Oh, the government can and make it all taste… good?!?!
Thanks, Tim Hawkins.
Entries Tagged as 'humor'
Psy·cho·ses
I tell you what ICU psychosis is. It’s much like the definition of insanity…doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. We’re actually going to focus on the aspect of this very serious and very dangerous occurrence in the ICU setting when this form of delirium, or acute brain failure occurs in your nurses.
There are plenty of valid reasons and research that back the validity of this illness. For the patient it can be a combination of medical and environmental factors. Clinical issues for the patient can include uncontrolled pain, the actual illness or trauma they may be experiencing, drug reactions, fever, electrolyte imbalances, lack of oxygen to the brain etc.
I want to focus on the environmental aspects. I have recently been wondering if there is any research indicating alterations in the mental capacities of medical employees being in the same environmental as their patients.
Environmental Causes
- Sensory deprivation: A nurse being put in a room that often has no windows, and is away from family, friends, and all that is familiar and comforting. Also occurs in nurses working nights.
- Sleep disturbance and deprivation: The constant disturbance and noise with the hospital staff going into the rooms at all hours to check vital signs, give medications, etc. Also seen in nurses working nights.
- Continuous light levels: Continuous disruption of the normal biorhythms with lights on continually (when working nights and no reference to day or night).
- Stress: Nurses in an ICU frequently feel the almost total loss of control over their life.
- Lack of orientation: (Some) nurses loss of time and date.
Lastly and certainly not the least:
- Medical monitoring: The continuous monitoring of the patient’s vital signs, and the noise monitoring devices produce can be disturbing and create sensory overload
Let’s take for instance the last 6 days of work. Mind you I have had 2 one-on-one patients for those 6 days. Thankfully I had a 2 day respite in the middle of all the nonsense. But I swear to you, in each case, both patients being on a ventilator, cardiac monitoring and some triple pump concoction of something or another. If it wasn’t the monitor beeping, it was the one the pumps. And if it wasn’t the pump, it was the alarms on the ventilator. As soon as you get one working, the other would one would frak up and start all over again. And then run to the other patient…rinse, repeat and do the same cycle over again about 300 times during the shift.
They never tell you in nursing school that you need minor degrees or apprenticeships in plumbing, electricity and computer networking. I have recently felt that you end up trouble shooting electronics more so that trouble shooting your patient. So as you watch your equipment blink on and off and watch the thing drop vital signs and randomly turn on and off, the real kick in the arse is when BIOMED shows up and the damn things work like a charm. GGRRRR…
I lived in a cube farm
I found an old email and I was amused at how relevant this was to any working environment:
1. BLAMESTORMING: Sitting around in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible.
2. SEAGULL MANAGER: A manager, who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything, and then leaves.
3. ASSMOSIS: The process by which some people seem to absorb success and advancement by kissing up to the boss rather than working hard.
4. SALMON DAY: The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream only to get screwed and die in the end.
5. CUBE FARM : An office filled with cubicles.
6. PRAIRIE DOGGING: When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube farm, and people’s heads pop up over the walls to see what’s going on.
7. MOUSE POTATO: The on-line, wired generation’s answer to the couch potato.
8. STRESS PUPPY: A person who seems to thrive on being stressed out and whiny.
9. XEROX SUBSIDY: Euphemism for swiping free photocopies from one’s workplace.
10. PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE: The fine art of whacking the crap out of an electronic device to get it to work again.
11. OHNOSECOND: That minuscule fraction of time in which you realize that you’ve just made a BIG mistake. (Like after hitting send on an email by mistake).
12. CROP DUSTING: Surreptitiously passing gas while passing through a Cube Farm.
I couldn’t pass it up
A friend of mine sent the following:
“When it’s OK to say Oh sh#t.”
“I love NCLEX practice questions
First of all let me apologize to those of you that have commented since I have taken my sweet time in replying to your insight. I am humbled that you would take the time to peruse my mental meanderings. Thanks to Kim for the support!
Secondly, the reason I have been so lax in posting is my ever busy school schedule. The profs are really laying in on with only a month left. Haven’t they every considered using the calendars in the online material they are so driven to use for presentations?!
Thirdly, I just love me some practice NCLEX questions:
A client comes to the emergency department while experiencing a panic attack. The nurse can best respond to a client having a panic attack by:
1. staying with the client until the attack subsides.
2. telling the client everything is under control.
3. telling the client to lie down and rest.
4. talking continually to the client by explaining what is happening.
Correct Answer: 1 Your Answer: 1
RATIONALES: The nurse should remain with the client until the attack subsides. If the client is left alone he may become more anxious. Giving false reassurance is inappropriate in this situation. The client should be allowed to move around and pace to help expend energy. The client may be so overwhelmed that he can’t follow lengthy explanations or instructions, so the nurse should use short phrases and slowly give one direction at a time.
As if we really have the time in an over-crowded ER with a waiting list of 3+ hours, a gunshot wound, 2 (or is it 3) suicide attempts, an MVC – Ped, an MCC and collapsed lung from a construction accident. Forgive me for not wanting to listen to you freak out while other people might actually die.
What are some of your favorite Utopian questions?
Symptoms of Anxiety Disorders?
Nursing School
Symptoms of
- feeling like one is going to die or has sense of impending doom
- having narrowed perceptions
- difficulty concentrating or problem-solving
- increased vital signs
- muscle tension
- dilated pupils
- complaints of palpitations
- urinary frequency or urgency
- nausea
- tight throat
- complaints of fatigue & insomnia
- irritability
- disorganization
