scampi710

Thank you so much for your tenacity, professionalism, endurance, documentation and being an inspiration to all of us. CONGRATULATIONS......AND THANK YOU.

One way we RN's can stand against agencies like Group One and the vagaries of incompetent nurse managers and administrators is for those of us who are "travelers" to refuse to take any assignments in Dallas/Ft. Worth and communities that utilize "Group One". It is the only power we have since the TX BON focus is negative toward RN's.

Since "Dear Abby" is the authority on all matters, is the columnist now responsible for all the millions of spouses who will as questions when their loved one is in PACU? .... and take the responses for truth? I think so.....it will now generate more mail for the syndicated column.

Have any one of us ever felt better after a massage or a backrub? That's TT.

Everyone who has read this thread knows the truth of what is happening in hospitals. We all need to sign the petition. Thank you Tsunami Kim and Kim Sanders-Fisher. Scampi710

:balloons: Hooray....I found a wealth of information on Google....forget Yahoo...... I feel so greatly relieved that I finally found it:balloons: No longer spinning!!!

Hey Nurseboy.....Any guidelines you can give me for renal transplant care is welcome..... Articles you can direct me to? I will be assuming care for a 7 day post op renal transplant patient. I looked for information on yahoo and google, but so far no nursing care specifics. It will be a home patient, and I welcome any info you can provide. Thanks.

Hi Curlyfries......I definitely need the patient's point of view along with some solid pointers on post op care beyond ambulation, temperature, vs's. I will assume care of a 7 day post op patient. What meds, rejection signs, outputs, etc. can I expect within acceptable parameters. I am looking for all the info I can get. Thanks

Is there anyone on the forum who can help me with post op care of a renal transplant patient? The patient will be 5 to 7 days post-op when I assume care. What about 24 hour urines at this time. B/P's? Meds? Complications? Foleys? Rejection s/s. All information of any kind, including articles would be helpful. I searched Yahoo, but am not finding what I need. Thanks.

The answer is "NO". I think you handled it poorly. Laughing at a young girl who may be subjected to bestiality is hardly what I would call a professional intervention. Getting more information and facts would be better than snickering.

It is so nice to see that some ER nurses are NOT into treating the patients like "annoyances" or to be abused by rude, unempathetic staff. Yes, some people do come in with self-indulgent complaints, but they have to be sorted out with a professional non-judgemental attitude. Most people need help. They are not necessarily educated, nor do they have their docs available....the standard around here is for the PMD TO SEND THEIR NON-SCHEDULED PRIVATE PATIENTS TO THE ER. So when patients are seeking help, they don't need course, rude, sneering staff.

Welcome to nursing Nursing is not a job. It is a profession, and as such we have professional ethics, responsibilities, and standards to effect and perform quality life saving care. In our profession there are multitudinous barriers we have to overcome on a daily basis if we are to fulfill our professional standards of care. Our primary focii are our patients, their safety, required interventions, medications, and getting them through the system optimally with us maintaining professional non-judgemental standards of care. (That means no patient abuse) which is often apparent in emergency staffs. Unfortunately, the hospital systems and their "mission statements" are anything but easy to deal with. The beancounters who essentially "make policy" really have very little reality orientation or clinical expertise. They crunch numbers and write up statements that look good to the public/BOD's/and regulatory watchdog associaltions like JCHO. The REALITY as RN's is that we are understaffed, frequently work with inadequate monitoring equipment, do not have the support of our administrators when we intervene appropriately for the patient and the intervention conflicts with "policy", are rarely supported by each other when administrators step into the arena (although we do support each other in private), are required to have vast stores of anatomical, physiological and medical knowledge, work long shifts often without breaks, are condencended to by physicians/surgeons, work weekends, holidays, rarely get requested days off or requested vacation time (because "of staffing"), have huge professional liability, and are usually scapegoated if a patient is harmed, are manipulated into feeling guilty and/or inadequate if we verbalize desent regarding policies/issues by the passive/aggressive nurse management style when the nm's state "there is no reason you can't do (whatever) everyone else does", we are hardly paid a scale commessrate to our skills/knowlege (in the south anyway), and are constantly exposed to diseases which can easily incapacitate ourselves and our families as well. I believe anyone who has stayed in this profession has every right to verbalize their frustrations, inasmuch as there are no sounding boards or outlets for us. When you are a professional nurse for 10 or 15 years, you might then make an empathetic and intelligent assessment as to what we are all about. It is NOT "a job".

While I was on contract in College Station, TX. (one of my fun places to work), I worked with a traveler who had just finished an assignment in Harlingen. She described some harrowing details and said she would never go back there again. Another friend, whom I met while I was doing the Brownsville contract, said she started out at Valley Medical Center because the sign on was so great, then after a month decided it wasn't worth it and quit. She was one of the best I've ever worked with. Just be careful. :)

How totally tragic. Been an RN,BSN for 28 years, and for all of those years I have been saying that we should have hazardous duty benefits. Can't even begin to describe how much comes through the ED doors. To rubricize: one night we were overwhelmed as usual. Had a very ill ped in a surgical room. I alerted the ER Doc. He went in there immedicately, did the PE without gloves or protection, exposed to all bodily fluids, etc. A few days later labs came back HIV POSITIVE. This was in a very wealthy geographical demographic. The year was 1980. Don't even have to elaborate on what I've seen in poor regions. And yes, to everyone with whom I come in contact on a personal interaction, I stress to them that we are indeed in danger all day at work, and then can bring whatever we come in contact with to our homes, on our shoes, our scrubs, our jewelry, etc. And WHY would we want to return to nursing caps since it has already been proven that they are vectors to deadly pathogenic organisms? (From another thread).

It is paramount to speak spanish since most of the patient population is Mexican/Mexica-American. The population is primarily poor, with some extremely wealthy clients from Mexico. The classes are distinct. Rich. Poor. The patient loads are heavy. The attitude toward nurses is punitive, demeaning, and generally disrespectful until you are strong enough to stand your ground and exemplify your clinical expertise. There is little or no support from nursing administration. The situation is dire, and you would be wise to think about why they are offering $20,000 sign on bonus'. Your license is always on the line, and in any situation in which a patient is harmed, the nurse will be scapegoated. I'm not sure if the following statement is true "Brownsville, TX. has the highest medical lawsuit rate in the country", as told to my by the ER Doc while I was on contract there. Good luck.:)

Would also suggest you focus your energy for change to eliminating excessive jewelry, rings (with stones), acrylic nails. Nosocomial Infection and patient safety is at stake.:)

1) 28 yrs. 2) Critical Care 3) Texas 4) BSN 5) Scrubs are uniforms. In 1978 I did a research thesis on nusing caps. My hypothesis was "Nursing caps are a vector to carrying pathogenic organisms". My hypothesis was proven and accepted. Myself and my research partner cultured the caps and grew multiple pathogens on our petri dishes. Easily transmissible to patients at the bedside. Follow up was eliminating the wearing of nursing caps. All the literature is in the National Archives in Washington D.C. Well buried by now I would imagine.

HMMMMM. Let me see. Went to work. Had 5 critical patients. Had marginal monitoring equipment (the hospital is "renovating"). Had to use the computer before I could start on my patients....OR if the patient is drawing his last breath, I have to save his life, perform the interventions, get the meds from pyxsis (more codes), get the pt. stabilized, then put all into the computer, get the pt. to ICU, satisfy the beancounters that I am turning my patients over in timely acceptability, deal with incompetent administration, make $25.00/hr (in TX that's GOOD), keep up with more critical patients as they are rolling in from EMS, lifting obese pts. from guerny to stretcher (often with minimal help since the rest of the staff is also pounding out pts.), not have a bathroom break, and protect the hospital from lawsuits despite the fact the administration does nothing to make my job easier (i.e. computer etc.). HMMMM. Went to the bank. Three people there. Quiet enviorment. Occassional customer. Lovely surroundings. Long lunches. Full Benefits. Soft music in background. Plenty of help. No responsibility for saving a life or the legal liability thereof. Decent pay considering the lack of stress. Am I burned out?:uhoh21: Would never recommend nursing.

It is time for us to unite as a profession----across the country. The fact that a Magnet Hospital (number one in the country....Baltimore, MD.) is not much different than those in the south and in Texas blares a voluminous signal to all of us who are professional and care about the lives and well being of the patients who entrusted themselves to our care. The motive of the hospital upper echelon, the motive of the insurance companies, the motive of the corpration, whether they call themselves profit or non-profit, is indeed profit. Non profit simply means they can not SHOW A PROFIT, and has nothing to do with not making a profit. Those monies are distributed to the CEO's, CFO's, etc. in the forms of non-taxable benefits, perks and bonus'. Time to wake up fellow RNs. We need to take a stand to protect our patients and not protect the system. We need national unity and it needs to start with our involvement in our State Boards of Nursing Practice. A nurse's place in is her/his union.

:o Panhandler says it all so well. I also have been in the position of being THE outstanding nurse, the one everyone turned to for clinical information, a proponent of patient advocacy, a champion for the professional nurse. I don't have to finish the rest. Panhandler says it all so well. Has anyone out there figured out that nurses MUST stand together. Will it ever actually happen. I can't abide the compromise of our ethics, professionalism, integrity; however I see us compromising it daily in our willingness to defer to the corporate stucture, defer to the nursing management so willing to cut our throats while we are scrambling on the front saving lives. Panhandler said it so well.

Sometimes this is the perfect opportunity to start some patient teaching. Frequently these people are told to NEVER start an antibiotic before consulting with the healthcare system, be it a physician or a clinic. They frequently interpret that to mean ANY med. We need to look at ourselves before we decide on being judgemental. I have rarely seen a parent who will intentionally harm their child.

Dear TNNNURSE: I feel for you. I admire your tenacious ethic to patient advocacy and your unyielding honor. HAUNTED and PANHANDLER have given you the most valuable advice, inasmuch as nursing in TEXAS or anywhere in the SOUTH is a heartache for any of us who are committed to a truly high standard of practice. I too am an old nurse (63 years old) and have been traveling for the better part of 15 years. I was in horrible situations in hospitals in FL. and TX. The "mission statements" of hospitals are for show; the corporate mentality that dominates has no inkling of what critical care and lifesaving encompasses. Their only interest is the bottom line and protecting the corporation. To maintain our professional standards of practice is only to burden ourselves with a load that drains our strength and resolve to remain professionally committed to those who entrust their care and their lives to us, our patients. I personally have gone over heads to literally save my patient's lives. However those events took place in facilities in which nurses were represented by unions (in the Northeast). HAUNTED is an agency nurse, without the protection of a union, but the prevailing mentality in California is one in which nurses stand united (look at how they effected the Schwarrzenager referendums). She is indeed a tuba-blower, one whose advice is priceless, if we practiced in a state in which RN's stood together and united. Unfortunately, given the human factor in all of us, there is always the human frailties of character flaws in individuals. What I have noticed in my old age is that we are divided, because of our humaness to believe that we are "professionals" and "beyond" needing the blue collar protection of union representation. As long as we perpetually believe the type of insidious propaganda that appeals to our egos subliminally, and not see through the facade, we are doomed in our ethical tenaciousness to protect and heal our patients. Unfortuanately there will always be those who have compromised all of their honor and ethics like your nurse manager and her cohort. You are indeed generous to percieve the RN who accepted a critical care position on a learn as you go condition as one who was being "set up for failure" by the hierarchy. No, that RN was as devoid of ethics, standards, and patient safety as those in the corporate structure for allowing such an event to transpire. I myself hope that you take the advice of HAUNTED, but that is anathema to the prevailing mentality in Texas. Inasmuch as I know that is difficult for you, I hope that you indeed find a "pitbull" attorney, for no other type of representation will begin to chip away at the arrogance of those who protect a corrupt system. In the meantime, salve yourself with the healing advice of PANHANDLER. Your sister in nursing, Scampi710

:uhoh21: We all need to realize that Group One is a malignancy that is pervasive in DFW, but can and will effect all of us in Texas and metastisize throughout all of nursing if we let it. Soooo, how do we stop it?

Just read this entire thread from page one and you can make up your own mind. I have practiced in many parts of this country....Texas and Florida are the worst.

I know I feel helpless here in TX., but maybe getting in touch with legislators could be a way to go....forget the TX BNE though, that board is as punitive and biased as Group One. How do we form a cohesive group to present a viable request for protection from agencies such as Group One?