which patients are in/out of your comfort zone?

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. 

   About PureLifeRN

   Joined: Oct '08; Posts: 158; Likes: 246
   from US
   Specialty: 4 year(s) of experience in OR

   22 Comments

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3. 
   Jan 14, '10

   Creeps are pretty much the only thing out of my comfort zone...
   
   
4. 
   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. 
   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. 
   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. 
   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. 
   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. 
   Jan 14, '10

   No peds, no GYN.

   Last edit by VivaLasViejas on Jan 14, '10 : Reason: vulgar terminology
10. 
    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. 
    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. 
    Jan 14, '10

    Psych!!!!! Yikes. It makes me crazy to take care of them.
13. 
    Jan 14, '10

    infants
    children
    intentional overdoses
    300 pounders who won't (not can't) move
14. 
    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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