paroxetina

This may be the case at your hospital, but not at mine. Unless there is a pattern of egregious errors without improvement, it is never punitive.

I love when people post from an alternate account for privacy reasons, and then reply from the main account :)

you should be covering any open wounds, period. If you really have cuts up and down your arms, I would use bandaids to cover them and wear long sleeves.

You did the right thing. In this type of situation, ask yourself what potential harm may come if you do NOT take action (not placing the alert band and sign, resulting in BP taken in that arm that could dislodge clot) vs. potential harm of the action (placing band/sign, no potential for harm).

Yes, my internist's office has both RNs and MAs.

I don't think there's a one-size-fits-all answer. Some nurses want to be anonymous, and that's okay. Some nurses want to disclose, and that's okay too. Above all, communicate your needs and wants. You might say, "I am a nurse, but I'd appreciate it if you fully explain things as you would to a patient without medical knowledge." Or, "I'm not sure if you're aware that I'm a nurse. You don't need to explain about each medication - if I have a question I'll let you know." Maybe you work in a different field, or you've been out of direct patient care for a while. Don't be embarrassed to ask for what you need. If embarrassment is an issue for you, You might say, "even though I'm a nurse, I'd like you to speak to me as if I'm any other patient so that my family members aren't left out." Personally, I don't go out of my way to tell hospital staff/providers that I'm a nurse, but I also don't hide it. If they start to explain something I already know about, I let them and just nod along; however, I've had nurses say: "I know you're a nurse. Would you like me to tell you about [x procedure/medication] in detail?" This tends to be the approach that air use with patients who happen to be nurses. Put them in control, and don't assume anything.

Most nurses will have significantly better health insurance through their employers than you would get through Target. Additionally, you would be unlikely to advance to earning much more than minimum wage as a Target cashier (particularly if that minimum wage is $15/hr), whereas in nursing, as you gain experience you become a valuable asset and will earn significantly more. Many employers will pay nurses extra for certain certifications. In nursing you have the opportunity for overtime, night/weekend differentials, etc. Target may offer these to some extent, but they are likely to be way less than what you get as a nurse. You mention student loans. There are several programs for loan forgiveness if your position meets certain criteria. There are programs for government, public health, nonprofit, certain regional areas, etc. My remaining balance on my loans will be paid off in about 2 years, at which point I will have made 10 years of minimum monthly payments. Finally, and not at all insignificantly, in nursing you have the chance to make a huge difference in the lives of your patients - perhaps even a lifesaving difference. You are unlikely to have that experience at Target.

Taking the profession as a whole, I personally feel we are quite well compensated. There will always be problematic geographical regions or health care systems, whether the minimum wage goes up or not. Perhaps you are in one of these areas or systems. I have enough to worry about without adding this to the list of issues potentially keeping me up at night, and when those are dealt with, I suspect this will still be pretty far down the list. I applaud the efforts to increase the minimum wage. Everyone, and *especially* those doing the physically demanding and/or aesthetically unpleasant jobs (i.e. janitorial) deserves to make enough money that they don't need to worry about being able to put food on the table, afford medical care and prescriptions, pay rent, and have a little something left over to save for a rainy day or treat a child to something special.

My biggest pet peeve is when you have an "unconscious" (sleeping) patient, not on a ventilator, but the most prominent sound is the sound of a vent. Watch for it, and you'll never be able to un-see it.

This, x1000! I know that when I was a student, if I asked a professor/clinical instructor/preceptor/whatever what the rationale for his/her answer to my question was, and this person told me: "because I said so," I would infer that this person had no idea and I would not trust the answer.

Thank you! I am so sick and tired of all this "omg I'm going to lose my license!" bs. I promise you that doctors do not obsess about this the way nurses do. If you are doing your job to the best of your ability, and are reasonably competent, you are not going to lose your license.

Actually, I read recently (though I can't remember where, so I don't have a citation) that most deaths from pre-eclampsia/eclampsia occur after delivery because that's the time when she's not being monitored as carefully, or may be at home, and preoccupied with care of her baby. In other words, the patients who have pre-eclampsia prior to delivery are more likely to have it caught in time.

Ok, so it hasn't been charted on, but what was/were the patients diagnosis/diagnoses? Depending on the patient's condition (say, longstanding CHF), it could easily have been expected that an S3 gallop would be present and therefore may not have been notated in the chart. If the nurse truly reacted in the way you describe, I suspect this was likely the case.

Seriously?

I believe prosec refers to the little black (usually) boxes that you hold your ID up to in order to unlock the door. Correct me if I'm wrong. As you've already realized, the little purple pill is Prilosec.