Originally Posted by pangyaw
For Ortho, just stick to the basic concepts of tractions.
T-rapeze bar overhead is used to raise and lower the upper body
R-equires free-hanging weights
A-nalgesic is given to releive pain
C-heck the pt ciculation (pulse)
T-emp monitoring
I-infection prevention
O-utput and input monitoring
N-nutrition
S-kin must checked frequently
Goodluck to you

I just finished my 8 weeks training, I will be starting as RN on Ortho/Neuro on the floor tomorrow...hopefully everything went well.

Don't forget for neuro (lamis, discectomies, etc), good god get rid of that trapeze bar!!
It's funny...I am going to be precepting someone starting next monday. Kind of funny how things have progressed in the past year.
Also, a good tip to tell people when in bed watching TV at night. Tell them whenever a commercial comes on, grab the trapeze and move their butts around a little bit. Especially if they're in a CPM for long periods of time. Also if you have people complaining about their bottoms/hips/back hurting, encourage them to move just an inch or two utilizing the trapeze (make them do the work!!). Sometimes even repositioning an inch into a different alignment can work wonders for post-op pain.