darnold38

I'm going to concur with previous responses and say MYOB. The first thing that popped into my mind was that a person can get FMLA approval for mental health issues as well as physical issues. Not all reasons would be visible to others through casual observation.

I'd have to concur with DavidFR. I worked in a hospital in a major city and ran into Spanish, Asian, Russian and Arabic language barriers. Too many to learn fluently. Besides which, knowing the language does NOT mean one knows the culture. Further, I believe the OP was coming from the point of gathering information, perhaps to better the services her nonprofit provides because she did say she's involved with a "community nonprofit focused on language access". Her "learning the language(s)” is not going to help that nonprofit.

If all the child can do is 10 minutes of exercise it sounds like the asthma isn't controlled or it's exercise induced which would require albuterol before exercise. Has the child been followed up with their PCP or asthma specialist? With this strict restriction they should've been. I'd continue trying to contact their PCP and/or asthma specialist if for no other reason than to alert them to all these goings on and to get clarification. And yes this parent seems to be doctor shopping. I'm surprised the second note doesn't mention temperature.

I'm not sure how this is any different than a new nurse starting to work in a hospital. I believe I got 4 weeks of training then on the floor with a preceptor I think for another 4 as a new nurse. Can someone explain how these 2 circumstances (new nurse vs seasoned nurse coming back after years) would be different. I'm not being snarky, I truly would like to know.

My experience is a little different. I did home care for 4 years. I'd still be doing that but a back injury and subsequent surgery pretty much stopped that. I worked 7 on/7 off, on call, nights. I did mostly admissions and would get calls for mostly urinary catheter or other tubing malfunctions and wound vacs. I loved it. Did you have a mentor or preceptor? I had one for the first 4 weeks during the day and then another 2 weeks at night. They gave me a lot of tips and tricks on how to proceed. If you don't feel comfortable maybe you could ask for more training? Working at night with no one in the office was a challenge only a few times, when supervisors couldn't be reached. I always had my mentor as a back up to call if I had a question. But once I got the hang of it I didn't make a lot of calls for help. The charting could be a little rough but you can actually get through a lot of it while you're asking questions of the patient as most of the answers are just clicking a box. After a while you'll remember where those boxes are and you get quicker. Your written note can wait til later. My office always tried to assign cases so that the nurses were seeing patients in their own "territory" so that they weren't all traveling here, there and everywhere. That didn't work for me because with emergencies, you don't have a set territory and I was traveling all over the map. But driving at night, no traffic, was great. I think giving it a little more time and maybe asking for more training might be helpful in seeing if you truly don't like it or maybe you'd find that you absolutely love it. Like I said, I loved it but I came from an Obs/tele floor in an inner city trauma hospital with 7:1 ratio and management talking about 8:1 ratio when I left. One on one in home health was a dream for me. Good luck to you!

I graduated nursing school when I was 59 in 2014 so not that long ago and culture in hospitals was pretty much the same as now. It was a second career after being downsized from a legal secretary/paralegal/office manager. My first job was in an inner city trauma hospital. I was on the observation/tele unit which was almost as bad as the ER there but patients had an assigned nurse (7 per nurse...short staffing and seriously, HUGE turnover). I started my 12 hour shift at 7p and didn't sit down, bathroom or otherwise, until 2a, every shift. It was horrible but I actually stuck it out for 4 years. Then I moved to home health. What a joy to deal with one patient at a time. I stayed there for 4 years before having to retire due to back injury/surgery. If I had to it do over, knowing what I know now, I probably wouldn't have taken that obs job but I will tell you I learned a LOT there that helped me in home health.

Yes I know I was completely taken advantage of. But the pay was decent at the beginning and I did like the 7 on 7 off. But after all the additional tasks they piled on I talked to them and wanted to cut back to strictly on call again and I was willing to take a pay cut, a pretty drastic cut. They agreed at first then covid hit and they were all like we need you doing visits. I stayed until end of 2021. Thankfully, but not really, my back got worse and I went on FMLA, then a medical leave through 2022, surgery then pretty much disability and retirement. I'm sure they were not able to find someone as gullible as me because when I was looking for remote later they popped up with a completely reworked schedule, with less work than I was doing at the end but at a very good pay rate, more than I was making. They had it listed as a remote position. ? Anyway, I hope your position works out for you and it sounds like it is. It sounds like a dream.

Congrats on your perfect fit wfh job! Now this was the type of job I was looking for. I spent 4 years at a home health company after hours on call, 7 days on, 7 days off. When I started it was 5p to 8a. It was supposed to be mainly phone on, on call and if I had a call at night and it wasn't ER material or patient couldn't be helped by phone, I would go to their home, and believe me 9 times out of 10 it was "I need you to come" and when I got there it could've been done over the phone. This usually happen about 2-3 times a week. Sometimes I'd get calls at like 6p to do wound care. Yeah they were slick, didn't want to call during the day so waited for the "night nurse" to do it. ??‍♀️ But some weeks, very few, I had no calls. Then the company said I had to start doing an admission at the start of my shift so I was out of the house every day (they said they couldn't see paying me to sit at home even though that's what they hired me to do). Next they had me starting at 3p (with no change in pay ?) and doing 2 admissions at the start of my shift and some days it was regular/follow up visits "that didn't get completed during the day" ? sometimes up to 4 visits plus my daily admission. Quite a few times I didn't get home til after 1a. A few times, well more than a few, calls would come in at 7:45a. One time I did go and didn't get out of there til 10a plus an hour drive home. Other times I told them they'd have to wait for day shift. After 4 years of this I retired due to back injury/surgery/back surgery failure. The home care work should not have been my experience but with the population I was working with, most kind of used the ER as a primary care and that then extended to me, they wouldn't take my advice/help over the phone, wouldn't go to the ER even though a few times I did send them to the hospital, they wanted me there. Once I spent about 2 hours trying to get family members to take the mom to the ER because her freaking foot was very dark, no pulse, and I told them it was likely a blood clot! Turns out it was. This was before Covid. I once had a lady call me like midnight or 1a for her mom (in her 80s) that was screaming in pain. She had cancer and was on 3 different pain meds. I told her to take her mom to the hospital as nurses don't carry drugs. She kept refusing, I had to go. Come to find out she was withholding her morphine because she supposedly didn't want to get her mom addicted. ? She kept saying her mom only quieted when she rubbed her back. I told her she needed to follow doctors orders regarding her mom's meds and giver her the meds. She was supposed to be on a set schedule not PRN. Her mom started screaming in pain, daughter didn't move to rub her back. I rubbed her back and held her hand and told the daughter to give her mom her meds. She was still hemming and hawing. I told her listen I'm not going to sit here rubbing your mom's back all night because you won't give her the meds, I'm calling 911 to take her to the hospital. She was pissed and gave her the meds, mom dozed off and I left. That was the type of calls I had to go on. I believe she called the office the next day and complained. Thank goodness I put a VERY detailed note in her chart. I'm so glad I don't work there any more. Anyway, thanks for listening/reading. And OMG sorry for the length. Now on to indeed to find my perfect wfh job. ☺️ And congrats again!

LOL absolutely! Laying on the couch all day watching Netflix IS a plan. ?

I had a similar experience in 2018. Relatively new manager key upping our assignments from 6/1 to 7/1 and was talking 8/1 patients on a telemetry floor. Plus we had quite a few agency nurses who weren't a lot of help. We all complained. She said "I'll get rid of all of you and staff entirely with agency.” That was my cue, my thought being "have at it then". I left shortly thereafter for home care which I absolutely loved. Haven't looked back.

Agree 100%. This was my first thought too...making a move. My second thought, because I'm a petty Betty, was answer phone, say no can do, I have a hair appointment. LOL. I don't advise that but yeah, new managers can be a trip. This one sounds as if SHE thinks her employees owe her 24/7 availability and that is ridiculous. OP has a life and, yes, hair does count.

I was just thinking the same. I probably would've given the same response as the previous responder. This almost sounds like a homework problem to me too. However I have run across more than a few snarky CNAs in my time so...

I only knew of this case in passing so didn't have an opinion. After reading this article it sure seems as if she was railroaded. They did some casual eyeballing, thought "how can this be a coincidence", threw together shoddy statistics and went after her. What worked against her: 1) The prosecution "expert" Evans sounds like a nut job; 2) the notion that they didn't want the NHS to look bad to anyone even though staffing was low, they didn't have needed equipment and it sounds like the place was in chaos; 3) it's looks like her side didn't have or didn't present needed evidence; 4) the courts forbade anything that would diminish the legal system's integrity in people's eyes during the trial and even after the trial was over. This last point really looks as if she was railroaded and the courts are working to keep it that way. Nobody can talk about it, even as far away as California? So if she is innocent, and I believe she is, just from the facts presented in the article, digging for the truth and presenting it to a court is now undermining that court's integrity? It certainly resembles some cop shows where they know the person they have isn't guilty but they have no other suspects so they just run with it. I'm sure that sort of thing is done in real life too, we just don't know how to what extent. What a giant farce. I will be researching this case more.

Thank you! Adults' conditions can change in seconds. I have been a witness to it. I can't believe babies, especially in an ICU, would be any different. This doc is one I'm thankful is not mine. Sounds like he has no clue.

I dare say many MANY hospitals/facilities have their nurses and even CNAs "attached" to phones or pagers so physically finding them isn't necessary, just dial the phone. But on the off chance that they left their phone somewhere, the suggestion of escalating to supervisor or charge was perfect.

I think risk management, the doctors and the nurse involved need training on the difference between miscarriage and abortion. I think all involved were being very obtuse. A woman has a miscarriage and she's arrested?? What was she supposed to do to stop the miscarriage, slap her legs together and stand on her head? I swear, health care today is becoming a bigger joke by the day.

Brandy, I hear you about the pain. I couldn't stand straight, had to lean forward to walk, had to start using a walker and a tub chair. Couldn't sit/stand/walk for more than 5-10 minutes. Laying down hurt too. Pain meds (magnesium, lidocaine patches, any number of muscle rubs/sprays, TENS machine, PT, Tylenol, naproxen, excedrin, tramadol [what a joke that was], Tylenol 3 and Percocet 5s) didn't help either. My pain was always at an 8/10 with Percocets, then an hour later was back at 10/10. All they did was get me addicted so after the surgery I had to wean myself off, the pain doc was no help even after I printed CDC and FDA guidelines for weaning which I gave to him and tried to explain to him which he just tossed aside. But interestingly I just read an article for a study about opioids not helping back and neck pain and being no better than placebo. And then the docs wonder why we say the meds aren't helping ? and then treat us like drug addicts ? https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(23)00404-X/fulltext I'm working at PT too now and making slow progress but still have "irritating" pins and needles and numbness in my butt, back of thighs, legs and feet. It's irritating but the pain is so much better than prior to the surgery, most says at a 1 or 2/10. But some days it's really irritating and I feel so agitated. I will say though, a word of warning to any and all nurses out there going through something similar: DO NOT think you are indispensable! I thought that. "I can't stop to have surgery, I'll be off for at least 6 weeks". So I got worse. I finally was off on FMLA, then disability for an entire year, let alone 6 weeks! If I had done the surgery even a year earlier I think I would be somewhat better now. As it is, I'm not able to do most of what I used to do. At least I don't have the horrible pain anymore though. ??‍♀️ We need to take care of ourselves. Lesson learned.

OP: Girl, 58? They'll hire you. ? I didn't even graduate with my Associates in Nursing til I was 60! Second career. Eight years later I'm technically disabled due to back problems that progressed requiring surgery which I had last year. Now, since I waited so doggone long for the surgery, I have residual numbness/tingling in my feet/legs requiring a cane for me to feel safe. I can walk short distances without it though. None of this is conducive to nursing. Since I too am too poor to quit working (SS benefits and the small pension I get from my ex are just not enough) I started looking for remote work but was not having luck in traditional nursing case management job listings even after 3 years bedside nursing and 4 years in home health. I started looking in other areas, transcription for medical and/or legal, which was my first career, customer service, etc. I finally found a position, 100% remote, doing medical record summaries for a law office. They actually liked my 7 years of nursing vs the 13+ years of legal secretarial experience I had. I'm making almost as much doing that as I did nursing. I also have a paralegal associates degree but never used it, as I took my first nursing job instead, but I always wanted to do something using both my legal and nursing experiences. Oh, and I had a zoom interview for the remote position and went to the office for 1/2 day of training. They all saw my 68 year old face/body with no problems, of course most of the people I met were not youngsters either LOL. My suggestion to you is to look at your strengths, your passions, your experiences and either go in a new direction or meld nursing with your passions to find a position that you like. I'll bet during the application/interview process, they won't even think of your age. Best of luck to you.

Passed the NCLEX at age 61, got hired for my first nursing position a few months later on a busy inner city observation unit and am still there 18 months later. Also attending online RN to BSN classes and have 4 classes until completion. Am contemplating switching to an RN to MSN program instead. I'll be 63 this October. It's never too late!

Oh boy. I'm just coming on to the end of my first year as an RN. I keep telling myself "it'll get better, it has to get better" and you're telling me after 6 years it's not? I'm thinking I should get out while i can. So sad.

your last statement said it all and was pretty close to my initial thought..."boy I wish, at my job, I had time to stop and smell the roses, or in this case, the babies"

your last statement said it all and was pretty close to my initial thought..."boy I wish, at my job, I had time to stop and smell the roses, or in this case, the babies"

This may be ot to op but I can only say I agree with ALL the responses touching on "paying dues", gradually taking on more serious patients etc. it's been the opposite for me and I absolutely hate it! I'm on a very busy observation floor for the last 10 months, my first RN job, and there has been no "gradual" build up whatsoever. I've had high acquity cases since day one, cases that shouldn't be on our floor but were sent there because there were no beds in ICU or a regular floor that would be better equipped to care for the patients. Let me tell you, I'm learning a lot but this "trial by fire", while regularly caring for 6-7 patients is burning me out. I can't imagine being a new nurse and working in a NICU under the same conditions. My only advice would be to be thankful you're on your dream unit at all, as a new nurse, and to soak up all the new knowledge you can, at a pace (forced though it may seem to you) that is good for you as a new nurse AS WELL AS for the babies you're caring for. In the long run I'm sure it'll be more of a benefit to all concerned.