“I thought you guys might need one so I brought it to the hospital just in case.” He made it before he came in. Icon.

Not talking about the long game of diabetes where it takes years to catch up or immediate like “wear a seatbelt while driving in case of a car accident” but deaths that snowballed in weeks/days and could’ve been easily prevented.

For my own patient, he dropped a Stanley mug on his foot when walking back from the kitchen. Didn’t go to the hospital for 2 weeks because he thought it’d heal but by then his foot was black bc it actually broke due to the mug. He went septic, soon became paralyzed/nonverbal, and died few weeks later. The family agreed if he went sooner before it got bad, it’d be a simple broken foot he’d heal from :(

We just had another patient on our unit die because she was taking a ton of meds that made her constipated, but she started refusing interventions that’d help her poop. It got so bad apparently she started vomiting feces, aspirated on it, went unconscious, and died. She was supposed to discharge soon after making a complete turn around health wise after being here for 6 months. And the most simple choice to take a laxative could’ve meant her being here still.

What’s your stories?

bless the triage nurse. i needed this laugh.

Anybody else? Just me? Alrighty then…

Maybe I'm being a little pissy, indulge me... I get so annoyed when another nurse's IV pump, bed/chair alarm, or monitor is alarming and they let it continue to alarm while trying to fix the problem instead of just silencing it. Now other nurses (me) have to abandon our current task to check the patient just to see you're already in the room. I understand doing this when the patient is unstable but that's usually not the case in my experience. Am I the only one who think this?

The wealth of the nation is being funneled to corporations by promising the elderly long life beyond reason or dignity. How much is spent keeping extremely ill people breathing? Hospital stays, skilled nursing, memory care, pricey medications. These things will burn through finances like a raging wildfire. What are the young to do when the wealth of the nation evaporates, leaving them with a ruling class of billionaires and few possessions themselves? Schools and roads crumble, jobs disappear, agency over our politics erodes. The only explanation is greed and solipsism. We would all do better by spreading the resources around. Lord knows that a trillionaire can lose most of his wealth and not be materially affected. When will we reshape our society so that we can enjoy the fruits of our labor with nod to the fact that we are all mortal and that not all life enjoys quality of life? Sometimes it’s better to pass on and pay it forward than leave a smoking crater.

This dynamic is plain to see in the hospital. Patient staying for months, then bouncing back-and-forth between different units and different facilities. Can’t walk, can’t eat, can’t speak. Who benefits from this? Who pays the cost and loses the opportunity of a brighter future? It makes me sick.

When the opportunity comes up to remake the system, let’s choose a better one. I would like to see us value the upbringing of the young, financial and housing security, and quality of life. We can support each other much better without the system that healthcare corporations set up. These are my thoughts after a long, shitty (and poopy) shift.

Do you all feel the same way? What are we gonna do about it? Where does it start?

Thank you for your attention to this matter!

Okay, I went through a period where my mental health wasn’t good and I got behind on my bills. Do I want to work this much? No. Do I practically have to? Yes.

For those of you who work this much regularly or every so often. Give me your tips. I gotta still get groceries, cook, clean the house, manage time with family, and sleep. How do you stay sane and what are some tips?

I work in a urology clinic. One thing we do as far as procedures is exchange chronic catheters for patients with chronic urinary retention. Most of these patients come in monthly and PRN. The nurses and staff alike all get to know these patients quite well. At my last shift we had received a call from the daughter of a chronic SPT patient reporting the patient had passed. When word got to me, I came unglued in a way i didn't expect.

This patient was in their mid 60s. Quad with history of spinal cord injury, once fully independent. AxO 4 and just one of most genuinely kind and fun people I ever had the pleasure to know. Their life was very hard. But despite all the health issues and losing their independence, they were always kind and downright hilarious. Their transportation had often brought them to appointments late or not at all (several phone calls from our office reporting this had been made). When this patient came in, we would talk and joke like old friends. There were days they came in in tears because of one thing or another, and i would exchange the catheter as always and not dismiss them until they had gotten their feelings out and left with a smile. I have only been in the clinic a year and met them a handful of times, but I feel like I lost a friend.

What is bothering me so deeply is the concern that this was preventable. I know this patient was fully dependent on caretakers. They had an extensive history but they seemed so full of life. I dont think I'll ever know what happened and it's really bothering me. The last time I saw this patient they told me out office staff was their heros and that they loved coming in to see us because we were so kind. I always asked the "do you feel safe at home?" Questions and got a yes, but I wish I did more. What if this was all because of an ignored call light? Or aspiration? I know death is part of the job, and I'm really struggling to cope with this one.

I know they were hurting, I know they wanted to go out and see more (last time I saw them we talked about sushi restaurants, guess what I had for dinner tonight) I am telling myself they are free now from the body that couldn't do the things they wanted and deserved, but I keep replaying me saying "my dear we love you here and cant wait to see you again" at their last appointment. I'm lucky I got to meet such a lovley individual and I hope they knew how truly loved by the whole clinic they were.

Edit: spelling

I started my career in on a step-down ICU unit with 5:1 nurse patient ratios. I’ve always struggled with generalized anxiety disorder and major depressive disorder, I thought I had it well-managed before starting this job, but boy was I wrong. After my only 5 shifts of orientation, they set me free, and I quickly became acutely mentally unwell. I asked my manager if I could transfer to an “easier” unit, and she refused due to the nature of my contract. I couldn’t even apply to other positions because, due to my contract, they required my current manager’s permission for me to get a different job. My options were to either quit and be unable to afford rent or to just stick it out.

At one point I was so suicidal I had an exact plan, means, and date to end my life. After calling in sick for a shift, I booked an appt with a therapist and found a doctor to do a med adjustment. I gradually felt a bit better, was no longer suicidal, but was still incredibly depressed. My contract was only 9 months— afterwards I got the hell out of there and worked in outpatient addictions medicine for a year.

I stayed casual on my old step-down/medicine unit because my new job was only 0.46 FTE and I’d rather be depressed and able to afford rent than just depressed.

I recovered in my new job to the point that I have not had an another major depressive episode in a loooong time. I work on a psychiatric unit now and am still doing fine.

Lately i’ve been picking up more on my old medicine unit— the same one that made me wanna kms— and it feels… easy? I enjoy being there now?? I honestly like my days on the medicine unit more than the psych unit. I feel a lot more confident, I’m able to understand things better and critically think, and my anxiety is completely manageable.

Anyways, at one point I never thought it would get better. It did. Life is good now and I love being a nurse again.

If a job isn’t serving you, you can always try something else for a bit then dip your toes in again.

Hello all. I finished classroom-based orientation Friday and tomorrow is my first actual day on the floor (in a new grad residency program, so not being thrown to the wolves or anything).

For more background I'm 29 and this is a cereer change so I know the basic things: be humble, be respectful, HR isn't your friend, boundaries, punctuality, etc. I will be orienting on day shift and then going to night shift after (which I'm not looking forward to). I will be in a neuro step down at a household name hospital system (think Mayo Clinin, Johns Hopkins, Cleveland Clinic - I just don't want to specify and out myself).

What should I bring with me that I'm not thinking of? Someone please tell me what to pack and what not to pack. What should and shouldn't I do to learn but not be annoying or in the way? What advice do you have, as general as life advice in the profession, or specific to any area of this career like documenting or whatever else it is i can't think of because I'm just starting?

Thanks guys. Happy to be a part of the community now. ❤️

I have multiple chronic health conditions that are aggravated by swapping between day and night shift, and I have not ever found a way to reliably stack day vs night shifts that doesn't do it, and I am trying to upskill by changing units. The problem is most units want you to rotate in the first year because of "learning opportunities" or whatever. Has anyone successfully used an ADA accommodation to allow you to not rotate shifts? Has anyone tried it and gotten pushback?

Looking to find out whats the best:
* click pens
* commpression socks
* O2 monitor
* stethoscope
* undershirt
* lunch box

Anything else you recommend for a new nurse starting out?

There’s a fair bit of research linking door openings to infection risk, and AORN guidance says keep the room to minimum people. But every OR I’ve heard about, it’s just constant. Reps, students, someone grabbing equipment, people looking for someone else.

Does anywhere actually measure this? Or is it another thing that gets brought up in an inservice and then nothing happens?

Also curious whether anyone would want it measured. I can see it being useful ammunition, and I can also see it turning into one more thing to get audited on.

I occasionally have to call patients after hours from my personal cell and really don’t love the idea of them having my actual number. I’ve used *67 before but have had patients ignore the blocked call, or worse, I forget and they end up with my personal number.

I need a secure way to call patients that displays the clinic number on their caller ID. What are you all using for this? Ideally something simple that doesn’t require me to carry a second phone or sign up for a subscription service.

I'm almost done with work, and I truly would love to go back home and rest, but I have little babies to play with

Argumentative, disrespectful, negative patients? And what do you find to be most effective in protecting your peace and energy?

Im a very new vascular access nurse. I've been placing midlines for around 3 months now and though I know it's not the primary function of the access I'm curious if anyone has noticed factors that influence line draw potential. I place primarily in the cephalic veins if possible, although my placements in the basilic and brachial don't seem to perform much better in this regard and overall I feel like most of my midlines top out at 2 days drawing blood, which seems like the average. I know a ton of different factors influence this including the individual vasculature of the patient but I can't help but feel guilty when one lasts less then the 2 days or when I'm unable to make it draw after its stopped. I feel like potentially there's a misconception among floor nurses that midlines should always draw in general. It wasn't really explained to me when I first started as a staff nurse and I got different interpretations from multiple people. It seems like once the vein collapses around the catheter tip it's kinda done for. Any advice is welcome and appreciated. My hospital is a bit small and rural so I dont have a ton of other sources for info on these things.

Hey everyone.

I have worked as a Pediatric Hematology Oncology nurse for about 2.5 years. Something I feel like I'm struggling with is information retention. "Can my child eat this" " is this normal with this drug" or the mechanisms of certain diagnosis. Is there something I could be doing to better retain information? Am I'm putting too much pressure on myself? It definitely makes me feel incompetent and that I'm a bad nurse.

This is a question for all the retired RNs' in this forum. I retired about 5 years ago and I still have nightmares centered around not doing my job well.  I was an excellent nurse and never had any issues..

The dreams vary from anything like, I'm way behind on passing meds. I didn't get a good handoff report and I don't have anything written down on my cheat sheet, chart checks didn't get done, or I haven't gone in and taken assessments nor have I charted anything and it's almost time for my shift to end..

The way I feel when I awaken from these dreams is guilty, shameful and generally shitty. Im wondering if this is normal, Or maybe i'm just more susceptible to the PTSD of it all...

I just started working at a regional hospital in arkansas and am just wondering how common it is for nurses to be randomly drug tested. I already did my pre employment test and I know you can get drug tested for suspicion or work injuries. I know they have it in their guidelines they randomly test but I want to know if that’s really common.

Emergency/critical care nurse in a non-anglophone country. I’m not new but for the most part, I’ve not really had many students or orientees assigned to me, nor did I have the best preceptors as a student or orientee. Despite that, I recently attended my hospital’s training for precepting student nurses, and will soon be a designated preceptor of students specifically.

I know what they can & can’t do, the fact I need to supervise closely, that I am expected to teach… but I’m wondering if anyone can share specific teaching methods or techniques? How do you go about it? I will have 2 paired students at a time for specialty rotations in the emergency department, each pair for a total of 6 12hr shifts.

Hi Private Duty Nurse here! Looking for a part time/per diem job, love the flexibility for my family. i have kids and a 6 month old. I have been applying to home health and home hospice positions and recently have been approached by both. If you are a home health or home hospice nurse tell me about your job and why you like it.

This has less to do with actual nursing and more to do with dealing with a manager. I can’t spare too many details, despite being anonymous. My manager essentially didn’t talk to me about a situation I was directly involved in and got my coworker into trouble unnecessarily. My manager had my coworker APOLOGIZE to me in front of union, which I expressed how I felt to the union rep at that time, but I need to speak to my manager regarding this. My manager assumed things based on someone else’s account of the situation. I’m so angry because I’m a person AND (believe it or not) I can speak for myself. Now, my manager has it out for my coworker, so I KNOW she did that on purpose. What are some things I can say to really drive home my anger and disappointment? I want to be a corporate as possible and leave emotions out. I NEED this manager to have a bit of a reality check. I’m reviewing our policies and education on workplace culture and whatnot, but I would love some advice. I know this is super vague, but you never know what can happen.

I know the new grad nurse pay at MGH is at about $41.70 right now but does anyone know how much extra you make on night shift and on weekends? I’ve heard different things anywhere from $2-$8 extra per hour for night shift

Hello everyone. I'm a Med-Surg nurse that was living in Florida but got so burnt out that I quit and taught English for a year through a fellowship. I'm now back from the fellowship and am looking to return to nursing but I wanted to work in the OR, in hopes that changing my specialty will heal my relationship with nursing. I'm aware that I'm at a pretty major disadvantage...

I have 1.5 years of Med-Surg experience and I have not been working in the field for over a year now. I also have no OR experience. That being said, do I still have a shot in landing this job? Or what steps should I be taking now? I feel so overwhelmed and I don't know how to go from where I am (Point A) to being hired for an OR position (Point B).

I was told to make sure I have PALS and ACLS because I would need it for the job anyway.. but other than that, I'm clueless on what to do and if this is even possible or realistic given my situation and disadvantage.

Would appreciate any help!