mnj7351

For what it's worth, about the postponing part, when I switched jobs I had to give my employer at that time a 2 month notice because of the position I was in and still am. My position is/was called "weekend special" and for whatever reason we had to give 2 months notice for that position. I didn't want to leave my last job on bad terms so I abided by what I needed to abide by. I applied for my current job, but at no point did they ask for my available start date until AFTER they offered me the position. I felt bad but I told them I accepted the position but I can't start for 2 months and they had no problem with that. I think everyone is too hard up for help right now to NOT work with you.

Yep, and I made it as well. What's up??

Everything you described, I've experienced. Mixing surgery patients with covid patients, no techs, etc etc. It doesn't matter the situation, you better at least have an hourly round, no exception. This is exactly why you shouldn't have that many patients. If you can't make sure hourly rounds are made, then some better decisions need to be made by your facility. Do it sound safe to you??

1st, someone should be visibly checking on you at least once an hour, even if it's just cracking the door and peeking in. Usually nurses make a round one hour and the tech makes a round the next hour. 2, I know you're frightened. I would be as well. But to say that's incredibly irresponsible is incredibly irresponsible in itself. Times are different right now and the way we operate right now is different because it has to be. Because it's the responsible thing to do. 3rd, if you're going to have a minor surgery and wind up dead.....well damn. Me personally, I'm not going to a hospital that I already know gives their nurses 8 pts. That's despicable. Nope. Would never. That should not be allowed. It is unsafe. I don't care If they're short staffed. Your pts aren't getting the proper care when you have so many. I don't care what anyone says. However many patients, they should all have someone round every hour at the very least. I'm just going to say this too. That paragraph you wrote makes you sound like one of the more dramatic patients that I get. Just saying. You'll be fine though.

Where do you want me to start?

Just out of curiosity and me being a smidge nosey I guess...how were you able to see it?

Yes! For the love of God....just because a patient has fallen asleep doesn't mean they're pain free. When I hear that I cringe because that small minded thinking can't possibly get any more ignorant or misunderstood....uninformed...whatever reason one has to make that make sense in their mind. It's STUPID thinking for a lack of a better description. Asinine actually. A nurse will say, "that pt just called out for pain meds saying their pain is 8/10 when they were sleeping 5 minutes ago." Shut up.

I finally figured out a while back that Healthcare is NOT about the patient and keeping their best interests in mind and as healthy as medical advances allow since...it IS their HEALTH for God's sake....but about the famous red cent and how to make more and more red cents. "Ma'am, I'm sorry but your type of insurance just doesn't cover that operation that will save your life. You have to have A) and B) insurance plans plus yadda yadda yadda. I know you have 3 young children and a husband but sorry....you'll just have to sit this one out. You didn't choose the right insurance." About those advanced directives though. We probably need to discuss that since you will most likely pass soon because your insurance sucks. Dr Betty Sue gets to have the procedure though. She has the best, most costly insurance." OK that was a bit ridiculous but you get what I'm saying. I've seen patients admitted for things like a raging uti for example but their admitting dx is something way unrelated like bacterial meningitis or something off the wall like that. Yes, another ridiculous exaggeration. As long as my drift is caught. Also, It just feels like pts HAVE to be super informed about their medical conditions (which honestly they should anyway, but usually aren't) because the Dr's are hardly even doing assessments on them. A bilateral amputee is still somehow blessed with pedal pulses and the stroke pt with flaccid left side has strength to all extremities WNL. Pts care is super rushed and important things are often missed until the nurse brings it up. This is in the hospital setting anyway. Well put.

Mrs....how long have you been doing this again??

So, to me, it just seems like this must be an ongoing issue....like over and over again seeing you on your phone no matter how it is you're using it. I'm pretty sure it's every hospitals policy that their employees not be on their phone. My hospital doesn't allow it either. However, they HAVE to say that and put that out there. Why wouldn't they? To get fired...it sounds like it was a repeated issue. Either management repeatedly saw you, or coworkers repeatedly saw you. SOMEBODY repeatedly saw you and felt the same as I do about it or there's no way you would be fired for something like that. I don't work with babies so I'm dealing with completely different scenarios. My floor is so busy that I don't even have time to hit play to listen to anything and certainly too busy to pay attention to whatever is playing in my ear. I too work at night, always will, and love my job. Just being honest, I think earpods at work are unprofessional. Period. No matter what age the patient. Do I think you should worry too much about this? Well, definitely you should at least some. Simply because you GOT FIRED. Luckily because of the business we're in, you will have no problem finding another job. I just think you should look from the outside in. I don't want a nurse with earbuds taking care of my baby OR grown family. I don't. You're at work to work. Not to work and be entertained at the same time. Honestly I get your employer's decision simply because it's a business. THEIR business. You'll be fine though. You live and you learn. Hopefully you learned.

"Miserable at baseline." Brilliant.

Listen, things like this are going to come up your entire career. You literally just have to brush things like this off and not second guess yourself. You can not do anything that you don't have a Drs order for. Are some people going to give you a hard time when they don't get what they think in their minds they need? Absolutely. You can't do anything about that. All you can do is follow your Drs orders and do everything that you already stated that you did and explain to the patient everything you're doing and why. You can't pull an order out of your a$$ every time a pt (OR FAMILY) doesn't like something. This is going to happen a lot. It sounds like you're doing a good though. To be honest, if I were that Dr, there's no way in hell I would of just said, "aww...she's got tremors and she's stuttering?? Yea, sure I'll just go straight to IV Dilaudid since that's what the family requested and make her stutter turn into a slur. " That's just ridiculous. (Side note, toradol normally works very well for kidney stones even though it's non narcotic. Maybe she needed 30mg??) Family members are just scared. Sometimes family members make the whole hospital stay so much worse than it needed to be. It's hard for people to handle seeing their loved ones in pain or in anything that isn't their norm. Some people Just don't know how to handle things well. They don't appreciate the care that you are actually giving to their loved one bc they don't see past the patient who is crying and shaking. You are not God. You can't fix everything that your patients and their family members are concerned about. All you can do is monitor them and maintain their stability and call the Dr when things come up...and follow your orders. And show care and compassion obviously. Anything else is outside your scope of practice. You're doing a good job. Keep that up.