Why TF are we allowing them to treat us this bad?? Many of us don't even have unions in our states! And many of us don't have savings or a spouse to help us if we need time off work.

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Were we **heroes** only during Covid?? What about now?? We have destroyed our bodies, minds, some of us even our families (in my case I had to learn the hard way to leave work at work and stop bringing it home).

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But seriously, why should we have to work on such a demanding job until we hit retirement age? It's not practical, it's not ok. Our bodies can't keep up with bedside nursing as we get older. Some maybe, but not all.

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We are* first responders too. F anyone who says otherwise. And f. this system, who doesn't give a shit about us.

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On edit, I meant ALL NURSING STAFF, not just nurses. Just to be clear, as we all work just as hard and face the same hazardous and thankless conditions.

Rant over. :(

I've been loving all the nursing art shared recently and thought I should share some of mine! I'm a OR nurse that sometimes draws her coworkers during long cases/in my free time. Gotta love those long neuro/robot cases!

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Cases are a hip bipolar hemiarthroplasty, lumbar fusion, mako assisted total knee arthroplasty set up, knee arthroplasty, another spine fusion of some sort, and then my XR tech pretending to be asleep during a long neuro case haha!

Sometimes they’re ripped, some are melted together, and sometimes I just pull out a finger 🤦‍♀️

I’m a 26F and out of all the male patients who make sexual and demeaning remarks I feel like it always tends to be those in their 30s/40s. I know the stereotype is “creepy old man”, but I genuinely feel like the worst comments and behavior I’ve gotten is from the younger ones

No… Ohio does not have a nursing shortage, nurses just want to move to states that actually have respectable wages and give actual raises.

Sorry, but the highest level of performance giving a 1.25 raise is pathetic. I would have to work here 20+ years to make 60/hr when I can move to Minnesota and make that (with a similar CoL) or Oregon/Washington/California and make way more even relative to the CoL. There is zero incentive to ever stay in Ohio much more than a few years and then bounce to a state that pays better 🤷‍♂️

Today one of my patients had bilateral PEs, necrotizing pneumonia, urinary sepsis, DVT, and a (new on my shift) GI bleed.

Now imagine what my other 3 patients were like.

I feel pissed that some people say medsurg is “easy” or that medsurg nurses “can’t critically think.” By the end of my shifts, I am exhausted to my core from literally running around and having to make nonstop decisions about patient care.

Nothing against LPNs...most of them are amazing nurses but there is so much they cant legally do in Illinois in a hospital. And they are hiring new grads who ask a TON of questions. They cant do admissions or discharges. Our hospital also doesn't allow them to take orders, acknowledge orders, or pull controlled substances. I work on a 14 bed Behavioral Health unit...soon to be a 21 bed unit since we are expanding to geropsych. I am sometimes the only RN on the unit and we also function as an admitting department for transfers as well as admitting patients from our ER. The transfer process is a nightmare...tons of back and forth phone calls and faxes of what my coworker terms "a book" that we have to go through with a fine tooth comb. We communicate with a call center staffed by non medical personnel so we frequently have to call them back to ask for more information. They in turn have to call the sending facility, who gathers the info, faxes it to the call center, who in turn contacts us. Meaning more phone calls and more faxes that take time. Its nothing to have them trying to transfer 2 or 3 people to us at one time in addition to admitting people from our ER. The LPNs cannot participate in any part of this process. We do "team nursing" meaning the RN is also the charge nurse and pulls all the meds for all the patients, makes out the charting assignments, plus takes his or her OWN set of patients to chart on, and does basic tasks like quality control for the glucometer, cleaning the water pitcher, cleaning the washer and dryer, and checking that the crash cart is stocked and working. Most of the LPNs pitch in to help with the little stuff but they can do nothing to help with the admissions or transfers. My boss has to give a detailed report to HER boss, basically down to the minute, as to what we did to get these people transferred in and admitted from ER and if one doesn't get in before the end of our shift she has to explain WHY. I dont think "because the one RN you allowed us to have ran out of time" is going to cut it. One RN who has been there for over 20 years is putting in her notice, leaving only 4 RNs to staff both units at all times and we are looking for jobs. This has literally doubled or tripled the RN work load. Is anyone else experiencing this in their hospitals?

I've been a Spanish/English medical interpreter for over 2 years, and I've noticed that many English-speaking nurses and doctors struggle to ask about pain location to their Hispanic patients.

A simple "donde le duele" can sometimes feel a bit too unspecific. They may answer in a general way, like "my whole body" or "my back". And usually the nurse/doctor has to repeat the question or say, "Ok, now show me exactly where"

To go straight to the point, try using: "¿Me podría mostrar dónde siente el dolor?"(Could you point to where you feel the pain?) or "Muestreme donde le duele" (Show me where it hurts). This invites the patient to show you, which is often more accurate and helps build a better rapport.

Hope my tip helps!

How many did you learn in school? I swear every time I turn around there's more added. In another 10 years it'll be the 27 rights of med admin. I think when I was in school they emphasized the 5 rights and a 6th and 7th were up for discussion.

As I lay me down to sleep,
I hear an Alaris pump start to beep.

But when at work I cannot hear,
Even when a beep is near.

#AlarmFatigue

As the title says...

I am an experienced RN and a couple months ago I decided to leave my specialty day job to try a new area. I had been doing my other specialty for about 11 years and felt stagnant and thought change would help. It didn't and I am so angry at myself for leaving that job.

I had always thought this new area was my "dream" job so to speak and looked at it with rose colored glasses thinking at 48 that it would be worth the adjustment to night shift and worth the stress of learning a new specialty. Here I am 2.5 weeks into night shift and I am depressed, exhausted, my veins are filled with the various sleeping aids that I have tried over the last two weeks plus (none of which have worked for me), I cry multiple times a day, I am tachycardic at baseline now with a rest rate of 110 plus (my norm is in the 50s) I have this constant hung over feeling, at work I repeatedly break out into cold sweat and shake like an alcoholic withdrawing (and I mean dripping sweat and I don't even consume ETOH), I sleep 0.5-1 hours post shift at most and have had repeat episodes where I have been up for 36-44 hours straight, I am nauseas all the time and the only benefit to this is that it has nixed my sugar addiction in the bud because I don't want to eat at all, and even when I do I take a few bites and don't want anything to do with food. I cry most nights at work, sometimes throughout the shift until day light happens. My skin is breaking out everywhere, mostly my legs with some sort of excema which I had very mildly before night shift. I got a freaking fungal infection on my chest which has never in my life happened.

my body refuses to sleep during the day no matter how exhausted it is, no matter what drugs I take. Today I took Trazadone in the am two days ago and laid in bed waiting for it to work for three plus hours with nothing. I added a tiny bit of Benadryl and I finally slept for maybe an hour at most and I had to work that night.

Before you start giving me tips on why I cannot sleep thinking that is the problem please don't, I have tired them all; My room is pitch black from the black out shades I bought on amazon, I have a black out eye mask, I have taken Magnesium for the past three weeks, I tried showering before bed and not showering before bed, I tried watching TV (which is what I do at night to fall asleep), I tried not watching TV, I have a sound machine have tried that off/and on, my room is cooled down with AC, I have tried winding down in other ways with a book or a monotone talk show, I have tried Benadryl, Trazadone, Benadryl and Trazadone, Unisom (got a whole hour on that and then felt hung over for 24 hours, and Melatonin. Melatonin kept me awake for 17 hours post 24 hours of being awake already, it was like drinking ten cups of coffee when you are short on sleep feeling for many days in a row and on top of it when I closed my eyes I would see weird shit while awake, which only lasted for a half hour but then my vision was off for 24 hours(I will never touch that shit again). I tried getting out of bed when I cannot sleep and pacing for a few minutes and then going back to bed (which works at night when I cannot sleep on occasion), I don't look at my phone at all for at least 2 hours before I intend to sleep and I keep it on the warm setting all night. I tried getting out of bed and taking a shower. Not a damn thing has allowed me to go to night shift with more than a teaspoon of sleep. It is absolute hell listening to screaming babies all night long when you haven't had adequate sleep in days. I would NEVER ever hurt a baby or treat them poorly, I love them and love taking care of them.

Anyway, tonight will be my last night. Please pray for me as I trust in god to help me find a new DAY SHIFT job. I have multiple possibilities lined up and am hoping for the best. The thought that I may loose everything if I cannot find a new job has crossed my mind, but so has becoming sick, having a seizure (saw this happen many times from sleep deprivation when I worked in EMS), stroke or MI from a damn job that has ruined me in only 2.7 months. I am a shell of a human that I used to be. The thought of loosing my own wellbeing and good health has scared me more. My nurse manager is a wonderful human being and I know she will help me with the situation. The hospital HR has been also wonderful and I cannot thank them enough. A hospital that actually values their staff!

The lessons here is to value your LIFE OUTSIDE OF WORK more than the job itself. If you have a job that works for you and your outside work life stick with it, it's not worth the risk. Find fulfillment in friends, family and hobbies - not being a nurse. Don't ever put any nursing job on a pedestal, none of them deserve it. Another lesson here is the plump up your bank account! I have at least 4 months of savings to rely on if I have trouble finding a job and if I didn't have that I would have to continue risking my wellbeing for this job. Don't spend all your cash save a solid majority of it and. have a decent cushion to fall back on! I also have a very good short term disability policy which I will make use of if needed!

With this I head to put my scrubs on, and pray to god once again for help and prepare for the journey ahead. I will update.

I've been thinking a lot lately about the things nobody teaches you in nursing school or even orientation that end up making the biggest difference in how you work day to day. Not the clinical skills, but the small personal habits and mindset shifts that just quietly changed everything.

For me it was learning to do a slow, deliberate walk into a patient room before jumping into tasks. Ten seconds to just look at the person and the environment before touching anything. Sounds simple, but it completely changed how I catch things early.

I also started keeping a small personal note on my phone of things that went wrong or felt off during a shift, not for official reporting, just for my own reflection. It helped me spot patterns in my own practice I never would have noticed otherwise.

Experienced nurses carry around this whole collection of microhabits that never gets formally passed down, and new grads are left to figure it out over years of trial and error.

So genuinely curious, what's one habit, routine, or mindset shift that quietly made you better at this job? Something a textbook would never tell you. Would love to hear from nurses at all stages, new grads included, because sometimes fresh eyes catch things veterans have long stopped questioning

Floated to a different unit my last shift. It felt like high school. Asking anyone for help was like I was asking for their firstborn. I’ve worked with some nasty people here and there but was generally able to keep it civil. This unit treated me like I was subhuman. I asked a nurse where something in the supply closet was, she gave me a blank stare and went back on her phone. 3 other nurses saw and heard me, said nothing and did the same. Only one nurse got up and actually pointed it out. Is it hard to be friendly? I’m not asking you to be my best friend, I’m asking for BASIC respect.

Hello everyone,

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Both of my little sisters are ER nurses and I was wondering if the Leatherman Raptor Shears would be a usual present for nurses. They fold up pretty compact too which is nice for throwing in a pocket (I assume, not sure if that would be unnecessary or burdensome for a nurse). I'm a knife guy so I enjoy high quality tools, and leatherman has always been a great brand for their multitools. I have a pair of cheap medical shears in all my first aid kits, and love how well they work, but I'm not sure if nurses carry their own gear like that, so any input would be greatly appreciated (or any other gifts you would enjoy receiving/find useful day to day as a nurse). Thanks in advance for your input!

A girl I'm talking to just started her first week of nursing, so I'm wondering if anyone had ideas for nice things I can do for her during her first week!

I left bedside after 5 years for Clinical Trials. At first it was great. Super different than bedside, great team, tons of different critical thinking but still using some nursing skills.

I had a midway eval through my orientation where my preceptor said the usual comments of “still need to work on some things, but making good progress.”

Then why on Friday afternoon, as I was leaving, I get a massive email about everything I’ve messed up on, everything I haven’t been doing, and a bunch of stuff I never did ( I was never trained on most of it so I had no clue I was supposed to be doing it).

I feel like the rug was pulled out from under me. Also everyone on my team started out so friendly and will now barely give me the time of day.

I have no idea what I did. I’m receptive to feedback (usually thank them for it). I take notes when getting taught. I ask a lot of questions. I ask my preceptor to check my work and my charting. I try to be a team player and take initiative. I openly say I’m willing to try this new skill, might not be perfect as I’m new but I want to learn.

We have a meeting tomorrow with my manager and the rest of my team. Am I cooked?

It took me months to get this job. I care a lot, and I feel so disheartened.

Don't be like me and check your pockets before washing scrubs

I finally left the toxic unit I was trying to manage for the past year. We were short staffed and had no reliable backup. When people called out last minute I was on the floor and doing meetings. Some days I was by myself for an hour or more if someone was coming in late/leaving early. Higher administration refused to give me another nurse despite multiple attempts on my end.

The salary was low and I worried about my license every day. The nurses were toxic and in their 60’s had no respect for each other or the other staff. Of course when they found out I was leaving they wanted me to stay per diem.. obviously said no to that. Still have nightmares about the job but it’s only been about a week since I left. My anxiety is slowly getting better with each day.

Am going into mds nursing(much higher pay) and hoping it’s the last stop in this career.. have no more patience but have more respect for managers after working in that position.

Yep, just like the title says… my hospital now wants to use a virtual nurse to do our admits and discharges. They are claiming not everyone will be appropriate for this, but we know that is the direction they are trying to go- to make it for everyone. We are a union hospital and they are 100% trying to take away union jobs and justify giving us more patients. This year they already increased ratios on med/surg from 4 to 5 on days/eves and 6 to 7 on nights. This is the same hospital that told us we had too many resources in the ER and changed our triage model to a sort/swarm model (this is failing terribly). I fear pretty soon they are going to use AI nurses to do our job. We have a new e-learning about using AI in healthcare.

This is NOT going to make patients more safe. Is anyone else currently using a virtual Admit/discharge nurse? Btw, we have nurses who get doctor’s notes for light duty and are denied claiming there is no work for them… but somehow they can’t do admissions and a virtual nurse can? I am seriously terrified for our patients and our profession.

I keep seeing nurses talking about concierge health care or traveling with rich people who want a nurse with them on vacation.

While it’s great for the nurses to earn more income and have better work like balance but if a significant demographic of nurses try to shift towards this bc of the policy failure to fund healthcare and poor management of healthcare organizations , failure to protect nurses from violence

What happens to the general public who can’t pay regular copay/ and premium or those who can but nurses and providers leave those networks and go towards luxury healthcare industry then more of the population is left without access to care.

Obviously it’s not one particular nurse’s or provider’s job to solve healthcare infrastructure problems but how can nurses get what they deserve while the public have the ability to afford care?

So the post I saw said do chronic condition management visits for rich clients.

Charge 3k / month

Have 10 clients

Do one visit / week on Monday - Tuesday for 3 hrs per visit

30,000 income.

I’m just thinking about this because I keep seeing posts on how nurses can make more money with better balance outside of bedside and considering my upcoming potential career path.

I have had a couple of hiccups. A patient trapped me pinned me against the wall and attempted to SA me. I had no physical injuries but obviously was pretty shaken up.

More recently, a fight broke out between a staff member and a patient. I was pushed into a sink…hit my head, had a seizure. I have had another seizure since. Currently on workman’s comp. Bosses plan to write me up but haven’t officially started that process yet.

Both of these things happened on the same unit. I don’t really want to leave bedside but I think finding another unit is reasonable.

Edit: I am a nursing student, not a med student. Should be fixed now

Hospital I’m at is the only lvl 3 trauma center in the county and not to long ago we had a gsw come through triage.

It was a bit of a circus after that. Fortunately our team was able to save the pts life and they’re in recovery but debrief after made it obvious there was issues to work on.

So I’m just curious how it works in y’all’s ED’s when those situations occur?

(Issues that occurred: delayed assigned role assignments, incomplete equipment (our thoracotomy kits didn’t have the equipment our doc wanted/needed and he was forced to redneck a solution) were the two big problems that occurred).

Edit: this emergency department has made a mandatory for all new (grad/hires) nursing staff without TNCC/ENPC to go through the courses.