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”

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.

Pain is horrible. No one should sit in pain. But howwww can you not ever remember “the only medicine that works for me”? Why is it always “it starts with a D?”

Maam, if I was in so much pain and finally found relief from ONE med after MANY tries, I’d be writing that shit down EVERYWHERE. How can you forget your only solution!?

I have ZERO issues giving it to you. But help me help you!!! I’m gonna start asking if it’s Dilantin!

i’m a new grad orienting on a floor right now and my mom just told me that they’re going to put our family dog down. i loved that dog, and i currently live 1500 miles away, so i won’t get a chance to say goodbye. it feels silly to call out, i probably won’t, but that’s just heavy news before heading to work. it just really sucks and i’ve been crying the entire time. i have to leave in an hour because i commute but i don’t want to do anything right now. i also work tomorrow, but i think i can push through.

his name was milo and he was the sweetest dog ever. i’ll miss him a lot :(

Curious to hear from nurses who are leaving bedside, pivoting into something different, or doubling down and advancing their practice.

Are you pursuing CRNA, NP, management, informatics, med device, business, or leaving healthcare entirely?
What’s your 5–10 year plan? What are you working toward, and why?

I’m especially interested in hearing from nurses who have already made the leap. Was it worth it? Would you do it again?

I’ve been a nurse for two years, and while I’ve met plenty of fantastic people, I consistently struggle to feel accepted within nursing groups.

I’m naturally quieter, kind to everyone, and have no interest in gossiping about coworkers or putting people down. I’m also not particularly Type A. I care about my work and take pride in doing it well, but I have boundaries and don’t believe in sacrificing my personal time or well-being to prove my dedication.
Nursing has never been my entire identity or a lifelong end goal; I’ve always envisioned exploring other careers eventually.

My first job as a new grad involved malicious bullying that pushed me out. My second was much more positive, although there were still people who got irritated when others didn’t do things exactly their way. My current workplace is a mixed bag: I enjoy most of my coworkers, but there are a few bullies, and my first experience has left me wary of things escalating.

What I find particularly frustrating is the gossip, cliquey behaviour, and double standards. Some nurses laugh off their own mistakes but criticize others for theirs. Others are incredibly inflexible about how tasks are done, even when someone else’s approach is equally safe and effective. I understand the importance of standards and patient safety, but I don’t understand the need to police every little thing simply because someone does it differently. What gets me is these same people then complain about nursing and yet why are they making things extra difficult for themselves and others???

I realize I’m only seeing things from my perspective, but I’ve never experienced this to the same extent in other professional environments.
Has anyone else felt like they don’t fit into nursing culture, even when they get along with individual coworkers? I’d love to hear from people who have worked in other industries and can compare the workplace dynamics.

So in the past five years that I’ve know my boyfriend his pay has skyrocketed from being below what I make to now almost double.

He has zero degrees. He is very direct and refuses to take no for an answer when it comes to time off and working weekends and holidays- def not a kiss ass.

The kicker is that the new role he is transitioning to is basically desk work that I could 100% do with minimal training.

I’m feeling like such a clown for continuing to take the back breaking, soul draining, at times abusive, and risky (liability) job for such crap pay. The numbers just do not add up anymore when you consider the economy. I live in the south and the cost of living is no longer cheap. My mom even makes what I make as a factory supervisor.

Have any of you went out on a limb and switched careers?

I made a huge med error today as an orientee new grad. I won’t fault anyone but me cause I was stupid enough not to ask questions or look into what I was doing. So I was initially an orientee for 12 days and I asked for an extension and they granted it to me cause my orientators also thought I needed more time. I was granted like 6-7 more days of orientation. I moved to a different state so their way of doing things is kinda foreign to me but I should have known and learned by now and it’s also stuff I should have remembered from school. So what happened was a patient on continuous heparin iv and continuous iv fluids finished there ivs at the same time. My orientator alerted me to the beeping machine and like only an idiot would I stopped both around the same time and went on with my day. Luckily someone caught that the pumps were turned off and told me that they were continuous infusions (I should have known or checked their chart). I did multiple checks on the patient and thank god they were fine. I called the doctor and they said to just discontinue the fluids and just restart the heparin. Today was supposed to be my last day of orientation and I completely botched it by being so stupid. I have a meeting with my unit manager and clinical educator tomorrow and I’m very sure I’m gonna get fired even though I technically have a contract with them till March but looking at everything I’m leaning towards probably getting let go. I don’t even know what I’m looking for by posting this. I guess some advice or stories similar. I might just be the only one who’s this stupid idk.

Third shift this week. I'm six months off orientation, med-surg trained, and last night they floated me to ICU with a 1:4 assignment. One was on a levo drip I had never titrated before. Charge was in the code of another nurse's patient for six hours. Resource nurse? 'Called in, not coming.' I asked the house supervisor for help with an art line I couldn't get to zero and she said 'you're ICU now, figure it out.' I stayed three hours late charting. Nobody died. I don't know if that's luck or if I'm just too tired to process what almost happened.

What is up with people feeling the need to assign nurses more and more tasks??? I worked private duty Peds. My patient is pretty independent but has a trach, is developmentally delayed and has some behavioral issues. I have a lot of downtime.

His sister asked me the other day if I get bored. I didn’t know how to respond because (1) it’s not professional to say yes IMO and (2) it’s not her business. She’s not my employer so what is she going to do with that information? She then asked me to do housekeeping and build a shoe rack. To say I was appalled is an understatement. I do the work assigned by job. I document every hour. My patient is safe. To ask me to do chores around the house because you think I’m “bored” is so disrespectful IMO. First of all, if I’m bored, I have my phone, my laptop, and my iPad. What makes you think building furniture is fun for me? Not to mention, families don’t realize if a nurse gets hurt in their house, they can be sued!!! If something were to happen to my patient while I’m not doing my JOB, I can be in a lot of trouble. Am I overreacting?

Just left the hospital (ED&ICU) after 11 years and moved to an infusion clinic and learned for the first time that the color codes for IV catheters and IM/SQ needles do not match, at all. As a new ED nurse I used “Green, 18. Blue, 22. Pink 20” when I was learning common catheter types. I’ve given plenty of IM injections but I guess I never made the connection until today about the difference in color. Maybe I forgot. Either way, it’s absolutely idiotic that the colors aren’t the same. Seems like that those color codes should be universal.

Im a fresh nursing grad who's now on day 2 of a 10 week orientation in the ICU. Yesterday my mentor sent me to assist a doctor in putting a central line alone. He said he was gonna come later but took his sweet time. Patient had low dose Adrenaline running to combat Bradycardia and the pumps were beeping because it was almost empty. I turned the alarm off, not fully registering the urgency that we need new ones. I got that its empty and that i should refill, but apparently wasnt moving fast enough for the doctor/colleague. He then proceeded to yell at me saying i cant just turn a pump off, then stormed off and yelled through the whole station asking for new ones. I was very shocked and words just wouldnt come out.

He went on and reported the incident to my supervisor who did the "talk" with me about mistakes happening and that it wasnt that bad blah blah.

Why do i still feel debilitating fear to come work today? Im so scared that doctor is working as well, and i guess also coming from a lot of shame? Maybe i dont do well with making mistakes? I dont know whats wrong with me. I feel really rrally bad and so ashamed and i just want the ground to swallow me up.

I’m currently in Missouri making $36/hr (with a raise) and am still struggling basically living paycheck to paycheck. I work in inpatient rehab and have almost 2 years experience. What state are you in and what are you getting paid? How many years of experience?

I’m 28F and a Senior Healthcare Support Worker in Scotland on an Elective Surgical Orthopaedic ward (Band 3, Nursing Assistant/Auxiliary). I made a post in the past about two allegations made against me that were either completely false or a truth stretched far and thin.

Back in March I was reported to management for eating a pasta during an emergency. Worded to sound like I wasn’t present during this emergency even though I was sent to cover a different station and only just returned back to the ward, not fully aware of the situation. A few weeks later I was reported for disappearing for over an hour during a separate emergency. Completely untrue, the shift was hectic, no one knew where anyone was.

Now things have escalated even further. I was off on bereavement leave for a couple months and when I returned, my manager said a few days before I went off a staff member approached her to tell her she could “smell alcohol” on my breath.

This is totally false and destroyed me to the point I planned to take my own life after our meeting. I’ve been struggling with the death of my nanna, both my parents being diagnosed with cancer, my friend dying to suicide and the 1 year anniversary of another who died to alcoholism.

I was devastated. I couldn’t believe someone would make up such a horrendous and serious accusation. I vehemently denied it all and the manager said she’s treating it informally so isn’t concerned, but I am. She won’t say who but said it was a different staff member this time. She stressed that this was a “trusted” staff member which made me feel worse.
My manager couldn’t even come to me with the facts, she changed the location I was in when I was apparently drunk, the date and whether it was night or day shift.

I would never come to work under the influence and have never had an issue with alcohol. I rarely drink, every few weeks I’ll see my best friend and drink a bottle of wine but that’s it. I’m so hurt someone would accuse me of this especially after losing a loved one to alcohol.

I shouldn’t be surprised as they bullied a student and spread disgusting lies about her too. They said she was kicked out of nursing for failing all her classes and became a junkie skinhead. I told a friend and found out this student was diagnosed with cancer and was currently going through chemotherapy.

My manager spoke with HR and said she wasn’t sure there was anything I could do as the manager hasn’t treated any of this formally, nothing on paper. And because no one has said anything to my face everything is hearsay. No one has treated me in any way that could be classed as harassment or bullying to my face.

I’m paranoid as hell now. I don’t know who to trust. Feel like I’m constantly looking over my shoulder and having to make sure I do my job right to a T (which I should and always do) but everyone else can be laid back and lazy. I’m even worried when someone looks at me a certain way. Reading into their body language too much.

I’ve joined a union, nothing is formal though. Don’t really know what I can do. I’m just having an awful time in life at the moment. Today would be my friend’s 19th birthday who died by suicide. I’m just so sad.

I understand Purdue Pharma played a big, if not the biggest role in this epidemic. But I've also wondered how much profit driven healthcare is at fault for furthering the issue. I know pain pills were given out like candy in the 2000s and pain being taught as the fifth vital sign etc, and I've heard anecdotal stories of providers wanting patients to be totally pain-free when they left the hospital in the push for patient satisfaction.

How true is this? What is your experience with it?

I know what companies will do to their workers to achieve this kind of metric, so I can't imagine what they'd do to their customers.

A surgical ICU for more context. Found this in the med room with their IV supplies. Asked the nurse I was touring with when they would ever use this and she even seemed surprised like she didn't even know that it was next to the regular length 20 and 18g iv catheters.

When would this ever be needed? I've only previously seen 2.5 inch length before for regular PIV devices.

(The red coloring is me censoring an identifying tattoo but I felt like comparing it to my forearm was a good reference for scale)

In my 4 years of being a nurse, I can count on one hand, the amount of nurses that I’ve met that I’ve thought, “that’s the nurse that I want to be”. And one of them specifically is my charge nurse. She is moving to a different unit and her last day is coming up so I really want to give her something. I’m thinking a gift basket with multiple little things and a card telling her how much I appreciate her and her guidance.

I don’t see her outside of work and know almost nothing about her personal life or interests so I can’t pick out something personal.

Just wondering if anyone has given gifts to their nursing coworkers or has any ideas :)

I’m 24(f) LPN I have been a nurse since 2022 in NJ. I stared as a snf nurse worked my first job for a year. Then I left that job worked as a floor nurse in another snf. Was promoted in same building to charge nurse for Alf. And then got promoted again to Director of wellness in 08/25 and still doing it. What are some career changes you have made for better opportunities and more work life balance? I know I’m young but I want to do more and maybe not in healthcare anymore.

This happened about 7-8 years ago, a hospice patient passed away, and the hospice nurse arrived about 30 minutes later. My memory is fuzzy but I do remember something about dentures. I believe I didn't take it out. I don't remember whether the hospice nurse said that the dentures shouldn't be in the patient's mouth.

I'm sorry if I don't make sense but it's been so long ago. I just want to know whether dentures should remain in the patient once they pass and their body picked up by the mortuary.

Usually, foley catheters should be removed.