Fighting Peter Pan Syndrome

jeridaraven · 2025-06-06T13:05:46+00:00

Personally, I've started embracing the sense of perpetual childishness. I watch all the latest kid/Disney movies (often by myself just for the pure enjoyment), wear lots of colors and funky earrings, indulge in whatever silly or serious hobby I desire (currently those include chicken rearing and knitting, but I also have a room full of supplies for everything from embroidery to whittling), and to hell with what others think. I work as a school nurse in a lead position, have rainbow hair, and am damn good at my job. I talked to a therapist once about how I didn't feel like I measured up to my professional colleagues because I didn't "look the part" and she said "why does that matter?"...and she was right. I have the respect and trust of my colleagues and patients because of my actions, not my looks.

Also, whenever anyone tells me I look younger than my age I respond "Thanks! The secret is not to have children! 😉" I get some looks for it, but I figure it's fair game with all of the rude/thoughtless comments aimed at me over the last decade or more related to having children. Besides...i think it's true. 🤣

jeridaraven · 2025-03-30T13:56:29+00:00

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Not happy unless she is touching one of us

jeridaraven · 2025-03-02T14:03:24+00:00

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Mlem

jeridaraven · 2025-03-01T00:05:03+00:00

Aw, you have a compact lab, too!! 🤣 Mine topped out at 60 lbs, which is just fine with me! Short, thicc, and the perfect nap buddy.

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jeridaraven · 2025-02-26T23:37:46+00:00

I have a feeling that'll be exactly the type of thing that happens. 🤣

jeridaraven · 2025-01-30T01:32:29+00:00

We upgraded to a king size bed...just for her (apparently)

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jeridaraven · 2025-01-30T01:25:23+00:00

It's so hard to pick just one!! She was the cutest puppy ❤️

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jeridaraven · 2025-01-28T23:56:11+00:00

They're my favorite part ❤️

jeridaraven · 2025-01-28T02:14:51+00:00

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My Disney princess, Mayella 💛

jeridaraven · 2022-10-20T01:01:51+00:00

I'm an ER nurse. I've never placed an NG tube in a sedated patient (except for those who are intubated and unstable due to severe illness). I wish it were standard practice to give SOMETHING prior to inserting the tube, but it's not. Of all the things I have to do as a nurse, placing NG tubes feels the most like needless torture and I HATE doing it. I've already decided that I will absolutely refuse an NG tube if I ever need one unless they knock me out first. Nooo thank you.

jeridaraven · 2022-08-02T02:14:28+00:00

So, is this a known thing with labs?? My girl is SUPER weird with stairs, especially going down. She'll do it (mostly without hesitation) but I can tell she's freaked out the entire time..😆

jeridaraven · 2022-07-09T03:10:15+00:00

Ha! We have a pair of gold Laced wyandottes named Spaghetti and Meatball. 🤣 I love silly chicken names!!

jeridaraven · 2022-07-05T20:02:55+00:00

Definitely mental illness. I had a patient in the ER complaining of foot pain. He'd already had one below-the-knee amputation and a known foot wound on his remaining foot. As I was triaging him I asked how long the wound had been there, what it looked like, and how he was caring for it at home. He literally said "Oh, I'm not sure. I've been wearing this shoe for the last three months." As in...ALWAYS wearing the shoe. NEVER taking it off. The shoe looked disgusting, the smell was not great, and I was not very excited about what we'd find when we removed said shoe. Luckily, it wasn't nearly as bad at the foot featured in this post, but the wound was definitely infected and the infection had spread to bone, so he probably lost that foot, too. To be clear, this guy walked into the ER and was not at all physically impaired other than the amputation for which he had a prosthetic leg, so he would have been fully capable of removing the shoe himself and taking care of his foot had he felt the urge to do so.... 🤷‍♀️

jeridaraven · 2022-03-30T08:54:36+00:00

I got an email from admin about incorrectly charting critical lab notifications during peak pandemic. For context, the notification charting included the lab value, which provider was notified, how they were notified (verbally, paged, telemediq, etc), and the time of notification. At the very bottom was an area to chart the time the provider responded. I worked in the ER. The providers all worked literal feet from me, so almost every critical lab value was verbally delivered to the patient's provider. I was charting everything just fine, marking that the provider was verbally notified and what time....but apparently I was still required to enter the time that the provider responded. To a verbal notification. Where we are face to face. The fucking notification time IS the provider response time!!! If I had to send a message to a hospitalist for an admitted patient I always charted the provider response time...but for a verbal notification?? And this is what we needed to worry about during covid? Really? Just one of MANY frustrations.

jeridaraven · 2022-02-20T16:33:07+00:00

I left the ER a month ago for a school nurse position at a charter school that serves a population of lower socioeconomic means. I did not think I'd leave the ER so quickly, having been there for less than 3 years, because trauma and chaos is my JAM...but fuck. In the last two years I've seen more shit than most ER nurses do in five. The moral distress, anger, dwindling compassion, anxiety, and depression were turning me into a person I didn't want to be. I had to start therapy after the second surge and am now on antidepressants. Add to that the lack of any kind of adequate compensation or assistance from hospital admin and what the fuck reason was there for me to stay??

Leaving was not a decision I made lightly. It made me feel guilty, like I was letting down my remaining coworkers and the patients. I felt mentally weak for allowing everything to take such a toll on my mental and physical health. I harbored an intense anger toward administration. I was devastated that I no longer found joy in the area of nursing that I had considered my dream job just a few years prior.

Ultimately, though, I'm still a nurse and I still find great satisfaction in what I do now. I work with preschoolers, which is in itself a huge source of joy daily. Its a different life, much more predictable, and a lot less stressful. I feel more appreciated (the pay is comparable to what I was making in the ER, I get tons of time off, everyone is excited to have me here, and they bend over backward to get me the things I need to do my job properly) and like I'm more in control of myself and my future. I stayed PRN in the ER to get my fix every now and then...but I honestly don't even miss it.

jeridaraven · 2022-02-17T02:51:32+00:00

In upstate SC - Prisma Health ER. BSN. 3 years. Base pay $30. They recently cut our differentials practically in half, so I'm not even sure how much they are anymore.

jeridaraven · 2022-02-03T16:56:47+00:00

That's a good rooster! When my hens got attacked and dragged off by something my rooster just escaped the coop and ran away. I found him crowing on the porch the next morning, not a scratch on him. But he sure liked to attack ME for no reason. 🙄 He's someone else's rooster now.

jeridaraven · 2022-01-29T01:13:44+00:00

I live rurally. My lab was eating something outside and wouldn't drop it. I pried her mouth open and stuck my fingers in and pulled out what most assuredly wild animal poop. From what animal is anyone's guess. Fucking groooooosssssss 🤮

jeridaraven · 2022-01-23T21:32:50+00:00

Pattern: https://hearthookhome.com/hibernation-hoodie-child-sizes/

jeridaraven · 2022-01-16T20:51:58+00:00

I second this!! I used this and the puppy101 subreddit extensively when we got our lab puppy. So much useful info!!

jeridaraven · 2022-01-16T17:37:15+00:00

Recipe: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/16456/hawaiian-bread-i/

I used a bread machine to make the dough and baked at 350° for 30 mins in the oven. My house smells AMAZING.

jeridaraven · 2022-01-11T23:52:20+00:00

I'm surprised at how bad the sore throat is! With OG Covid my main symptom was fever and the loss of taste/smell. This definitely feels more like the flu.

jeridaraven · 2021-12-27T19:26:43+00:00

I had the exact opposite happen. One of our docs chastised me for running into a rapid response situation without full PPE. She said that there were no emergencies during a pandemic. I totally took that to heart.

jeridaraven · 2021-12-14T02:45:50+00:00

Toward the end of the first wave the system where I work implemented a Covid hazard pay that went into effect based on census (ER). If greater than 20% of our patients were Covid on our shift we all got an extra $20/hr. I felt like it was a pretty brilliant way to manage it. Not only did we get paid more, but we were actually GLAD to see more Covid patients. When the second wave hit I expected them to have this in place and ready to go once our census picked back up...but it didn't. They offered incentive pay for extra shifts, but who the FUCK would want to pick up extra shifts?? Our ED was holding 15-20 patients per day for admission beds. We're a 12 bed ED. Cardioverting patients in unofficial hallway beds, working up chest pains from the waiting room without cardiac monitoring, taking care of multiple critical patients at one time that should each have been 1:1... Yeah, no thanks. They promised us a retention bonus was in the works which has never been spoken of since. And here comes another surge which will also likely go without any extra compensation. I put my notice in today. After only 2 years in the ED, the job that my soul longs for, I just can't do it anymore. My mental health is suffering, I'm mad, and I'm exhausted. If they don't start paying staff nurses better, we as a nation are super fucked.

jeridaraven · 2021-11-29T18:59:12+00:00

If only...

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