I've been quietly reading this subreddit for a few years now. I'm not a nurse or even in healthcare, but I've always found the discussions here fascinating. I've learned so much from reading about your experiences and perspectives, which I'm truly grateful for.

One thing that always stuck with me was how you talk about the importance of quality of life over quantity. About how sometimes, just because we have the technology to keep someone we love alive, doesn't necessarily mean it's the kindest thing to do. And how sometimes, letting someone we love go is the biggest act of love.

I never imagined how much those comments would eventually mean to me.

This year, my mum became critically ill and ended up in ICU on a ventilator. Her lungs had suffered extensive, irreversible damage, and the doctors said she could potentially survive with a tracheostomy, but would likely remain bedridden and dependent on breathing support for the rest of her life.

Everything happened so quickly. I was dealing with it and making decisions on my own, and the entire experience felt almost out of body.

I remember laying in the hospital at night, beside my mum while she was on the ventilator, reading through this subreddit and listening to the machines, analyzing the monitors.

And I kept thinking about all those comments I'd read over the years.

Of course, I desperately wanted to keep my mum with me for as long as possible. I would have given anything for more time with her. She was my best friend. I am only 31 and she was only 62. But because of the things I'd learned from nurses here, I understood that keeping her alive wasn't necessarily the same as doing what was best for her.

My mum passed away a few days after we took her off the ventilator.

I don't think any of you realise how much your words can reach people outside of nursing. You were sharing your experiences, frustrations and perspectives, and I just wanted to say thank you. You helped me understand something incredibly difficult at a time when I needed that understanding more than ever.

And although losing my mum has been devastating, I'm grateful that I was able to think about what was best for her, rather than only how desperately I wanted her to stay.

Thank you for the work you do, and for the things you share here. They really do make a difference. ❤️

😨

Hi all,

L&D nurse here and I got a voicemail today from a lawyers office. See here:

"Hey (nurse) my name is (lawyers office person) I'm calling with (lawyers office) we represent (hospital I recently quit) in a lawsuit that was brought against them by a former patient, we know you are no longer employed with them and you are not a named defendant in the case but our attorney would like to speak with you about the care that you provided the patient and anything you may remember about it if you could give me a call back I'd appreciate it my (number) thank you.

Im wondering if this is something I need a lawyer for, or because I'm not a named defendant it's not that serious and I could just sort of say "I would have to review my charting" rather than even attempt to go by memory. I've delivered hundreds of babies so I can't even imagine remembering something not charted that's actually medical/clinical.

Anyone ever been involved in something like this? Better to ask a lawyer?

Or dumbest thing you’ve heard of being reported? Or, if you’re brave, dumbest thing you’ve reported and you’re thinking back like “man, that was silly of me…”

I just heard about how nurse A was helping nurse B with a patient (both new grads), and nurse A said, “I’ll give all of your medications, my chart is open right there, can you chart them for me?” Then gave all but a prophylactic Pepcid. Went to nurse B later and said “I uncharted the Pepcid because I didn’t give that one.” Then nurse A opened a complaint against nurse B for not giving it and documenting under her chart. Then reported her to the board of nursing for it.

For me, it’s hanging secondary IV piggybacks when the primary line is tangled in three different pump channels for no apparent reason. It’s not hard, it’s not dangerous, but untangling 8 feet of tubing at 03:00 while a pump beeps at me makes me want to roll my cart into the nearest elevator shaft.

What's that one trivial task on your unit that just grates on your nerves every single time?

Anyone know what this can be about? We have a super high turnover and a lot of staffing and leadership issues lately. I think it’s pretty fucking stupid to ask people to do this when they clearly know what we’re suppose to do.

Had a family member announce today that they were "calling their lawyer immediately" because we wouldn't give their alert and oriented family member a cup of water while they were strictly NPO for a procedure in two hours.

I just nodded and told them the patient rights advocate number is on the wall, but internally I’m so exhausted by this trend. It feels like every third shift someone threatens to sue over basic safety protocols or standard delay times in the ER.

Is it just my facility or has the general public gotten significantly more litigious and hostile toward floor staff over the last couple of years?

All welfare districts are saving money. No set term contracts are continued. No new ones are taken In. The permanent ones have even more shit to deal with. This is not a sustainable situation... I have worked 2 years at the ER and 1 year at the ICU. Cannot find a job. Just making this known to you international colleagues. No work available here, even for us native ones right now. 🤷‍♂️

For me it’s when day shift gives me a 15-minute breakdown of the patient’s entire medical history from 2012, but forgets to mention they haven’t had a BM in 5 days or that their IV line blew twenty minutes ago.

I don't need a summary of their childhood chickenpox, I just need to know if they're stable and what's actively running.

What’s the handoff habit that instantly drives you up the wall?

So I am currently in God knows what week of orientation. Today was my first day of having five patients and it was a disaster. My first patient was complaining of shortness of breath and I tried problem solving what I could do to help. I let the doctor know. My second patient their IV ended up leaking and going bad.

And another patient I had another bad IV and I ended up blacking out eventually and not being able to comprehend my preceptor’s instructions and I ended up seeing my last patient at 12pm for A FIRST ASSESSMENT. All while doctor’s orders are coming left and right. Three people are total care alone and PCU status.

I guess should I just quit? I cried for 20 minutes because my preceptor saw me drowning and she had to step in to intervene. And then she had me take a seat and chart for an hour because of how behind I was on charting.

And even at home, I am just balling my eyes out.

I just feel like an absolute stupid, pathetic nurse for having two years of experience. I don’t know what to do.

I am starting to hate nursing. There’s nothing wrong with the patients, or my colleagues. I just can’t time manage and prioritize straight and those are my huge struggles.

I don’t know if I should leave the profession entirely and just struggle financially already because of how much this shift affected me today.

Mind you, I dread work everyday even on my days off and am horrified of thinking about going back. I can’t even find myself enjoying what I used to with gaming or writing, or just anything. Because all I experience is dread and not wanting to talk to anybody.

Dear scheduler, if I request ONE freaking PTO day 3 months from now and you deny it, I will be calling out. K love you, bye!

We have a new patient 40's/M in ICU who was admitted with a nec fascitis on lower ext, sepsis, CFH with an EF of 11% on multiple pressors. Patient and family decided to not do any surgery and focus on comfort care. Patient last wish is to stand up and hug his family. He has 3 kids and 1 is a toddler who have no idea that is the last time he can hug his dad. With muliple pressors running, we have to assist him (he is about 300 lbs) stand up and he lasted about a minute hugging his whole family and saying their goodbyes. Patient immediately died right after turning off the pressors and received ativan push. They just arrived in the US couple months ago and most likely they don't have much resources. I have been a nurse for 12 years and i feel shattered every time i experience this.

Hi! Idk if this is allowed in this sub so delete if it’s not. I’m currently in my last sem and working on my capstone project. I was thinking about doing my project on the importance of dual sign off for blood, since the unit I’m on for preceptorship does not do this (Pediatric oncology). Does your unit utilize dual sign off for blood products? If so, do you actually find it useful in for the prevention of the wrong blood being given and/or adverse reactions to blood products? If your hospital doesn’t, do you wish they did? Again, lmk if this isn’t allowed on this subreddit, was just hoping to gain some insight!

I work at a rehab unit and one of my patients came back from dialysis so I checked his vitals around 2245hrs and found his BP was 74/46. My pt and his wife who he had on video call didn’t seem surprised so I asked if his BP is usually this low and they said it does happen to him after dialysis. He had no complaints of any symptoms and agreed we could take it again later (he was on the commode at this point). I checked his vital trend and the lowest BP recorded was around 90s systolic (some vitals weren’t recorded post dialysis). But since he was asymptomatic and the incoming nurses were already here and I’m off at 2300hrs, I decided to document my findings and endorse to the next nurse. During my report, she didn’t seem too alarmed and said she’d check the blood pressure again later so I thought maybe it’d be okay? But I feel like I didn’t do enough for the patient or I should’ve at least called the on call doctor to let him know. I was hesitating for a while but I decided to leave since the incoming nurse said she’d take care of it. But right now I regret not doing anything. I’m afraid they’d see his vitals or my note in the morning and criticize me for not doing anything or that I’d get in trouble. I called the nursing station because I was too worried and apparently they haven’t been able to get another reading because the patient’s refusing (he’s normally uncooperative and rude) and said he knows his body and that he’s fine. I can’t help but blame myself for not thinking critically enough and now I’m afraid something would go wrong and I’ll be the first to blame. I should’ve done something

Mine was finding a fully stocked supply room with actual medium gloves in stock, plus a functioning bladder scanner on the floor that wasn't hidden in some random dirty utility room on 4 West.

It’s the small things keeping me sane at this point. What’s your tiny win this week?

I probably didnt get the job but i was wondering how normal it is for hiring manager to talk about how catty their unit can be. She said "you know how it is about working with bunch of women". Which i know how it is but it gave a bad impression to be talking like that about your team. Another nurse friend told me its actually a good sign that they are being upfront about it rather than lying.

Also, with my past jobs, Ive always gotten a tour of the facility. This one didnt.

I really would have loved to work in this speciality, but is that common to 1.) Be upfront about the unit's catiness 2.) Not give a tour

Spent 10 minutes explaining why jumping out of bed unassisted with an unsteady gait after orthopedic surgery is a bad idea. Patient nodded, agreed, smiled.

Two minutes after walking out of the room, the bed alarm is going off and they're halfway across the room trying to reach a cup on the bedside table.

At this point educated on safety in a chart just means I tried, but human free will won.

https://apnews.com/article/alex-pretti-killing-parents-investigation-justice-department-a1c111702d5c8a0e485c1935400d6cdc

Hello,

I finally am happy in nursing/healthcare. Personally, I don’t believe nurses aren’t compensated remotely fairly for the amount of license liability in bedside roles.

As a bedside nurse (profit or non-profit system), nurses are the BIGGEST expense that they are desperate to reduce/control the cost of… As a hospice nurse, by being good at your job, you both CREATE and PROTECT the business’s money. I can’t stress this enough, the way your manager speaks to you is in completely different when you aren’t viewed as an expense that needs to be controlled. Especially if your pet dies, you have an emergency, or otherwise need to ask for time off/support.

Pros: Same pay as bedside, minimal liability, reduced chance of patient harm if mistakes do occur (basically zero), *less personal care/CNA work than the floor* (WAY fewer diaper changes on average), control of your schedule, a salary instead of hourly (you go home early all the time and keep the remainder of the salary!!!), sometimes a company car, likely decent AI resistance, I could go on and on… you can literally take your kids to practice in between your visits.

Cons: There are some… On-call can be required but not always (usually 1-2 days a month, some places up to 1 week/month) with bad pager pay (pay per visit very generous tho), death is sad and can be taxing, the Stage IVs can be INSANE and the grossest wounds out there, a lot of people won’t listen to you, sometimes you have to work late, and 8-5 (but I view that as a pro personally, again, you get off early!!!)

Ask any questions :)

Do you enjoy what you do? Pros and cons and is an LVN worth it to you? Is it flexible for single parents?

was a break RN tonight and wasn’t told by the primary nurse that the pt had a procedure or was NPO nor was it written on the board. i checked the pts chart earlier in the shift and saw he had a general diet and honestly im such an idiot for not rechecking the chart later in the night.

the pt had a cup of apple juice at 0300 and i found out after the primary RN’s break that the pt had surgery at 0730………….. i know its a stupid thing to rant over and its not the end of the world but i hate feeling stupid. obviously i notified the resident when i found out and told them about the juice, along with telling the primary nurse and charting it. however- now i just have intense anxiety because the resident called my personal cell phone asking about the situation. im actually dumb asf for this

I’ve had a very disrespectful CNA today who believes that because she has been working in a nursing home facility for 20 years, she should be given special treatment and get to chose which assignments she wants. She came late and I had the other assignments done for the other CNAs. Tell me why, after I gave her assignment, she nonstop complained to my face for 3 minutes stating things like “oh it’s because you don’t like me” and “I don’t know what it is but you always are very difficult to work with.” Idk what to do, she complains all the time and she complains to everyone. I’m honestly so tired of it. There’s times where I’m like just get off the floor.

By the way, every time she would pass me in the hallway she would say, “this floor is so toxic!” And I’m like… the only person causing toxicity is you-

Anyone at lifebridge health in Baltimore work with this guy? Seems sketchy to agree to not practice medicine in Ireland after multiple issues and the hop over the pond to work on kids in the US.

Has anyone ever had a patient whose foley balloon keeps shredding? Not bursting, but literally coming out shredded as soon as it goes in. Docs are saying it is from radiation damage? CT doesn’t show a bladder stone or anything else obviously hard that would be causing it. They don’t have an urology consult. This is coming from a coworkers daughter who is also a nurse. She called asking for advice. Thanks!