1RNlife

What you wrote makes perfect sense. Thank you for your response.

Hi, I am looking into certification for peritoneal dialysis nursing and have found the CPDN certification through BONENT (Board of Nephrology Examiners Nursing Technology). The program looks good but I showed it to my nurse manager who is wondering if AACN or any other certification board does a certification for PD. But I have not found any other cert programs for PD. I have 4 years experience administering APD and CAPD in acute care and also do the PD education and training for nurses on my Med/Surg unit who are new to it. I am wondering if the BONENT certification is recognized and by whom. I would love to work in a PD Home Clinic, but I have a feeling the companies (DaVita and Fresenius) hire from within from their pool of HD nurses. I have not worked HD. Either way, I do enjoy what I'm doing, but imagine the Home Clinic PD RN to be a fantastic job with an expanded knowledge base and responsibilities, and the potential to develop positive relationships with their patients who they really get to know and help over time. Anyone out there with Peritoneal Dialysis Nurse certification?

I live in PA and reading these posts I wonder why admin and supervisors in our hospital think its OKAY for us to be assigned to 6 telemetry patients (which can happen if all 6 in our zone are on tele which does happen) and patients on insulin drips in a 6 patient assignment. Generally admins are in their own bubble and don't see or understand what is going on, but supervisors should know better but let it go on.

Thank you Nurse Beth for addressing the reality of ageism in nursing which many of us have quietly endured, and for pointing out that full social security benefits don't actually begin until after 66 yrs. (Most of us are not state or city employees who can retire at age 55 or even earlier!) It first became an eye opening reality for me when I submitted an online application to a Home Health company, received a call back, and the first and last question they asked was "What year did you graduate nursing school?" That was just the beginning. I am currently employed in a hospital system and the rest of your bullet points (except the last) apply as well. It gets lonely out here, even though there are some younger nurses who appreciate what we have to offer (I am one of only two senior nurses left on my unit). I have found, here and elsewhere I've worked, that some of the worst offenders are nurses who are within 5 years of age younger than myself, for some reason. As if they are happy because someone is older than them! Ugh. I was once good friends with a nurse my mother's age. I miss her dearly as she's been gone for five years now. We not only worked together so well, but were friends on the outside, meeting up with our husbands. Anyway, thanks again for bringing out in the open the sad fact of ageism in nursing, which REALLY DOES exist, even if not everyone has experienced it. (And why should they minimize or deny what others have experienced just because they themselves have not?)

33 bed ED, 100 bed suburban hospital. I work on a 36-bed M/S/Tele floor. We are usually assigned to 6 patients, sometimes 7. The ED only has to call report on "hold" patients, and not on patients that were not hold patients. Does anyone know why this is? If a patient was not a hold patient, we get a "10-minute warning" that the patient is coming up, but no report. However I have had hold patients come up without any report as well, and usually don't have the time to check beforehand if they were a hold or not. There are always patients sent up at change of shift (for me, 3 pm) while I am trying to receive shift change report. When I am actually privileged enough to get an actual verbal report from the ED, it is usually from a thoughtful older experienced nurse who knows the importance of this handoff. Important info can be and has been missed without it, and accountability is lost also, e.g. STAT meds not given, antibiotics not scanned blood, urine, wound cx's not done before initiating antibiotics.) The ED nurse is usually gone by the time I have sorted things out and need to call about something. We do not have any written report alternative as others spoke of, but the reasoning is because we can look it all up in EPIC. However I often need to call pharmacy to find out if a med was given or not (because it appears to be not given in EPIC (wasn't scanned in the ED) or lab to see if they received the blood cultures that were ordered to be held and so on. Honestly, I don't like this new system of no report required!

The metal tubex. The heavier weight of it delivered the IM shot with such ease as to be practically "unfelt" by patients.