Double Dunker

I'm probably just annoyed because this hits entirely too close to home...but to talk in your introduction about having a house fire or losing a loved one and then in your article talk about your car overheating or your iPhone becoming outdated, is rather insulting to those of us who have endured real loss. In the last 16 months, I did endure a house fire in which my house was stripped down to the studs, and become a widow when my husband unexpectedly collapsed in my kitchen from and MI and we never got him back.

I guess I'm not seeing what the big deal is. You have to use hand sanitizer between patients anyway. It's just gloves. I know a lot of nurses that use gloves when giving all meds, regardless of isolation status. Many patients prefer it. I put on gloves every time, and yes I work in the hospital.

What are you interested in? If you want to circulate, you should take that job. In my city, it's hard to get into the OR, and the residency programs won't take you if you have more than 2 years of experience in any area of nursing. And don't underestimate the beauty of no nights, weekends, holidays, or call. That's dreamy. Also to consider, that day/night variable is a crock. It's HARD to switch back and forth. Even though you might do other non-nurse things on your opposite shift, doing nurse things when your body isn't accustomed to having to think that hard is tough stuff.

I'm a float nurse, and as such don't accumulate PTO despite being full time and benefitted. But the pay is awesome.

I once had a family member who was related to the patient by marriage, who also happened to be the chief of surgery at our sister hospital. Said chief told me he wanted me to put in an order for a bunch of labs. Nope. That's not how this works.

Aren't most of the hospital employees required to have BLS certification? If so, the assumption would be those staff members in the room at the time of arrest would begin CPR, so it is important to know. My facility doesn't use armbands, or anything else for that matter. I wish we would.

My hospital is always short on patient care techs at night. My hospital also has unit secretaries at night, but I don't know how common that is.

Search for heparin errors in the NICU. Lots of devastating errors to read about.

We are seeing a lot more creative pain management plans because of the nation wide shortage of narcs, and because the DEA is cutting the production of prescription narcs.

Do you have a unit educator you ask about charting?

It seems no matter where I am (I float between floors and hospitals) thete's always animosity between day and night shifts. It's unfortunate many can't see that each shift has its own unique stressors. I wonder if you see it more due to working mid shift. Good for you for reporting patient safety issues. I'm saddened your experience and expertise are not valued and instead you were subjected to practical jokes.

This isn't really what you asked, but rather a medication lesson learned the hard way! If a patient is receiving meds through a g-tube or NG tube, make sure it's okay to crush the med or open the capsule. Dilute with plenty of warm water! (One place I worked required sterile water, which I couldn't warm, which I hated). And flush well after administering. Unclogging tubes is such a pain.

I would have told the family member the patient indicated she was finished with her meal. She has no food restrictions (or outline what restrictions she did have) so feel free to offer her something.

Interestingly enough, my facility is studying whether these IV starts are more likely to infiltrate than other types. Apparently the ICU nurses were noticing a trend and so now we chart which type of IV start kit we use (some floors have alternatives) to try and track it.

Anybody ever heard of this? I'm wondering how it's legal - whose prescribing the toradol and the "zolfran"? Mojo Hydration