Schooler

There are those who will always see themselves as the victim no matter what the assignment. Charge nursing where I work is awful because we get no extra pay for doing extra work (full patient load) and then we have to deal with the drama of assignments. ...and brace yourself if you give a certain someone an admission... good grief. It's always the same people though so I know it's not the assignment but the nurse who needs adjusting.

that's what was needed but not possible due to surgery.

I was told (and read somewhere) that O2 directed at affected area helps with healing.. maybe helps drying the Mylanta? I'm not sure but am curious enough to try if there's a next time!

That ^^^ must have been frustrating! We don't have this problem because we are a total care model; only nurses on the floor. Anyhow the Mylanta did its job and really helped decrease irritation. I have also heard that O2 mask to area in addition to Mylanta is good...I will try next time I see extreme skin irritation like this. Thank you for the input!

Thank you for the suggestion. We don't have the product but I will look into it. It turns out my little recipe of barrier cream, Questran, and Mylanta was pretty effective in decreasing irritation... I had applied it before shift change and let it open to air to dry. By next day the skin was better. We are still working on it.

I would like advice from you specialists here in wound care. I have a patient who has continuous chronic diarrhea and is bedridden. While the MDs are trying to adress the intestinal side of things I am desperately trying to save the patient's bottom. When I say continuous I mean non stop oozing. The patient's bottom is completely red and raw despite the nurses' liberal use of Barrier cream and Vaseline and almost hourly cleanings. Today I searched for recipes and came up with a Questran-Cavilon-Mylanta recipe which I applied liberally and left the bottom open to air to dry, with chucks to catch everything. I will see tomorrow if that helped at all. We cannot do rectal tube on this patient. Any other ideas for saving that raw skin on an elderly skinny red raw bottom?

Yes of course cost of living (COL) in CA is much higher than in Kansas where I'm at. COL is greater in CA by 46% (according to online COL calculators). However, most other jobs in CA do not have a 46%+ increase in salary. I now live in KS but used to live in CA and can tell you that most salaries for other occupations do not cover the 46% difference in COL. Now... just because I have the day off and have some time on my hands this morning I decided to dig into this to show proof. I looked at salaries in both states for various jobs on BLS.gov and compared to calculate average % difference. I looked at 13 different occupations in different fields (HR managers, credit counselors, computer syst.analysts, Mechanical engineers, chemists, social workers, preschool teachers, pharmacists, PAs, NPs, RNs, PTs, and Pharm Techs). The average % difference in salaries for these occupations between the two states, excluding RNs, is 25% increase in California. RNs however see a 69% pay increase in California. Of all the occupations I listed, the one that sees the second highest % increase in CA is Mechanical Engineer at 34% increase. Of course, looking at every single job listed on the bls.gov website would give a more accurate picture but for the sake of time saving I chose random occupations that seemed more popular. Of all the occupations I selected, RN is the only one that covered the COL increase... actually not only covered but exceeded it. Therefore, your standard of living should be higher if CA if you are an RN. Now... you may be wondering why I went through all the trouble of fact checking this stuff. This week a coworker was telling me that RN salaries were not high enough to cover COL difference in CA compared to KS. I have heard this too many times but I have lived in both places, have friends who are nurses in both states and can tell you in CA they seem to have more $ on their hands. I always had the hunch but now I just wanted to fact-check.

I would also be "OneHappyRN" at 42$/hr starting pay! You didn't say where but i'm going to guess CA?

Wichita, KS All hospitals in the area pay new nurses about 19.50$/hr base pay. Add a few $$ for nights and weekends. LTC pays about 5$ more.