After a week of deliberation on the WILTW threads, I can honestly say I'm glad for a new week! I have only worked one day this week so far, so not a very giant list to share.
This week in nursing, I have learned....
There is a very sad line between moral and legal decision-making in healthcare. When a DNR can be revoked by family only to prolong torture and a DNR not granted on an already terminal suicide attempt, we really need to find a way to make moral and legal stop being mutually exclusive.
After a month of horrible patient acuity, I'm realizing that now "normal" days actually feel a bit slow. Amazing how being pushed beyond your limits teaches you to increase those limits.
I've learned what pleurx drains are. Now I want to play with one.
It takes a lot longer to bring up a 2.3 potassium than a 1.1 mag. A lot.
I have a way about me that makes patients confess very, very strange things to me. (Apparently?)
I'm going to learn tomorrow if short hair is easier at work than long in a braid, bun or ponytail. Also, tomorrow I will get to compare my steps at work on my new Fitbit vs. the app in my phone. And..... Tomorrow is my last day in the 18-34 demographic.
I've realized that hospitals would be more mom-nurse-friendly if shifts were 9-9.
Looking at community health job postings has made me realize I have no idea how to figure out government pay scales. I understand the grade, but how does your starting step get determined?
I've included my children in the "daddy's schedule is changing, so mommy's might have to, too," conversation. It was hard to say no when my girl asked if I could "just" not work for awhile.
Crack is a hell of a drug.
Almost 1.5 years since graduation. I think I've decided I know how to nurse now. It's an amazing feeling!
How about you? What have you learned?
The weekly WILTW threads will remain in yellow as long as we remember to keep the majority of posts/comments focused on things nursing related. Students are welcome to share what they learned in their journey to becoming nurses, and of course, CNAs/PCTs/MAs and other unlicensed people who are part of the nursing team are welcome to contribute as well.
As this thread doesn't really have one single topic, it's very nature is to evolve into conversations that are off topic from individual points shared. This is okay, as long as the majority of posts in the conversations remain nursing, nursing school and UAP-related. Questions or comments on this can be shared in the site feedback thread with "WILTW" in its title.
I can make a great slow cooker apple spice cake...I may make it while I work on Thanksgiving; it has inspired me use the slow cooker more and has me hooked on Pinterest in the process.
Happy Birthday ixchel!
Guess I'll save you a slice of that apple spice cake.
Happy birthday Ixchel!
Thank you!
And LadyFree, FedEx will ship with dry ice, and I'll pm you my home address. :)
I learned what it looks like when a patient gets several rounds of epi pushed through a line that had infiltrated (Thankfully we didn't do it). This poor person has had to come into the OR every few days to have debridement done because of the wounds.
I was on a code blue during which I managed to get an IV on a LOL while she was getting compressions. I was so unbelievably proud of myself because frankly, I suck at starting IVs anyway. So I went back to where I was before that, shoving stuff through her horribly slow IO. Another nurse pushed epi through the line I'd just placed, and immediately, it blew. It was a good line (flushed and drew blood), but it just didn't stay good. I was bummed. Her family showed up during the code and DNRed her. I was a bit glad of that, because all of the icky stuff that can go wrong in spite of perfectly handled codes seemed to go wrong with her. I knew we were likely done anyway when RT suctioned a terrible amount of blood from her tube after her ribs cracked.
I'm sure I'll be fine never wanting to wear white scrubs again.
The local university students wear red head to toe. It's a bit scary.
My alma mater, who let us choose between maroon and white, has changed to red. I'm not sure if it was intentional, but it is really ugly.
For your whites, I loved to pair maroon tops with white pants. Under the pants, I would wear generic spanx, one or two sizes too big, so I wouldn't be wearing compression, which would get uncomfortable over a day. Also, for tops, they always looked thin and cheap, but putting a shirt underneath would make them look better.
That's what I look like now. Blood Drive Today. I went out and bought red scrubs yesterday. I look like a freaking gummi bear.
Go blood donor! I donate when I can. B negatives are in short supply!
Like this:
Pair it with some leggings, cute!
I bet the boy docs and nurses loved it when you did compressions.
Well, the Clinical Handbook of Psychotropic Drugs calls it "electric-shock-like sensations." Stahl's Prescriber's Guide doesn't mention it at all. The users of SDN couldn't come up with a term. Some people refer to them as paresthesias, which is a more general term most people associate with tingling in the fingers from panic attacks or electrolyte imbalances.
So, to answer your question... apparently not. Weird, right? The brain is all mysterious.
For me, brain zaps feel quite literally like a shock of hot electricity. I hated them when I was going through a med change.
Also, parasthesias can also come about as a result of nerve damage resulting from claudication of nerves or from bone making physical contact with a nerve. The people comparing them on SDN might benefit from actually asking patients who have experienced both. They are experientially nothing alike.
(Respectfully, of course, Dogen, not putting down what you're saying here. The "I know everything" attitude that floats around SDN is stifling.)
CNA/nursing student here… This week I learned that I really like night shift!
Night shift is a whole different animal, isn't it? Different pace, different challenges, less interruptions. I love night shift!
With everything.
Not too bad, I guess.
That's not too bad at all! I had a heart attack between my sophomore and junior years. Books we were required to get through the school because they'd been bought as a bundle with access codes were $1,300. Scrubs, stethoscopes, penlights, all that crap that, OF COURSE, every new student would drool over and think they absolutely needed it ALLLLLLL was roughly $500. That was before a single penny went to tuition. I went to a state university, so it wasn't as bad as it could be, but still worse than the community college rate I had in the prior two years. Thank goodness for grants and loans!
My head might explode, my sinuses are horrible, my throat looks like some disgusting, vesicular Hell. I had to wake up hubs to drive the kids to school because I was so tired that I didn't feel safe driving.
I'm awake. For now. And I have totally neglected this thread this week, AGAIN! So I wanted to get through all of the posts before my brain is dead again.
Speaking of dead, from a nursing perspective, there is no way that the person we all think died actually died on TWD. Just saying. Jerk face fell on not-dead-person supine, nothing bleeds that much when ribs are in the way, and intestines are located below the diaphragm.
Speaking of dead, from a nursing perspective, there is no way that the person we all think died actually died on TWD. Just saying. Jerk face fell on not-dead-person supine, nothing bleeds that much when ribs are in the way, and intestines are located below the diaphragm.
ixchel
4,547 Posts
I was thinking because her own kids are boys.