5/29 This week, I have learned... One year later!!!

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Specializes in critical care.

One year ago today(ish) saw the birth of WILTW. In that time, we've been able to grow together as people and nurses, and it has been awesome!

I've been wanting to put together this massive, awesome recollection of each week, but then I realized how ridiculous that would become. So, I wont do that. But, I did want to peek back at some of my more monumental lessons, and encourage you to peek back, too, if you would like.

As always, please share present day learnings, too.

What I learned, over the last 52 weeks...

https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-discussion/this-week-i-991434.html

Making sure your nurse knows you have breast implants can prevent an embarrassing ICU transfer when a dislodged boob looks like a hematoma.

https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-discussion/what-i-learned-998813.html

If you're going to give a nonresponsive patient a titty twister in an attempt to establish they are actually responsive, warn the other people in the room first.

https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-discussion/9-5-what-1007775.html

When you read a patient's chart notes and see they couldn't be stopped from punching and spitting on staff with 25 mg haldol and 10 mg Ativan, you might actually think to yourself, "thank god he's only felt me up this shift".

9/12 What I learned this week...... | allnurses

This is one of the threads that was moved to blue. It is, however, the first WILTW after Brian died, and feels worth it to include.

https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-discussion/10-31-what-1021192.html

Herpes can literally get in and on every part of the body. I'm glad my innocence was already shattered by sidepockets because for real, people. EVERYWHERE.

(It was in the lungs.)

https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-discussion/12-5-what-1026131.html

If a coworker is charting in a darker, quieter space, YES, they are are hiding. Go away.

https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-discussion/12-19-what-1028089.html

Never remove an African American woman's wig.

https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-discussion/1-9-what-1030794.html

This thread was linked on social media and people were royally pissed off by it.

https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-discussion/2-27-what-1038754.html

This week, I learned the end of a patient story and I celebrated with a happy cry.

https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-discussion/3-19-what-1042681.html

If you shave your dog to determine if she has a heart block, you may be a little unbalanced. (And that stethoscope I mentioned? Gone. Thanks, AHole.)

https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-discussion/4-16-what-1047607.html

Why is the end of a straight cath ribbed? It certainly is NOT for her pleasure!

(Incidentally, my husband learned how to change an instead cup post op.)

https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-discussion/5-21-wiltw-1053097.html

It comforts me to know my LEO hubs and his coworkers have devised an apocalypse plan. I also just realized being nurses makes us all valuable (like, save the nurse, kill that guy instead, valuable).

And what have I learned this week?

5 hours of driving in a day when almost 6 weeks post op from lumbar fusion can make the rest of the week complicated. So can carrying a ~15 lb load of groceries.

My time away from work could be as long as 6 months. I miss it, and I don't miss it.

When a person awakens during a focal epilepsy seizure, they will potentially continue to interact as though in the dream still, while also interacting with their real surroundings.

So, friends, with that I say, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WILTW! You all have been wonderful to share my nurse growth with. Every time we get new posters, I feel the excitement of this weekly installment growing. What began as sort of a journaling process for me has become a highlight for many on AN, and I love that! Thank you all!

[video=youtube_share;MjF1bG5LUcs]

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Specializes in M/S, LTC, Corrections, PDN & drug rehab.

My son's 2nd birthday is coming up. Where did my little baby go?!

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This week at work I learned that if you put a banana in the microwave in the peel, it will catch on fire after a certain amount of time.

ETA: I was not the one who put the banana in the microwave. I feel it's important for people to know that.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.

I am celebrating my Birthday (it was Saturday) by going on a foodie binge.

It was meant to be a one-day thing, but it has stretched to a two-day thing due to heat and increasingly advanced age-even as I look like I'm in my 20s, being in my mid 30s(!) gives the body a certain retrospect; plus my aspiring competing eating days have been WELL over fifteen years, so pacing myself will have to do. :laugh:

Before I went on vacation and my foodie adventure, I learned:

How to successfully place a neonate IV!!! The baby was 13 days old, and I got it on the second try...by observation and some good tips by a COB, I have used the tips on pts that have collapsing veins as well. She high-fives me after I told her. It was such a great feeling to not feel as though neonate IVs were the bane of my existence.

I also learned who is new management; it has been an improvement; the fact that someone can talk to you personable, directly, and positively and be AUTHENTIC in contrast to previous management makes me ponder how those who stuck around with previous management without bailing makes me love my team even more.

And how the perception of wanting improvements makes you the gossip of removing the previous management; even though it was several factors, when staff looks at you as a assisting catalyst or THE catalyst, it's almost laughable.

I also learned that sometimes working evening mid shift (3p-3a) even once in a while, can be enjoyable with a great team, and be willing to consider picking up those shifts from time to time. :yes:

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Specializes in Education.

When you're in your final week before leaving a job, you will get sick. And calling out means no PTO payout.

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Specializes in Corrections, neurology, dialysis.
When you're in your final week before leaving a job, you will get sick. And calling out means no PTO payout.

Oh wow. That's awful.

I leaened that that when your employer puts you in call in the last day of your employment and that you no longer work for them after midnight, that they will page you 27 times anyway and when you don't respond they will put you on record as not available for rehire. And it will stick.

Nit it this week but I learned this 4 years ago.

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

What have I learned this week?

I've learned that 52 weeks (approximately one year) flies by very quickly. It is hard to believe that the WILTW threads have been going strong for an entire year!

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Love you, girlie!

This thread has brought me great friends and many laughs.

Chaos and her bunny ears, talk of the AN football team, stalkers following us to this thread, all our good news and heartache, everyone always helping each other and getting along on AN? This thread is the place it happens. Students to COBs are welcome.

Thanks for the times you've asked me to host, I've been honored.

Happy Bday Lady and Chaos Bebe! í ½í¸

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What I'm relearning right now is that gi bugs or food poisoning sucks. Haven't slept more than 15/30 consecutive minutes since 2 AM (now 10 am). And it's Memorial Day so both my kids are home and the hubs is sleeping because he has to work tonight. Here's to hoping it is food poisoning so no one else gets sick. Meanwhile I'm wondering if antacid tablets would help prevent metabolic acidosis from all these bathroom trips! Lol

My 2.5 year old is totally going through a personality change. Normally it takes her FOREVER to warm up to people, hates strangers. But she is becoming more social and her vocabulary is exploding!

I think, maybe, just maybe I won a outside scholarship from a nursing organization I joined! I joined hoping to be eligible, and I had to overnight my application package due to my utter procrastination. My chapter leader called to congratulate me but apparently they are still working on formally notifying recipients. But, it means I would need to go to ChiTown in 6 weeks to accept it so I need some notice if I won to save & plan.

I start a 4 week pharmacology class on Wednesday. I'm not ready to walk back into our health Sciences building. I'm very much enjoying my break and this weather.

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Specializes in critical care.
Love you, girlie!

This thread has brought me great friends and many laughs.

Chaos and her bunny ears, talk of the AN football team, stalkers following us to this thread, all our good news and heartache, everyone always helping each other and getting along on AN? This thread is the place it happens. Students to COBs are welcome.

Thanks for the times you've asked me to host, I've been honored.

Happy Bday Lady and Chaos Bebe! í*½í¸

I LOOOOOOVE that this thread is always the spot to get along! That boat has only been rocked once, if I recall. And the poster was easily talked back down to peaceful.

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Specializes in CVICU CCRN.

Happy Bday to WILTW, Lady, and Chaos's kiddo. I want to go on a foodie binge!! With booze!!

I learned last week that I get serious resting B face when I work too much.

I learned that being shocked as all get out over a new job opportunity can give me some sleepless nights!

I'm super excited that I am transitioning to picu. I do love my floor. I do. But the constant turn over is killing morale (and to a certain extent, safety). It's not that we have a particularly bad culture, it's just that everyone is chasing the elusive flight nurse or CRNA opportunity. I even see this happening when I pick up in cvicu.

I learned I'm scared of failing and how much I have forgotten about peds... And that purchasing a good peds critical care text (thanks AN!) can help calm the hyperventilation.

I've learned that rushing leads to mistakes, no matter how minor. That rush of tasks, particularly in the last 3 hours of my shift, is something that plagues me. I can fly - but it might mean that my NS is running at 1.65/HR instead of 65 after I clear the pump. [emoji58]

A gentle, relatively cheap reminder that if I'm touching epi, cardizem, milrinone and the like that slowing down to actually visualize the rate makes a difference.

I've learned that this thread and the people in it are usually what draws me back to snoop around on AN. Thanks, Ixchel!

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This week I learnt the WILTW weekly thread has been ongoing for a year! Honestly, this should be an official part of allnurses, just like the cartoons.

This week I learnt a whole family, whenever they are on call, they are s*** magnets. My coworker, her father and uncle who are CRNAs, all of them have bad call days. I don't want to know what it's like when two or three of them are on call together.

This week I learnt it's not uncommon for patients to have sudden bouts of nausea/vomiting when a femoral sheath is pulled. And what's worse is we couldn't have the patient turn to their side as she puked because the sheath just came out and the cath lab tech was holding pressure.

This week I learnt several people have seen some visible changes in me that I didn't think much of. I guess the weight lifting is paying off. One coworker noticed I had guns, and a patient noticed my chest was more defined.

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