Reposted from NJSafeRatios.com and their facebook group! Join HERE if your interested in supporting safe patient ratios! __________________________________________________________ Nurses Are Not Playing Cards, They Are Saving Lives Amongst Understaffing, Labor Rights Violations and Wage Theft Last week there was national uproar in response to comments made by Washington’s Senator Walsh regarding nurses playing cards during work hours. She launched an attack on nurses that drew fire from not only nurses, but from just about every possible career field around the country. These highly offensive comments were in opposition to a bill in Washington state that would have required hospitals to provide nurses with actual breaks, something that most nurses across the country do not have, even though their pay is docked for it. While many New Jerseyans might think that this is a Washington issue, I assure you it is not. For seventeen years New Jersey legislators from both political
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Overdoses with antifreeze or other ethylene glycol products.
Antifreeze or Windshield Washer Fluid Overdose Have you experienced a patient with an Ethylene Glycol or Methanol overdose in your practice? Perhaps a young child drinks some antifreeze, or someone drinks a bit of windshield washer fluid. Was it accidental or was it an intentional suicide attempt? Either way, it doesn't happen all that frequently, but will kill a patient fast. I've seen two of these in my 24 year career and with rapid and accurate treatment, there have been good outcomes. Pathophysiology Ethylene Glycol Metabolization What happens with these patients? Your patient ingests some antifreeze in a suicide attempt. Antifreeze and windshield washer fluid contains Ethylene Glycol. This is the bad stuff that will kill you fast if we don't realize the severity of this true medical emergency. Ethylene glycol ( C 2 H 6 O 2 ) is an odorless, colorless, and sweet-tasting syrupy substance. There are three presentations depending on time after inges
WhenToWork tips for new users
So your employer has just switched to WhenToWork (W2W) and you are a little confused. How do I get the most out of this scheduling service? The following are step by step instructions to get your W2W account connected to received text message alerts and to have the calendar flow to your google calendar. When to Work Tips & Tricks Adding your cell phone to W2W to receive Text Alerts Log into WhenToWork.com with your provided credentials Click on the Info tab at the top of the page. In the Emails, Texts, and Notifications section, click Add/Edit In the new window, click Add Text button (or Email) Under address put your cell phone “text address” in using the correct format for your provider. Choose the notifications you want to receive via text in the Select Notifications section Ensure that the Text radio button is selected and click Save WhenToWork will text a code to your cell, enter this in the validation dialog and click Validate . You will now receiv
Surviving the Holidays in the Hospital
Let me guess, you provide patient care in a facility that runs 24/7, all day, every day, even major holidays? Hospitals, nursing facilities, EMS providers, police, and fire, all essential services that can't shut down for a holiday or chaos will ensue. This means you have to work holidays. It's a given when we signed up for this career. Too bad we can't shut the doors like some in the service industry do on the major holidays. Perhaps we can alternate with a partner facilities, kinda like coffee shops do? This location closed for Thanksgiving, please use this alternate location for care. Nope, this would never work, never ever never. It would be nice, lets get that right. We would be able to spend the holidays with our families and loved ones, which is the point of the holidays. Family! Now that we’ve succumbed to the notion that we are stuck being away from our families on these holidays, we have to put on our big boy (or girl) panties and make the best of i
Welcome to Teach Us Things
I’d like to welcome you to my first blog post on Teach Us Things . This blog was the love child that came of a new job opportunity. I recently embarked on a new journey after 11 years in my most recent facility with several other new colleagues/acquaintances. There are 8 of us in total that started and are bound for the emergency department in a 500 bed hospital. We went through general corporate and nursing orientation together and got to know one another a little bit better. Realizing that my years of experience was greater than everyone’s total made me the “old one”. As we progressed through the process together there was an identified knowledge deficit for the new nurses as well as me. This isn’t a bad thing though, it’s just an opportunity to learn, share knowledge, and make our profession better. Starting a new job is never easy, new people, new routines, new policies and procedures, and new equipment. All of these are anxiety producing, especially for inexperienc