matchstickxx

We see plenty of "false alarms" where I work. Many are just women who honestly think they are in labor or are having a complication. They are all assessed and then appropriately managed or sent home after some education. We also see a few women who think if they come in often enough that we will finally just induce them because they are tired of being pregnant. I have heard a 32 week gestation mom plead to be induced because her older child was born at 30 weeks and he is "okay"...just had to spend a few weeks in NICU. :angryfire Needless to say, when she was found not to be in labor she was sent home. She was also sent home again, after assessment, about six hours later when she came back in. Now I know why she was so curious about how late I was working that night. Any pregnant woman who thinks she is in labor or experiencing a medical problem should call her OB and discuss what is going on. If she cannot get in touch with her OB she should come in to the hospital to be seen if she feels it is an urgent matter...Better safe than sorry. BTW, don't "feel bad" about "disturbing" your OB with a concern or possible labor. This is why they are paid the big bucks.

I guess we are lucky to have purse lockers at work. We bring our own locks and clear them out at the end of our shift. I have to wonder either about her judgement or the veracity of her story. More importantly, she should have never left the patient's bedside without calling for relief. At my hospital, a sitter is not to provide any care for the patient including feeding or even toileting the patient. His or her only job is to ensure the patient's safety and to call for staff if the patient needs anything. This sitter should be reprimanded for leaving her patient alone even if only for a few moments. The theft was pretty minor compared to what could have happened.

58flyer, I'm happy to hear you were able to open up to your PCP and that he actually heard what you were telling him. I'm also glad to hear that he has office staff who are willing to make sure he follows through with you. I wish you the very best.

Let your instructor know and then don't dwell on it. Chances are you were far enough away that you were not exposed. Be aware of early s/s of meningitis and if you think you are experiencing them, see your physician and mention the potential exposure. Again, I wouldn't dwell on it. If you really were at least 10 feet away at all times then you're fine.

What do you think is actually going to happen if you are cared for by female healthcare professionals? What exactly is your fear? (Please, do not actually answer that question here.) Make an appointment with the urologist your doctor trusts most to care for you. Sit down with this urologist and explain your fears. If you cannot find an office with an all male staff, would you feel better if the male urologist were present with you the entire time you were exposed? Would that make you feel safer? Maybe you should consult with your therapist and try to find the best way for you to cope with this pressing situation. Even if you do find your ideal all male team for this situation, I think you still need to talk to a therapist. What would happen if you were in an emergent situation and the only caregivers available were female? Would you be making the appropriate decisions based on your healthcare needs or based upon how you could best avoid or minimize contact with female healthcare professionals? Best wishes and let us know how things turn out.

If this doc was so strongly against a patient hiring a doula, why did he not tell her earlier in the pregnancy and not when she was near term? I do not think it is very fair to the patient to spring this on her near the end of her pregnancy. If he feels so strongly about this then he should include this restriction in the info provided to new prenatal patients. It should not come as a surprise to the patient in the last month of her pregnancy. As stated before, she should ask specifically what his objection is to doulas. Then she can decide whether or not she should be looking for a new ob/gyn in the future.

I found out today that I have shingles. I will be calling my supervisor in the morning, but I was wondering what your hospital's policy is on whether or not you are allowed to work with a shingles outbreak. If I were scheduled to work tomorrow I would be calling in because I feel lousy. Luckily I am not scheduled again until Saturday and hopefully the antiviral med I was prescribed will help me feel better by then. I work in the NICU and am not sure what our policy is. I want to work if I feel better but I also don't want to risk exposing the babies I care for to the chicken pox virus. That could be devastating to an immature immune system. My PCP said he usually tells his patients they can work if they feel up to it, but in my case he said he wasn't sure. Also, any suggestions on "comfort measures" for shingles? The pain is driving me nuts. I have been taking ibuprofen but will call my PCP in the morning to tell him it isn't helping. He said if needed, he could call in a script for something stronger but I was just wondering if anybody had any tips for getting through this without pain meds.

Good thing she didn't get to wash his hair. She may have tried to dye it to match the toenails. I'm glad to hear that the nurse who had him after you transferred him would keep her in line. I really think unless this guy's name is Dennis Rodman he probably wouldn't appreciate waking up to painted toenails. Really, painting someone's toenails while they are asleep (sedated) sounds like an immature frat house prank. BTW, since you knew the next nurse would handle things appropriately, I don't think it needed to be your place to go talk to this woman about her inappropriate behavior. If I were the next nurse, I really think I would have called in the nursing supervisor to be present during the discussion with this woman about this behavior and why she would not be allowed back into the patient's room unsupervised. I would involve the supervisor so that this woman would know she was not going to be able to go "over my head" to complain about me.

Oops....That's what I get for trying to type and talk at the same time and then post without proofreading.

Open reduction internal rotation, I think....Not an ortho nurse....can you tell?

There was a story in the local paper a couple of years ago about a woman who delivered one twin at 18 weeks. They were then able to stop her labor and she got to 35 weeks with the second baby. The mom was admitted with PTL and the first baby ruptured shortly after she went to the hospital. At my hospital, we would have done whatever we could to stop the labor including, if possible, a cerclage. We aren't always successful, but at least we know we did everything we could. Barring any threat to mom's health, we would not be augmenting preterm labor at 20 weeks.

I remember the anxiety of waiting for my test results. I took the NCLEX a couple of years after they switched to computerized testing. I couldn't imagine having to wait for 12 weeks for my results. I would have gone insane. My test shut off at 75 questions and I honestly had no idea how well (or poorly) I did. One of my classmates who took the test at the same time I did found out her results 4 days before I did. By the time I got my results, I had convinced myself that they must process the "faileds" differently and that is what took extra time. As it turned out, my classmate knew someone in the licensing office. She let my classmate know when the licensing bureau had her test results. I had to wait for the good ole USPS. I hope you get your results soon and, of course, I hope you passed the test.

http://http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7821354 Here's another link to the story. It says the baby had a monitoring device on but it wasn't clear if it had GPS. I wasn't aware of any baby transmitters with GPS. Ours can only detect the baby inside the hospital. Also, I'm not sure how much good GPS would be. I imagine someone kidnapping a baby would likely remove any transmitter from the baby as soon as they had the baby.

I once had a visitor go to administration to complain to the DON about me. My transgression...I could not tell her when a particular patient had gone home. It was my first day back from vacation and I was not familiar with this patient. Nothing I said would appease her. Fortunately, one of the administrators was on the unit when this woman made her scene and the administrator actually backed me up and said I acted appropriately and the visitor was being unreasonable.

I wish we were a locked unit. We have had more have had more than our fair share of "baby-daddy" and "new girlfriend of baby daddy" drama recently. Don't even get me started on the patient who we had to move three times because she kept calling the ex and telling him where she was but "don't you dare come up here." Then she would put on the call light and tell the nurse he was on his way to "beat her up and take her baby." We were so happy to see her be discharged but we worry about the baby. We did notify child protective services but I'm not sure how much good that would do if the FOB was really as violent as the patient claimed he was. BTW, he never showed up so we don't know what the real story was there. We only had the patient's side of the story and obviously had to err on the side of caution.