sarahRN482

I agree with the post up there where someone said to get the lippincott book about calculations made easy. It's wonderful! Also....I know when I was in nursing school, we had to pass a drug math test every semester to continue in the nursing program!

Ok, so last night was probably *one* of the worst nights I've ever had working. Not because my patients were totally sick (one fresh post-op thoracotomy w/ R upper lobectomy; 2 fresh from the cath lab, one with a new pacer and one cath; 1 VERY confused little lady in restraints; and lastly one little lady who, God love her, didn't ask for a thing all night) but mostly my night was hell because of one patient's family members. It must have been something in the air last night, because I wasn't the only nurse dealing with irrate family members. Now, here is the thing. I understand that the patients on our floor are for the most part pretty sick. I understand that their familes are concerned/stressed/worried..whatever the case may be. But what really burns me is when you are really, sincerely trying to help their family member and being as comforting and empathetic as you can be, not only to the patient but to their family too, and they just treat you like some piece of crap. I'm a pretty easy going person and I'm easy to get along with. I have that attitude of wanting everyone to like me, including those I don't know, and I really try to be polite and kind to everyone I meet, at work or otherwise. I just don't get people sometimes! Here we are, literally breaking our backs to help their family members and they're screaming at us like we're totally stupid. Yelling and whinning because the room "smells funny"...Well ok ma'am, let me get right on that, I'll just ignore my pt down the hallway who just ripped their IV, Foley, and chest tube out..It's ok! :angryfire Whew...ok, I'm done now! Thanks for listening! :chuckle

When I started working on the stepdown unit I'm at now, we had to take and EKG class during orientation. They were showing us how to set up the monitors in the IMC rooms just for the heck of it, and we volunteered a guy in our group to be hooked up to the 12 lead. Right away our instructor (Cardiac ICU nurse) picked up on delta waves on the 12 lead. We took the 12 lead and asked a Dr. who happened to on the floor and he said sure enough it was WPW. All happened on a fluke, very weird.......

I work on a surgical cardiac step down unit in central IL and we (staff nurses) don't pull out chest tubes or pacing wires. Usually the Doc's nurses pull out the CT's, Doc's pull out the pacing wires (as they should!). As far as JP's, we do those..but luckily most of our patients come out of the Cardiac ICU with almost everything out, except CT's. Now there are those occassions where the pt's decide to pull the wires/tubes/drains out themselves...that's always fun!

I work at Memorial in Springfield and they have all kinds of tuition reimbursement programs for employees and also for those wanting to go to nursing school. Of course you have to commit to work there for a time, so many years for the amount of money you borrow. But it's worth it. MMC is a great place to work!

Well I emailed someone in upper management where I work to find out if the hospital is organizing anything, but nobody knows so far. But she said she was interested in going too. I never in my life thought I could feel so horribly for people that I don't even know. But I have this image of a news clip I caught earlier today of a man holding a newborn baby whose mother had died, and they had no food or water or formula to feed this tiny infant. It pulls at my heart and brings tears to my eyes to think about it. I know I need to do something.

Any nurses from IL interested in volunteering? Springfield area here, seriously considering going.

Angie, I'm dealing with this situation where I work at as well. I'm fairly new to the hospital and it's much larger than where I worked before. In the new place, the Tech's do the accuchecks and we also have the menu/self ordering system for meals. I really hate it! Where I worked at before the RN's/LPN's did all of their patient's accuchecks, so you knew what they were and when the accucheck was done. Where I work now, very few of the Tech's will report the accuchecks to nurses, which leaves it up to us to remember, along with the 8 million other things, to check what their blood sugar was and give insulin, call the doc, etc. I would much rather do my own accuchecks!

I work on a tele unit too and we use the pull of strip thingys too. But I have an idea.....I do some scrapbooking in my *spare* time (ha!) and I have a little thing that's double sided tape for that, but it's in a dispenser like white out comes in. The new kinda white out that's not in the bottle, but in the little roller type thingy. Check a craft/scrapbooking store!

I took care of a pt earlier in the week, mid 40's male with an extensive crappy history. CHF, CAD, PVD, cardiomyopathy, CVA x2, MI x4, HTN, IDDM, on and on and on. Got this pt at 7am, having BP of 200's/110's, nitro gtt doing nothing. Trop and CPK through the roof. After hours of getting orders and drips and cath lab lined up, finally get the pt's pain under control enough to actually talk to him. Found out that his insurance company had refused him several times to get a vent. pacer because he isn't "sick enough". :angryfire Are they waiting on this man to DIE before they will cover it? That's what it seemed like to me. Absolutely sad!

The cardiac floor I work has CNA's and Tech's. The CNA's do what they do in most places, assisting with pt care and baths, bed changes, vitals, etc. The tech's have some extra training and are allowed to do things such as take out IV's, take out Foley's, dressing changes.

When people cap off the air release valve/tube on an NG tube. That little blue tube sticking off the side is there for a reason!

Brought tears to my eyes......

I worked in a small rural hospital, on a med/surg unit right out of nursing school. I worked nights 7p-7a, which tends to be somewhat of a "creepy" shift anyway because typically, it's dark everywhere in the hospital at night. Our floor had two halls (evens & odds) and on this particular night I had patients at the end of both halls. The very last rooms at the end of each hall were negative pressure rooms for TB or other isolation patients, etc. We hadn't put any patients in those rooms for probably a month or so, and our ped's unit had been using one of the rooms as a storage room for extra cribs and other equipment. I was making a round checking on my patients at the end of halls and I could see a tv on in one of the isolation rooms that was being used as storage. I walked up and peaked in the window and you could hear the tv blasting; the weather channel of all things! I freaked out and ran down to the nurses station and refused to go anywhere near that room the rest of the night. Another story that happened in the same hospital: We had a patient on the odd wing that had come in with abd. pain. The docs couldn't really find anything wrong with this guy, but he refused to be discharged, so they kept him there for a while. I came in at 7 one night and got report from his day shift nurse, who informed me that while she had been in his room passing his med's, he asked her if anyone had died in the other bed in the room. She of course said that was very likely that someone had died there, and he looked at her and said, "I kinda figured, cause she's sitting on the edge of the bed right now." The day shift nurse said she got freaked and left the room asap. We had other stuff on that unit that would happen like the bathroom sink in one room would come on and off by itself with no patients in that room, call lights going off in unoccupied rooms. And the LTC which was the floor above the one I worked on, said their residents always talked about "the man in black" before they died.....

I have high arches Kelly and I do fine with the Crocs. The guy at the shoe store said that the material they're made of will mold to your feet (like Birk's) after you wear them for a little while. I had mine broke in the first shift I wore them!