jaderook01

OP: But the satisfaction of having excellent documentation does help in these situations. I will never forget this incident during my first year of teaching on parent/teacher conference day. We usually had team conferences. Individual conferences occurred only if there was a specific issue to be addressed. One of the teachers on my team had taught for thirty years and was planning on retiring at the end of the year. The parent said, and this is a direct quote, "I know my baby lies but I have to believe her anyway." She then turned and looked directly at this older teacher. "I don't blame her 'cause I didn't like you when you was my teacher either." This is what anyone that deals with other people's children has to put up with in today's world. I'm sorry you know this frustration first-hand.

This type of argument is called a non sequitur. What it means is that your conclusion that she shouldn't be embarrassed does not logically follow from the argument that she has had her genitals exposed before due to having children. Past that, I think your male colleague, even if he did not intentionally mean to do anything wrong, made a lot of mistakes here. Considering everything you've posted, the patient is not over-reacting. Personally, if that had happened to me, and I had been the patient, I'd be upset too.

Exactly.

Came here to say pretty much the same thing, but you beat me to it. The only thing I disagree with (as someone who taught middle school for fourteen years) is that nursing is harder/more exhausting. It's exhausting and stressful in a different way than teaching.

That's impressive. Life goals, right there. I recently purged a ton of stuff. I half-@$$ed the Konmari thing. I completely purged all of my teaching stuff- but somehow convinced myself to hold on to a few nursing textbooks. I may have to rethink that.

It's rare when I have patients that can walk without assistance to the bathroom. Most of ours either use bedside commodes, bedpans, or are incontinent. If they are a falls risk (and can actually walk), then they are escorted to the bathroom, the door remains open and someone is hovering around in the room, waiting for them to finish. The types I get usually need help being cleaned up after anyway. After having a patient code in the bathroom (one that was being discharged), I don't take chances.

Oh, my word. Having been present when doctors talk to patients, I'm going with they misunderstood what the doctor told them.

It's not you. It was their time. I'm sure you did the best you could.

Do you live in Louisiana or something? That is not a thing, even in Catholic hospitals in my area of the US. What you're describing is completely foreign to me. Also, just wanted to say that it has been fascinating reading everyone's responses on this.

Where I work, a heparin bolus is always IV and not subQ. The order will even state it clearly.

There should be a chart in the med room somewhere that tells you the time frame window during which you can give certain meds early or late. However, six hours early is definitely a problem. I think I know what your issue is. When a new medication is entered, it will sometimes have it on the MAR for the first dose to be given at the time the order was entered, and then the second dose is going to be on the usual schedule, and often that can cause numerous med errors. I think it is a computer glitch that needs to be addressed. However, until they do, as the nurse, you have to start paying attention to that and it is in your best interest to know which meds should not be given. If the first dose is a stat order, it's likely never going to be an issue, otherwise, you need to be diligent.

I'm at the point where I document what they state their pain is and then also document what I perceive their pain to be on the faces scale. If they give me half numbers, I round up.

That does sound awful. On my unit we have a rotation. Group A has to work Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and New Year's Day; Group B has to work Black Friday, Christmas Day, and New Year's Eve; and you switch off the next year. I already know what holidays I'll be working every year.

Yeah- next time- tell anyone to just take the needed equipment without explaining. It doesn't belong to the patient, anyway. I've taken things I've needed for wall suction out of patient rooms before- only stopping to briefly apologize for bothering them. The equipment isn't theirs and is needed elsewhere. I don't owe them an explanation of any kind.

If I refused to care for every single patient with whom I had moral disagreements, I'd likely rarely work.

Former teacher turned nurse here. You should have been provided with some kind of job contract which states if that is an (emergency) expectation. You need to call the school district's HR department ASAP. Unfortunately, I can tell you that non-teaching staff can be expected to be pulled to sub in some places around this country. It's usually reserved for emergency situations- and by emergency- I mean things like strikes. Your local district must not have nearly enough teachers or substitutes and the situation must be truly dire. That is a recent development in some places because they don't want to pay teachers enough and are trying to steal their retirement so, of course, they won't be able to fill any positions. Sadly, it looks like you're suffering from this too now.

I hear you. One of my male co-workers is harassed by some female nurses that think they are hilarious. One day, I mentioned to them when they were doing it in front of me that it was sexual harassment. He thanked me. It's not okay for anyone to do it and women need to learn that too.

It's perfectly fine to admit that you don't want to be a nurse and to go pursue what you'd rather be doing. You're never stuck doing any one thing in life. I taught for many years before deciding to become a nurse. I may yet do something else if I ever feel the desire to pursue something else. Don't let familial expectations weigh you down.

If you really think a Catholic hospital is going to push any kind of Catholicism on you, be assured, they will not. You don't have to engage in any kind of religious talk with anyone at work, nor will they attempt to go there or push it on you. This has been my personal experience.ETA: I guess I can't say it would never happen, but I'd be quite surprised if it did. Catholic hospitals have to cater to a mostly secular world. I'm not Catholic myself. I'm Orthodox Christian. The only issue I've had at work is attempting to use some of my vacation time for religious reasons and having it rejected by my manager, who is not Christian, as if it wasn't a big deal. I definitely had to have a meeting with her to discuss that I don't mind working my share of holidays (that's part of the job), but that I had to draw the line at working on Pascha (which is the biggest of the biggest deals to me)- and hardly ever lines up with when Easter is celebrated in Catholicism and in Protestantism/Evangelicalism anyway. I'm also weird about praying with others and letting them put hands on me and did not engage in such a prayer/blessing by the chaplains at the nurses' station once. Nobody said diddly squat to me about not participating. I had no idea if the chaplains were Catholic, Protestant, or Jewish (a possibility where I work), and I didn't care either. I have a lot of non-religious co-workers (likely more than are religious actually), one is pagan, a few are practicing Christians. Nobody pesters anyone.

I work on an Intermediate Step Down unit. We have to go to the med room and pull each patient's meds individually. You can't leave meds sitting around, period. If you have to, you place them on the counter in the med room (for a very short period of time) until you can go back and give them. In a pinch, you can ask another nurse to watch your meds while you take care of something else. If you pulled a narcotic, put it in your pocket and don't even leave it laying on the counter in the med room or with another nurse. You never leave meds like that in the room with the patient or the patient's family or on an unattended computer cart. It's nice that you all are even going to have carts with computers and scanners. We only have two such traveling carts on my unit. The rooms have computers and scanners. Imagine trying to put on PPE and also balancing the meds you've pulled without a traveling cart. It's doable, but not ideal.

I work on an Intermediate Step Down unit too. I went from nights to days. Days are busier and the pay is less, but I don't regret it. Being able to finally get back on a schedule that suits me makes up for all the hassle.

You win the Internet today. Just saying.

I suppose it depends. I had my psych clinical at the state mental hospital. I came away with the impression that the patients got more violent towards staff than they do in acute care (which is what I currently do). I was not a fan. It killed my interest in psych (never had to study for it as it came easily to me).

I was in my second year of teaching middle school (seventh grade social studies). I was on my planning period, when my friend (another teacher on my team) ran across the hall and told me to turn on the TV in my room. I was horrified. I literally saw the second plane crash and watched people jump from the towers on live television. They made an announcement to the students, but we were not allowed to let them watch the news because the news was showing everything and it was graphic.

Jeez, I thought my hospital was bad. We have a visitor garage with doctor's parking in it. We also have an employee garage across the street (which is admittedly nicer). They've been cracking down lately but, I admit, I've often parked in the doctor's parking because it's closer, on numerous occasions. Dude that mans the booth is on my side. The way I see it, residents shouldn't get preference over people that actually engage in direct patient care.