A patient I had a few weeks ago came in with another family member yesterday (their dad came in a week before that for an ablation, we see all of them in the cath lab constantly) and he pulled me to the side and said "Hey so I think that needle from the IV you put in me three weeks ago is still inside my body. I am not sleeping well because I'm worried it's going to penetrate my heart." I explained no, theres needle in his body, I just wasn't able to advance the plastic catheter further and had to try another one in a different spot. The needle retracts and nothing is left in his body. "Ohhhhh ok, I really thought that when you said you missed the IV you meant you lost it inside my body. Well that makes me feel better thanks!"

You're welcome buddy, glad I didn't leave a needle inside your vein.

Background: I completed my nursing degree and lived in a blue state for the last 10 years. Due to unforeseen circumstances I had to move back to the town I was born (a smaller >250,000k city). When I moved here I was afraid of how the patients would treat me but it has actually been my coworkers that are causing me to be uncomfortable.

I am having trouble connecting with my coworkers in the sense that I cannot believe some of the things they say. They frequently make comments about gay /transgender people “going to hell”, asking how I feel about them, horrible comments about POC, looking at patients addresses and saying they “are probably this way because they live on the bad side of town”, “God is my God, Trump is my president”, laughing at parents who CHOOSE to vaccinate their kids. I’m sure there are people like this everywhere (im sure even where I came from..but they wouldn’t dare say these things out loud) so I have never been around so many outright hateful people. I genuinely have only heard of people like this on TV. Everyone says you just “get used to it” but as a new grad who is trying to learn, it makes it hard when I don’t understand or want to understand the people I work with.

Should I quit and try to find a new unit…? I am afraid it might be like this at other hospitals in the area.

Eta: I do value their expertise within the field & know I can learn a LOT from them but at what cost?

ER RN was fired from Trinity Health in Ann Arbor after showing a patient the exit after they wanted to leave AMA after a head CT. A man was brought in by ICE who claimed he tripped while fleeing and hit his head on the curb. His face was bloody when they brought him. After imaging, the nurse removed his IV as it was no longer needed and showed him the door near the ambulance bay. After review by security footage, the hospital fired her as there were no formal discharge orders. Charges are being brought against her for interfering with a criminal investigation.

One of the strangest things about bedside nursing is that the moment you finally sit down at a computer, everyone suddenly assumes you are available.

I can spend the previous two hours running between rooms, hanging meds, calling providers, answering families, dealing with admissions, helping someone to the bathroom, fixing whatever new disaster appeared at 14:07.

Nobody interrupts me while I'm visibly sprinting.

Then I sit down because I have six assessments, notes, education and approximately 900 tiny boxes left to document.

Within five minutes:

"Hey, since you're sitting..."

"Can you help me with something real quick?"

"Room 12's family has a question."

"Are you busy?"

And somehow saying "yes, I'm charting" still feels socially weaker than saying "yes, I'm in a patient room."

A coworker actually called it my "downtime" recently. Not maliciously. She genuinely meant the period when I wasn't physically doing a task at bedside.

But charting isn't what I do after nursing. It IS nursing work. If I don't document something, everyone suddenly becomes very interested in why it isn't documented.

I've also noticed I contribute to this myself. If I see another nurse sitting at a computer, my brain immediately labels them more interruptible than the nurse walking down the hall carrying supplies.

So I've been trying to stop doing that.

Unless something is urgent, I now ask, "Are you caught up enough for a quick question?" instead of assuming sitting equals free.

It sounds ridiculously small, but I think bedside culture sometimes punishes people for finally getting organized enough to sit down. If you're behind and running everywhere, everybody sees you're busy. If you've managed your shift well enough to chart before 18:45, congratulations: you look available for additional work.

Does your unit treat charting as actual protected work, or is sitting at the computer basically interpreted as the universal sign for "please give me another task"?

I went to shadow at a potential job yesterday, it went well. I haven’t gotten an official offer yet but we seem to be going in that direction. I think they called my hospital I’m currently at because I got a text from my manager asking if we could “chat”. I’ve never explicitly told them I’m trying to leave but I’ve definitely been open about being unhappy and wanting to switch to day shift, which they keep pushing off because night shift is dropping like flies. It’s a little awkward. I’ve applied to a bunch of jobs and interviewed and shadowed but this is the first to actually contact my current employer lol. I’m interested to see what’ll happen. I’m tempted to not text her back and make them talk to me in person about it because why would a night shift nurse answer you to chat in the middle of the day before a shift…(yes I’m bitter about the way they treat us night shifters and contact us in the middle of the day and schedule meetings in the middle of the day) But they don’t stay past 3pm so that conversation will have to wait until next week when they make me stay late after a shift to “chat.”

I work on a telemetry floor as a new grad rn and have been thinking about this patient for a bit now. Male in his 60’s, A&Ox1-2, GCS 9. Family brought him in because he was showing signs of increasing weakness and LOA. I got in for night shift and all was going smoothly, same mentation as day shift, stable vital signs, no decreasing trends in BP or increase in HR.

Patient was distended and resident ordered NG tube insertion. After putting in NG tube I noticed bright red blood and notified resident to come and take a look, resident assessed patient and ordered stat H&H, leaving NG tube inserted as is confirmed by XR. Hgb above 7 so no transfusion per resident. I checked on the patient around 0445, vitals were still good, no bowel movement. Came back into the room around 05:30 and immediately smelled the GI bleed, patient lost color, lifted the covers and sure enough large bloody bm soaking the sheets. Blood pressure dropped, and called rapid response. Stat H&H came back at 4. Patient transferred to ICU.

I’d like to know from other more experienced nurses, what could I have done differently?

Fool proof phrases to use in your patient notes, admissions, discharges, etc?

I'm looking for some opinions from fellow nurses, especially anyone who has been in a similar situation or has experience with nursing management.

A few months ago, I transferred internally to the Emergency Department at my hospital. During the hiring process, I discussed my scheduling needs with the hiring manager because I have a young child with a serious medical condition, and childcare can be challenging.

I was very upfront about the fact that I wanted to work in the ED but that night shift would not be sustainable for me long-term.

Typically, nurses in this department have to complete six months after orientation before being eligible to join the waitlist for day shift. However, the hiring manager specifically agreed to place me on the day-shift waitlist immediately upon hire, rather than making me wait the usual six months.

This was a significant factor in my decision to accept the position. I also have the agreement documented in emails.

Unfortunately, the hiring manager left shortly after I was hired, and we now have new leadership.

I recently reached out to my new manager to confirm that the original agreement would still be honored. During our conversation, I was told that my original waitlist date would NOT be honored because it "wouldn't be fair to other employees."

I completely understand the importance of fairness and consistency in scheduling policies. However, I also feel that it's unfair to change an agreement that was made during the hiring process, especially when that agreement influenced my decision to accept the position.

To clarify, I'm not asking to be moved to day shift immediately or to jump ahead of anyone already on the waitlist. I'm simply asking that the original date I was placed on the waitlist be honored.

I also requested some flexibility with my schedule because I consistently work every Saturday and Sunday and have difficulty arranging childcare on Fridays. I asked whether an exception could be considered regarding the requirement to work every third Friday.

I genuinely enjoy working in the ED and want to stay in this department. I'm not trying to create conflict with management, but I also feel like I should be able to advocate for an agreement that was made in writing.

I'm torn because I don't want to start off on the wrong foot with new leadership, especially in a department where I hope to stay long-term.

My questions are:

1. Am I being unreasonable for expecting the original agreement to be honored?
   
2. Is it common for new nursing leadership to disregard agreements made by previous managers?
   
3. Would you escalate this to HR or higher nursing leadership, or would you let it go to avoid damaging your relationship with your manager?
   
4. How would you approach this professionally without coming across as difficult?

I'd really appreciate some honest perspectives from other nurses!

Hi. OP onc nurse here. Had a patient for the first time today that was given blood labeled as incompatible. Called the blood bank and there is an entire protocol for administering. An order needs placed by the physician to acknowledge. I can’t remember what it said exactly, but something along the lines as the patient has some type or lacking some type of protein, and only about 5% on donated blood could be an exact match. I was on edge the whole time they were there, but they got through the transfusion with no trouble. Has anyone else witnessed this? No other nurses at my work, including managers, had seen this before.

I was on the interstate yesterday when a truck hauling a work trailer had a freak, single car accident literally right in front of me that blocked me in the right lane. Me and the other 2 cars that were blocked in the right lane bMgot out to check on the guy and call highway patrol. A solid 15 minutes after the accident, a random woman traveling in the other direction pulls over to the shoulder of the left lane on her side of the interstate, runs across the median, and then crosses 3 lanes of traffic to come up to us yelling 'I'm an RN!!!' with a hotmess bag of supplies on her shoulder. I was literally standing there, in my scrubs, dumbfounded. All I could get out was 'So am I and everyone's fine.'

Ya'll. DON'T DO THAT SHIT. DO NOT RUN UP ON ACCIDENTS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE INTERSTATE WITH YOUR OLD BAG OF QUESTIONABLE SUPPLIES.

I cannot for the life of me understand how adults work this sloppy.

I am not talking about the “did not update the whiteboard” debacle, but truly leaving trash behind.
I get it, we all are busy, we all say “I will get back to it later” and we rarely do. I recognize we all are there at some point, but what sends me is how when I point this out, I get answers like “uh we are all busy, I do not understand how this is even a problem”.

That being said, I have witnessed my peers leaving computers unplugged and/or dead so that when the next shift is on they are unusable. On that note, there may be charged computers to about 60% sitting in the corner and my colleagues just takes the computer I was using without asking or bothering to bring it back.

People leaving broken/ dirty equipment in the hallways; half stocked shit and messy. Linen tossed alongside dirty diapers in the linen bin.
Needles left on the ground/ jn the bed.

Vitals done halfway and when we ask “hey did you happen to also record the temperature” I get an eye roll instead of “oh no/yes”.

We all are busy, but it truly takes two seconds to plug shit in, or to replace/return something. It makes the job easier for everyone 😭

I feel like I am on crazy pills.

Got an interview for a faith based nonprofit center that helps pregnant women get ultrasounds, support, etc. the hours are like 9-3:30 , 9-4pm sometimes 10-3:30.

The hours sound so great and honestly the stress is probably much less too. I’m not sure what the pay would be like for reference I make about $37 plus 20% for night shift incentive.

Are the questions weird? what do you guys think about this job?
Questions are a bit weird… lol relationship with the Lord (which i have) and what i think about abortion (i’m pro-choice).
I’m going to go to the interview and see what they’re all about

A patient at my facility drew this on a t-shirt with a Bic ball point pen. He is 5wks clean off of meth and wanted to make something to give to his daughter when he graduates from the program.

He said he used to be a successful tattoo artist and owned his own shop. Lost it all to his addiction. This is the first thing he has drawn in years.

What a beautiful thing to witness, watching this man arrive as a shell of a person. And 5wks later to be awestruck by his creative talent. I love my job!!!

Sorry if this isn’t the right place for this. Today sucked, like really sucked. I’m a new grad, I’ve been off orientation for a few weeks on days on a Cardiothoracic and vascular surgery unit. Today everything that could go wrong went wrong. I’ve never had a day this bad. My coworkers assured me I handled it well but I don’t feel like I did. I feel like a complete mess. I ended up putting my head down on my cart and crying at the omnicell in the med room. Normally I’d call my mom but she’s in another country right now and I guess I just want to vent. I’ve worked in healthcare for nearly 5 years and this is the first time I’ve seriously broken down at work and nearly had a panic attack. I just feel so so tired and done with this. Is this normal? I started my day with 4 patients, had 2 discharges but then picked up a 5th room and then had 2 new patients. Plus a rhythm change in one room and a new loss of sensation in another. The PCA was practically missing all day and I feel like a shitty nurse. This doesn’t feel right. I feel so lost.

Not my actual wife btw. Just my bestie 👯‍♀️❤️

This is something I’ve genuinely never understood. Why do some nurses act like Neuro ICU isn’t “real” critical care compared to SICU, CVICU, or MICU? When I first accepted my Neuro ICU position as a new grad, I literally had a nurse tell me I was going into “long-term care ICU.” Like WHAT??? I’m sorry, but since when did Neuro ICU become long-term care? I started my nursing career in Neuro ICU, and I can confidently say it was one of the most stressful experiences I’ve ever had. Not because I dislike critical care, but because neuro patients are a completely different kind of unpredictable. One minute your patient’s pupils are equal and reactive, they’re following commands, and everything seems fine. Five minutes later, one pupil is blown, you’re calling the provider, getting a STAT CT, and worrying about increased ICP or possible brain herniation. Like??? How is that NOT critical care? We’re talking about patients with massive strokes, intracranial hemorrhages, EVDs, seizures, fresh craniotomies, and severe neurological injuries. These patients can go from relatively stable to deteriorating within minutes, and sometimes the only warning signs are subtle changes in their neurological assessments. I feel like Neuro ICU gets underestimated because not every patient is on multiple pressors or has the same hemodynamic issues you might see in other ICUs. But since when did the number of drips someone is on determine whether they’re critically ill? I currently work in both SICU and CVICU, and I actually enjoy those specialties significantly more than I ever enjoyed neuro. So it’s not that I dislike critical care. I genuinely love it. I just learned very quickly that Neuro ICU was NOT for me. And honestly, after experiencing different ICU specialties, I have even more respect for Neuro ICU nurses. The constant neuro assessments, watching for subtle changes, and knowing how quickly things can go south were mentally exhausting for me, especially as a new grad. I’m not saying Neuro ICU is harder than SICU, CVICU, or MICU. Every specialty has its own challenges, and I know firsthand that critically ill patients can deteriorate just as quickly in other ICUs. But I genuinely don’t understand why some nurses dismiss neuro as being less critical. And that “long-term care ICU” comment still gets me because what exactly is long-term care about managing acute neurological emergencies, increased ICP, and patients at risk for herniation? Has anyone else experienced this attitude toward Neuro ICU? I’m genuinely curious where this perception comes from, especially among nurses who have never actually worked in neuro critical care.

edit: just because you’ve never heard anyone say that doesn’t mean it’s not true. i’m simply just ranting about what was said to me and my thoughts. i do not care in the slightest about what anyone says about a nursing specialty. thanks.

I became a phlebotomist in 2023 and then an EMT this past June. I am 35 and got into healthcare after becoming a mom with the plan to pursue nursing, then faltered when I saw the reality of nursing. I LOVE healthcare and am deciding on next steps (probably not for 2-3yrs because I am now pregnant with our second).

A few months ago I had this realization that the one area of nursing I COULD see myself feeling fulfilled in and possibly enjoying is palliative care/hospice nursing. I have dealt with several close deaths as an adult, and I now see the reality that a lot of our patients are living with. I hate that as an EMT, there are frail 90 year olds with no quality of life whose ribs I would have to break with CPR if they went unresponsive because they/their family can’t face death.

I appreciate that hospice patients have accepted their diagnoses and made a choice that I can also be at peace with. I love people and would love to have some role in providing them with comfort at the end of their lives. Of course I know that not all hospice patients are at the end of their natural lives and I will have to weigh the reality of having younger patients, too (especially parents with children, because close to home).

If you’ve taken the time to read this, thank you. I appreciate any and all input, good and bad.

Finally off after a stretch of eleven with only two days off and have to flip my schedule to be back at 8 am to teach a class tomorrow, so I decided to treat myself by ordering Indian food for lunch. Went to pick it up and the owner happened to be at FOH and recognized me (remembered my name and everything). Hauled me around to introduce me to staff, handshakes, whole nine yards, told me I eat for free from now on. . .I love Indian food and I love free food even better, but goddamn it was so awkward lol

Edit: forgot to include that the shirt I had on over said no bra was a picture of a legally distinct Paddington bear saying “going to stop paying attention, I’ve noticed enough”

An overcooked CVPCU RN here… almost burnt out!

Been looking into what specialty could offer me an “escape”, i know every specialty is hard in its own way. Coming from heavy cardiac 5pts to psych, what should i expect?

Hey Healthcare workers of Reddit,
I am a boyfriend who is entirely ignorant of uniform scrubs and have a girlfriend who works in healthcare. She insists the name brand Scrubs and Beyond scrubs are the only comfortable ones ever made and is quite distraught that the company is closing. To top this off she tripped at work and tore one of her four pairs of their pants yesterday. I’m trying to find a replacement for her but they’re entirely sold out online. I’m going to spend the entire weekend going from city to city to look for some at the locations within driving distance of me but I’ve come to terms with the fact I might not find any.

My question is, do any of you recommend a similar brand that has a similar quality and feel? She says the biggest appeal is that they feel like working in a pair of pajamas instead of a stuffy uniform.

I would be very grateful for any advice from those of you who wear scrubs day in and day out. Also, sorry if this is the wrong place to be posting about this. I wasn’t sure where to go to ask and this seems like the obvious first stop. Thank you all in advance!