traumamomtx

I need a little help. I had a pt all the time ask me why they have to have their blood sugar continually checked when they are not diabetic at all. I know the answer of sickness, maintaining a good level, and all that affects the healing process and blah, blah, blah. But sometimes they don't seem to put one and one together. I sometimes think that just because it is a check off on the standing order sheet at our hospital the M.D.'s just go down the line checking everything instead of what is needed; old CYA. Anyone have a good explanation they give their non-diabetic pts for finger sticks and sliding scale insulin tx. thanks

how about spend the other 23:55 minutes with their patients they don't do. Unless the doctors would start doing total, holistic patient care for that 24 hr period of time.

Not that mine relates to a personal experience really, but I have a very difficult time taking care of teenagers. I have 2 of my own and the thought of anything going wrong really concerns me and I feel so uncomfortable to care for them. I usually trade someone's worse patient just to swap out the teenager; even if the teenager is the best patient on the floor I don't want them.

I started out in Med/Surg and figured as most "I would pay my 1 year dues". Now I'm in trauma/med/surg and have been for 9 yrs. I see everything, I can do just about anything you throw at me, and my critical thinking skills are above average. I float to other floors and it is the same old, same old. Many nurses I have seen from my own experience are just going through the motions. I have heard so many nurses say, "it's just a ___, or they are no big deal they only had a ___". It is told in our hospital that if you can work our floor you can work anywhere and I believe it. You might be surprised once you get on the floor you may like it. Just have a positive attitude those patients on a med/surg floor need you too.

We went non-smoking in Jan. of this year and it is a joke. People both employees, pt's, and visitors are still smoking, they are just finding better places to hide. I work on a very crazy trauma floor and we have many pt's that if they don't get their smoke on they are crazier then if they do get to smoke. I for one say let them smoke just corral them better. For some people literaly smoking makes them sane and the floor I work the happier they are the happier I am.

I'm lecturing high school kids on the field of nurisng this coming monday. I need some help from my fellow nurses: 1. any recent graphs and statistics I can run copies of and print for hand-outs. i.e. salaries, race/ gender comparison charts, and past and present nursing trends. 2. what would interest a bunch of high school kids about becoming a nurse other then $$$ and tales from the E.R.? Any other suggestions and website recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks:twocents:

doc's who come to you about family complaints that are ridiculous. Ok, first the doc knows the family is a PITA because they have been trying to get them discharged since day one. Ok, so don't come to me and say "did you know Mr. Jones was wet last night and had to wait 10 minutes to be changed?" No, I'm on the day shift and that sounds like a staffing issue. Don't ask me how Mr. Jones slept last night because I don't know I wasn't there.

doc's that have 20 patients on the floor so they pull every chart stick it on a rolling rack and when the nurse tries to take it for a moment to write something they yell "don't take my charts"....ok, you can't be charting on 20 pts at the same time. "I'll put the stupid chart back in a second"!

Don't worry you will still at times be treated like an idiot by many, many doctors. They will walk out of a room and tell you "that patient needs their IV to be stopped, Take away their PCA" . Ok, well did you at least take away the PCA button? Did you push stop on the IV machine? You know the button that says STOP. Just wait until you have a doctor that hasn't seen his patient in 3 days. You will understand it is all TV.

I've been on nights for 8 years and the one thing I learned is don't stress over the dishes, laundry, and so forth. It will get done eventually wether I do it or my husband helps because he doesn't have clean clothes. The friends thing is hard to work but it can be done everyone has to just make the time to see each other. I work day and night shifts so if I want to see my friends we have to schedule things in advance as much as possible. Sometimes, I just loose a little sleep but I guess "I'll sleep when I'm dead". quote from Roadhouse movie. Hang in there and stop stressing over the house. It will always be there and if it's bad just don't let anyone in until people want to help clean it up.

You got it already....this stuff is memorizable but if you can understand it and apply it you will be 3 steps ahead of the game. Nursing isn't about memorizing it's about understanding and applying the information. The body is one big machine that compensates and adapts for other parts and if you can apply one thing to another the light bulb will go on over and over again.

One time we got $5 to spend at Target as our xmas gift; that was special. Another time we got binoculars, like the kind you give a 2yr old, that was just weird. We are always getting t-shirts and stuff but we do have to pay for them we never get them for as gifts. HUH :smackingf

get over yourself.....if we didn't laugh at some of these things behind pt's and their families backs we might just cry in front of them; or worse really tell them like it is. We all have to have a place to vent and laugh with our sarcasm because our days are way to stressful and serious to have compassion 24/7. I have one: my pt is "lactose intolerant" but he eats ice cream all night long from the unit's fridge.

put the k+ on the pump and piggy back the main iv fluids on dial-a-flow below the pump it's self so they run at the same time and decrease pain. Run K+ over and hour and only 10meq for peripheral and 20meq with central. For pain I use a warm compress at the iv site to get the vein to dilate and reduce pain; works 90% of the time. Or just run the main and K+ on a pump concurrently if the pump works that way.

You know your pt is a jerk if: 1. they demand the catheter out so they can have sex with their girlfriend. 2. they cuss you and everyone in the room out regardless of the situation. 3. they are a no information pt because they were shot and they are mad because they aren't suppossed to be calling people to let they know where they are. 4. they want to leave so they can find the drug dealer that shot them so they can "get my gun and do him before he does me". Woo, what a night!!!:smackingf