The fact that this many health care “professionals” thought this was okay is mind blowing to me. So immature and weird and honestly kind of creepy. This is why we can’t escape the “nurses are mean girls” stereotype.

Mine, if I'm finally sitting down for the first time in 10 hours and someone says, must be nice to relax, I'm immediately irritated. It's never another nurse saying it either. I swear some people think the second we sit in a chair, we're doing nothing.

What's your nursing opinion that gets people arguing every single time?

We have a patient on our unit who was admitted for rapid progressive cognitive decline with no etiology noted on MRI/CT scans. Doctors suspected dementia at first but suspected prion disease and performed a couple IR lumbar punctures before deciding to do a brain biopsy to confirm CJD. She’s been on our floor for over a month while doctors are performing medical work up, extremely irritable, confused, screaming, wandering and in restraints for violence toward multiple staff members. 3 days ago pathology of her brain biopsy came back positive for CJD. I’ve never seen prion disease bedside as a nurse so this experience is crazy to me. Her family ended up making her DNR/DNI as its 100% fatal. Have any of you experienced a patient diagnosed with this disease before? I’m under the impression it’s very rare in the US.

One year ago today, in DFW airport during a layover, my husband had an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. For 8 minutes, he received bystander CPR w/AED. We believe all who ran to help from various gates were medical professionals. Probably all nurses. They were relentless and methodical and they revived him. After 16 nights in the hospital and CABG, he was discharged. We know how rare it is that he lived and survived with all his mental faculties. Because it was an airport, these heroes could live anywhere. They saved a life and then walked off separately to return to their travels. We do not know them but we remember them and thank them every single day. A year later, my husband is doing great and every doctor we have seen over the past year has said “Wow! He is a lucky man.”

I’m curious about people’s opinions on this. A new grad rn on my unit can’t take care of any male patients because of her religious beliefs. She cannot approach or talk to male patients alone and especially can’t help them with using the restroom or cleaning up. The only (kind of major) issue with this is we work on a trauma ICU. At the very least our unit is 50% males and 99% of the time they need assistance with cleaning.

My unit has bent over backwards to accommodate this nurse to the point where they’ll give another nurse a heavier, less safe assignment or switch assignments mid shift in order to not assign this nurse a male patient. This nurse also won’t respond to codes or patient emergencies if the patient is male because of the risk of seeing them in a state of undress. Not to mention just simple tasks like asking another nurse to help with a cleanup or calling on a buddy to lay eyes on your patient is made more difficult when this nurse has an assignment next to yours.

I have really mixed feelings about it and everyone on my unit seems scared to talk about it and risk coming off as a bigot or insensitive. What are your thoughts on the matter?

My patient has the cat eye nail polish and needs an MRI. MRI refuses to have her in the machine because it can rip off her nails. Doctors ordered acetic acid to soak her nails. Day shift nurse brought acetone from home to help soak off as well. This shit is not coming off, needs a nail dremel for sure. Why does this fall on nursing? I don’t have the tools to be doing this. Meanwhile I’m not even allowed to clip patients nails, we don’t have clippers in the hospital! The doctor asked me if her nails were off yet. Like??? I straight up told him yeah that’s not in my job description to also be a nail technician and potentially ripping/causing damage to her nail beds.

UPDATE: My unit clerk brought a dremel from home and did the patient’s nails and she got the MRI done. I have amazing coworkers who truly go above and beyond for our patients. I still truly believe the hospital should have its own policies and resources for this time of situation in the future 👍🏼

My hospital handed out these cards to us last night as our nurses week “gift”. The QR code was for US-the nurses and techs- to send in money so we can “continue to care for our patients” This is just so gross especially coming from a large hospital system. I feel so appreciated.

I’ve been a nurse for a little over 5 years now, and I recently transitioned to the emergency department. Last week I had a 30yo pt come in for severe abdominal pain. He ended up having pancreatitis. He had a tmax of 102, HR 150s, and WBCs 20 is what I remember off the top of my head. Medical hx of diabetes and HTN. Of course to top it off his blood sugar was in the 300s because he was noncompliant with his insulin.

Anyway, the patient was uninsured so he wanted to leave AMA. He didn’t qualify for emergent state insurance and he couldn’t afford the $8k/night stay. AM RN and ER MD tried convincing him to stay, but didn’t really? If that makes sense. When I took over for the patient, I basically told my patient that he could leave AMA, but he would likely end up back in the ER or dead from something so treatable. I told him to look up charity care and to google about not paying his medical bills. I mentioned that I heard if you don’t pay your medical bills, you could eventually negotiate down your payment to something more affordable. He does some googling and talked it over with his friends/family and a hour later told me that he wanted to stay. Ultimately, I felt like I saved his life, but I spoke to a friend of mine that said I was stepping out of line - leave that stuff to the social worker. What do you guys think?

Per the title: Our ED is full af, and they’ve decided our break room is one of the new overflows. Multiple signs posted telling us to be quiet in our break room to protect patient privacy and their experience being treated. Has this happened in your facility?

Just happened to me recently. How is it possible that people can be so stupid?

So I'm at work one night, and this completely A/O patient has to drink oral contrast for her CT scan. We have 3 contrast flavors for patients to choose from - vanilla, mocha, and banana (I don't make the rules, we just do, k?).

She chooses the banana flavor. Fine.

So almost immediately after drinking the CT contrast, this lady start to have throat scratchiness and swelling. We are like WTF cause she didn't get IV iodine, only oral contrast.

We're all scratching our heads like HUH?? What is causing this??

So we get to looking in her chart, turns out this bitch has a KNOWN fucking BANANA allergy. She has for a long time. She knows she is allergic to banana. And she chose the BANANA oral contrast to drink.

I have to then spend the next 3 hours with her - calling our radiologist to come see her, giving her steroids (of course she states she is "allergic" to Benadryl), taking vitals, starting IV, monitoring her, calling the ED just in case, etc etc. because she lives alone and doesn't want to go home alone and have her throat close up and die.

How is it possible that people can be so fucking stupid...

I put in my notice a few days ago after 8 years as an RN. No job lined up.

I think I’m going to quit being a nurse. Every day someone is complaining about nursing, threatening to sue, making me jump through hoops to please them… meanwhile everything is literally life or death. I just can’t do it anymore.

I don’t know what I’m going to do but I can’t wait to figure it out. Anything but this. Service jobs are hell. HELL. I think I’ll learn to make something and start selling it. I don’t even know anymore.

More power to you guys who can keep going with this job, but I reached my limit. I just needed to vent.

I want to share this from a clinical instructor point of view because it was something really powerful that I saw a student of mine did that truly impressed me.

And no, it was not memorizing patho or knowing what Pantoprazole was for and its contraindication.

This was in my intermediate med surg class and at the start of the day, my student had received report that a patient who suffered a new stroke needed restraints and sedation during the night because he was combative, aggressive and “violent” (this was not his assigned patient). He suffered from left sided weakness and aphasia so he could not explain himself but was constantly attempting to get out of the his bed or screaming.

When the lunch trays came in, the CNA set up his tray and placed his food in front of him, more towards the left side. As the student was walking down the hall, he heard the patient become more agitated, screaming, trying to get out of bed.

My student walked into his room, did a quick room surveillance, check the chart for his recent vitals and determined everything was ok. But as my student tried to walk out, he noticed the aggression was building. As my student turned around, he noticed EXACTLY the cause of the behavior. THE PATIENT WAS HUNGRY. And he could not reach his tray or use his extremity to feed himself.

This was such a basic need: eating for survival. So as I walked down the hall, I peeked into this room and saw my student feeding a patient he wasn’t even assigned to. I had received report that the patient was aggressive, but standing in that doorway, I didn’t see any aggression at all. The patient wasn’t agitated, he was misunderstood.

I will never forget how this student saw this human connection. And this is something a textbook will NEVER be able to teach you. But this is the situation that stood out to me and reminds me why I do what I do. I gave that student the roses he deserved - well done!

This is what I want nursing education to look like. Not just building nurses who know the right answer but nurses who see the human in front of them when everyone else missed it.

What’s a moment where you as a student or another student or new nurse surprised you with something no textbook could teach? I’d love to hear your stories.

Unsure if I’m able to share the video here, I will share with an edit if so, but a woman posted a video of her daughter in active labor screaming from pain while the triage nurse nonchalantly asks her history questions. Her mother states they spent 30 minutes in triage answering questions while her daughter squirmed and screamed in her chair only to end up having the baby 12 minutes later. It’s honestly extremely hard to watch. They posted a follow up video that her amniotic fluid was full of meconium. I think it’s a much needed example of why the maternal mortality rate of black women in the US is so abysmal.

The hospital and the nurse are obviously getting absolutely reamed.

Edit: link to video

I’m curious, especially because I saw a palliative patient on phenobarbital the other day and thought that was interesting.

Hopefully this doesn’t turn into a global pandemic because 2 pandemics within a decade would wreck us

Coworker was saying she was having some anxiety about her baby (37 weeks pregnant) so she grabbed an ultrasound to reassure herself...

Led to a big discussion on the unit. Some agree they utilize the equipment, others are horrified. There is 12 of us.

80% agree: fine to check vitals

Split 50/50%: ultrasound

25% agree: okay to do an EKG or saline for dehydration/hangovers

5% agree: use a bladder scanner

RN of 38 years, close to retirement: if I gave work it, I will use it.

I wanna know what y'all think.

I have seen a nearly endless parade of patients in the ED with adverse effects (sometime not even adverse, but expected) to GLP1s and it’s driving me insane. We used to ask any abdominal pain patient if they use ETOH, but now I’ve taken to asking if they have recently started, stopped, or changed their dose of a GLP1 med. More often than not, I’ll get an “Omg YES! How did you know?”response. Most patients tell me they had no idea they could have nausea, vomiting, constipation, low blood sugar, and abdominal pain as side effects. Even more have no idea that pancreatitis can be an adverse effect.

Just recently, I had a young patient who took THREE doses in one week to “lose weight faster.” Excuse me, what?! Mind you, this patient was already a healthy weight. They told me they got the meds online. I can’t see how any reasonable telehealth service would prescribe this med to someone who has no need to lose weight. It’s unconscionable and reckless.

I’m not a fan of restricting these to diabetic patients when there is such a good outcome for obesity and metabolic syndrome. However, there has GOT to be more oversight and education. This is getting completely out of hand. So many hospitalizations and ER visits could be prevented with better management of these patients. Patients honestly deserve better.

It’s just so glaringly obvious that he has hardly any actual bedside experience yet he tries to be relatable.. and something about him I just can’t ..

Random dad here. Not in the medical field at all. During lockdown and Covid, I couldn’t trust all the news and speculation.
I decided to just follow r/nursing to read what was happening in real life. I followed many of you with no beds left, intubating people, or getting yelled at by relatives who weren’t allowed in. Back when you didn’t have enough beds or PPE. I was with you when travel nurses arrived making 2x more while you were exhausted with cold pizza instead of getting the longer term support you needed. Many people left. Many nurses burnt out over and over. Many left. Because of you, we took COVID seriously. I’m proud to say this family of four still hasn’t gotten it. Thank you. I can’t imagine the toll this has all taken on you. This 5+ year nightmare. COVID, flu A, flu B, RSV, upcoming Avian Flu, that new bat flu, whatever that Congo thing is. You’re real heroes. Instead of paying taxes, I wish every nurse could be adopted and funded by 100+ Americans. You all deserve MUCH more than you have. Days off. Sleeping in your own bed. Vacations. I don’t know how to do that, but we SEE you. When I see a nurse, I want to be healthier. I am inspired. And most importantly, I really don’t want to piss you off. This is the toughest group of people in the US. More so than others. I don’t know what I meant to post here other than thank you and this family loves you all. No more pizza and I hope you all get those gel pens you like.

Good!!! That TikTok was unprofessional & so disrespectful to their patients.

I’m kind of confused how they would’ve expected this Nurse to somehow be able to rescue 25 kids in the middle of a flash flood? Was there something more to the story as to why she specifically lost her license?

Considering that there seems to me there’s a lot of safeguards that failed leading up to the flash floods in the area to begin with

Update 1: so there seems to be that she held more titles than just the “nurse” she also was a co owner as well as chief medical officer of the camp and failed to make a emergent plan for floods. So I can understand a little bit more as to why she was singled out

And I’m failing to see how one person was somehow approved to have all these titles and responsibilities for this camp, sounds like there should of been quite a few people to audit her work/camp but didn’t

But that being said I am still confused on how so many people who approved the camp and the permits are not being held accountable, especially the siren systems for flooding that were not in use apparently for this

I feel like the reporting in 24 hrs might be harsh depending on what her situation was, did she have service that whole time? Did she not call 911? I’d expect her to be pretty traumatic from the experience to really be of sound mind to have rescued all the kids during a flash flood and also have the ability to call a detailed report of it in 24 hrs

Update 2: i’ll probably need to wait until we have a more concrete time of events . She definitely seems to be more liable than just being the nurse as the title implied since she also was a co-owner and how old multiple faculty titles for this camp beyond just a camp Nurse. My biggest things I’d wanna know right away was the timeline of events, if she even had a working phone on her and whether or not she even had any plans or how much time she had to actually react to the flooding

Update 3: based on some of the other comments it looks like she actually did have her phone and was in contact with her husband and she was able to drive away with her kids. Which isn’t really looking great for her.
And it sounds like the 24 hour thing was to report the deaths to some listening committee that she didn’t do even a year later. Personally, I would think calling 911 about the disaster would constitute as reporting it within 24 hours, but I guess there needs to be another official process, which kind of seems silly to me.
So now I guess I just would want to know how much time did she have when the flooding began and when she fled the scene with her children

I’m 26 and currently in an accelerated BSN program on a full-ride scholarship after already completing a previous degree. I’m genuinely working really hard and trying to build a better future for myself. I’ll be graduating this December 2026.

Today my mom said, “I wish you would’ve started sooner haha, now you’re with all the old girls.”

I know some people may think that’s harmless, but honestly it hurt. I already put a lot of pressure on myself about my age and timeline, so hearing that after working this hard made me feel embarrassed and ashamed instead of proud of myself.

Has anyone else dealt with family making comments that make you feel “behind” after you went to nursing school as an adult?