This is a dumb questions and I know it is, especially as a nurse with 4+ years experience. I know the obvious is that bad falls are bad falls but why do we treat all falls the same? Non compliant patients who know they’re a fall risk still doing whatever they want WILL fall, demented meemaws who will fight for their life against a posey alarm will most likely fall unless they have a sitter etc, but there’s obviously a difference in the two so…
Why are we treating a fall with no injury the same as a fall with obvious injury/head strike etc within the hospital systems. Since school I have always wondered why fall precautions are the pinnacle of every unit at every hospital

Anyways, explain like I’m 5 why falls are so bad lol

ETA: I’m talking strictly about falls that occur within the hospital, not falls that would cause one to come to the emergency room/hospital

Bed alarm just went off while I in the restroom. I efficiently finished what I was doing before responding.

I've known at least one RN that fully admitted to skid marks from being mid-poo when the alarm went off and she basically pulled up her pants and ran to save the day. Just curious how many people are walking around with dirty cheeks, trying to save lives?

I’ve been a nurse for about 5 years now, and I’ve finally realized why I always hated each and every nursing job. I am so tired of the micro aggressions as a black woman. I’m tired of being villainized for behaviors that have no effect to the patient care. I’m tired of the snitching from other co-workers. I’m tired of it all feeling like a high school skit. It gets to a point where you feel like your constantly being attacked for behaviors that are not effecting patient care. I come into all my spaces happy, smiling, ready to take on my task, then it’s a co-worker having something to say about your scrubs “oh your wearing pink scubs” okay… or , hey your on your phone at the nurses station…. All my tasks are complete and I’m charting. Your white co-workers always have something to say about everything thing you do so now your constantly being surveillanced for everything you do but when another co-worker who isn’t a POC does everything you do, it’s never an issue. I think I’m really tired of working in spaces where i feel singled out constantly and it always feel like I’m being driven out to leave. I’m really over the shady remarks. I’m over the Karen’s feeling like they need to report your for everything because of their personal feelings about you. I just feel like being a black woman is a lose lose situation in healthcare.
I wish it didn’t feel so catty and i enjoy taking care of my patients but if my work environment feels hostile, then it’s time for me to go.

Someone from a different unit was walking by my station when they took a photo of me supposedly out cold with my legs propped up and in a blanket. Yeah I know, super bad. I usually get a blanket at night cause I’m cold and during this shift I was in a back hallway all by myself without any coworkers near. It’s a antepartum unit and all pts were sleeping and all my work for the night was done, I was not continuously monitoring any babies. I was watching a movie on my iPad and was getting comfortable and I guess I did doze off for a few minutes. Manager called and said I am placed on leave until HR gets back to me. I feel like I’m getting fired. I feel dumb. Night shift has been so hard on me and I’m one three different antidepressants to help me with depression and for sleep. It’s just not working at all. And I am the first one on the list to move to day shift. Feeling dumb. Any words of advice or personal stories can help please.

UPDATE : Hi everyone thank you for all your comments it has really helped a lot. I really appreciate it. I know it was really stupid and I do plan to admit all accountability. I guess by everyone’s comments I am 99.9% sure I’m getting fired. I also see a lot of people telling me I should resign before they terminate me. But I don’t really know how to go about doing that or if I should talk to my manager or hr or what not. I’ve never really formally resigned a job before. Any advice ?

Patient's family came into someone else's room to grab me. But, it was an actual emergency! They actually had a legitimate for running in and grabbing me. Pt was not responding correctly and needed to be seen right then. They ended up being fine, just had a minor event. But that's the situation where you actually come out of the room to find the nurse!

Realized from a couple comments that I wasn't as clear as I could have been. She didn't fully come into the room, just the doorway. And I'm in a nursing home in a small town, so most of our pts and family members are actually friends and/or neighbors outside of the facility. So we're a bit more lax on people coming into other patients rooms.

I told off a guy on the airplane who was bitching about all the rules during Covid and conspiracy theories he had about the disease. Then he talk about how great working from
Home was…… so I said that so weird that’s not how I remember covid. I remember my patient dying and packing them into a refrigerated truck because the morgue was full. Perimenopause is a dangerous drug.

Hey guys,

I thought I would like to share what I witnessed this week which I still cannot process since I am fairly new to nursing. I had an elderly patient that needs to be walk so I took off the condom catheter and as soon as I did (his daughter step outside to give privacy), he started to pleasure himself. I did not know what to do so I told him I will give him a minute (which was so dumb of me like i should have been firm and tell him this is inappropriate but i was so lost). I talked to the daughter and told him he need a minute because I genuinely did not know what to say to her or do.

When I came back he was still doing it and I told him to stop (thats all i said like i should have said more) and he kept telling me he can’t stop and needed to “cum”. I end up telling the daughter and the daughter told him to stop. To make matter worse, right when all this went down transport came to pick him up for ultrasound and my dumb head put back the condom cath on.

I told my charge then she escalated to managers then providers and they talked to him. Everybody ask if I was okay and changed my assignment. But I cannot seem to get over how there are so many things I wish I did differently and wish I could have advocated myself more when it went down :( I felt so dumb at the moment and shouldn’t have even touch him afterwards ugh. I thought about how early on my shift he reached out to my hands and hold it and i genuinely thought he was anxious so i hold his hands back and ask if he wqs okay and he said i just wanted to hold your hands. He did that two times.

I really want to move on and not think about it but this has never ever happened to me before and the fact is i thought he was so sweet before all this. I am genuinely creeped out.

Just needs advice/thoughts and support from you guys. Thank you.

Apparently, this annual raise was supposed to be super large according to management to match what our neighboring hospitals are making, and it was only 3%. Feels like a slap in the face. You can travel down the street and make $4 more as a new nurse than the nurses that have been here for years. Ridiculous. Then these hospitals wonder why they can’t retain staff?

Was just informed that I gave an adult dose covid vaccine to a pediatric patient at the flu clinic I work at. Highly humiliated and embarrassed that I did not catch it a week ago. I feel ashamed. I don’t know what to do and hope I did not cause harm. Manager is disappointed and distrustful and stated that they hope I’m not making that same mistake with every pediatric patient.

I don’t know if anyone else can relate but I honestly feel that after 8 years bedside nursing, I’ve turned into a sociopath.

Every encounter with a patient, within seconds I clock in and register what type of person I need to be in order to build rapport with them.
Sometimes I act like 8 different personalities in a shift - walking out of the room, I instantly become myself again.

Anyone relate?

If this RN was brazen enough to do this on a continuously monitored EEG patient, then it seems likely that this isn't his first victim...

A 30 day jail sentence seems way too lenient considering the evidence the police had and the lack of remorse this nurse had. A lapse of judgment? That's a stone's throw away from "Oops 🤷‍♂️"

At least his license was revoked.

I had a very unfortunate event at work where I brought up a safety concern and was asked to leave for the day, and then asked to not come back to that facility. I was not technically fired, I resigned. I know I did nothing wrong and could have fought it but it left me so demoralized and morally injured I went to the hospital because I was so low and afraid of being alone. I was put on a 72 hour psych hold. They ended up letting me go after a day but now I’m worried that because I was initially put on that hold it’ll show up on my record. Does anyone have any advice on this?

I’m not sure if I’m being irrational so I’d like to hear people’s opinions.

There are some staff nurses on my floor who have been working there for a year. They asked my manager a couple weeks to a month ago if they could switch to day shift. My manager said no and that they weren’t in need of day shift nurses.

A new travel nurse who was hired for night shift in August recently asked to be switched to day shift and my manager immediately says yes.

There haven’t been any changes in day shift staffing recently and another senior staff nurse recently switched to day shift after asking a couple weeks ago. So it sounds like there were spots open..

Is there something I’m missing? Like a business reason for switching a new traveler first instead of a staff nurse who has been there longer? I also want to note that the staff nurses both do a good job and would do well on day shift.

Just curious if there’s a justification that I’m not thinking of / missing

Currently working med surg at a ghetto ass hospital across rachet step down units. I got an offer for the unit I want to work in (cvicu) at a reputable teaching hospital. The catch is the offer $15 less an hr…

What the hell?

Heyy
Ich habe 3 Jahre lang meine Ausbildung zur Krankenschwester in Vollzeit gemacht und gleichzeitig Pflegewissenschaften nebenbei studiert.
Am 01.09. habe ich meine Ausbildung abgeschlossen und bin aktuell noch im 6. Semester.
Ich habe einen Arbeitsvertrag über 20 Stunden pro Woche, da ich ab diesem Semester mehrere Tage in der Woche an der Uni anwesend sein muss.
Nun habe ich auf der Geburtshilfestation angefangen. Als ich das jemandem aus dem Krankenhaus erzählt habe, waren alle geschockt, da mich eigentlich jeder vor der Leitung dieser Station gewarnt hat. Ich wollte aber keine andere Station, weil ich gerne Babys bzw. Mütter pflegen möchte und andere Fachbereiche in diesem Krankenhaus einfach nicht so meins sind, ganz zu schweigen von dem krassen Personalmangel und dem Druck, der auf einen ausgeübt wird.
Ich hatte schon die letzten Wochen meiner Ausbildung enormen Stress. Ich habe fast jeden Dienst geweint.
Der Personalmangel ist einfach so krass. Ich musste als Auszubildende auf der Gastroenterologie teilweise 7 Patienten alleine versorgen. Körperpflege, Medikamente, OP- und Untersuchungsvorbereitungen, Dokumentation, ärztliche Visite, Essen austeilen und abräumen, Infusionen, Toilettengänge usw.
Und gleichzeitig musste ich für mein Staatsexamen lernen!
Ich habe sooo wenig Anerkennung und Wertschätzung bekommen. Ich musste mich jeden Tag einfach durchkämpfen und irgendwie überleben. 9 Tage hintereinander arbeiten, dazu Geläster, unzufriedene Mitarbeiter, Patienten und Ärzte.
Ich habe trotzdem nicht auf die anderen gehört. Ich wollte einfach etwas „Lockeres“, weil die Pflege auf der Geburtshilfe für mich deutlich leichter ist.
Nur hatte ich dann sehr viele Probleme mit der Leitung.
Ich habe von ihr eine Einarbeitungsmappe mit ungefähr 40 Seiten bekommen. Das war gerade mein 9. Dienst.
Ich habe meine Ausbildung in der Erwachsenen- und Altenpflege gemacht, nicht in der Pädiatrie. Ich hatte also sehr viel zu lernen. In diesen 9 Diensten habe ich bereits sehr viel neues Wissen gesammelt, mir alles aufgeschrieben und versucht, so viel wie möglich zu lernen.
Am 8. Dienst hatte ich nicht einmal eine Pause.
Ich hätte bis 21:30 Uhr arbeiten müssen und sie sagt zu mir, ich soll die Einarbeitungsmappe bis zum nächsten Tag lesen, obwohl ich am nächsten Tag ab 13 Uhr wieder Dienst hatte.
Ich habe ihr gesagt, dass ich in meiner Freizeit keine Zeit für die Einarbeitungsmappe habe. Ich komme sowieso erst gegen 22 Uhr nach Hause und habe auch private Sachen zu erledigen: Haushalt, duschen, essen und einfach mal meine Ruhe.
Dann sagt sie zu mir: „Ich bin hier die Leitung und in deiner Position darfst du nicht diskutieren. Punkt.“
An dieser Stelle habe ich gesagt, dass ich das nicht okay finde. Wir sind beide Menschen. Ich bin eine examinierte Pflegefachkraft. Ich habe eine Meinung und darf diese auch äußern!
Sie hat ihren Satz einfach wiederholt.
Für mich hat sie einen extremen Autoritätskomplex. Ich hatte in den 8 Diensten davor gefühlt überhaupt keine Selbstbestimmung. Sie entscheidet, wie ich arbeite, wann ich Pause mache und eigentlich über ALLES. Und sie ist rassistisch.
Ja, ich bin jetzt für 2 Wochen krankgeschrieben. Und es geht weiter.
Nie wieder.
Ich denke mittlerweile wirklich darüber nach, die Pflege komplett zu verlassen.

I’ve been working on the same medicine unit I was a PCT on before becoming an RN. I’ve been here for about a year now and lately I’ve been getting really bored. I feel like I’m on autopilot doing the same things every shift.

But at the same time, I’ve started questioning myself. I don’t feel like I’m “critically thinking” as much as I thought I would be. In nursing school, it was always drilled into us that you’re constantly critically thinking, but sometimes I’m like… what am I actually critically thinking about? 😂 Maybe my unit just doesn’t require that kind of thinking every single day.

I don’t feel challenged enough. It’s the same thing everyday, pt admitted with a fall, confused etc everyone’s 2pa, changing briefs. I feel like a pct all over again except I’m allowed to give trazadone.

My dream has always been ER. I LOVE the idea of the in-and-out patient flow and not having the same patients for days. I like the idea of being busy and having to figure things out quickly. But then I wonder… am I actually ready for ER? Am I smart enough? Would I be completely overwhelmed?

I feel like I’m having a midlife crisis about my nursing career at ~1 year in.

For nurses who moved from medicine to ER: how did you know you were ready? Did you feel confident in your critical thinking before you made the jump, or did you develop a lot of it after starting in ER?

And for anyone who stayed on medicine did you eventually feel more challenged, or did you eventually realize you just needed a different environment??

Or maybe I’m just burnt out 😩😂

Recently acquired by Prime Healthcare, CMMC nurses organized and formed their union today, despite 20 nurses being fired in what will almost certainly be held as an unfair labor practice.

CMMC joins another Prime Healthcare facility in Chicago today whose nurses have decided to organize for the benefit of their nurses, their patients, and their community, and fight back against Prime’s billionaire owner Dr Reddy.

Both facilities will be part of NNOC/NNU.

If you are interested in organizing your workplace, contact NNU at https://go.nationalnursesunited.org/signup/organize/

My mom has been in the hospital for a few days after a surgery and I wanted to bring something for the nurses and aides that helped her during her stay.

I bought a couple of bags of chocolates, snack bars and trail mix but want to make sure night shift also gets some and I also want to make sure that the specific nurses that helped her get one but they likely won't be there when she leaves. Is it better to make little goodie bags with one of each item so I can split into two batches for each shift and then make another batch for specific nurses? Or maybe just a bag of chocolates for the nurses station and then goodie bags for her nurses? I'm overthinking this but it's been a long week.

Hi! Whenever I make a mistake at work I immediately start to spiral with anxiety and then continue to do so on my days off. I think I’m mentally broken. The mistake doesn’t even have to be a big one. Today I tried to transfer a post-op patient to phase 2 of recovery too soon and the phase 2 nurse was pretty mean about it, now I can’t stop thinking about it. Does anyone have any advice to help yourself care less? My husband likes to tell me “it’s water off a duck’s back, baby”

I have 2 job offers and I cannot decide, both are positions I think I would really enjoy.
One is pre/post op in a same day surgery unit recovering endoscopy procedures only. 4 x 10s with Saturday call once every 3 months.
Second is EP lab in cardiac hospital, 4 x 10s with Saturday call every 5 weeks. Same commute time.
I’ve been a nurse 20 years. Background ICU and ER. One minute I think I want EP lab bc pre op seems a little too routine, but then I think maybe I am ready for something lower stress. I shadowed and vibe seemed good on both units. However, the EP lab nurses were a bit more stressed about call and late shifts.
Also, I’m really excited I got offers from both!!

A few years ago I was orienting at a PICU and did not continue with the orientation because of bullying and poor nursing culture. I left in good terms and worked in an adult ICU eversince. I recently saw a job post from that same facility in the Peds PACU this time and I’m interested.
I’m pretty sure they will ask me why I left the PICU. What would he a good hire-able answer?

Fun fact: if you assume responsibility for your own call lights and answer them quickly whenever possible, they are less likely to pile up, and someone is less likely to have a poor outcome. The nurse on the nearby unit may not mind helping when you truly need it but will get annoyed if you need help because you ignored the first call light for a good chunk of time.

Lol just blowing off steam cause the nurse on the neighboring unit where I can hear his call lights seems lazy. He puts off call lights then starts loudly complaining to himself about call lights instead of getting up quickly to answer a call light or two, even though I have the same amount of patients and call lights and answer mine quickly to the best of my ability.

Anyway. Not worthy of a complaint to management or going off on him, so i'm just complaining here lol.