seriously, I've never heard of "service" cats but what another poster wrote sounds logical-maybe people raise them to be calm & quiet to be a companion to an elderly or disabled person. The nursing home my stepdad was in had 2 cats that rode around on a cart to visit the residents. They "lived" in the library. I would have never believed cats would stay on a cart like that but these did. Also, one of the floors had its own resident kitty.

I guess every place has a nurse like that because we have one, too. Lazy, lies her way out of stuff, b!tches nonstop. Also roams around the units to find somebody willing to listen to her. One night I was on the hall charting on my WOW when I saw her heading my way. I thought "BEAT IT!" might reach her as a subliminal message but it didn't. I found a reason to get up & go into a pt's room for several minutes. She got tired of waiting around so wandered off to find a better prospect. You can always find something to do for a pt. to get out of the way of somebody like that.

I keep it in my vehicle for use after touching creepy crawlie things like gas pumps, carts, etc. but don't use it at home.