This week, I learned.... (7/25)

[ixchel]

This week, I have learned....

1. Meth is a hell of a drug.

2. When meth is combined with cocaine and booze, it can destroy a 28 year old heart.

3. When you have one random patient across the unit from your other patients, and that patient is the only patient without psych issues, that poor patient is unfortunately going to be a bit neglected.

4. A discharge with EMS transport, ICU transfer and admission happening simultaneously (literally all less than 5 minutes apart from one another) 2 hours before you're supposed to be giving report means you'll be giving report before your last round of (very late) meds will be given.

5. Never been happier for vacation time. (Today is day 4/15.)

6. All play and no work makes ixchel a very happy girl. :)

That's all I got this week! Not much to learn when all I've been doing is playing! :)

What have you learned this week?

[ixchel]

I have learned that my 5 year old son should be the picture in the dictionary next to the word hangry. He is a brat if he doesn't eat regularly. Even if we offer food sometimes when he is in that mood he will refuse. God help me.

That my putting my grandma in hospice hurts, but I am glad she will be comfortable at my mom's house.

Juice. Get the blood sugar up, then offer snacks again. My kid is on a med that makes him not feel hungry, even though he is, and he's a complete monster when he decides he won't eat, even though he really needs to.

[FurBabyMom, MSN, RN]

My list:

1. Week of 7/18 - I dreaded an assignment because I was assigned to work with an attending who relentlessly complains over things nobody can fix and can be a real downer (he's a nice person but if he gets started on a trigger it's all downhill from there). That's okay - when I had had it up to the breaking point with this attending, my boss pulls me for another assignment. I was needed to scrub a specialty case that had been bumped (and moved) by an emergency case. Handle things as best you can, take a deep breath and let the things you can't control go (they're a reflection of others, not you) and it's all over at the end of the day. People eventually get what's coming to them and in this case that meant having "off service" staff in their room instead of team members (I feel really bad for my coworker who had to relieve me - she's an excellent and competent nurse, who I enjoy working with but I was glad to become a "human ping pong ball" to escape).

2. From some time ago - our boss called out, in our most recent staff meeting, that we have some of the best team work and an "amazing" ability to help eachother out and make things work. She mentioned that the surgeons we work with were so impressed with how we made things work and ran our own service while she was out earlier this year.

3. A conversation with one of the reps for a product we use. Two actually, this week (we were joking about plenty of things - but you have to know our staff and the docs I work with to get it). I respect and enjoy working with most of the reps we work with.

4. Not all reps are quite so awesome. As evidenced by one of the reps we had during a recent product trial (so annoying and incredibly pushy). This was also evidenced by another thread this week on here. All I can say about that thread is wow.

5. Feedback from a student I was precepting. That I was "calm but insistent and really good at explaining things."

6. Feedback from a coworker I precepted, that I taught them so much. My boss agreeing, saying that I'm an "excellent teacher".

7. Working with my coworkers. They're the best!

8. If you run out of the primary supply you use for XYZ thing, then you will run out of the replacement (plus the replacement supply sucks), and then you nearly run out of the replacement for the replacement.

[NurseSpeedy, ADN, LPN, RN]

This week I learned.....

1. UTIs and near deadly sodium levels can have very similar symptoms in the elderly (N/V, loss of appetite, confusion, weakness, etc)...and my 95 year-old grandmother told me (a nurse who she usually trusts), my mother and father (son and daughter in law)..."No, I'm not going to the hospital. They will have me waiting there forever!"...but would agree to an ambulance transfer at the request of her home health aide....sodium level near seizure zone...

2. Once I give the cat wet food to gain the weight back from being sick I cannot take it away...he will not eat the dry food anymore and is chasing me around the house crying for tuna!

3. I really should have finished nursing school 15 years ago like I first planned, or 10 years ago like I started planning again...now I'm definitely doing it.....and it's so hard being old and having a toddler on summer break..."Mommy, mommy, what you doing? Mommy, mommy, let me see that book...Mommy, mommy,.... WHAT'S THAT PICTURE????!!! EWWW!!!! MOMMY???"

4. There is a time when the radio must be censored when young children are in the car. Taylor Swift's "Shake it off"...not so bad... "Ooh Baby I'm Worth It!" being sung in the tub before bedtime...not so good. Too bad I cannot tear the speakers out of my husbands work vehicle....

[nrsang97, BSN, RN]

Mb3082,LPN my son loves Taylor Swift too. He calls her Swift,Taylor LOL. He loves shake it off. Sometimes we have to change the radio when he is in the car.

[nrsang97, BSN, RN]

Juice. Get the blood sugar up, then offer snacks again. My kid is on a med that makes him not feel hungry, even though he is, and he's a complete monster when he decides he won't eat, even though he really needs to.

HA HA we try everything, and he says "I am never eating again" LOL.

[nrsang97, BSN, RN]

Hugs to you nrsag.

Thank you.

[WKShadowNP, DNP, APRN]

Thank you.

And I just realized I misspelled it! Sorry, love.

[cardiacfreak, ADN]

That sleep deprivation can cause an acute psychotic state. (Be very careful fellow night shifters).

That 2.5 mg of Haldol, is my best friend when the psychotic sleep deprived patient hits the code button twice while the sitter stands by and let's it happen! UGH!

[RainMom]

4. There is a time when the radio must be censored when young children are in the car. Taylor Swift's "Shake it off"...not so bad... "Ooh Baby I'm Worth It!" being sung in the tub before bedtime...not so good. Too bad I cannot tear the speakers out of my husbands work vehicle....

I cringe when I hear my speech delayed 4 yr old singing "Uptown Funk"...... yeah, does not sound like "funk"!

[Jensmom7, BSN, RN]

That the word "cohort" is really, really annoying. Really.

When did this word become popular? WHY did it become popular?

Seriously, the more I hear it, the more I just want to bite. Irrational? Probably. But true, nonetheless.

[ixchel]

That the word "cohort" is really, really annoying. Really.

When did this word become popular? WHY did it become popular?

Seriously, the more I hear it, the more I just want to bite. Irrational? Probably. But true, nonetheless.

This came up a couple of weeks ago, too. I use this word to describe the group of students I was in school with. Is that appropriate? Y'all got me thinking I'm using it wrong now!

[Jensmom7, BSN, RN]

This came up a couple of weeks ago, too. I use this word to describe the group of students I was in school with. Is that appropriate? Y'all got me thinking I'm using it wrong now!

It seems to be fairly new terminology.

Back in the day, the entire body of students enrolled in school with you were the "Nursing class of 19__". The students in the same rotation as you were your "Clinical group".

Guess "cohort" just sounds cooler.