May 2012
4 posts
4 tags
Family Dynamics
I am the angry family whisperer.
The woman on the other end of the line is angry because we discharged her husband home and he still drinking, and she’s talking over me and won’t let me explain that her husband was medically stabilized and ready to go home and honestly, we can’t keep people from drinking or using drugs or being assholes in general. Just not our job.
When you...
analogbrain asked: you get asked this often, but i am interested in being a nurse. i like your blog, because it's more realistic than what i come across. i have time before i can apply to nursing school (i moved from the States to overseas and am still learning the language, etc) and was wondering as someone with no nursing experience, should i begin to look for jobs that require working with shit, snot, etc,...
6 tags
Talk to Me About Scripting
anyone seeing this horrible trend in their workplace?
“I have the time.” This is one of the things I have been instructed to say to my patients.
Here’s reality. My patient down the hall is high on cocaine and throwing things at the staff. I need to figure out how to keep him safe and the staff safe. I have to call security, the doctors, the psych people, my charge RN....
3 tags
efficiency
they say that the average worker is efficient something like 40% of the work day. Since most people work eight hour days, that means that in 8 hours a person will actually work 3.2 of them.
I would say that a nurse would never be only 40% productive. There are days that I am 100% productive, pounding the floor from the moment I get out of report to the very last minute before I head back in...
April 2012
23 posts
4 tags
Real nursing is...
Knowing that our health care system is far from functional.
With the reduction in services due to the recession there has been a loss of psych beds. The result is that psych patients are boarding on acute care floors in hospitals everywhere because there’s no place for them to go and they can’t go back into the community. It’s a lose-lose situation. The patients don’t...
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Real nursing is...
knowing how to whip up a grilled cheese from items in the pantry.
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I have not failed today
I have not failed today.
My patient decided to leave AMA today. She’s a drug addict. Most likely she’s going to go out and use again. She’s sick, full of MRSA abcesses, and she isn’t finishing her therapy. She’ll probably be back. But still, I have not failed her.
It is not a simple thing to be a drug addict. A hard core street drug habit costs about $50K a...
4 tags
Best part of today...
an intern telling me, “why do we have a problem with this patient whenever you’re on?”
Because my patient is in pain. Because I’m willing to call. Because other people just ignore this patient, and I don’t. And now I just want to cry because everything I’ve worked for to help my patient has been destroyed by one jackass doctor.
Real nursing is paging...
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Real Nursing is...
a good discharge plan. I’m sending a patient home today into less than ideal circumstances, but I’ve done the education, I’ve empowered the patient, and because I’m willing to do that, he’s going to be okay.
Real nursing is empowering patients around their care.
college23girl asked: Great blog! Love your perspective on nursing!
Real Nursing is...
being glad your therapist is back in town.
5 tags
4 tags
Real Nursing - Bullying
If you’re a nurse, you’ve been there. You’re in report and all of the sudden you’re being drilled about your patient. You’re not incompetent. You know what you’re doing. You’ve been providing excellent care all day long. Your patient is safe, medicated, skin intact and NOT DEAD. Yet all of the sudden you’re having to defend yourself on what labs...
3 tags
Real Nursing is...
being really glad to be home from your shift.
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Real Nursing - Superheroes
“With great power comes great responsibility”
- Uncle Ben
You know who are superheroes? Nurses. We work physically demanding jobs, we have to be able to shift gears at a moments notice, to leap to catch a falling patient in a single bound. We battle the bad guys, whether they’re bad decisions from doctors or out of control patients. We tackle problems and find solutions....
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Real Nursing is...
starting a fucking awesome IV.
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Real Nursing is...
when your enema slips out while you’re giving it. not pretty.
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The most brilliant thing I've seen today
written by a doctor, an attending nonetheless:
If she were to improve sufficiently, she could return home.
and that’s why you get paid the big bucks and I’m just a nurse.
4 tags
Happy Easter
I’m here slogging away in the trenches and thinking of my colleagues who are doing the same.
Real nursing is waking up bleary eyed and stumbling into the shower, brewing a pot of coffee and putting on your scrubs, making sure you have all your nursing gear then heading for the bus before the sun is even up. It’s missing family dinners and gatherings with friends so you can be at...
I am a nurse
I’m an RN, meaning registered nurse. I do not dare to care. I will not fluff your pillows. I am not a waitress. I am a trained professional with a college degree, and carry with me years of medical experience and expertise. What I will do is keep you safe. What I might do is save your life.
I am a nurse. I might cry for you. I surely will cry for people who might surprise you,...
4 tags
who am I
Hello.
I am Sophia. I’m an RN working at a busy urban hospital. I work in acute care. I work a medicine floor. Give me your drug addicts, your diabetics, your COPDers yearning to breathe free. That’s what I love.
I love being a nurse. It’s the most wonderful job on earth, but it comes with a price. I pay that price every day because this job tears me apart. It has sent...
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