annabanana2

I would like to point out that pain is more than physical, and that just because more can be done doesn't necessarily mean the client wants it to be done. Palliative medicine is excellent (and I know this because I work in home hospice care) but it's...

Medical assistance in dying is now available in Canada and I am starting to have clients interested in it, and one that has taken advantage of it (he died last weekend). There are a number of checks and balances in place to try to ensure that folks a...

Thanks for this! I joined too. I love participating in research and it's neat to be a part of something I've read so much about.

Is it because of that typical dementia day/night reversal? Like if she sleeps during the day she won't sleep at night? I've seen that sometimes. Behaviour and mood change and it's just a mess. Is that what's going on for this lady?

The jobs you're looking for totally exist, they just require a little digging. Any hospitals in your area have an "urban medicine" unit? Or maybe a unit that specializes in working with folks with addictions, or concurrent disorders, or HIV/AIDS? Are...

I have worked in home hospice for a while now. I have never had a family ask this question, but if they did, I would probably answer honestly and say "there is no way of knowing for sure." I would be sure to tell them that I have seen many clients pa...

I feel like you put in your years of putting your head down and getting things done. Now your husband has good employment. It's your turn to take some time on YOUR career! Tell him it's his turn to be the breadwinner for a bit while you further your ...

Often when I'm just chatting with someone in a non-work setting and the topic of our occupations comes up I usually just say "I work in health care" if I don't really want to go into great depth about the details of my job. If I say "I'm a nurse" the...

Precepting is a skill just like any other, and when we start out most of us just aren't that good at it. I know I wasn't! But I learned a lot, and the second time around was much better. I'd say give her some grace, do your best to work with what you...

When I first started working at my current job a few years ago I worked with a nurse who was known to have difficulty controlling her anger with coworkers. She was even snippy and rude to clients at times. It was tolerated in the workplace because we...

I felt similarly after I finished school. I got a BA before my BSN so I'd been in university for basically seven years and transitioning away from that into full-time work felt almost too relaxing. Like, what do you mean I come home after a shift and...

When I was in nursing school my idea of luxury was maybe being able to buy cheese that wasn't in the discount bin and maybe a book once in a while. And that totally happened and it was amazing! Now most of my income has generally gone to paying off m...

Sometimes that black foam just... welds itself to the wound bed. Sucks for everyone involved especially if it's really painful. In that case I would probably add a non-adherent contact layer like Mepitel. And of course, do make sure that you've turne...

Okay, but do you get what "mandated reporter" means? It means that what you are doing right now (witnessing abuse and not reporting it) is illegal. You are breaking the law right now as we speak. Which would you rather have to explain in a future int...

If you don't envision yourself working in acute care at any point in the future, why do it now? I think the "mandatory 2 years of med-surg" is an older way of thinking and not fully applicable to the world that new grads are coming into now. I went s...

Shrug. I would've just laughed and said "well thank goodness you're not my manager then!"

Interesting fact: a study recently determined that, in folks living with severe heroin addiction, they determined that study participants largely couldn't tell the difference between medical-grade heroin and Dilaudid. More info here: Study to Assess ...

People who believe in this stuff are the same people that believe friendzones exist and that they're nice guys but women only want to date jerks. Strangely they also all seem to look like the presenter (ie. old, white, sweaty, unattractive). Weird ho...

Ha! Exactly what I was thinking! If you run into one jerk, they're likely the problem. Running into many jerks, however, means you're probably the problem.

Interesting fact I just learned recently about hemochromatosis: a treatment for it is bloodletting! Usually I think folks would donate that blood assuming they meet the system's criteria.

Nearly all of my clients smoke. Lots of them are shut-ins and get anxious when people come to visit, and smoke to calm down, so I get smoked on pretty frequently. Some folks I have a strong enough rapport with to request that they not smoke when I'm ...

I live on the west coast of Canada where, while it's not technically legal, I could smoke a joint in front of police officers and as long as I'm not causing a ruckus, nobody would bat an eye. I've never heard of anyone here being drug tested for work...

I am a home health/hospice nurse (where I live we are one and the same). I work with adults, though, not little ones, and my guys are largely mentally ill drug addicts living in marginal housing (or homeless). Like someone else said upthread, there a...

I get out on time probably 80% of the time. If I'm staying late it's not normally more than 15-30 minutes at the most. Rarely, a few times a year, I will end up staying an hour or two or more late caring for a crashing palliative client and waiting f...

This is what I use. It absorbs in really fast, doesn't leave any greasiness and even lasts through a couple of hours of handwashing. I haven't found anything I like as much!