Summertime

So, my nephew was here for a week and we went to see the D'Backs play. It was a good time. My sister was here for 3 days and we just shopped and relaxed. I wish she would have stayed longer...but, that's the sign of a good visit huh? That they leave and you wish they would stay longer, not the other way around.

Plus, I get 4 days off in a row (woohoo)then it's off to Vegas for 3 days. Work has been good, not too busy not too slow. The patients have been much of the usual. Too young to be as sick as they are,but, since they didn't take care of themselves ...they are in the hospital. Most of them smokers, who think they are ok cuz they can still talk and walk, they think they can keep smoking...never mind the fact that they couldn't breathe when they came in or that they just had a triple bypass...they are fine now and all they need is a smoke. Or the alcoholic who was back 2 hours after they were discharged so drunk that they ended up in the ICU....pretty sad.

6 more shifts then I'm off on a new venture. I have a computer class next week for the new hospital...the doctors over there have to enter all theire notes and orders into the computer...yeah! No more bad penmanship!!!!We'll see how well it works. Wish me luck!

Remember..first do no harm.

What do you thnk

I just read an email from my nurses e news and I am not sure how I feel. It seems the US government has a proposed bill..HR 5924 to get rid of the cap of 20,000 work visas per fiscal year for nurses and physical therapists from other countries to come here and work. It is proposed as the Emergency Nursing Supply Relief Act. It also allows for more grant money for nursing schools which I wholly agree with. I am just on the fence with the influx of foreign trained nurses.
The floor I work on now is very culturally diverse. The problem I have is not with the nurses themselves it's with the communication barrier. We do walking rounds at our facility when we change shift. I introduce the next nurse and sometimes the patient will make a comment or try to make a joke and the nurse doesn't get it, the patient looks at me with a nervous look like "she can't understand me" I have to say it's gonna be a good night and leave. I feel awful for the poor person in the bed. They have to be thinking, what the heck am I gonna do, I can't understand her and she can't understand me, what country is this? That's what I would think. Most people don't have to deal with the diverse dialects and accents that we do on a daily basis, it's just not as easy for them to understand the accents. It's got to be scary for them.
I also had a patient who complained of a little chest pressure but denied pain so the nurse did nothing about it. When she told me in report that he complained of a little chest pressure since 6 am and it's now 7am. I got right up, didn't let her finish her sentence, and went to check the patient. I think it was a combination of a lack of experience and a weak grasp on the language that caused her not to act. He was complaining of chest pressure, but had not gotten any nitro and didn't even have any oxygen on, very basic stuff. The patient ended up in the cath lab by 8:15 and had 2 stents to his RCA. For the non-cardiac nurses out there...that's a BIG DEAL. It's scary to think what could have happened if the nurse following her also had a weak grasp on the language or was as inexperienced.
I am not sure that allowing more foreign trained nurse to come and work here is the answer to our shortage. How about making it so nurses want to stay in nursing? How about cutting out some of the paperwork stuff so we can spend more time with our patients and give them the care they need? A lot has to do with work ethic as well, which is lacking in the USA in general. Nursing is a career not just a job. It's bettering people's lives, or trying to at least positively impact them, not spending half the day on the Internet and the other half on your cell phone.
There are lots of great people out there who would love to be nurses and they are getting put on a waiting list for nursing school...then they find something else to do because it just takes too long to get in. There has been a nursing shortage since I started back in 1991...I wish I knew the answers...any ideas?
Non noc nocere.

Another fun in the sun week

Hey all, how are ya? We are still having a good old fashioned Arizona summer. Very hot but not humid and no rain to speak of. Today is by far my favorite of the last 2 weeks...it's about 85 and cloudy...of course it's only about 8am but, it's a nice change.
I've done a lot of running around the last week...my nephew is here for his summer vacation. His Mom's idea to send him to 110 degrees for a vacation, not mine. We've been able to do a few outside things but, I'm sure not as much as he'd like. I'm glad he is old enough to entertain himself a little. It's really difficult to get used to having another person around 24/7 when it's just been me, my husband and the dog for so long. I think it would have been great if it was only for 3 or 4 days...but it's been 8.
Headed to a baseball game tonight...D'Backs vs. Pirates. I wonder who will win?lol The D'Backs have been doing very well this season again but, my heart is in Cleveland. I also love the Cubbies (ya gotta have a winning team as the back up). I love Chase field though...how awesome is an indoor baseball field? with a pool? and a/c? Only in America.
Work has been ok...only 3 days of work last week, I haven't done that in ages. It was nice to be home. There was the usual excitement of an alcoholic patient with chest pain going into DTs, I had a COPD pt come back from the cath lab after a pacemaker that I had to give Romazicon to...that was a first for me. Never had to give the stuff before, it works like a charm. This poor guy, if he didn't have his bipap on and a pacemaker in he woulda been a goner...one shot of Romazicon in the IV and he was awake and talking. I'm glad my other patients were stable because he took all my attention for over an hour. Not so lucky was some poor lady the day before. She apparently came back from the cath lab along with 2 other patients to the same nurse in a short period of time...all the circumstances are unclear except the end result, they had to call a code on her and she is now in the ICU. Now, that's a bad day.
My problem is with management. We have a charge nurse or CM as they call it. They walk around asking when our patients will be discharged and handing out the admissions without much consideration for the patient or the nurse. If you have 3 empty rooms they will give you 3 admissions. If you have 3 patients going to the cath lab, oh well. No back up, ya know sometimes you are so busy you don't have time to find them to ask for help, but they are so removed from the idea of real nursing in 2008 that they don't get it. These are nurses who have been in their position for YEARS like 10 or 15, they don't understand what it's like to be in the trenches anymore. They always get their lunch break and their 15 minute breaks throughout the day. They randomly dole out the assignments for the next shift without looking at the day before or what kind of acuities they are handing them...I was in lower management for awhile. I know what it's like, but I got in there and paid attention to how my nurses were doing and helped out where it was needed.Just frustrating I guess, to see the patients suffer from a lack of leadership. Maybe the next hospital will be better. I think that's my problem, I think I like a place then the longer I am there, the more I see, and then I need to go. Just a traveler at heart.
Thanks for listening to the ranting...any comments?
Non noc nocere.