which patients are in/out of your comfort zone?

by PureLifeRN
  3,381 Views   22 Comments

  1. 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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  2. 22 Comments

    Comment
  3. by Tait
    Jan 14, '10
    Creeps are pretty much the only thing out of my comfort zone...

  4. by Zookeeper3
    Jan 14, '10
    anytime a small human is squirming their way out of a woman... I am outta there

    Now cardiac arrest... could do that in my sleep
  5. by medicrn13
    Jan 14, '10
    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...
  6. by Dalzac
    Jan 14, '10
    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
  7. by Da_Milk_of_Amnesia
    Jan 14, '10
    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.
  8. by HurricaneRN
    Jan 14, '10
    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...
  9. by PolandM
    Jan 14, '10
    No peds, no GYN.
    Last edit by VivaLasViejas on Jan 14, '10 : Reason: vulgar terminology
  10. by interleukin
    Jan 14, '10
    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.
  11. by G'smommy
    Jan 14, '10
    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.
  12. by imintrouble
    Jan 14, '10
    Psych!!!!! Yikes. It makes me crazy to take care of them.
  13. by DhornRN
    Jan 14, '10
    infants
    children
    intentional overdoses
    300 pounders who won't (not can't) move
  14. by proudnurseRN
    Jan 14, '10
    Comfort zone: anything and everything ortho.

    Not so much: ETOH, L&D, peds

    I have to say cardiac makes me nervous. We get med-surg on our primarily ortho floor, and my heart skips a beat when I get a transfer from a monitored bed because they are cardiac cleared, but have a heart history as long as my arm.

    I'm still a newbie though, and while I floated for a little bit before getting on my floor, I felt like I learned a little bit of everything and a whole bunch of nothing.

    Next on my list to concur: mid level ICU care and/or hospice. Both have been calling to me lately.

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