cranquis:

So recently, my Urgent Care changed our “Sign In” procedure, so that patients themselves have to write down their Chief Complaint for the visit.

Did you know people can’t spell?

See if you can figure out these mysterious symptoms:

• Soar Throw (Hi, Brett Favre!)
• Twisted Ancul (I loved their…

idledancer:

SPEED NURSING: Things Nurses Could do with Safer Staff Ratios

January 3, 2013

IdleThoughts from an idealist.

1. Catch subtle symptoms before they progress to an RRT or Cardiac Arrest

2. Be  able to spend more time with patients, so they don’t feel neglected, and heck; maybe even bring up the scores on the patient satisfaction surveys

3. Answer call bells promptly

4. Be able to round on patients a lot more, potentially preventing more patients from falling.

5. Be able to pee more frequently than once a shift (if that)

6. Be able to eat on breaks at leisure, and not suffer reflux from shoveling food down so fast just to get back out on the floor

7. Be marginally more friendly, from lack of stress, or time to actually socialize a little with the people you spend many of your waking hours with.

8.  Maybe help out other nurses when they have one difficult patient, rather than numerous patients in a district of insanity

9. Have a charge nurse without patients of their own, so they can assist in districts that really need it.

10. Have a less sore back from the increased and arduous work, and maybe get home at a decent time

10.5 Interpret the not-so-obvious lab values, radiology, and rather than “speed nursing,” spend more time utilizing the critical thinking process  and maybe save a life

….list is endless…..

cranquis:

You know how baseball players use those intricate signals to communicate with their coach while on the field? I think my patients and I need to work out something similar, for those Urgent Care visits when the patient needs a quick way to convey the “real” reason for their visit. It would save me so much time!

—————

Signal: Patient coughs, winks, coughs again.

Meaning: ”I’m already getting better from my cold, I just came in for a work excuse note for yesterday and I might as well be off today too, right?”

—————

Signal: Patient uses both hands to shake my one hand as I enter the room.

Meaning: “I’d rather not use antibiotics, if you don’t think it’s necessary, so don’t worry about trying to convince me this is just a cold.”

—————-

Signal: Patient (male) tosses cell-phone from hand to hand throughout the visit and speaks with gritted teeth.

Meaning: ”I feel totally fine now, I just came in because my wife made me, may I please be excused?”

—————-

Signal: Patient (teenaged girl) does not avoid eye contact while denying any changes in her menstruation before her abdominal symptoms began.

Meaning: “Please get my mom out of the room, I think I’m pregnant but I don’t want her to know!”

—————-

Signal: Patient leaves one earbud in place and never turns off their iPod during the visit.

Meaning: “Regardless of what you say, I’m gonna ask for Vicodin as you’re about to walk out of the room.”

EDIT: Since posting this, my readers and I have invented a few other Medical Gang Signs.

naturalnightnurse:

throughmyeyes17:

agirlwithguts:

Two blown veins later… Never a dull moment.

Why can’t the nurses get it right the first time? Don’t they realize how painful it can be each time they miss a vein. Smh… I have an infusion coming up…so Mott looking forward to being poked more than more than once.

Hey now! If you’ve never had to insert an IV, don’t criticize someone that has. Yes, we know they hurt, we had to practice on each other during school. Veins roll, IV catheters hit valves, sometimes veins aren’t visible or palpable, sometimes veins are too small (veins constrict if you’re nervous, dehydrated, or if they’ve numbed your skin with that cursed lidocaine)…the point is shit happens and it’s not your nurse’s fault if your vein blows or your IV malfunctions and they have to start over.

naturalnightnurse is right. Sticking veins is hard! Give the nurse a break. Do you always get something right the first time you do it? Every patient is different. Because of that, we never know what the veins might do. There are certainly more painful procedures that would hurt a lot more than an IV placement. ABG’s anyone?!?!? 

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(Source: agirlwithguts)

nurseaketch:

I second the motion

Truth

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(Source: nurseconfessions)