They can put a man on the moon. Why Can't They....

VickyRN, MSN, DNP, RN · Jan 7, 2005

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caroladybelle, BSN, RN · Jan 7, 2005

Sighhhhh...

The point that I was trying to make is that Nurses frequently are doing everything they LEGALLY can to relieve patient pain.

Unfortunately, we have many MDs that are not responsive enough to patient pain, a DEA that punishs caregivers that prescribe so called "excessive" pain meds, patients that refuse pain treatment because of cultural/religious/personal issues, and families/support networks that deny the patient the option of adequate pain relief.

I rarely see Nurses in and of themselves denying adequate pain control. As such, nurses cannot correct this problem in and of themselves. Nor can mechanical devices/inventions.

P_RN, ADN, RN · Jan 7, 2005

Back to the why can' they.....my doc actually told me to[/u] chew [/u]

my TWO horse pills of K+ if I can't swallow. I have an esophageal stricture that dams up frequently. Wanna know how K+ feels in a raw throat?

Here skinny boy try these!!!! My dentist told me if I do chew and break one more tooth he's going to scream. I've solved it by buying OJ and making sure I drink at least one glass a day and my K+ level is just fine.

allnurses Guide · Jan 7, 2005

Wireless everything!!! Trying to get someone OOB to the BSC with cardiac monitoring and foley catheter and IV is a feat to behold. Maybe the cardiac and IV stuff could someday be controlled by a wireless device thereby eliminating some of the restrictive nature of being in the hospital.

Also, bedside tables that lower from the ceiling so they can be shoved out of the way when you need to get OOB.

Marla - our general surgeon and CRNA makes sure folks are out of it when they do colonoscopies . . the only other problem is the prep!! But that is better than dying of colon cancer - seen too many lately and it isn't pretty.

Triage - oh my gosh if we nurses had a moving walkway or scooter we would be in worse shape then we are!!! Sometimes work is the only exercise I get.

steph

caroladybelle, BSN, RN · Jan 7, 2005

Back to the why can' they.....my doc actually told me to[/u] chew [/u]
my TWO horse pills of K+ if I can't swallow. I have an esophageal stricture that dams up frequently. Wanna know how K+ feels in a raw throat?

Correct if I am wrong...but Potassium pills aren't suppose to be crushed...according to many pharmacies and per some med books. It is possibly one of the most commonly violated instructions.

And yes, many of us still crush them to get them down, ourselves.

purplemania, BSN, RN · Jan 7, 2005

My gastroenterologist allowed me to go on a 24 hr liquid diet, then use a Fleet's before the colonoscopy. More humane. I had Versed and in 20 minutes was up and out of there and on my way to IHOP.

As for K: I think the elixir tastes bad to discourage overdosing. HOWEVER, seems we could improve on K delivery all the way around.

leslie :-D · Jan 7, 2005

i love the idea of the sympathy pain jolts to the mds....if they don't return calls r/t patient complaints, send them the nauseau, the pain, the agitation their way and give them a taste of what the patient is experiencing.

UM Review RN, ASN, RN · Jan 7, 2005

...make an antibacterial soap that doesn't rip the skin off my hands?

bobnurse · Jan 7, 2005

Correct if I am wrong...but Potassium pills aren't suppose to be crushed...according to many pharmacies and per some med books. It is possibly one of the most commonly violated instructions.
And yes, many of us still crush them to get them down, ourselves.

I was always told that you can crush potassium as long as you dont crush it to a powder...Just crushing it down to its small beads state still keeps it at a slow release...but when you continuously crush it to a powder, breaking down the wax matrix, you now make it immediate release.

allnurses Guide · Jan 7, 2005

I was always told that you can crush potassium as long as you dont crush it to a powder...Just crushing it down to its small beads state still keeps it at a slow release...but when you continuously crush it to a powder, breaking down the wax matrix, you now make it immediate release.

We were told by our pharmacist not to crush at all.

steph

Little Flower · Jan 20, 2005

As it relates to pain and huge pills and meds that make you vomit, etc....some of what I say you won't like because some of you have only the knowledge of your nurses training and nothing beyond while some of you have the knowledge of the ages and other studies, but, like it or not it is truth, just the kind you may not want to hear. BTW (there still is some question that we didn't really put a human being on the moon.) Suffice it to say though that with the level of technology we have today in all fields/areas of science/military applications nothing is for the comfort and pain reduction of patients/people/nurses that isn't also further detrimental to their over-all health and punitive to them legally.:

1. The designers of the meds are large people that have big throats and can swallow a log.

2. The meds cost too much to make smaller and then give the patient two of them instead of one.

3. The pharmaceutical company employs a large number of sadists/machocists.

4. The evil inherent in this world requires the negative energy put out into the ether from pain and suffering.

5. Doctors don't have to see or put up with the results and they are not and never have been impressed with anything the nurses have to go through in dealing with patients.

6. It is all a macab design in cruelity.

7. It is intentionally meant to be barbaric because we don't have barbaric wars in the USA to release all that male testosterone.

I have always wondered over and over again why simple pain relief for patients cannot be obtained without everybody getting in a tizzy about addicting the patients and the meds being so dangerous. There is just no excuse now for this in this high-tech society we live in....just no excuse at all.

Going to the hospital is a very traumatic experience for the patient and especially the human body. Repair may take place there but healing takes places at home where the body can recover from the shock of the treatments.

Some doctors are very indifferent to their patients. I am sure you have seen/noticed this god complex....after all it isn't them laying there helpless and at the total mercy of their hospital god. The patient has no control or say over what is done to them while in the hospital and they become very defensive. Nobody really tells them what is going to be done to them until it is done and pray that they don't expire from the trial.

Some of what I wrote you may find funny....some of it I wrote to be funny but there is also an ounce of truth, a nugget here and there. Depending on your age and experience you will discern the difference.

As to what you can do about it all........not a darn thing. Just do your job with all the compassion you can and know then that your heart and conscience is clean when you go home at the end of the shift.

Indifference, arrogance, silence and hostility are not comforting nor healing arts. Talk to your patients BEFORE you do what you do and let them HELP you do what you need to do or have the right to REFUSE. It is their body. They ARE paying customers/comsumers of the service being provided.

I don't mean this to sound harsh. Nurses are very abused in the system. Lots of them end their careers totally wasted and used up like my beloved aunt did.

Don't stay too long if you feel this coming to you. Life has other opportunities and ways to help people. NEVER trade your soul for a hardened heart.

And now I will bow out of this discussion and hope you don't hit me! :)

Havin' A Party!, ASN, RN · Jan 20, 2005

... Why dont we just invent humans that dont need that crap?

Like your thinkin'.