Dances with wool

Glad you are okay. I’ve been there. To have my care covered I was hospitalized where I worked and so almost everyone knew. At first I was horrified but everyone was so supportive of me. We lost one of our nurses to suicide and it was terrible. She was no call no show for two days and lived alone so they did a welfare check and found her. She had just lost her mother.

Knew someone named Muffin at school. Came across these doozies Over the years. Dusty Rhodes, Chip Monk, Sweet Jeezus, Rainn Mann, Chocolat, Gypsie Rose, Stetson Roper (obviously a cowboy) Maverick, Raeven Blak, Jagger, MK (just the initials of his parents) Johnson whose last name was Long. Fyree, Starr with the last name of Carr (hope she doesn’t end up in Boston), Bobbin, Macaree, Lafayette, Blacken white

I worked with a woman named Muffin. Not a nickname. It was the name on her birth certificate

Dorcas was actually used quite often before it had the connotations it does now. I've met several of them. They're usually 60+

Unfortunately it is all too common for nurses to b put on a guilt trip for being sick. I bet we have all felt forced to work sick at one time or another.

Luxurious no. Comfortable yes.

Stay where you are if it works for you. My staying at the same facility for 18 years turned into a huge blessing when I had to retire unexpectedly last year from MS complications. The retirement plan my employer offered now pays me a monthly check. It would be very difficult to survive without that money.

If "Political topics" are the inappropriate conversations in your workplace, consider yourself lucky. I have had to deal with the most foul language and a step by step guide to oral sex! The thing about nights is that so much can be hidden from management. I learned to just ignore it as long as patient care wasn't affected.

The patient will be 41 in April and the other will be 37 in July. Old enough to know better.

He was not raised that way.

I am so upset right now. My son had emergency surgery on Sunday night. He had an open compound tib/fib fracture. Part of the wound was left open and was draining serosanguinous fluid into the dressing, all normal. On Monday he and my other son were throwing a fit because the nurses wouldn't change the dressing, which really wasn't that bad. They reinforced it. I explained to my sons and my daughter-in-law that the surgeon usually changes it the first time so my son the patient demanded that they call him right then. I told them that he was likely in surgery and the nurse agreed that he would probably round later in the day. My other son, not the patient, called the hospital administration. Now they are complaining about everything and the staff has just about had it. I have also. I couldn't even look those nurses in the eye, I felt so bad. I want to support my son but I am angry with him. I chewed out my younger son for calling administration as he did and his response was that they needed to be told how to do their jobs! I told him that he didn't know how to do their jobs because he had not been to nursing school. I could hardly be there today. I just need to vent to some of my fellow nurses. What would you do if this was your family? Thankfully it's not the same hospital as my work. I would be mortified.

It has some value in verifying that compressions are effective. The hospital I worked in uses a femoral Doppler for that purpose. It's just a tool and of course doesn't substitute for other measures

The scariest was not one I did but one that I caught. I was taking report on a patient who was 2 hours into CABG recovery. The off going nurse reported that she had just hung Hespan for hypotension. I noticed the BP was not coming up and most of the bag had gone in. With horror I realized that what was hanging was not Hespan but was a bag of Heparin. About 300ml had gone in. The patient was fine after Protamine. Yikes!!

I got C-Diff. I was always careful to wear PPE and wash my hands, but I probably incubated C-Diff. So many are not diagnosed right away and as we know alcohol based sanitizer doesn't do the trick. I have MS and my immune system was suppressed from medications. I was off work for 6 weeks. Absolutely miserable.

See an attorney. You can't go to your new department with any work restrictions Period. Sounds like you need some qualified legal advice. Embellishment also means "adding to" by the way.

Your own words "As for manipulating the critical care situation, I absolutely did. I know for a fact there's a lot of sit-down education (PALS and ACLS just for starters, then additional med exams and equipment education) that the new critical care nurses have to do. And the difference between it and the med surg floor I'm already on is that I would have had at least 6 weeks where I was not doing direct patient care on my own" but you don't want us to accuse you of manipulating when you say yourself that's exactly what you did.

Thank you for saying this. I've lost count of the number of people who have said it's easier because you "only" have two patients. I've been blessed because I've never had an injury but I have left work many times aching from head to toe

I must be a real COB because I remember all of it.

I wouldn't have a problem with random drug testing. I am thinking that there has been an uptick in your hospital or geographic area that has led to this being implemented. If you have nothing to hide, what's a little pee?

I see a few issues with your ICU plan. First of all, you would need to have an unrestricted return to work to be allowed to start work with a new department. You seem to think that you will be "off your feet" because of classes and unless your hospital does things very differently ACLS and PALS are two day classes. You say you won't be passing meds but didn't you already pass meds on your prior floor? As an experienced nurse you would be expected to pass medications and with the assistance of your preceptor give ICU meds also. Although you will have classes, much of your time with your preceptor will be "on the job" much like nursing school was. You learn stuff in class and you do it in clinicals. One of the things that concerns me about you is statements such as "everyone else is perfect" You posted and requested advice and then when experienced nurses reply and you don't like the reply you immediately embellish your story and accuse others of not understanding or not being sympathetic towards your plight. I'm not saying that you're being dishonest but you are making excuses. You are now in limbo between two departments and don't currently have a home. You were given the opportunity to do desk work and then took it upon yourself to not show up one day because you think no one would want to drive to work every day for 3 hours. You say you don't have to worry about codes because you don't have ACLS. You do have CPR don't you? You absolutely might be doing chest compressions, pushing a cart, or shoving a backboard below some 300lb guy. Right now you are caught between two departments, neither one of which wants to accommodate you. That's a huge red flag. You really only have a job on paper. It is perfectly within the bounds and legalities, in most cases (check your employee handbook) for your ICU manager to rescind your job offer and for your med-surg manager to not want to take you back. The ICU manager hired a nurse with no work restrictions. The things you have done and not done in the interim did not help you. You don't come across as if you are willing to do whatever it takes to get to your new job. Is your facility unionized? If so, speak with a union rep. Otherwise, speak to a workmen's comp lawyer and follow his/her advice. You may be in for a long haul in getting to the ICU and it is entirely possible you will not get there, in your current facility at least. Please pay attention to the advice you have been given. No one is out to get you. You asked for advice and have received a lot which should be helpful to you. Quit making excuses or blaming communication problems on your managers. Communication is a two way street. If I were you I would have asked for a sit-down with the ICU manager, been honest and laid it out on the table. It would have shown that you really want the job despite your injury. Instead, you now come across as someone who isn't a "go-getter" for want of another expression. Thinking that you will have 6 weeks of lighter duty because of orientation is just not realistic. Try to have a sit-down or a one to one phone call with the ICU manager, express your concerns, re-iterate that you really want the job and ask what you need to do to ensure that the job will be available to you.