daisie

I forgot one more thing. There is a cna that works with this nurse. They are best buds (at work). This cna will graduate in May as an RN. She is going to become the RN for 2nd shift. We've never had a 2nd shift RN. I thought about getting another job before this happens, but I want to see what happens after she becomes the RN. I have seen this cna making faces behind this nurse's back. And I've always been told (and have seen) that when a cna becomes a nurse they change. I just want to see if she changes and stands up to this nurse or if she'll be under her spell also.

We have a problem in our facility. DHEC requires 7 cna's in the facility on 2nd shift. There were 8 on the schedule and 6 were in the building (plus an orientee, which made 7). There are 2 wings. 4 cna's were on wing one and 2 were on wing two. Two cna's were coming in late. Each cna had their groups and were ready to get to work. The problem was: wing two wanted one of the cna's from wing one to got to wing two and take a group until one of the late cna's came in. Turn and dry them. Then after the late cna comes in then the wing one cna could go back and take up her group. To me this is rewarding the late person (because there group is taken care of) and punishing the person on time (because they have to do the late cna's group and then come do theirs). The don was demanding this be done. I told the cna who went over there to send the late cna to wing one and she would do her group and if she didn't she would be written up. I was arguing with the rn on wing two and was so infuriated (this is not the first time this has happened) I hung up on her and called the don. She was siding with wing two, which has a brown-nosing nurse and gets her way ALL of the time, no matter what the situation. I was told by the other nurses that I am fighting a losing battle when I go up against this brown-nosing nurse. What do you guys think of this? This is a very unorganized facility in my opinion.

Still working there. It's ok for me, but there are a lot of complaints from others. I heard that this nurse is into "voo-doo." She has told me that she doesn't believe in god. Another nurse said that she believes she has "roots" on the adm. and don. She could be right. I have been to the adm. twice with complaints and her face just goes blank, she says its just exaggerated and changes the subject. I went to the don and when I would bring up a problem with this nurse, the same thing, her face would go blank and she would change the subject. I even threatened to put it my resignation. There are only 2 second shift nurses and DHEC requires 2 on second and if I quit they will be short. They are already short when I'm off. I only work 4 days a week. They beg for other nurses to work. They even call me and leave dozens of messages for me to call back. What do you guys think of this rumor?

While I was in nursing school a graduate from the year before came to speak to us. She was currently working in a doctor's office. She said that a girl about 18 came in and she needed to get a clean catch on her. She explained to the girl to take the first towelette and wipe down one side of the labia, then the second down the other and the third down the middle, then put it in the specimen cup. Well, the girl put the towelettes in the specimen cup, not the urine.

We have a rt. who had fallen (before he came to us) and have 3 brain surgeries. He is very, very talkative, nonstop, 24 hours a day. One morning someone told him he smelled like a pole cat (I wasn't there, I was told this when I came in on 2nd). After he woke from his nap and was sitting at the nurses' station, a nurse said, "I smell a pole cat." He said, "Who's talking about me?" She then asked him, "Do you know what a pole cat is?" He said, "Sure, it's a regular cat that sits on top of a pole." We all laughed so hard. Then he said, "But when it comes down it's really smelling good."

When my grandmother was in ICU with angina, she talked my aunt, who is an RN, into bringing her some kerosene to put on left arm because it hurt so bad. Her room really had a strong smell. And she would also pull her IV pump with her to see who was waiting in the lobby to see her when visiting hours began. She was 84 years old. This was 9 years ago.

Last night was my last night for 6 days. I wrote the administrator about the "spy" needing to have things her way. I also had other complaints not about the spy. The day before, the DON came to me wanting me to work more overtime. I told her not to even think about it. I got up this morning and the phone rang. I never answer it because it could be mother-in-law, sales people, or the DON. It was the DON asking me to call her when I got in. Do you think I'm going to call her? No. I'm tired of being the "only" nurse there, it feels like. When someone calls in sick, they always call me to work. Well, no more. And I am going to spend the next few days I have off looking for another job. They may not pay as much by the hour, but my usual work week (without overtime) is only 36 hours. I'm sure I could get a job at 40 hours a week and get some over time there. Thanks for all your support and when I see my coworkers, I'll ask them if they want us to ban together against the "spy." As for our DON, she really doesn't have much backbone. She agrees with everyone. She tells people what they want to hear. She promises you can give the meds and the other nurse do treatments (we all hate treatments because you usually have to do treatments for the whole facility and the meds is just for your wing) and then she'll promise the other nurse the same thing, and then when we get to work there's a big argument. This is one of the reasons I'm cutting out the overtime. And I am getting tired, emotionally, physically I'm hyper, but when your emotions get tired it can start on the physcical and I don't want it to get to that point.

I didn't know there were M.A.s until I had about 2 months left in nursing school. I'm an LPN. I was shocked and upset. If I had known about the M.A.s I would have done that instead of spending all that time in nursing school. Maybe LPN's make more money, no one likes to divulge their salaries. I did my clinicals in 3 different facilities and there were M.A.s in them and they were just as capable as the nurses at their jobs. The only way I knew they were not nurses is if I asked them. All the staff in these facilities did not have LPN or RN on their badges, it said, "Nursing Staff." With the shortage of nurses, we nursing techs. I wish we had some where I work now.

I work in a nursing home. The other night one of my aids called me over the call and said, "Mr. ____ has a bad rash on his prenatal area and needs some cream." I was laughing so hard and she came out of the room and said, "Are you laughing at me?" I could only shake my head 'yes.' I finally explained to her what prenatal was and told her she meant perineum.

$12/hr? Where I work CNAs make $6/hr. and they work ther buns off. I'm an LPN and make a lot more than they do, but if it weren't for the CNAs, think of the work that we would have to do. I respect the CNAs I work with. I am not demanding or ride their backs. When I do ask them to do something for me, they do not hesitate. Some of the other nurses degrade them, yell at them, follow them around and try to tell them how to do their jobs. When these nurses really need the CNAs the CNAs are not as enthusiastic to help. I don't blame them. If I worked for that little bit of pay and was always being hounded, I wouldn't be very enthusiastic about my job either.

I have worked 3-11 for the past 4 months. I worked 7p-7a for the first year I was a nurse. I am a night person. I have worked 3rd at every job I've ever had. I'm on 2nd now because 3rd got really boring for me. All the rt's were asleep and what's there to do but clean. I cleaned windows, the fridge, cabinets, closets, etc. I got tired of cleaning. I'm a nurse not housekeeping. 2nd shift lost all of its nurses so I went to 2nd. Not a dull moment there. Sundowners setting in, rt's refusing to take showers and arguing with them, getting them to go to bed and stay in bed without wandering everywhere, and it seems that evening is when they all get sick: upset stomach, headache, can't sleep, back ache, etc. What a different pace from 3rd. I get to sit for 5 minutes, maybe, to grab a bite to eat. I have ran down the hall while chewing my food many times, but the time goes by a lot faster.

I was in nursing school and doing my clinical rotation through the ER when this young girl came in. She said that she was pregnant and that she had a bladder infection because she had cramps and every time she went voided she was bleeding. We ran a pregnancy test on her which was negative. She was menstruating. The nurses in the ER told me that they get that a lot.

The hospital in my town was very old. It was closed a couple of years ago. The man who founded the hospital died many years ago. The nurses in the hospital, that worked with him when he was alive, say that he always did his rounds late at night. After he died and up until the hospital was closed, the night nurses could still hear his footsteps in the hallways and that doors to empty rooms would close and open and the TVs would turn on. They said that they would have to go around at night and turn off the TVs. I work in a nursing home now and about 6 months ago one of the rt's died. Her room mate was totally blind. Right before this lady died the woman in the other bed yelled out for someone to leave the room. She said that she saw a man in black come in the room. Right after that is when her room mate died.

I graduated in 1999 from Hartsville Career Center as an LPN. It is a one year program. I learned to be a CNA. I learned to be an LPN when I got my nursing job. The experienced nurses in the facility where I work taught me how to be a nurse.

Where I work I eat at the nurses station. I work 2nd and 3rd shifts. 1st shift does not eat at the nurses station, probably because there are too many people at the desk and your food could be talked over or spilled. We have had meetings where they are trying to have a policy about not eating at the desk mainly because our food is being contaminated when we eat around places where patient care is given, which makes sense, but when you are the only nurse you can't leave the floor to eat, but you can't tell management that. Who is going to answer the call light and listen out for anything going on? If there are 2 nurses on duty, which is very rare, then we can go eat in the dining room, which is cold and lonely and who wants to eat in those conditions? Management needs to work the floor for 1 or 2 days before they make judgement calls. Sometimes they give us rules that are just ridiculous and sometimes impossible to live by.