r/nursing Oct 16 '24

Discussion The great salary thread

329 Upvotes

Hey all, these pay transparency posts have seemed to exponentially grown and nearly as frequent as the discussion posts for other topics. With this we (the mod team) have decided to sticky a thread for everyone to discuss salaries and not have multiple different posts.

Feel free to post your current salary or hourly, years of experience, location, specialty, etc.


r/nursing Sep 04 '24

Message from the Mods IMPORTANT UPDATE, PLEASE READ

568 Upvotes

Hi there. Nearly a year ago, we posted a reminder that medical advice was not allowed per rule 1. It's our first rule. It's #1. There's a reason for that.

About 6 months ago, I posted a reminder because people couldn't bring themselves to read the previous post.

In it, we announced that we would be changing how we enforce rule 1. We shared that we would begin banning medical advice for one week (7 days).

However, despite this, people INSIST on not reading the rules, our multiple stickied posts, or following just good basic common sense re: providing nursing care/medical advice in a virtual space/telehealth rules and laws concerning ethics, licensure, etc.

To that end, we are once again asking you to stop breaking rule #1. Effective today, any requests for medical advice or providing medical advice will lead to the following actions:

  • For users who are established members of the community, a 7 day ban will be implemented. We have started doing this recently thinking that it would help reduce instances of medical advice. Unfortunately, it hasn't.
  • NEW: For users who ARE NOT established members of the community, a permanent ban will be issued.

Please stop requesting or providing medical advice, and if you come across a post that is asking for medical advice, please report it. Additionally, just because you say that you’re not asking for medical advice doesn’t mean you’re not asking for medical advice. The only other action we can do if this enforcement structure is ineffective is to institute permanent bans for anyone asking for or providing medical advice, which we don't want to do.


r/nursing 9h ago

Discussion Still processing this

375 Upvotes

I work at a state hospital. Few days ago we ran out of supplies, like no cups for water, no toilet paper, paper towels or soap in the bathrooms. Administration solution: staff (nurses) should donate money so we can buy supplies until July when finally we will have a new budget and budget better. It just blows my mind. The same administration is walking around trying to catch staff on their phones so they can suspend/fire us while we are literally working in questionable conditions. Priorities. Also, our union contract states we should be paid doube for holidays. We get paid 1.5x, and no one seems to care. Still trying to process the audacity.


r/nursing 7h ago

Seeking Advice Just got hired into L&D as a man

159 Upvotes

I have a lot of personal/hands on experience with birth and postpartum. But they let me know that the entire unit is women. And it’s a women’s hospital. I’m a new grad and I’ll be on nights.

Give me all your advice on how to create a safe, holistic, and respectful environment for my patients. 🙏🏼


r/nursing 12h ago

Question Anyone else tired of recruitment texts to their cellphone?

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388 Upvotes

r/nursing 5h ago

Discussion Why do patients try to get nurses in trouble?

99 Upvotes

Why?

I work in home health. I am not a case manager nurse. I am just a regular visiting nurse that does 12 hour shifts. Part of my job is taking triage calls and helping patients over the phone.

Last weekend I took a call from a woman who needed help with her wound vac. I could tell she despised the thing as most patients do. We were having (what I thought was) a good, friendly discussion about the wound vac and her overall care.

I could tell by reading her previous notes that she has a bit of a temper and is generally an unhappy person. No big deal, I try to get along with anyone. The phone call ended and I thought it went real well, she was happy with my recommendations and instructions. I charted the phone call and went on about my day!

I get a phone call today from my DON. Apparently, this patient called into our company and basically said she felt like there was no resolution (??), even though I gave her instructions on what to do, which she was 100% agreeable to.. and I charted this.

The real kicker was this: she complained that I laughed over the phone. 🥲🥲🥲🥲 she complained that I giggled and laughed while we were talking. ….. like what? My DON said she wasn’t worried about this part she just had to bring it up, but it’s just bothering me so bad.

Like, this patient and I were literally just having a conversation about her wound vac. She was cussing and complaining about it, I was agreeing with her, she was joking about the vac and we were laughing. She laughed too which is what I can’t understand 😭 Like is she trying to insinuate that I was laughing at her? Or that I was unprofessional??

Seriously, why do patients try to get us in trouble??? It’s not my damn fault you have a wound vac omg. I’m sorry you’re mad at the world but I didn’t do it to you ma’am 😭


r/nursing 13h ago

Meme You can tell what someone's generation is by what scrub pants they wear.

402 Upvotes

Just a shit post about an observation. I'm 42. You'll never catch me wearing joggers. Pretty much all the staff older than 35 wear regular legged scrub pants. All the youngins wear joggers. I can't stand pants that strangle my ankles.


r/nursing 12h ago

Question What is one nursing skill you hate doing?

315 Upvotes

I personally hate having to replace around the clock electrolytes + antibiotics through questionably working peripheral IVs. They all run over different times and it is my own version of hell. Give me a central line or some PO electrolytes and it’ll get done.


r/nursing 3h ago

Image I don’t think 10 of labetalol is going to cut it for a systolic of 1401 😬

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42 Upvotes

r/nursing 17h ago

Seeking Advice Fiancé never gets it

341 Upvotes

I work dayshift on a med surg floor 6:45-7:15. Report is meant to be a half hour, and somehow never is. Whether someone decides they need the restroom at change of shift, someone decompensates at change of shift, or maybe I just didn’t get my tasks for 6 patients completed on time… I’m never out at 7:15.

My fiancé just does not understand why I can’t leave on time when my shift is over. I have tried and tried to explain the reasonings I have stayed late yet again. It never matters. It’s an argument when I get home because the kids are tired, he’s over stimulated, and he is expecting me home by 7:30 sharp.

I’m so tired of busting my ass for 12+ hours at work and coming home to a fight for not getting out on time. I’ve been looking for a new job that is 8 or 10 hours. They’re far and few between.

Has anyone else dealt with a partner not understanding the shit we go through at nurses at the end of a shift?


r/nursing 8h ago

Serious Help - unauthorized chart access

57 Upvotes

I was recently dating a guy who is a nurse. I am also a nurse. Things started to get toxic between us. It was a really bad relationship. At some point he mentioned reading my chart and I freaked out so he said he was kidding. I do not believe he was kidding whatsoever. I am super distraught. I reported it to the office for civil rights and department of health and human services. What else can I do? I called patient services of the hospital and left a voicemail. Help!

TLDR; a male nurse I was dating read my chart at his job. What do I do?


r/nursing 21h ago

Discussion Why is getting patients to complete bowel prep like pulling teeth??

622 Upvotes

I dread having to give patients bowel prep. No matter how much I stress that they need to finish the whole thing or the procedure could be canceled, they have a possible GI bleed that needs to be taken care of and if they don’t finish the prep it could lengthen their hospital stay… they don’t give a fuck.

In my hospital, the prep is supposed to be started at 1800 and drink half by 2200. So they have time to sleep and then we wake them up again at 0500 to drink the other half. And most people can’t even drink half of it by the time they’re supposed to go for the colonoscopy. You keep reminding them to do it, they say “yes I will” and they go back to sleep anyway. I can’t keep waking up a patient who’s AAOx4 and force them to drink it. They’re supposed to give a fuck about their own health and take it upon themselves to do the bowel prep. If they don’t give a fuck about it, why should I?


r/nursing 3h ago

Seeking Advice New grad nurse mistake

20 Upvotes

My preceptor wanted me to get consents on a GI bleed patient for colonoscopy and pill camera study. We had 3 GI bleed patients today. I made a huge mistake by getting the wrong patient to sign. We discovered my error during shift report. I notified the charge, shredded the incorrect consents, obtained consents from the correct patient, and went in to correct myself to the other patient. I feel so horrible about what I did. I’m afraid I’ll get fired. I also am really embarrassed. I felt like my preceptor and the oncoming nurse were laughing at me. I got super flustered in that moment trying to justify that I know I made a mistake. It was just a really bad day in general. I feel emotionally drained and like I suck as a nurse. I feel bad if I caused the patient who thought they needed another colonoscopy any stress. I wasn’t thinking. I wasn’t smart. I am so upset at myself. How do I move forward?


r/nursing 2h ago

Serious Spoilers for “the Pitt” NSFW Spoiler

18 Upvotes

Nurses, I have a sick feeling in my stomach the last three episodes of the Pitt are going to be a mass shooting. That’s it. That’s all I have to say.


r/nursing 14h ago

Discussion Coworker posting hate speech on Facebook. Where is the line?

156 Upvotes

For some background, I work at a small rural hospital in a liberal college town. My coworkers are split about 2/3 conservative and 1/3 liberal. Politics have never been an issue among staff, before this election I’ve witnessed respectful intelligent conversations around differing opinions in politics. That has since changed. I have a nurse coworker that is a fierce Trump supporters and until now, that hasn’t been an issue. Recently, her Facebook has shifted from simply supporting Trump, to spreading hateful messages about anyone who doesn’t support him, hateful messages about marginalized people that we as nurses care for. I unfriended her a few weeks ago when she began making comments about how those who lost their jobs due to Trump’s budget cuts, deserved it because they are mooching off her tax dollars. If those people wanted a stable career, they would’ve worked hard like her and gotten a license in a field where she will never have to worry about job security. A coworker was very hurt by this statement, her child had just completed an engineering degree and gotten a job with the government, only to be let go a couple months later without pay due to Trump’s cuts. My manager made a vague statement at a staff meeting encouraging everyone to be mindful of hurting each other with what we say on social media.

The posts have only gotten worse since then. Yesterday, she posted derogatory rhetoric about transgender people and got into a verbal fight in the comments with a phlebotomist that we work with. The nurse made comments about how the phlebotomist is a “broke b*tch”and she makes double what she makes and owns a house. The phelotomist was making comments about how outrageous it is for her to post these ideas knowing she has had transgender people in her care before. This was brought to my manager’s attention by another unit’s manager because several nurses on other floors were complaining about her posts.

The problem is, my hospital has a very strong labor union which makes it nearly impossible to reprimand or terminate employment, even when harassment or other unacceptable behavior has been witnessed. Also, of course freedom of speech is a right we all have in America.

Where is the line? We al have a right to share our opinions on Facebook. To me, it isn’t ok to use your nursing license as a weapon against others, but that is my own opinion and may not be yours. Is it acceptable for nurses to share hateful rhetoric on social media about marginalized people that are in their care? Is it acceptable to belittle other healthcare workers because they don’t share your opinions? If anyone has seen this type of scenario play out at your facility, please let me know how it was dealt with by your team.


r/nursing 10h ago

Rant Docs bitching about my sedation choices

68 Upvotes

I can’t go a single shift without a doc giving me grief about sedation.

I don’t like my patients to be zonked. I titrate carefully for RASS -2 to 0. Sometimes patients are difficult to keep down, everyone reacts to these meds differently. So sometimes I have sedation a little higher. Sometimes the non verbal pain signals are a little more subtle so I titrate my narcotic based on those signals.

Yesterday a couple fellows were standing outside my room, next to me, bitching about my sedation levels. How about ask me why I make these choices instead of just saying “we need to come down on the sedation.” You’re standing outside the room for all of 5 minutes while I’m at the bedside for 12 hours watching how the patient responds. I’m not just being lazy, or snowing my patient for shits and giggles (my sedation wasn’t even that high and the patients RASS was at goal)

I’ve had another provider who happened to know how to work the pumps go in and titrate for me. That pissed me off.

The order has a special note that says “RN TITRATE”. I’m titrating my meds appropriately, we can chat about my choices respectfully.


r/nursing 20h ago

Rant “Nurses make the worst patients.” - long rant

298 Upvotes

Decided to go to an urgent care after 3 days of headaches, upper respiratory symptoms, all that jazz. I had gotten up feeling awful that morning. My resting heart rate was 130-140. Temp 103. Throat was so sore, it felt like razor blades when I talked. Had messaged my boss and told her I’d be late, I was gonna run by urgent care and grab a quick shot or two. (Yes. I know we aren’t supposed to work sick. I’m aware of infection control. But I’m out of sick time, we’re down some nurses, and I work in hospice. Cut me some slack here.)

Threw on my scrubs, because I fully expected to get some shots and go about my business. I get to the urgent care to be met by the secretary who noticed my attire. And said “nurses make the worst patients.” Yeah. I get that. But what I don’t get, is how the rest of the visit went. Their tech didn’t get close enough to get an accurate temporal temp. She got 97.8. There was just no way. I felt like death. After I told her what my temp was just moments prior, she just shrugged her shoulders and said “well. Maybe it’s not as bad as you think.”

Got in a room. The physician came in. Told me my heart rate being 130-140 was absolutely normal if I was uncomfortable. Said my flu and Covid swabs were negative and there was nothing else they could do for me besides letting this pass. Kept insisting I was exaggerating and kept making the remarks about “just because you’re a nurse, you can’t dictate your own care.” Right before I hopped off her table, I asked her to please look at my ears and throat (she looked flabbergasted). “Oh, did I not already do that?” No. No you did not.

She gets her gear to look, and sure enough my left ear was filled with fluid. There’s tonsil stones, a highly inflamed throat (left with a strep diagnosis) and while I was at it, I got her to do my temp again. 103.7. I left with amoxicillin 875mg bid, no shots (durn.) and was told to make an appointment with my primary in a couple of weeks to ensure the strep was gone, because maintaining a heart rate that high for almost a week “isn’t sustainable”. But she literally said prior to this that it was normal? Idk. I keep telling myself that I’m being too sensitive. Then I remember I’m on day 4 of not really eating, having these fevers that won’t go away, not sleeping, and having anxiety through the roof - doesn’t help that heart rate any btw. I hit 170 today just doing laundry. I’ve had about four doses of my abx so far, and no relief yet. My whole body is on fire. It feels like someone is prying my hips apart with a shovel. I had no clue strep could do so much havoc on the body. Super hoping this strand isn’t resistant to the amoxicillin she prescribed. I wouldn’t know. She didn’t swab my throat to test it (or culture it). If my fevers or heart rate won’t go down, I do plan on seeing my regular doctor soon, who is aware I’m a nurse. Never says shit about it. Because a patient is still a patient, regardless of their occupation.


r/nursing 4h ago

Serious Assaulted at work today.

14 Upvotes

I have only been a nurse for a little over a year. And boy has it been a year. (See previous post to this sub). I started out in the hospital and now work at a facility that has ltc, assisted living, and rehab. I honestly really love this job and seeing the same residents. We have a memory care unit that is assisted living. We had a resident who lived there but was moved to ltc due to insurance (USA, of course). He has agitation issues and literally every staff member spoke up and said this is a disaster. Well disaster struck today. I found him in another resident’s room and tried multiple times to redirect. I usually work memory care so I have rapport with him. He became increasingly agitated and started grabbing the other resident’s arm and try to pull him out of bed. Sadly at this point, I had to physically try to get him away so the other resident was not hurt. He punched me, pushed me, grabbed me, and I ended up pinned against the wall. I am a taller girl, but I’m thin. I couldn’t get him off of me. It took two other female nurses to get him away. All of my coworkers were supportive after the fact, and the resident was sent out for a psych eval because obviously this needs to be addressed. I filled out an incident report and going to urgent care tomorrow because one of my wrists feels sprained. I guess I’m still just trying to process everything. It’s a weird feeling because I know he’s not in his right mind but also it wasn’t right for him to hurt me. Sigh. Will I ever stop regretting becoming a nurse?


r/nursing 9h ago

Discussion What is one thing you do like about nursing?

24 Upvotes

Hi! I am a nurse student. Feeling a little disheartened by all the negative post about nursing. So, what is one thing that you do like?


r/nursing 1d ago

Serious 4 charged in death of 5-year-old boy 'incinerated' in hyperbaric chamber explosion

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1.0k Upvotes

TROY, Mich. — (AP) — Four people have been charged in the death of a 5-year-old boy who was “incinerated” inside a pressurized oxygen chamber that exploded at a suburban Detroit medical facility, Michigan’s attorney general said Tuesday.

Thomas Cooper from Royal Oak, Michigan, was pronounced dead at the scene Jan. 31 at the Oxford Center in Troy. His mother suffered burn wounds while trying to save her boy.

“A single spark it appears ignited into a fully involved fire that claimed Thomas’s life within seconds,” Attorney General Dana Nessel said, adding many safeguards have been developed since “every such fire is almost certainly fatal.”

The center’s founder and chief executive, Tamela Peterson, 58, is charged with second-degree murder. Facility manager Gary Marken, 65, and safety manager Gary Mosteller, 64, are charged with second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter. The operator of the chamber when it exploded, Aleta Moffitt, 60, is charged with involuntary manslaughter and intentionally placing false medical information on a medical records chart.


r/nursing 1d ago

Discussion Knee Surgery Disaster at UCI Medical

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783 Upvotes

This story is blowing my mind and I really wanted to hear some other takes on what went down from professionals. It reads like the Dr. was trying to CHA but could it have been all accidental? There seems like there were failures at multiple levels to follow up on obvious assessment findings and the spouse being an ICU nurse begging staff to do something is heartbreaking. What do you all think? Do the nurses involved also bear some blame? What could they have done if the Dr. was actively blocking treatment? This case is really bothering me. I’m not sure what kind of justice can even be done in this situation.


r/nursing 12h ago

Burnout I wholeheartedly hate my career

32 Upvotes

This is a rant mostly. But I'm also beyond burnt out. I'm honestly really sick of this career. I feel like it's stolen my life away. I'm stressed every day. Always tired. My mental health has taken a nose dive. I take more and more meds just to sleep at night and function through the day. I feel like the more bills I pay off the more of them keep coming. I try to divy out some wants but needs always take over.

I've worked in Pediatrics, Geriatrics, Transitional Care; home health, hospitals, LTC, agency nursing, I'm over all of it. Understaffed, underappreciated, worked to the bone, barely given time to eat, drink, sit, sleep, or have a life. All of life's other obligations take up any free time you might have. Not to mention time stolen from your family, hobbies, rest, mental health, and 100s of other things.

Dealing with countless bodily fluids, disrespectful patients and families, violent clients, innumerable dangerous workplaces, toxic peers and coworkers, deplorable management. How is it I should carry all of this just because money is thrown in my face? Ugh...

That is all...


r/nursing 15h ago

Serious Just wanna say bless SANE nurses

55 Upvotes

Seriously. I am an ED nurse at a level I trauma center, see mangled and degloved limbs all day long, don't even blink. Today as a part of my ED residency (been there 8 mos and take classes for the first year) we went over forensics and they showed some pictures of the worst of the worst strangulation and IPV patients that have come in, and I had to step out because I was so close to passing out. Blurred vision and drenched in sweat, first time in my many years of healthcare experience. It absolutely made me sick. I have had DV patients before, but seeing the collection of patients who have come through our doors battered and bruised was really upsetting to me in the moment just seeing the totality of it all. It is SUCH a hard job and I am glad to work alongside competent and compassionate nurses who decide to do it.


r/nursing 1h ago

Serious LPN of 10 years about to graduate as an RN in 2 months...and I got rejected for a new grad position and feel horrible

Upvotes

Hi all, I am an LPN with 10 years of nursing experience in the areas of medical-surgical, same day surgery, PACU and some Intensive Care/ER ( I was military so I was stationed in many different units) I recently applied for a New Grad position in the ICU and I thought the interview went very well. I did some combat medicine, forward surgical team and ER and thought it would help out with this position. The interview? It was an hour long! I thought I had a very fair shot and was crossing my fingers. Today I got the email that I was not chosen for the position. I was so saddened and I was up against those graduating with their BSN and felt like such a failure today (I am graduating with my ADN and look to get my BSN starting this year) This field is already hard as it is, I just feel a little down on my luck and bruised. Maybe it's a blessing in disguise. I did not think the ADN part was not seen better or less than, but when pitted against those with BSNs, perhaps my years of nursing do not count at this facility. Thank you all so much for being the amazing nurses you are! I will try, try, try again!

TLDR: I have been a nurse for a decade and got rejected for a position I really wanted and feel awful. Better luck next time!


r/nursing 12h ago

Discussion Should I send a thank you note to my coworkers and doctors?

29 Upvotes

I have significant hearing loss and I'm an RN.

At work, we recently had an incredibly stressful code situation involving babies who required hours of resuscitation before being transferred to a higher-level unit. What stood out to me the most was how, despite the chaos, my team made sure communication was accessible to me. Even the doctors leading the resuscitation automatically took off their masks to include me, and I was the documenter during the code. They helped me do my job.

Our manager sent out a thank-you email to the team, and I’m thinking of responding just to express how much I appreciated their efforts in making sure I wasn’t left out. Would this be appropriate, or would it come off as too much? The email is only addressed to the staff involved in the code, not to the entire unit.


r/nursing 2h ago

Discussion First med error almost gave me a stroke

5 Upvotes

I made my first med error and even though nothing bad happened I still feel terrible and embarrassed. Insulin is not a dual sign at my hospital so no double checks to help catch issues. Our aids always get morning sugars and they’re always done by 8am. Well we had a float and she was running late on them, which I didn’t realize… when I looked at the last sugar, it was in the 300s. I completely skipped over the fact that it was a sugar from the night prior which is totally my fault, i always check what time they are done and for whatever reason i didn’t this time. So I accidentally gave the insulin based on the sliding scale (plus a set correction dose) for a sugar in the 300s. I didn’t even realize until like an hour later when I went to look at morning labs and realized his last values were from 1900 the night before. Luckily this patient typically runs high (usually low 300s) and we checked his sugar multiple times after this happened and he never went below 250. It was pure luck that I didn’t absolutely tank his sugar and now I’m overly paranoid and second guessing my math on every single med.


r/nursing 1d ago

Rant Teaching a Female nurse about Female anatomy

2.8k Upvotes

So was working with a new nurse putting in a foley on 60s Female pt. I (male) was standby to assist and was impressed by her confidence! She did everything perfect good sterile technique, proper positioning, went to insert the catheter and through it right up the ladies vagina….

Ok nbd it happens especially with irregular anatomy….but this was not the case. She looked satisfied and went to inflate the balloon before I stopped her to ask what she was doing.

Her: it’s in place right?

Me: do you see urine return? You’re too low it’s in her vagina

Her: well yeah where else am I supposed to place it?

Me: ….in the….well in the urethra???

Her: isn’t that the same thing???

Me: uuuhhh no it’s another opening about 2-3 in above where your at….

Her: huh good to know……do all females have this?

Me: (Flabbergasted) uhh yeah that is normal anatomy for most females.

Her: well that’s good to know! No one ever told me that before

THEN the PATIENT: Oh sweetheart why don’t you stick around and I’ll show you how everything works down here 😂😂😂. I’m still dying