Vandweller nurses

[mockturtle]

Gave me a few good laughs. I wish you would do one for nurses

  Are you a nurse, Katie?  So am I!

 

[twokniveskatie]

I sure am! Was! I left nursing a few<br />years ago. Spent most of my time in critical care, but made the rounds like most of us....pediatrics, med-surg, a nursing home, home health, amaximum security prison. Absolute burn out. I pumped gas for most of a year after I left. It was a relief. How about you?

 

[twokniveskatie]

I moved this to a new thread so as not to hijack VT&nbsp;<img src="../images/boards/smilies/biggrin.gif" alt="" align="absmiddle" border="0" /><img src="../images/boards/smilies/biggrin.gif" alt="" align="absmiddle" border="0" /><br /><br />Woowee, the smilies work on my phone now! I love these upgrades of late!

 

[mockturtle]

Worked at a Level I trauma center in Seattle then went into home health and never looked back.&nbsp; Only worked seasonally in AZ the last few years.&nbsp; Had to quit after 2005 to take care of my husband, who has Lewy Body Disease [a type of Parkinson's Dementia].&nbsp; He is in a nursing home now.&nbsp; <br /><br />I cringe at the thought of having to do hospital nursing again--12-hour shifts!&nbsp; Yikes, I'm too old for that!&nbsp; I renew my license every year and am going to be volunteering in a free clinic starting this fall--I'm currently on the Operations Committee--but have no plans to work for pay any time soon.&nbsp; <br /><br />As you know, nursing is not just physically demanding but it's very stressful, as well.&nbsp; I've been through enough stress these past seven years to last me a lifetime. <br /><br /><br /><br />

 

[yesican]

Katie...I've been a nurse for almost 30 years and burnt and fried yet still working 40 hours/wk plus on-call.&nbsp; I like home care nursing but its frying me.&nbsp; Would love to "pump gas" and do a job where there is less stress.&nbsp; Nursing becomes such an identity with a person; tried care coordinating but hated it and it was stressful as well; how were you ever able to give it up?&nbsp;&nbsp;Nursing is&nbsp;like a drug!<br />Rae<br /><br />

 

[twokniveskatie]

Wow, I had took look up Lewy Body Disease...what a heartbreaker, that cluster of symptoms. You've had enough stress for a few lifetimes. I'll keep both you and your husband in my good thoughts.&nbsp;<br /><br />I did some volunteer work at the local free clinic, but they closed. I have since let my license lapse. Didn't want to pay for all the CEU's required to keep it. I have since changed my mind, and am going to have it reinstated, and play catch-up with the CEU's. I'm not sure why, cause I swore I'd never go back. I dream about it all the time, mostly nightmares....can't get all the meds passed in time, people dying left and right, my patients are lost and I can't find them. But ya know what I miss? Starting IV's. I could hit just about anything.&nbsp;<br /><br />But my best skill ever is as a baby whisperer. Swaddle 'em and shush 'em. I loan myself out to every colicky baby I can find. Not easy to do on the road.&nbsp;<br /><br />I here ya about the physical and emotional demands. Not sure I could do it again at my age either. Mandatory overtime, that was a killer. 16 hours &nbsp;in CCU, then go home to the babies with trachs and feeding tubes and be back in 8 hours again? Insanity.&nbsp;<br /><br />&nbsp;Rethinking that reinstatement, after all.....I just made myself tired <br /><br />So you get to travel at all? I'd love to meet you sometime.&nbsp;

 

[SoulRaven]

I was a truck driver and fixed my own boo-boo's... Does that count...?

 

[twokniveskatie]

Oh, Rae, bless your heart. I only was actively nursing for 18 years, didn't graduate nursing school til I was 30. I did take one yeamiddles free about ten years, got family leave when we took in a little girl who had survived a shooting, and needed lots of wound care, and can you say post-traumatic stress? When she was finally recovered enough to go live with her gramma (mom died in the shooting, dad in prison), I bounced around for awhile. Home care was beyond stressful. Don't know how you do it,especially call.&nbsp;<br /><br />Finally giving it up, and going from $25 an hour to $7 an hour, is a long story. It wasn't done lightly.&nbsp;<br /><br />How much longer do you think you'll keep going?

 

[twokniveskatie]

Hahaha, Steve. If it didn't involve bedpans, lots of vomit, and mandatory 16 hour shifts, then no, it doesn't count

 

[mockturtle]

Katie, one good feature the University of Washington offers its graduates in the medical fields is free CE credits! <img src="../images/boards/smilies/smile.gif" alt="" align="absmiddle" border="0" />&nbsp; I can just take them online and print them out.&nbsp; But the $100/year for my license disturbs me since I haven't used it in years.&nbsp; My AZ license is on inactive status [they don't offer that option here in WA].&nbsp; If I want to work again in AZ, though, I'll have to take a refresher course.&nbsp; Big bucks!&nbsp; And it also requires a lot of hours in the hospital.&nbsp; <br /><br />I only take a very occasional 3-4 day RV trip, all within a day's drive from home just in case.&nbsp; I visit my husband every morning, feed him, help with his care, etc.&nbsp; Some days he's very combative and won't let anyone even touch him.&nbsp; Seroquel has helped, but not entirely alleviated, the problem.&nbsp;<br /><br />Yes, I would like to meet you on the road some day!&nbsp; I'm planning to do the Olympic Peninsula later this month.&nbsp; I've been installing new mini blinds in the MH [threw out those horrible day/night shades] and today I had to re-affix a cabinet wall that came loose.&nbsp; Had to employ my contortionist skills!&nbsp; Always something.&nbsp; <img src="../images/boards/smilies/smile.gif" alt="" align="absmiddle" border="0" />

 

[yesican]

Mockturtle, I have so much respect for you.&nbsp; After being charge nurse on an Alzheimers unit for 3 years, I saw the pain the family went through.&nbsp; It was hell on them to watch their loved one's go through it.&nbsp; If you ever need a punching bag...I volunteer Steve; he wants to play nurse.<br />Rae

 

[yesican]

Katie...I am hoping to be able to let go of nursing and join the vandwelling world next year...Almost debt free and also have to finish my cabin enough to come up to standards of the covenants....I'm gettin too old for this crapt!&nbsp; I suppose stomping up and down, waving my arms, and whining loudly won't get me there any sooner?!&nbsp; Ugh!<br />Rae

 

[Sunny1]

Katie and other nurses, I'm following a blog of a woman who teaches nursing.&nbsp; She's looking into teaching online nursing classes.&nbsp; That might be a way to earn income on the road and not have to do bedpans and stuff.&nbsp; <img src="/images/boards/smilies/smile.gif" border="0" align="absmiddle"><br /><br />If you are interested, PM me for a link to her blog where she talks about it.

 

[mockturtle]

I never had any particular distaste for bedpans and, actually, very few of my patients used them since they had catheters and weren't eating or pooping.&nbsp; Most hospital nursing [at least in my experience] involved administering meds and hanging IVs.&nbsp; At the trauma center we did the blood draws because virtually all of my patients had central lines and the lab wasn't allowed to do it.&nbsp; I love central lines.&nbsp; A lot of my home health patients had PICC lines, mostly for a course of antibiotics so they didn't have to stay in the hospital just for IV medications.&nbsp; <br /><br />In home health, my <span class="st"><em>b&ecirc;te noire</em> was paperwork.&nbsp; I'd get home about 5 or 6 and be up until 11 doing paperwork.&nbsp; I liked the driving, though.&nbsp; Some days I'd do up to 300 miles, although the average was more like 100.&nbsp; Gave me time to think between visits.&nbsp; Not that my cell phone wasn't ringing every few minutes. <img src="../images/boards/smilies/mad.gif" alt="" align="absmiddle" border="0" /><br /> </span>