..uh.. *checks\*

..the waffles?

Was trying to find a more efficient way to move a lot of urinals , became an angle 📐

Has anyone heard of trimethylaminuria (TMAU)? I have an RN coworker I’m close with who recently shared that she has this condition, which can cause body odor due to the body’s inability to break down certain compounds. Which is why she has been working nights for 5 years so she is less exposed to people.

Other coworkers constantly talk about how she smells, but honestly, I can’t smell anything from this coworker. I keep her medical condition private because it’s not my place to share. But last night, hearing them talk so much smack about her genuinely made me feel bad. She’s a good nurse, and she doesn’t deserve that.

To all the nurses on here, can we please stop the mean girl, high school drama BS? It’s not cute, especially when we’re 45+ years old. We’re grown adults. Go find something better to do! 🙄😂 Our job is already hard enough.

I’ve been working night shift on this unit almost 2 years, and on Friday my manager called me in to tell me they have to move me to day shift to balance staffing after a few people just quit.

To answer the question of why they’re able to force me: I was technically hired for a dayshift position, and during my first week they asked if I wanted to do nights instead, and I agreed. But my contract was for days. I’m also of very low seniority on my unit so that’s a big piece of it too. I’m saying this because I want to clarify that I can’t fight them on this.

But I am so upset. I have always said I will never go back to dayshift until I’m no longer working in a hospital (eventually want to move to outpatient).

There is no part of me that wants to switch to dayshift. I am one of the rare people who sleeps 10x better with a night shift schedule. I worked days during nursing school and I really, really struggled with anxiety/insomnia. I thought I just had severe sleep problems (trust me—I tried everything. Everything. For several years.), but it turned out i just naturally am unable to sleep on that schedule. I would try to go to bed at 9 and quite literally lie in bed until 3am. And I couldn’t ever make up for lost sleep because sleeping in on a day off would throw off my whole sleep schedule all over again.

Once I switched to nights and finally had the freedom to stay up until 2-3am every night, I regularly get 8-10+ hours of sleep and feel amazing.

I’m really struggling with this. I HATE dayshift, I’m already having extreme anxiety even though I don’t start for another 3 weeks. Oh, not to mention that I’ll be losing my shift diff.

I want to just leave this job honestly, it’s a dumpster fire overall. But I signed a 2 year contract and would have to pay back 10k unless I stay for another 5 months. :( 5 months seems so soon until I think about working dayshift for ~20 weeks. Ughh

I’m charge nurse, and on my unit, we typically have a lighter patient assignment because of our additional responsibilities.

We have another admission coming, and the other nurses are refusing to take it because they’ve already admitted someone earlier in the shift. They’re still at four patients each. If I take this admission, I’ll be at five while also handling charge responsibilities.

I understand admissions are work, and patient count isn’t everything—acuity and what everyone currently has going on should matter. But I’m frustrated that “I already took an admission” is being used as the reason I should take another patient and end up with a heavier assignment as charge.

Am I being unreasonable for being pissed about this? How does your unit handle admission rotation when charge also has patients?

Exactly what it says. I was SO happy to finally score an outpatient position of 2 years of being unstaffed, uncontrollably anxious, and miserable. The amount of relief I felt my last shift at the hospital was indescribable. I took a pay cut, but honestly I didn’t care. I will do anything to just be.. happy.
I’m a month into this job, just got off orientation, and it’s just me under 4 providers. And 3 out of 4 of these providers are horrid. Mean. Not only am I trying to learn epic, I’m learning the outpatient position, and all I feel like I’ve been is a punching bag. Constantly pointing out small mistakes, going to my manager about them. Friday, I didn’t get records from an outside hospital for an appt with one of the doctors, and I got torn apart. And I didn’t even know I was responsible for getting these records, BECAUSE I HADN’T DONE THAT FOR MY ENTIRE ORIENTATION.

So today is Sunday.. and finding myself JUST as anxious as I was for my hospital shifts. Except making $15 an hour less. Sigh. Anyway. They’re supposed to be bringing in a second nurse soon. So I’m trying to be positive but right now, I am so much in a loss to the extent I feel like I’m getting depressed. And I am drowning.

Thanks for making it to the end of my rant. I guess the grass isn’t always greener.

Fuck ICE and this administration.
I realize this image is graphic, Mods can remove if they feel it necessary.

I know this is a tale as old as time but FFS why am I still giving you report at 8pm on these 4 patients who are all relatively stable bc you need to stop and flush the IV halfway through report or right before? Because I promise you even if it doesn't work I'm not staying to put another IV. I assessed them on my time, rotated if necessary, removed if necessary, so if for some reason it's not working by shift change that's not on me. And why are you asking me questions for things that are so inconsequential?

And if you're going to stop writing things down as I'm speaking bc you need to stop to do some random thing please don't expect me to stop speaking. I find myself staying late more often than not bc the people I'm giving handoff to are like this 9 times out of 10. I dread it.

THIS will be the reason I end up leaving bedside. Not patient acuity, not admin - it will be bc of the nursing staff.

Last month I gave birth to a 23 weeker😔 We’ve still got a long way to go, but I was wondering if some of the NICU nurses in here could give me some ideas of things I could occasionally bring in for the staff that they would actually want?

I was asked by someone if I like nursing and I said I love it. This was followed by what kinds of nurse are you. I responded a school nurse and to that they responded oh that’s why you like it, you’re not even a real nurse.
is That how people think? That if you’re not working at the bedside in the ER or ICU you’re not a real nurse?
I thought that once you graduated and got your license you’re a real nurse?

I’m just genuinely curious. All nurses at my hospital wear ciel blue except the ED nurses, who wear black. PT/OT wear dark gray and their assistants wear Caribbean blue, dietitians wear hot pink, PCTs wear teal, transporters wear royal blue.

Been on a Tele unit for going on 5 years. We had phlebotomists who did our lab draws which was a huge convenience for the nurses. A few months ago, the hospital decided to let them go and delegate nurses to do phlebotomy. This has led to an increase in the workload and demand of the job. The pressing question: did we get an increase in pay? The answer is no but a closed mouth don’t get fed.

Has this happened to anyone else before? Did you get raise in pay? I’m certain we were spoiled rotten having phlebotomists draw our labs but this is an already a super busy unit and adding on this task has proven to be a setback at times especially when doctors trickle orders in for multiple patients.

Is it fair to ask for a raise at this point?

I work as an LPN in the province of Alberta and I really enjoy my scope. I can spike blood, start IVs, push medication IV direct and care for my own POD of highly acute patients.
My husband and I could be moving to another province and he’s looking for work (I have no idea where we’ll end up.) I’m wondering what other provinces have a similar scope for LPNs and which provinces should I avoid?
One of my friends said that LPNs in New Brunswick are essentially HCAs and as much as I love HCAs and appreciate them, I’m not interested in being one.

I have no idea what it is. I think going up to the nurse’s station while they give report is the best move, because my grandpa NEEDS a ginger ale and he needs it NOW. I thought I heard them talking about a “rapid response”? But nothing in this hospital is rapid. My grandpa ran out of his ginger ale .5 seconds ago and it’s DISTURBING that I can’t find a nurse in a timely manner. How else am I supposed to relay this extremely urgent request if I don’t physically enter the nurse’s station? /s

As the title says. I am in Upstate NY. We are due for survey. No soap seems like a great way to get immediately shut down. It is a basic need. They say it is due to budget cuts. There is still hand soap in the residents rooms, in wall mounted dispensers.

I worked for a year and a half as a nursing/healthcare assistant at a hospital within the Bristol NHS Foundation Trust in England, so when I saw the Bristol stool charts in the nursing notes I just thought that it was a local policy specific to the hospitals within the Trust and other parts of the country and the world would have their own ways of measuring stool.

But recently I've just started medical school (sorry nurses!) in Wales, and in our first lecture about diarrhoea, the paediatrician presented the Bristol stool chart and explained it was used by clinicians here too, which surprised me because again, I thought it was just used within my old Trust.

Do you use the Bristol stool chart? Is it used everywhere or just Britain/the UK?

Buckle up! I’m a new grad on an LDRP still on orientation (made it through week 8 of 22). My father was diagnosed with terminal cancer earlier this year, which I informed my educator and manager of from the get go. They were/are incredibly understanding, worked with me to get 4-5 consecutive days off once a month to go back home and help my mom care for my dad (~3 hours away).

Unfortunately, my dad’s condition quickly turned and he had a hospitalization that ended in hospice. He has been home with us for over 2 weeks now, where I am functioning as a primary caregiver. My manager and educator both strongly encouraged me to go home and be there with him for his final days. Here’s where it gets tricky. Because I am not off orientation, I do not qualify for leave of absence. My manger advocated for me at HR and was able to secure me 2 weeks unpaid leave. As I mentioned, I have been home now for 2 weeks. As of today, I believe my leave ends. Hospital policy is to terminate orientees past 2 call outs (one of which I used weeks ago due to COVID).

This is also problematic as I am part of a larger new grad residency, which I have also missed classes for now. My dad has not eaten nor drank anything in ~18 days now and is defying all odds. Our hospice nurse keeps telling us we are close, but somehow he is still fighting and timeline is semi-unclear.

Assuming my unpaid leave is over effective today, and I only have 1 more callout left (buying me potentially this week off), I can’t imagine in any world that I will feel mentally ready to jump back into such an intense job, that is completely fresh to me, in 2 weeks time. I am struggling immensely with what options I have. I’m afraid of how my resume will look if I end up being terminated or leaving this position, or if I don’t include it on my resume how it will look to have a 6+ month gap from finishing school to applying for jobs again, and I’m really upset because I was so excited to be in the women’s health field and felt incredibly lucky to be there.

My manager has voiced how she wants me on the team and how there may be opportunity to join the team again and start fresh with the next cohort (~4 months out). I’m dreading the idea of starting over. I’m having doubts about even returning to such an intense, demanding speciality. Quite frankly, taking care of my dad in the state he’s in is making me question my desire to do anything bedside nursing, but I feel like that’s the most likely option as a new grad.

I don’t even know what I’m asking- advice, if you’ve found yourself in even slightly similar situations and how you handled it, what you think my best options could be- I really don’t know. I’m entirely overwhelmed and did not imagine my career beginning like this!

I swear everyone says that the AC is the easiest but somehow I can get IVs anywhere else like the wrist or forearm but I can't get an IV in the AC

Hi, I am supposed to get a pre employment drug screen done tomorrow for a nurse position in a hospital. It says on the hospital’s website they do a drug screen, a non-smoking screen, and a tobacco use screen. I am a vaper (ew, I know) but I was going to stop tomorrow since it marks 2 weeks before starting my job. I’m super worried about this tobacco screen. I think I’m going to push back the drug screen anyway. But I read that cotinine can stay in your system for weeks. Any guidance or advice?? I feel so lucky to have gotten this job and I really don’t want to lose it!

I have been a nurse working in a high acuity ICU for almost 5 years. While I have had patient deaths that were traumatic and unexpected every now and then recently I’ve had so many that it’s starting to weigh on my heart. What’s worse is all these patients were seemingly stable at shift change and they all decompensated and died so quickly. In all these cases nobody, the doctors nor I, anticipated what happened and we did all we could to try and save the patients’ lives. It’s especially been difficult to deal with the devastation that the families feel from the unexpected outcomes. I used to be able to compartmentalize well and most patient deaths didn’t affect me. I think the suddenness and frequency of these deaths are really what I can’t process and I’m struggling to cope with these new feelings. Any advice?

So, I am conducting an academic research study examining the perceived benefits and use of dark humor as a coping mechanism among military personnel, first responders, healthcare professionals, and the general population. Participation is voluntary and anonymous. The survey is open to adults ages 18 and older and takes approximately 7–10 minutes to complete.

Some of you may find the questions interesting, some may find it boring.

https://shout.com/s/Rzsl62cM

I have Mod approval to post.

Night shift sounds appealing because of the shift differential, and I’ve heard it can be a better vibe for new nurses compared to day shift. But I also like the idea of working days and still having a few hours with my family after getting home from the hospital. After seeing all these posts about nurses staying late to finish charting, though, I’m wondering how realistic that is. Do you actually have time for your family when working day shift? And which specialties tend to have more manageable charting and allow nurses to leave at a reasonable time?

I recently got my RN license and am applying to new-grad programs while continuing to work as a CNA at a SNF. Two agencies I work with said it’s okay, but I’d like to hear from others. Are there any licensing or liability concerns?

I'm on my 3rd specialty in 5 years. I've loved them all and transitioned for different reasons. This most recent time was just for a change in pace and to expand my skill set. However, I don't think I can continue doing bedside in 10-20 years. I love direct patient care but it's too physically and mentally taxing to do bedside long term. I already tried a leadership type role and don't see myself ever doing that again. I love 12 hour shifts.

What do you guys reccomend?

I was thinking about dabbling into being a part time clinical instructor just to feel it out.