PewpSmith

Saw this article on NPR and it raises some interesting points I hadn't considered about this specialty. I mean.... I tend to think of you guys being responsible for physical health and student well being during school hours. When it comes to mental health- how do you suss out what is really an issue vs what is normal teen behavior in such a small window of time with students? What can you even do about it? If its not an abuse situation you can't really report it.... idk... so many questions School Nurses Can Be Mental Health 'Detectives' But They Need Help : NPR Ed : NPR

2 things- When they take nearly all the charts on the floor and hide with them. When you find them and ask for your chart to do documentation they're like- I'm not done with it yet- then take the chart you wanted that they weren't even using- and open it and just look at stuff so you can't borrow it. And then when they leave all the charts all over the place and your shift turns into an Easter egg hunt . 2. When certain doctors- and every nurse knows which ones as soon as they start working- get super rude and mad that you called them about their patient. I get it if they're calling for dumb crap, but when you're calling because a surgeons patient (who wasn't on hospitalist service- ie, the patient was their responsibility alone) is a 21 year old >24hour open apply who had perfed badly before surgery is suddenly dropping his sats precipitously despite increasing his 02 and had previously been 100% room air who is now 85% on a non rebreather and is feeling "like they're going to die"- yeah, when I keep calling you for orders it's because your last crappy set didn't work and I'm not going to quit calling you when you hang up on Me AGAIN but I WILL cry because I'm scared for the patient and when another Surgeon sees me I will tell him the whole thing and this Surgeon will intervene and call the other guy himself- too bad it was already after a rapid response and the patient was headed to ICU now in a hospital where there aren't intensivists overnights -only on call- and the ER doc downstairs is tied up in 2 codes so the surgeon that saved the day incubated the patient and played intensivist until the real one could get there..... After that, the original surgeon got a bad reputation because even the other surgeons heard all about it and thought he was crap Lmao that was such a specific example.... this happened 7 years ago and I'm still angry about it. As though nurses are idiots and you didn't know you'd have to be called in the night when you went through med school and residency.... Long story short- DON'T ACT LIKE YOU'RE DOING A NURSE A FAVOR WHEN YOU ANSWER THE PHONE

Ok.... so by your own statistics of 2000 nursing being convicted of this WORLDwide.... let's do some statistics..... Many accredited sources report 3.1 million Registered Nurses in the USA alone.... 0.065% of nurses are convicted of this if we just use USA nurse statistics. If you add in all the other nurses in the world (couldn't quickly find a credible source for that) that number would be much much lower.... Also.... all of those "Signs to look for" parallel those of signs to watch for r/t diversion. This article is bunk

I am super guilty of asking people where they are from and/or what their ethnic background is. Sometimes I've even gone so far as to ask, "Were you born in another country?" after they say a local place. Sometimes these questions have led to fantastic discussions about their culture and their background when I am able to tell them that I had visited their country several times (I travel a lot) and ask them about certain places I've visited and some of the regional food they are known for. Sometimes they share the same background as my husband, who is an immigrant- Which leads me to talk to them about my favorite parts of their culture and heritage and usually always leads to good laughs and stories. When they tell me they are an immigrant I will tell them how awesome that is and that I have kids who wouldn't be here if it weren't for immigration. Nearly every time, it has left the patient, in my opinion, with a sense that I have a real bond with them and have built some trust. ...So.... should I not even ask anymore? Its apparent from several of the responses on here that it is downright rude- regardless of intentions due to past bad experiences- to ask people about their background. I'm genuinely wanting to know. Making people i'm caring for uncomfortable is the LAST thing I want to accomplish from this.

Honestly, as crappy as this is, it depends on who it was that violated you. My husband's ex, who is a doctor, looked up my records for AT LEAST my demographic info (SSN, address, phone numbers, emergency contacts, etc etc) and while they couldn't prove that she had looked up more than that, they could definitely see that she had accessed the aforementioned stuff. I am VERY VERY suspicious that she looked into my actual records MORE than that because of very specific threats she made to me and my husband… but because of her position she simply has a permanent mark on her record, for which she wanted me to apologize to her for, because she has to "explain it at every job interview" she has to go to. So… while it is taken EXTREMELY seriously in most/some cases, for others it is swept under the rug.

Can I just give advice about the friend request on Facebook coming from my own personal experience? Don't add this person. Until you have been there a reeeeeaaalllly long time and you actually would call that person a friend for sure. You never know who that person is buddy buddy with and they could just be combing all of your stuff LOOKING for anything possible that they can laugh about and gossip about. Saw something a while back that said "Be careful who you open up to. Only a few people actually care. The rest just want something to gossip about"

Can I just say that I, too, hate when other nurses make the "I got less than 2 weeks orientation so don't complain about your orientation" remarks. Especially in critical care areas or for any new nurse on any type of unit. I'm fairly certain those same nurses were probably struggling due to their too-fast orientation. It sucks that they didn't get an adequate orientation but that doesn't mean everyone else should be short changed on theirs. Honestly it makes 0 sense because when you're an orientee you're usually extra staff and an extra set of hands, especially at the end of orientation AND an adequate orientation ensures that when the newbie is off of orientation they're able to function as a full member of the team and don't require anyone else to pick up their slack while they're drowning. *end rant*

This is disgusting and makes me see red! Ya know, it MUST be nursing's fault and never that there isn't enough staff and resources (sarcasm font needed) I hate this mentality that it's everyone's fault except administrators who don't want to pay for adequate staffing.

So I'm very excited to announce that I took my CEN exam today and passed it with 131/150! I bought several books but found that only a few were actual useful and/or pertained to the exam. The 2 books that I would buy if I was doing this over again are Sheehy's Emergency Manual by the ENA and the bluish/purplish book by the ENA with 5 practice exams/rationales (they give you a code for 2 online ones too). I used the CEN lectures by Mark Boswell on youtube to supplement this and found that it really helped me single out what was really important to learn. I hope this really helps anyone else out there!

Boswell Page: (link removed) Make sure you go back through at least 10 questions bc a couple are softballs And Solheim: (link removed)

Hey you guys-- I'm on Facebook and was wondering if those of you who passed the CEN exam already could look at the questions posed on the Mark Boswell Facebook page and the Jeff Solheim page and tell me if the questions are really comparable to what they have on there recently. Some of those questions are unbelievably specific. When I do the practice exams in the ENA book I do ok-- around 70-80% but when I try their questions on their FB pages I rarely get them right. I wonder why there is that disconnect….

Uuuuuugh I forgot about that crap! That's the thick white cream we slather on high skin risk pts right? I haven't had to deal with that stuff for a while since I moved to ED

Just asked Mr. PewpSmith (GI MD) and he said he couldn't think of a reason

Can I just say HOLY crap for a moment? I nearly called this post "What is your Achilles Heel" ..... And then settled on kryptonite.... And then our shared aversion to dentures??? I also don't bat an eye with maggots in nasty wounds and am an ER nurse..... Are you......... Me?

Reading that in my head made me giggle like the immature 5 year old I really am at heart. Poop (pewp) should totally be an honorary SN