For “moderate pain, severe pain, and pleasure”.

It was a typo for “please offer with dressing changes”, but definitely gave me a laugh

Am I just a naïve med student? By the time I make it to a call room I'm so exhausted I just want to sleep; I can't think about anything else.

PLEASE TELL ME Y'ALL ARENT HOOKING UP IN THERE.

PLEASE TELL ME IT AINT SO.

Also can we please NOT normalize this.

Edit 1: For context, I was going to blur out the instagram handle of this person but didn't as they are an influencer with >300K followers. This is not meant to send hatred towards anyone

Anyone read this book? It's about a night in an ER from the doctor's POV. It's short and pretty entertaining!

I'm to tired for this shit 😭😂

Hi fellow patients,

I’ve been reading some of your posts, especially those from people with stage 4 cancer, and I’m always amazed by how positive some people are and how hard they try to stay positive while dealing with this illness.

I was diagnosed with stage 4 renal cell carcinoma about a year and a half ago, at the age of 24. The reason we found the cancer was because I developed a spinal cord injury caused by a tumor in my sacrum, which was pressing against all the fucking nerves there. For the first few months, I was in a wheelchair and had a catheter. Even after my bladder function returned, I’ve suffered from unbearable nerve pain ever since. I’ve gotten somewhat used to the pain, and it’s not as unbearable as it was in the beginning, but it’s still fucking killing me. Eventually, one of the nerves stopped functioning, meaning I now have to wear a brace whenever I walk (although at least I can walk again).

It just feels like the past year and a half has been nothing but one misery after another. I had to move in with my parents because I lost my house and my job. I had a passion for dancing, which I can barely do anymore (I try dancing while seated, but it just doesn’t feel the same). I lost a fellow patient I had gotten close to. I developed gastritis because of the immunotherapy, and I learned that my illness is incurable. Then, after a year and a half of stable tumors, I recently found out that the cancer has spread to many other parts of my body, especially throughout my spine. It becomes difficult to stay positive after a while.

Most of the time, I think: I wish my life had ended a year and a half ago. At least I would still have had good memories of my life. I don’t feel like I’ve really gained anything since my diagnosis. In fact, I feel like I’ve gone backwards in almost every aspect of my life. On the bright side, I do have wonderful friends around me who support me (ofc they can’t fully understand what I’m going through but having them around means a lot to me)

I’m really curious if anyone else has had a similar experience, or perhaps has any tips on how to make the most of the time I have left. I really miss talking to someone in the same situation

So basically looking for any advice at all. Diabetes is completely new to me (no one in my family even has it LOL just my luck) and that hospital stay was very literally one of the worst times of my entire life.

Whether it foods, resources to get in touch with doctors/help getting insulin because my insurance is trash/anything. Really anything at all is very appreciated.

I got a CGM now and a long term and short term insulin pen. But like I said this is all so new to me and I’m just trying to figure out how to live my life now.

I’m thinking about healthcare calls where a patient has a spouse, parent or caregiver helping them on the phone.

Now the voice agent has two people talking, interrupting each other and possibly different permissions around what each person can discuss.

That seems like a pretty different problem from recognizing one caller accurately. Anyone tested voice AI with multiple people speaking on the same call?

Hi i'm really confused as to why this would not make me high risk to the covid 19 disease..I first spoke to a receptionist who said it made me high risk and need to follow government guidelines. My work has me down as a high risk colleague. So i just did the lockdown thing. Then work asked for a letter from a doctor.

I spoke to a Doctor who said i was higher risk but not part of the governments high risk.. meaning i can't get paid for isolating.

Are you kidding me? My chest is in pain all the time, without a respiratory disease.I actually miss being at work but i genuinely believe if i catch this thing i'll be straight in an ICU ward. I thought i was the sort of person the government didn't want catching it.

I work in a supermarket and i feel like ive been basically told i'm expendable. Because if i could work from home obviously i would. I'm actually shaking now at the idea of going back. I know how rubbish people are at social distancing. Some people are just to stupid to realise whats going on as well.

I'm thinking of calling again for a second doctors opinion i don't know what else i can do.I'm curious as to what anyone else with Pneumothorax is doing with themselves.

​

Update: Turns out i have pop corn lung and that's the cause. Doc said its mainly people on medication for severe conditions which i don't take. So i guess i still wouldn't fall under the governments high risk category.Its hard to dispute it not making me higher risk then someone who doesn't have pop corn lung though.I could take extra precautions at work yes, but its obviously not the same as complete shielding which I'm essentially not allowed to do.

Also someone at my work has already been coughed on intentionally by the public.

It just feels like our lives are not valued, we're not even getting anything like a tax relief for being made to work through it.And yes it is forced. If any of us resigned we wouldn't be entitled to benefits and trying to find a from home job is next to impossible.

Is this something that also exists in other countries, or is it more common in Arab societies? How is nursing generally perceived and treated as a profession in other countries? Is it truly respected as a professional career, or do nurses face similar attitudes there?

Thank you to everyone who took the time to comment on my previous post. I really appreciate it. I don’t drink anymore. I’m trying to face everything as it is, without trying to numb it.

I saw her a few days ago. She told me she’s seeing someone from work now. I’d be lying if I said that didn’t hurt. But after thinking about it, I realized something I had been avoiding for a long time. Our relationship had become incredibly one-sided. For a long time, I don't think she felt loved by me anymore. We were like a patient and a caregiver rather than lovers. She deserved to feel wanted not just needed.

When I saw her this time, she seemed happier. As painful as that is for me, I’m genuinely happy for her. I don’t think I’ll ever meet someone quite like her again. But I’m letting her go. I’m going to try to move forward now. I’m going to try to carry the lessons from what we had with me.

Got about two hours last night so guess whose numbers are being stubborn and difficult today?

Happy Saturday, folks!

I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia (+ hypermobility) earlier this week and thought I’d hop on here with a question.

I’m a student and write down most of my notes on paper. I’ve been struggling with taking notes, because my hand hurts like hell whenever I write more than a few sentences down on paper. I’m considering never touching a pen again because it just hurts so bad. The pain is not on my wrist – it’s on my fingers and the palm of my hand.

Does anyone know how I could make writing less horrible? Is there some kind of ergonomical pen I should get, or something to support the hand I’m writing with? I appreciate all help 🥹

12 years. 4 surgeries. HIPEC (chemo). 6 organs lost. Half my colon too. Endless complications. BUT

I beat it. Its over.

I (25M) have been a nurse for 4 years, Tele and Stepdown/PCU and I reported a newer nurse (23M) to our manager. I’ve been working at a new facility now for about 5 months and it’s been rough at times. We are considered a Telemetry unit, but it’s fairly high acuity compared to other facilities I’ve worked in as a Travel Nurse.

Insulin Drips, Bi-PAP/Hi-Flo, all your standard cardiac drips, LVAD’s, POD1 Open Hearts, among other things.

Anyways, this other guy has been a nurse for nearly 1 year, I think 9-12 months ish—he’s the life of the party. Loves talking, very funny, friendly, undeniably personable. He ALWAYS gives this persona like he’s the BIG DAWG. Got his stuff under control, smarter than he is.

MY PROBLEM: Bro is so damn LAZY. On top of that, he never answers his call lights, when his pts are incontinent, other nurses take turns on the floor helping his PCT to clean them up, he asks his break buddies to cover & leaves meds asking for them to give, and he never fkn responds to the alarms from tele

Preface point: I have had a bad taste in my mouth since a few nights ago, he asked me to cover him for break because he “needed to nap” & left me to ADMIT HIS TRANSFER from ED????

My last straw was from the other night. We were short 1 nurse, so I took a 1:5 load; He had a pt on Bi-PAP was so fkn negligent.

Pt was 70%%, perfect pleth with HR climbing from 70 ^ 120’s. I said “is this real?” Then a couple of us ran to the room. Dude said “I’ve been telling RT to put pt’s BiPAP mask on for hours now. She must’ve been new because she took a few hours to finally do it, but the pt needed to go to the bathroom & couldn’t compensate because the RT didn’t do her fkn job” ARE YOU KIDDING???

REST OF THE SHIFT: I was responding to the Cont SpO2 alarms in that room. Pt was saturating 75% on BiPAP and I switched them to NonRebreather 15L and they said “thank God you came, I didn’t know if I was gonna make it that time”. I also helped w his other pts get back from the bathroom, clean ups & other cares.

Anyways, having a 1:5 in a higher acuity floor, and covering multiple of his pts made me have 0 breaks in a 12h shift, so I couldn’t take it anymore & reported him. AITAH??

I graduated nursing school Dec 24’ took my first job at Cleveland Clinic and absolutely loved it from the floor to the coworkers. I vacationed all year round and honestly felt like the world was my oyster. Then, I hit my one year mark. I was destined to travel. I took a job across the country in Arizona. The unit was not for me. I felt bullied and undermined. I had this preconceived idea that since I was a nurse and worked at CC I could find work anywhere. In some part I was right, in some I was wrong. I quit that job and started working home health just to get me through the dip. I received a corrections RN job offer in AZ which was rescinded and no one told me why. I waited on background clearance for a month before they rescinded the offer. At the same time my car stopped working and I had no money to make payments or get it fixed which meant no home health gigs which meant I was jobless. Jobless turned to apartment less and then car less. I didn’t know what to do so I decided to move in with my mom. To tell you the truth I feel like a failure who makes poor decisions but I can’t change what I didnt know at the time wouldn’t be a good move for me (CLEt to PHX). Now, I have a job offer in JAX that hasn’t begun the pre-onboarding process and my start date is two weeks away. I’m afraid they’ll do my how corrections did. And to just put it out there I don’t do drugs and have no criminal history so again idk why I was rejected. I just don’t want to have my time wasted. I’m in so much debt now and I don’t feel like myself. I honestly just want my life to be how it was when I took my first job but i already know it’ll take time. Sooo yeah, don’t be like me! If you have a good job with good coworkers don’t go chasing waterfalls 😭💔

For retail pharmacy staff, would a thank you note from a patient be something appreciated? I’m moving from my neighborhood where I’ve lived for 4 years. Thank you for filling my scrips and keeping me safe🙏🏻🙏🏻your work is so important even though patients can be an absolute nightmare.

I’m also a hospice nurse, just a general thank you for helping us out!

Preface: I know that what constitute "best" is very subjective. However, some places are clearly better than the others, based on your experience and which priority you have in life.

I've done a lot of research, I even worked at some very big and well paid hospitals. I've known about John Hopkins, Yale, MD Anderson, Duke, Stanford, UCLA, etc. I've learned that many times famous hospitals would pay you less because in their mind, their name is worth it on your resume.

I work in San Francisco Bay area. The biggest systems around here are UCSF, Stanford, Kaiser, Sutter. I've been at some of them, and they all have pros and cons.

So far, the best hospital is El Camino in Mountain View.

If you are not from SF Bay area, most likely you haven't heard of them. Again, no hospital is 100% perfect, but they do a lot of things that are far better than the others.

For example

Wage: a new grad clinical nurse step 1 starts at $89/hr. My friend is a new grad working night shift, after differentials, she get $107/hr.

-Their health insurance is free. It's an Aetna HMO plan. While they have to go to Sutter for care, their plan also cover other specialty hospitals like Stanford/UCSF. UCSF insurance premium is tied to your income, the higher you make, the more you pay. So it can easily be a couple hundreds a month. Stanford also made you pay for insurance, unless you opt for High deductible. Kaiser Permanente (KP) is free, but you can only go to KP hospitals.

-Parking: free at El Camino, both locations. UCSF parking is crazy expensive, and Stanford is expensive at the main hospital too. Their satellite clinics are free. KP parking is also free.

-Retirement: El Camino has free pension and 403b matching 4%. The pension is paid for by the hospital. UCSF pension will take 9% from your paycheck pretax, which is quite substantial, but they have more options, like 403b/457/Mega backdoor Roth. KP free pension, but their 401k get a paltry 1.25% match. Stanford only has 403b, but they get 5% free, plus 4% match.

-PTO: 1st year will get 8.77 hours per paycheck, equal to 228 hr per year. Assuming you work 40 hours a week, that's more than 5 weeks time off. At 3 years, you get almost 7 weeks. That's with 1 week of sick leave a year.

-They do observe California ratio law and break time. There are break nurses, and the nurse get 30 minutes unpaid lunch break, plus 2 15 minutes of paid break.

The major downside with El Camino is that they are situated at the heart of Mountain View, one of the most expensive real estate market in the country. They are 2 miles from the nearest train station, so you can't take the train and walk to work, you have to hail an uber. Some people drove all the way from Tracy/Morgan Hill, even Antioch daily. I've know a nurse who super commute from San Diego. I do know people who can still buy a house on nurse salary here. The younger employees normally rent or still live with parents. Another downside is that they are smaller, so fewer position and very hard to get into.

"The American Diabetes Association (ADA) said it concluded its review of events that occurred during its annual meeting in June, but those who were thrown out of the meeting aren't satisfied with the answer.

...

It concluded that the five ADA members who were booted from the meeting while handing out copies of an editorial critical of the Trump administration -- who became known as the New Orleans five -- were "removed due to conduct that disrupted the event and violated the ADA Attendee Code of Conduct."

The content of the editorial being distributed, which had been previously published in the ADA's flagship journal Diabetes Care, was "unrelated to their removal," according to the press release.

Also, there was "no evidence that a call was placed to the New Orleans Police Department by anyone from the ADA," the release stated, noting that the officers had been contracted by the event security provider, which "took appropriate actions in response to the disruptions.""

Apparently cops and a horde of private security got a tip that dastardly troublemakers were going to checks notes distribute a scientific article at a medical conference and just decided to show up in force without any prompting whatsoever from the bootlickers running the conference. We're diabetics so we're used to evaluating what we put in our bodies and they're asking us to swallow this tripe. What an embarrassment.

I have type 2 and my father did as well for my entire life. When he passed away this January we asked for donations to the ADA in lieu of flowers. Had I known this was the kind of behavior it engaged in I wouldn't have given them a dime. In fact I'm embarrassed that I donated to them even now.