LoriAlabamaRN

As an RN on a child psych unit, I have to agree with the manipulation bit- don't ever take a patient's word for it! And keep a close eye on your pens, notebooks, paper clips, even staples. I have had patients who swallow pens, cut themselves with staples, pierced their tongue with a paper clip, etc... you wouldn't believe it.

At my inpatient child psych facility, we search all patients upon admission and after any outing, they have to go to the searchroom with an MHT, remove their clothes and put on a hosiptal gown, their clothes are searched and wanded as are their bodies. Then they carry their clothes back to their room and change back into them there.

It is Advair, and you pull the little lever down (sorta works like those old viewfinder levers) and have the patient put their lips around the mouthpiece and inhale the measured dose of powder that the lever releases. Hope this helps!

What a relief! I am so glad that you were vindicated in this manner. Be careful about the rumors that have no doubt begun swirling around, it may take a while for them to die down. I would insist that my supervisor notify my coworkers of the discovery if she has not done so already...

I am so sorry to hear what you are going through! About two years ago, we had a situation where thirteen Percs went missing, turns out (after an exhaustive search) that they were accidentally thrown in the trash, the nurse in question actually pawed through the garbage until she found the bag from the nurse's station and there they were. So many things can happen when we try to do fifty things at once...

Well, tonight the four of us women started discussing cramps and our remedies (sort of forgetting our guy tech hanging out nearby) until he piped up "Well, MY remedy for menstrual cramps is to chew squash!" We all burst out laughing, but also got reminded about the guy in the room... maybe try humor?

As an RN who worked as a tech on an ortho floor during nursing school, I did the same thing. Felt horrible, got a huge guilt trip from all the nurses who clucked about what a horrible nurse I was gonna be if I couldn't even get THIS right. Never mind that I had 22 patients and no nurses were at the station for me to doublecheck with. I felt like crap. Especially since they had to delay the man's surgery because of me. The nurses made sure they told the MD that I was the one, and encouraged him to chew me out in person because I needed to know the consequences of my actions if I was going to be a nurse. Of course, he obliged. You know what? It has NEVER happened again. I learned a valuable lesson, took that out of the experience and ignored the young-eaters. I'd advise you to do the same thing. Sounds like you were understaffed and overwhelmed. Just learn from it, and let it go!!!

um... I actually did this once. :chair: Before everyone gets mad at me, let me explain. I was working at the hospital as a CNA while in nursing school, and injured my back near the end of my shift when a large patient passed out while I was walking him to the bathroom. I couldn't straighten up, so as per policy I went down to the ER. I would not accept anything stronger than a shot of Toradol, since I know from experience that Toradol works much better for my pain than morphine or demerol, and since it is an NSAID it doesn't make me loopy. After the shot had taken effect and I was discharged, the nurse told me that I was not allowed to drive myself home. I had NOONE else to get me, and all I had been given was one shot of Toradol. So I told her that my husband was already in the waiting room, and I left and drove home. If I had taken ANY narcotic, I never would have done that. However, I was single and had lived in the area for about five months so I literally had noone to call. I had been given IM Toradol on numerous other occasions so I knew that it would have no effect on me as far as impairment. Don't hate me!!!

I truly feel your pain. A month ago, I was fired from a job that I thought at the time was my dream job. Check for my other posts and read the thread... I turned to this board fr support just as you are now, and they helped me more than I can describe. I don't know if you are religious, but it helped me to turn my problems over to God and ask Him to direct me to where He intends me to be. When I began canvassing for new opportunities, I was hired on at an inpatient child's psych facility, making more than two dollars an hour more than I was at the job I lost, and I am in orientation now. I love it. Even though a month ago I would probably have cut off a finger to be allowed back at my old job, now I would not return if they offered me ten dollars more an hour. The support from this board gave me the confidence in myself to find a BETTER job. I know you are scared right now because of the uncertainty you face. Please try to remember that everything happens for a reason. Perhaps Pediatrics is not where you are meant to be. This is most probably a blessing in disguise, for something better awaits you. Please feel free to PM me anytime.

At the first job I took after nursing school, I was an RN on the 11-7 shift at a physical rehab facility. One of the 3-11 RNs was OCD (literally, in fact she would cite her OCD as a "disability" and use the ADA to justify the special treatment she demanded.) She was actually a BSN but used to brag that it took her 11 years to get her degree. She thought it proved what determination she had. Anyway, she used to stay until 5am OR LATER (some mornings she would still be there when I left at 7:30am) because she claimed she had to read each patient's chart cover to cover for spelling errors before she could chart. She typically would only see each patient one time per shift (to give them their medicine). She refused to cut her fingernails, so they were two to three inches long, yellowed, and dirty-looking. We were allowed to wear either white or burgundy scrubs, she wore an old-fashioned button-up white nurse's dress every day, about two sizes too small so the buttons strained; opaque white stockings, and clunky white patent-leather shoes. Her hair was always in a mounded up beehive-like hairdo with a NURSE'S CAP perched on the front of it. Another weird compulsion- on many documents, nurses have to initial as documentation that they have done something- on MARs, on bandages they apply, etc. Well, this wacko would ONLY write out her full name, followed by "RN, BSN." And her name was LONG. For discretion purposes, I will call her Crazyjanedoe Crazylynn McLooneynurse. That is a fair approximation of the length of her name. Well, she would NEVER write her initials, only her entire name. Even on dressing changes. While the rest of us would, for example, do a dressing change and write "AB 1/23 1700" She would insist on writing "Crazyjanedoe Crazylynn McLooneynurse RN, BSN 1/23 100" on each new dressing. For example, if a patient had a total knee replacement, they would typically have one long incision (dressed with a long strip of gauze) and two or three tiny incisions from drains which we'd dress with one 2x2 over each. Well, this clown would put a long enough dressing over EACH so that she could write her full name and credentials on each dressing even though they were half an inch from eachother. Instead of using one 2x2 to dress a drain site, she would fold two 4x4s, tape them together lengthwise, and put it over the drain site with paper tape simply so she could write out her full name and credentials. Instead of a 2-inch long dressing over the drain site, hers would be about ten inches long. It wasn't just her obsessive-compulsive behavior that scared me, though. If she didn't know the answer to a question, she would simply make one up. For instance, we had one patient who was stage 4 lung and liver cancer and was deemed beyond treatment. He was scheduled to go into Hospice care once his hepatic surgery incision healed. Anyway, at this time Lunesta was a fairly new sleep aid. This man's doctor had prescribed it for him. His wife was very involved with his care, and asked McLooneynurse what Lunesta was for. Rather than telling them she did not know but she would look it up, she told the patient and his wife that Lunesta was a brand new cancer drug that worked miracles on many cancer patients. ***?!?!? Next thing you know, this patient's wife is hysterical, calling the doctor, demanding to know why she was told her that her husband had no chance of survival and they hadn't told her of this new miracle drug Lunesta!!! Administration tried several times to get rid of her, but each time this lady claimed immunity under the ADA act and insisted that we were required by law to make certain allowances for her "disability." Apparently about six months after I quit, they found a way to fire her because she put in an application at the nursing home I worked at last. I flat out told the DON that if they hired her, I would quit immediately. She didn't get the job... thank goodness. I will never work with her again.

At my school we had to buy our own Scantrons. They were only a quarter at the bookstore, but if you came to class without one you had to buy one from the teacher for FIVE BUCKS. I always thought something was weird about that. I mean, why not provide scantrons when you figure out how much we have to pay for tuition???

Yup... anything crunchy... even a packet of dehydrated just-add-water vegetarian chili mix straight out of the packet... um... not that I would know anything about this either...

Years ago when I worked in surgery, we had four second-floor OR suites that were not used during the weekend (they were used for plastic surgeries and eye surgeries during the week) and the rest of the suites were on the first floor. One Monday when a nurse went into a storage room on the second floor, she found seven empty beer cans, the remains of two joints, a plastic bag with weed residue, and two condom wrappers! SOMEONE was having a little party up there apparently! Unfortunately, since the storage room was outside the suites, there were no cameras recording the area.

Only FIRED??? How about arrested and stripped of her license???

An LPN I worked with at my last job called me into a room where a LOL had just gotten up without calling, tried to walk to the bathroom and fallen. Her bed was soaked with urine, and thie LPN tells me "Look how soaked this bed is!" as she wipes her UNGLOVED hand across the soaking sheet, holds her dripping palm up to show me, and then... I swear to goodness... she WIPED her hand off on her scrub pants!!! I almost passed out right then and there...

I just got back from my first day at work! Everything went SO well. The kids were great to work with. I even got to take part in two takedowns, mostly observing though. The male techs are huge, and so protective of the female staff that I don't feel afraid even of the older adolescents. I think I am going to like this facility much better than my old job... I want to again thank you all for being there for me when I needed you most...

My husband is a nurse also, and other than a few situations where a cath was ordered on a female and she requested a female nurse, there haven't been any problems.

Penny- I LOVE your quote, it made me laugh so hard because of the way it looks- as if that is what you end your posts with. "Have a nice day you foul loathsome evil twit" etc... gave me the giggles!

Hey guys, What a night last night! DH and I were trying to go to sleep (around 0200) when we heard a commotion outside, in front of our house. This is very unusual, there are only two houses on our little street and the other house is an elderly lady. Never had a noise problem before. For about fifteen minutes it sounded like someone banging on the trunk of a car. DH finally put his .45 in his waistband and stepped out on the porch. Next thing I know, I hear him say to me "There's a man down in the street!" I grabbed my jeans and my .38 and ran with him into the street. There were three young men, 16-17 years old, one face down in the road with two staggering near him. I dropped to my knees next to the boy and yelled to his friends "What's his name? What has he taken?" They both said they didn't know. The boy had his nose and mouth pressed against the road and wasn't breathing that I could tell, I turned his head to the side and he breathed, but shallowly. I called to dh to call 911, and the other two started down the road. One collapsed about ten feet away. DH monitored him while I monitored the first. Totally unresponsive. Police and EMS arrived, and were able to get the second one mostly conscious. He started crying and told me that he had snorted and injected meth with his brother (the first one) and his friend. I happened to see the friend go past the end of the street and told one of the cops, who chased and tackled him. He was still carrying the remaining meth. The first boy was stabilized by EMS and taken to the hospital. He's indescribably lucky to be alive- if we hadn't been awake to hear the knocking, if dh hadn't looked out, if he had been facedown like that for another few minutes without being able to breathe, he would have died. And he was a young man with his whole life ahead of him! Unbelievable. His brother sobbed the whole time, telling me he needed help and he was addicted. I hope he gets help, but I have my suspicions that by now he's been released and gotten high again. So unbelievably sad...

Could you maybe provide them a letter from your healthcare provider to the effect that your health has been stabilized and he doesn't foresee any further loas?

Hi Star! I'm sorry to hear that you are going through something similar. Please feel free to pm me anytime if you need to talk or vent. When I applied at this job, they had a space on the application for why I left the previous position. I simply put "Professional Differences", and when I interviewed with the DON I sort of preempted her asking by stating that I was very interested in this job, that even though I loved working with the elderly I just missed working with children. She never asked for any further details as to why I left the last job. Don't get discouraged. If you are religious, pray for the Lord to put you where He intends you to be. Dont let your previous employers break your spirit. Let me know what happens, okay?

Yay! My new DON just called and told me I can come in at 0800 tomorrow to do the paperwork (instead of waiting until Monday) which means my first day can be Tuesday instead of Thursday. I'm so glad- that gives me two more days of work than I would have had otherwise. I'm so glad that things are working out!!!

Hi everyone, I actually SLEPT last night! Wow! First time in about two weeks that my sleep hasn't consisted of waking up in a full-blown anxiety attack every couple of hours! The world looks a whole lot brighter today, and for that I have to thank you all. There were times in the last couple of weeks where I honestly thought I was losing my mind. I think now it was sleep deprivation and not eating well. Not to mention thinking I was going to lose my house! DH has an interview tomorrow at 1330 with a different local nursing home for a full time position. We have cut every corner we could (kept this week's grocery bill to less than $20) and will continue to do so until this crisis is in the past. I just can't stop saying thank you- you guys have kept me sane!

Oh hon, noone could be expected to handle a situation like that without SOMETHING giving! That hospital should be ashamed of the working conditions. If I were you, I would look for something better! I know now from experience, something better IS out there! Much love!!! Lori

I also have been following those tips! In fact, I brought magazines to my interview for he patients. I think it bought me some brownie points! I am so excited about this new opportunity. I can't wait to get started and dig myself out of this financial hole!!!