GalRN

Reminds me of a place in San Leandro where I did part of a travel contract. Big psychotic dude was stalking me and staff didn't notice or do anything about it. A fellow traveler called another unit for help, and fortunately they showed up just as he ...

Small feisty people can do a lot of damage when they are psychotic enough. Spice will do the same. The most important factor is the environment. Some places don't take safety seriously until after someone gets hurt, if at all. When the unit is runni...

I'm an ACT nurse and have a lot of clients on invega sustenna. There have been some dramatic improvements- people who went from nearly mute with flat affects to euthymic and speaking in full sentences, so delusional that hygiene was not possible to f...

I work as an ACT nurse and do a lot of home visits. At first I wasn't sure that I could do it safely. I have worked with the mentally ill in my area in multiple settings including in the correctional system, and I have seen many people, including so...

Thought I'd throw my 2 cents in as someone who started working at a jail about 5 months ago. It was originally a 13 week assignment, but has been extended and I'm starting a position that has an opening. Last week I knew they were deciding whether th...

Realized I hadn't ever thanked you for this info! Thank you! I've worked on a lot of units as a psych traveler, and a lot of them didn't know how to deal with patients who had severe borderline personality disorder. Travelers can't just tell them how...

To the OP- Did the hopsital's name begin with the letter A? Because I left a facility that begins with that letter in 11/10 and will not go back through the registry I work for now. They were changing documentation after the fact, among many other th...

I was on looking for info on a local travel position I just picked up. I live here but haven't for too long, and was curious about where I'll be working. Anyhoo, I read this last yr when it was posted. At that time I was one of the experienced RN's b...

DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT take a chance with your license. There is a reason they are hiring. I work for a really good registry and every nurse I met was sent there and wil NOT go back. Pt care is OK only bc of amazing techs. The campus I was at was on...

As my sis would say, tru dat! The risperdone made me think of a situation I was in about 10 yrs ago. Pt had a hx of non adherence. They put him on risperdone. For a few nights he paced, clearing his throat, saying it felt like a lump was preventing h...

OK, maybe this is a pet peeve, but curious... Have you noticed the huge group of patients with delirium - do they get ignored in your facilities? By ignored I mean no one notices that there is something organic and reversible going on. Most nurses I ...

I know exactly what you mean.... And it does happen all the time with older patients. I had been a nurse for at least 5 yrs when I got a job on a dementia unit. We had a new lady, from an acute care unit, still with a UTI resolving. I was floored whe...

A unit that I worked on as a traveler had a rep for giving out MS Contin And oxy's like they were candy. Had a couple of pts that came in when their drug dealer went on vacation or their SSDI check ran out. They would stand and ask for whatever prn t...

Hi, I went from resp step down ICU to psych, where I come that is considered a step down from regular nursing and not paid as much per hr. LTC is around there in "status" and a little lower in pay. God forbid we pay our nurses equally, skills are dif...

Hi, I just got home after a frustrating shift that ended up requiring 2 hrs overtime so that I could complete MY charting as I had been covering a lot of the stuff that the other nurse working with me would've done in a normal situation. I work at a...

I've had acouple of pts with the disorder and remember them being pleasant but in lala land and could not care for themselves. It's also near and dear to my heart b/c we are still wondering about my dad.... He had several psychotic episodes and had t...

Well, my helping the new nurse didn't help anything.... All it did was get me fired. Quick back story- my supervisor had been the "I'm your buddy and I'm here to look out for my staff" person. When I started the job the facility had just failed a CM...

Also I forgot to mention that I have WICKED ADHD, go into overwhelm pretty quick in chaos. She does too, she asked me if I thought she did and I told here I thought she did. Said she'd been treated in the past but didn't stick with med b/c of side ef...

It did just occur to me that in the OR she had one patient at a time. To end up with 10 after 5 days of unit orientation must be hell. I'm gonna write down the basic schedule I go by, when we aren't getting slammed by admits. I came to this job after...

I have my own issues with charting. After a few years traveling, mostly to places that used eMARs, I am back to paper charting. I've realized that electronic charting is good as far as time goes but doesn't really cover all the bases and often can b...

Medscape is the way to go, definitely. They have a psych mental health nursing resource center, good info, articles, and free CEU's. Also, they keep the creditss for you to print out any time you need them.

Thats a really good question. I've wondered myself for a while now. I don't think there is much risk of the med going into a blood vessel in the areas where I inject, but a few times the injection sites have bled more than I was comfortable with.

I am being renewed at a hospital that I love, which I'm psyched about. However, I'm a little bummed out because the other traveler had no problem getting a week in between contracts and my company says there is no way. I am to give the NM the date I ...

Hi, I am at a facility in AZ, and have 4 weeks left out of 13wk contract. How long do they wait before asking you to renew? That of course, is assuming they want to renew you. The facility where I work is losing nurses b/c of a new unit opening at ...

To clarify- This patient was known to the facility, and although I had not been his nurse, I had been lucky enough to read his admit and d/c notes, as well as the previous restraint records. He was one of the few pts I have met who was attention seek...