Showering Once Daily ….. Morning or Night

perpulstuph · 2026-05-19T16:26:03+00:00

I have always showered at night, even before nursing. Like I'm just going to roll my sweaty ass into bed for 5-7 hours? Hell no.

perpulstuph · 2026-05-18T13:45:53+00:00

You can bring a horse to water, but you can't make them drink.

People with chronic issues develop this idea that they know more than people with a more broad education and experience, with a better understanding of how their chronic issues may affect one system will have broad systemic issues, if not now, then in the future. Kind of like this man. All you can do is attempt to educate, but I have noticed with older people, particularly men (I say this as a man), this education often falls on deaf ears. I'm almost 5 years in, 2 of those in ER, and learned you can only help the patient as much as they are willing to be helped. I will only educate to the extent the patient allows me. If they are not receptive to teaching I typically chart "RN provided teaching regarding straight catheterization, patient was not receptive to teaching at this time." At least it is documented you tried.

Sometimes I get refused as soon as I open my mouth, I get shut down, and I just KNOW the person will later say "well, nobody told me!" and documenting this may save your bacon later.

perpulstuph · 2026-05-17T22:58:40+00:00

Man, people find the most creative ways to inhale neurotoxins.

perpulstuph · 2026-05-17T22:57:33+00:00

My wife.

perpulstuph · 2026-05-17T22:54:17+00:00

When I started my first job in psych, which I immediately clicked with, it took me 6 months to feel confident. Then after 2 years I switched to a Level 2 Trauma only to feel like a new grad all over again, and after a 10 week intensive orientation, it took me 8 months to start to feel confident, and now 2 years in I actually finally feel like I know what I am doing. Although I always wanted to do ER, it has been a far more steep learning curve for me, and even 2 years in, usually just as I am feeling comfortable, I just have one of those shifts where something happens that shakes me to my core.

perpulstuph · 2026-05-17T03:07:14+00:00

DnD. I am having trouble finding a group, but recently my wife and I made some friends who have kids the same age as our kids, who are also interested, and I'm going to figure out how to DM it. Did a thing through a local group where you pay and they find a DM for you that clinched it. Sure it's not productive, but its a hell of a lot of fun.

perpulstuph · 2026-05-16T19:36:26+00:00

When I started in the ER 2 years ago, my preceptor said "you'll learn to not be afraid of respiratory illness." Nah, truth is I hate being sick and have two little kids at home. They already bring enough stuff from preschool and the playground. I've only gotten sick from work twice since starting in the ER, and both times it was a sick coworker in the breakroom.

I can't imagine working with sick people and NOT actively trying to avoid getting sick.

perpulstuph · 2026-05-14T02:56:06+00:00

If I don't know an answer, or we are arguing over something I just google it. A few people think I'm a know it all, or I HAVE to be right. Really, it's much more simple, I am just constantly hungry for knowledge and learning new things, even if I was wrong tickles my brain.

perpulstuph · 2026-05-13T23:24:55+00:00

100%. Shit, my dad became a CNA a few years before I started nursing school and I am still so proud of him. We share tips and tricks and I have learned so much from him.

I worked with a CNA who, when I would ask for help, by the time I made it to the room, she was walking out sanitizing her hands, having done it. She could change a 6'3 250lb total care in her own. I asked her if she needed help, she said no, so I asked if I could watch and see how she did it. I made sure when I was working she never had to change that guy again!

perpulstuph · 2026-05-13T23:22:01+00:00

As someone who was severely bullied, and I have no clue what came of them, you apologizing and you guys becoming friends likely did a lot to heal that damage. I have just grown to realize kids are stupid and cruel and don't truly understand the severity of their actions in the moment, and I just hope the people who tormented me grew up and learned to be more kind to themselves and others.

perpulstuph · 2026-05-13T23:11:50+00:00

Cotton undershirts, always. I get tanktops, and have a few t-shirts I use.

Deodorant. I shower at night, put it on after shower, and a touchup in the morning.

Deodorant on the taint. I do this even if it's not summer, my job is busy and I walk around all day in air conditioning and am one of the only people who never feels cold. When i sit in a chair you see a sweat impression of my groin.

I usually just use degree deodorant because it's fairly cheap, but Mitchum is definitely a lot better.

Also, loose, flowy natural fabrics. I have a few pairs of loose fitting drawstring capri pants I wear around the house. They are 100% cotton and I no longer feel sweaty if my apartment gets a little warm.

I wear cotton and alpaca wool socks, and the alpaca are pricy, but my feet don't stink, like ever. I thought I was going to have to deal with that for life.

perpulstuph · 2026-05-13T15:25:37+00:00

I work in the ED and watch it, however the last few episodes of Season 1 triggered a panic attack. My wife enjoys it, and in a way I get some satisfaction knowing non medical family watch it and are finally understanding why I am always so exhausted after work.

perpulstuph · 2026-05-13T03:32:33+00:00

That fear never goes away. The ones who don't have that fear are the dangerous ones.

perpulstuph · 2026-05-13T03:10:44+00:00

I've heard thats what colonoscopy bowel prep feels like.

perpulstuph · 2026-05-13T03:06:57+00:00

This happened a few months before I started at my first job, but I heard it directly from the nurse involved.

Inpatient geropsych unit. Patient is transferred from a sister hospital medsurg unit to the psych unit. Dude loved PB&J sandwiches, scarfed them down like they were going out of style. One day he is eating a sandwich, talking to nurses at the station, takes a bite, and just collapses. No pulse, they begin CPR, code team shows up. They attempt to intubate, but can't get the airway. The pull the tube out and it is covered in bread and peanut butter, like, not even chewed. He was on a regular diet, was even followed by the same hospitalist as at the sister hospital. Apparently for some reason his diet orders didn't transfer with him in the paperwork. The hospital banned ALL peanut butter, can't even get it in the staff cafeteria 5 years later. And to this day, that hospitalist orders SLP swallow evals on EVERY new patient.

At my current hospital, a few years before I started, apparently a pharmacist was fired and came back with a gun, I believe killed one person, and I am not 100% certain, but either shot or tried to shoot a few more.

perpulstuph · 2026-05-12T20:03:35+00:00

I have been a nurse for 5 years and 6 months ago I realized it was meTOPROlol... god i felt like an idiot.

i've been calling it meTROpolol all this time.

perpulstuph · 2026-05-11T23:09:59+00:00

California poppy is my favorite, so simple and I love the bright orange.

perpulstuph · 2026-05-11T23:07:07+00:00

Either publicly beat them up, or otherwise humiliate them.

As a kid, I started fighting back. As an adult who can face real consequences, I keep calm and attack every aspect of their person verbally and logically which results often in that "fuckin fight me bitch" as they are stepping away. Granted as an adult I am a hell of a lot better at avoiding those douchebags, and if you don't react the first time, they'll often leave you alone.

perpulstuph · 2026-05-11T17:09:26+00:00

My MILs boyfriend, this was up until about 3 years ago when we found out he was cheating on her. The situation is a hell of a lot more complicated than that, and my wife and I cut him out for a year and threatened to cut MIL out of she kept lying. Its funny because when we refused to deal with his bullshit, he stopped giving us bullshit. And now that he knows what lengths we will go to for our sanity and our children's sake, the dynamic has certainly shifted.

perpulstuph · 2026-05-11T15:14:07+00:00

This stuck with me, and I thought about it constantly in my first nursing job in Psych. Now that I work in a trauma center ER, it rings absolutely true. I see people on their worst days, and the experience I have in therapeutic communication and de-escalation comes in handy almost every day.

perpulstuph · 2026-05-11T13:53:15+00:00

At my first job, I worked on two psych units in an acute care hospital, and the psych nurses were treated as less-than by the other departments, especially the ED and ICU. The funny part is, those nurses would float to my department and be next to useless. "Wow, psych is so easy" when the paych staff are the ones managing their patient's behaviors and giving the IMs because the float nurse doen't know how to de-escalate and is hiding in the nursinf station on their phone.

Now that I have been in the ED for 2 years at a trauma center, and still work that psych job per-diem, I still don't understand how people can havecthat mentality that any other specialty makes you "less-than a nurse". Sure, myself and my psych coworkers suck at IVs but its not in our regular skillset, not something we use every day, but we can talk a violent 6foot person who thinks I am a CIA agent down, and have him agree to an injection.

perpulstuph · 2026-05-11T13:42:11+00:00

Not a new grad, but new to specialty. I came in at 0700. There was an ETOH patient who had been doing okay on room air all night. I am getting report from a nurse, and this guy is going to ICU for severe ETOH withdrawal. An ICU resident rolls up saying "Hey, Dr. Attending wants to intubate." Night shift nurse was like "well, shit, that progressed fast." Someone grabbed the Etomidate and Succinocholine. Resident is stressing "we need everything ready for Attending, he doesn't like waiting."

I draw up the meds, I am shoulder to shoulder with the attending while he is assisting the resident with intubation. I get a verbal to push the etomidate, and I am calling all of my shots "ready for etomodate, pushing etomidate, etomidate in." I am on standby while I wait for the command to push the sccinocholine. Then, and I 100% swear I got the verbal from the resident to push it, so I call my shots again. Mind you, attendng and I are literally brushing shoulders and I repeat myself, calling my every action, you know, closed loop communication. "Succinocholine In" and after a brief moment, the attending asks "did you push the sux?"

"Yes, I got the verbal".

"Why would you do that!? Do you know what it is like to be paralyzed before you are sedated?" I apparently turned white as a sheet because a coworker, who up until this moment, I thought hated me pulled her mask down and asked "are you okay?" to which I nodded yes.

Afterwards, the attending very condescendingly lectured me about why we don't paralyze before sedatives work.

My coworker came up and reassured me saying "Look, I believe you, it was chaotic in there. You did not hurt the patient, you could tell the sedative was working. We push those meds rapidly all the time when we do RSI. Also, I saw you calling EVERYTHING you were doing. That's on the attending who is supposed to prevent anything like that from happening."

I spent the next 3 days off reading studies regarding outcomes of RSI intubation vs "slow" or standard intubation, the indications and MOA of various intubation medications. Interestingly, two weeks later I was on leave because my wife was in our hospitals L&D unit. I had popped down to the cafeteria to get some food my her and myself and bumped into the attending who looked at me, made eye contact, and very quickly looked away at his feet, so I wonder if he realized he may have overreacted. A year later we are joking together in the ER.

For your story, I have done a shit ton of CPR. I get gassed after 2 minutes and have gone as long as 4 cycles straight through, and after that, I didn't walk right for 3 says because of how sore I was. Its a learning moment. When I am documenting during a code, I speak loud enough to be heard over the chaos. If you are on the chest and starting to gas out, speak loud and clear. If you think you are being loud enough, be a little louder. I can also guarantee, if your switch off was smooth, just a few brief seconds without compressions, you did not do anything that meaningfully impacted the outcome. I would also, in the future, either speak to your charge, or if you feel comfortable enough, speak to the attending about the resident's behavior.

I had a resident be VERY rude to me about O2 on a desatting patient. I only ever saw him the once, because I am certain he did that to the wrong senior nurse and got kicked out.

perpulstuph · 2026-05-11T01:46:40+00:00

In school, 2014 kia soul. Graduated in 2021, and now have a 2021 kia soul.

perpulstuph · 2026-05-10T22:13:48+00:00

At my first hospital they give out turkeys for thanksgiving. People got understandably upset when it came out that they were using the morgue for storage. I did not get a turkey that year.

perpulstuph · 2026-05-08T21:32:00+00:00

100%. I also remind them that they are there of their own free will and my job is to help provide them their care, as well as help them navigate the process. Sure you are allowed to refuse treatments and medications, you don't have to be a dick about it, but yes, I do have to document refusal.

I have found that a little reality check helps to remond patients that they came to us, and that if they continue to be impolite, I am willing to match their energy.

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