which patients are in/out of your comfort zone?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Specializes in OR.

Ok, so what kind of patients are you the most comfortable performing care, and which ones freak you out?! These dont have to be your favorite/least favorite patients (although they can be), but which ones do you know more about and which patients give you the "deer in the headlight" look because you have absolutly no idea what to do??

Mine: I could take care of a Telemetry pneumonia patient in my sleep. We get tons of those on my floor and and I know everything to do and am so comfortable taking on those patients. IV, IS, fluids, abx...I got it down.

Now if someone were to hand me a sick crying baby....I would start crying myself because I have NOO idea what to do with sick babies! I would love to learn one day, but right now peds/NICU is the furthest out of my comfort zone.

so what are yours??

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Specializes in Acute Care Cardiac, Education, Prof Practice.

Creeps are pretty much the only thing out of my comfort zone...

:chair:

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Specializes in ICU, ER, EP,.

anytime a small human is squirming their way out of a woman... I am outta there:eek:

Now cardiac arrest... could do that in my sleep

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Specializes in Critical Care.

I haven't come upon anything I'm uncomfortable with yet...Except for babies...and I mean other people's babies, mine doesn't scare me in the least...

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Specializes in CCU,ICU,ER retired.

Nuero of any kind trauma stroke any kind I just hate. I will take anything from the neck down and on a vent and I am happy

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Specializes in Critical Care.

Cardiac/Resp Arrest I could do with my eyes closed and one hand tied behind my back any day of the week.

Post-op CABG, PCI/PCTA, PPM/AICDs Thoracotomy I can doo all day

Just moved to a trauma hospital so they are becoming more my thing

Kids I don't do well with.

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There are a lot of patients I could probably "fake it till ya make it" with.....but if you put me in a room with a renal patient hooked up to a dialysis machine my heart would probably stop beating. That big machine would give me a run for my money!! lol. I guess thats why they have orientations...

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Specializes in ICU.

No peds, no GYN.

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Specializes in Mixed Level-1 ICU.

It's never the complexity of patients.

I get concerned when we're tripled up, the charge and RRT are in the count, and management says, "Oh well, do your best."

Classic practice-by-the-seat-of-your-pants nursing and it stinks, it's dangerous, and that unnerves me.

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The only patients that ever unnerved me were the ones with "important" family who hovered over the bed and reported everything I did to management, the doctor, God, whoever would listen. The ones that make you unable to take care of your other patients as well b/c you are so busy keeping them happy.

I love neuro trauma.

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Specializes in LTC Rehab Med/Surg.

Psych!!!!! Yikes. It makes me crazy to take care of them.

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infants

children

intentional overdoses

300 pounders who won't (not can't) move

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