Psychtrish39

I was working in a PCU and a man was having a STEMI and I was trying to IV push him morphine and he promptly threw up all over me and my scrubs. It made the CNA start gagging and she had to run up to the surgery floor and get me some surgical scrubs because its not like I could leave and change clothes. I asked the patient later in the shift if he felt better he just grinned. LOL I have often wondered if he did it on purpose he had some issues with a lot of the nurses. Since then I keep myself out of the line of fire if it can be helped. Never have gotten hosed like that again though.

Exactly.

I agree in my area of the Midwest experienced nurses cant land a job in hospitals but new grads can but local hospital systems have a steady supply from local colleges so there is a shortage of experienced RNs but that is because hospitals here dont want to pay for experience .

I would tell someone like that to well you know for saying that. I would let them have it. Yes I am obese. Got RAI for Graves disease gained 25 lbs. That is utter BS.

Yep that really helps . So does a tiny bit of vicks under the nose.

Gosh I am only MDS coordinator in a 100 bed facility and our census usually is 92 and about 5-10 Medicare A. My facility is budgeted for a half time but they can't find another MDS coordinator.

Big AL you are right and my son was bipolar and committed suicide. The hardest thing for me is as his Mom I helped so many people find the light but couldn't help my own son. The disease won. He was just newly diagnosed when it happened. I appreciate how you put it.

Amen I am an MDS coordinator and basically this is what our 2 hour stand-up consists of.

In the state I practice in its 30 days before a LTC can formally discharge a patient.

I am white and middle aged recently moved back to the Midwest and yes those racist attitudes still exist in some areas of this country. . I want to change jobs because I for one don't think that way and have lived other places where it was not so accepted and flagrant . Please find another job if it gets too much for you .A year would be good but not at the expense of your mental health and it would be so hard if not impossible to grow as a nurse in that environment .I am very sorry you are experiencing this.

Amen I dont care for this post all the concealed carry people dont ever change any violent outcome also do we need guns carried in the hospital by staff that could be taken away from them. ? Dont think so .

VivaLasViejas, I don't think its bad you will be a state surveyor unlike some you have floor experience and you will know what the nurses in LTC are up against and also state gets onto the management at places not the nurses though the nurses do the best they can. I think you will be an excellent surveyor. Congratulations.

I didn't see the show but from prior posters and also as a person with depression as well as a psychiatric nurse he did his viewers a disservice by advocating that antidepressants are over prescribed maybe they are or maybe they are not but they save lives and they have saved mine where I can function better as a nurse and have a better quality of life. Where does he get off judging an area not his domain. Cardiologists over prescribe drugs and treatments sometimes but there may be a family or person that hears that bunk and quit taking their medications because some TV doc said so. He should tend to what he knows. I have never cared for him since he had the bimbo looking nurse on his show for a segment. It is insulting for a physician to do so and if a physician did that in any other area or environment they would be in deep dodo. Just my 2 cents.

I am an oversight nurse at a boarding home for chronically mentally ill residents who are able to do ADLS, take medications and do their own blood sugars etc. Part of my job is to go assess a resident that is in acute care for a physical illness to come back to our level of care. That being said we had a geriatric age resident who has not rebounded since having pneumonia in January and was readmitted to acute care for possible sepsis due to a bursa draining done by a local ER . He was diverted to another local hospital and because at the end of his inpatient stay he could walk 200 feet he was not eligible for rehab in a LTC for a few weeks. Case manager at hospital stated this was due to Medicare regulations. I went and did a head to toe assessment walked with him and made sure he could do his ADLs for himself as he must to come back to us. i assessed him and seen that he was at his baseline that he was at before admission to acute care. Well the next day the hospital discharged him . The administrator my boss called me saying he had SOB was sweating and was very weak after he was brought back to the facility. These s/s were not apparent when he was assessed by me a day prior or I would not have said he was strong enough to come home. He returned to the facility with these symptoms and I was asked to transport him via my own automobile back to the ER because a social worker at the hospital said they would take him back.. ( that is a minor miracle in itself). I stated to my boss I did not feel it was safe to transport a person with SOB and sweating and weakness in a privately owned vehicle and I felt an ambulance should be called in case he was having a stroke or pulmonary embolism or a myocardial infarction and I refused to do so because I felt it was not safe for him when this hospital is 20 miles away and I know if he had quit breathing on the way i could not have saved him and I would have been liable and my license in danger. After I stated this they were going to send him paratransit then got the activities director to take him in her car. She agreed to do so and the resident was able to return to the hospital with no problem and is now a resident at a LTC which i had been advocating for a while.Here is the kicker and the basis of my question and what I did in response. I wonder did I do the right thing as a nurse or did I fail my patient in some way. ? I of course have been getting the cold shoulder from staff but I feel it was Russian roulette what they pulled . I guess they felt because his condition changed from my prior assessment it was my responsiblity to take him back because I made a mistake well I know from years of working LTC the geriatric age patient can go downhill within hours just like children do. Also I have a license that if he died it would be on me as well as it not being the appropriate safe thing for this resident he deserved better care than that. Any thoughts or comments ?

scary to think about... gonna double check LOL gave me a laugh though...

@edmia You are correct Larry did not say those things the persons mentioned above did and yes it a deplorable attitude in a manager or even a human being sounds like stuff you see posted on Yahoo news comments or the other news websites when people think they can say anything because they are behind a computer. If a heavy person or a smoker can pass a physical why not hire them and really you are not supposed to ask about someone's children in an interview and everyone who has children has to take them to the doctor occasionally its called being a human being and having a life outside what your employer has any right to talk about. I was really suprised to see a fellow healthcare peer say stuff like that. Rather heartless and I wouldnt be a good hiring manager I look at people as people not liabilities or assets but I dont do the business side of healthcare nor would I it would suck the soul out of me.

Personally as a nurse I have had many interviews with those structured type questions. I have had my mind go blank at times but I recovered however in my heart I dont think answering hypothetical questions prove whether you are a good nurse and skilled or not. I think they are a cop out instead of the interviewers asking why do you want this job and what can you offer us as an employee and thats another thing you are never told as the interviewee that you are being interviewed by mulitiple people until you get to the interview and then that is dropped on you some people don't do well in groups of interviewers that way. I think a good interview to a hiring manager is when a person can answer their questions how they want to hear them. I have been asked in interviews because I have a BSN why I went on to obtain it when the person interviewing me has an ADN needless to say I answered to keep myself competitive in the field and guess what every job where the hiring manager or DNS asked that particular question I never got the position. Just my 2 cents on this topic.

@ Netglow... must have in those days but now just a tired monkey covered up at all times LOL....

LOL you gave me my first laugh of the day. You know I know you were embarrassed but you causing those family members to smile in their time of grief was probably good. I know I did something similar once I had white scrub pants and what i thought were nude colored underwear and I looked in the mirror. Went to work did my shift my male friend came over and he said do you know you can see the outline of your panties through your scrubs.. I was beet red in the face now I know why the maintenance guys kept being friendly LOL... I threw those scrub pants away and have never wore white again ...

I am currently going through a legal issue that I am paying restitution and doing community service for and the agreement with the judge if I do this at the end it will not result in being on my criminal record. That being said in my state I did contact the DOH which oversees nurses and credentialing and discipiline and I was told because it would not result in a conviction I did not have to report it to them. Even if I had been convicted and this matter is of a non nursing related personal issue I would still get due process and appear before the board before any documentation would be added to my RN license. However this was told to me by the department chair after an underling in the state system told me I had to give them all paperwork on the matter and I told them I was speaking to my lawyer which told me to speak to the top person and I emailed her and she called me personally. I would first find out if your due process rights were violated meaning did they notify you to appear before and you did not or if they never contacted you and added that . it may be illegal depends on your state. When I had this legal trouble the first thing I thought of was my license and what I needed to do to protect it . I hope my story helps you in some way. I would contact an attorney.

You go JBMommy. You have a great attitude and I would be honored for you to be a co-worker of mine. Best of luck to you and LTC is great . It and psych are my true loves. One clinical area psychiatry helps with the LTC side. Keep on keeping on .

NewBoy, I am an experienced psych nurse and I have lead an acute care team. You are the team lead and it is your nursing judgement and the physician's order who decides who is IMed. While I have always taken into account what a MHT has shared with me that punitive lets teach them not to fight does not belong on a adult psych unit that doesnt even fly in corrections anymore at least in the state where I live in. I am a big believer in an injection as only a last resort, talking and oral PRNs work better. I only have went to the IM when a patient couldn't calm and were actively trying to hurt a peer, a staff member or me or another nurse. Follow your gut and your unit protocols and if you are in fact a new nurse I can't tell just guessing by your name you will have to show your coworkers you are in control of the floor. Its your critical thinking skills is why you are team lead and your license is why you get to call the shots literately. Hang in there and the fact you don't go right to the injections will allow trust and a relationship to develop between you and your patients. Good luck sounds like you are a born psych nurse...

Everything all prior posters said ... wonderful points and most of see the person behind the diagnosis . I work with 38 residents dealing with schizophrenia and not a darn one of them are the same they all have different strengths and weaknesses and have great insight into themselves and others many times. Dont be afraid to ask coworkers because many of them will have known the patients for years. That helped me the most when I first started in psych you will learn things every day. I wish you Godspeed because it takes a special nurse to be a psych nurse so be proud I have always been proud to work with the mentally ill because they are stigmatized and need a medical professional's advocacy for them. Take care of yourself as well if you need time off to decompress take it as you can because psych is emotionally fulfilling but also emotionally draining. Good luck to you and glad to see a new nurse join the ranks in the psych field. Good luck to you.

Xoemmyloux, I am afraid of that too. Its time for me to move to another state as soon as I can if these proposed rules become rules of law under the RCW and WACs in this state. I just voted in the election and did not see any legislation put to a vote about this . Perhaps it was attached to the home care aide program in this state . This is where people must be certified home care workers with background checks and pass a testing exam both written and skills test for a certification that cost $ 125 to test for and for workers who will not make much over minimum wage here. I think this MA certification is along the same lines its a money maker for this state. I think certification and background checks are good however the testing fees and how the DOH is running over home care aides and RNs is a little crazy.

I enjoy working the holidays for the extra money of course but when I was a new nurse I had just went through a divorce and my ex had my kids that year at Christmas. I would have had a miserable day if I had been home alone so I worked it and I found that we had a little Christmas dinner in the break room on the unit and it made a sad day for me that year more bearable. My children at the time were almost 18 and now they are all out on their own and sometimes I take it off but sometimes I work it so other coworkers can have time with their little ones... and that cartoon is also true if you arent with your family of origin hehe there can not be any drama.