The concept of multi-tasking is flawed. It takes away mental or physical energy from whatever task is most important. Forget the word multi-tasking exists. It can impair performance. Have a mental routine before your shift. If you're religious, pray...
chansen replied to lumberjackAZRN's topic in Emergency
If they are department beneficial, try and make the department pay for them. If you work in a place that is not willing to help improve the work environment, morale, and flow with cost-effective, thought-out solutions, and expect the employees to pay...
The ED has been and always will be the scapegoat for too many hospital problems. Unless they've worked in an ED before, they won't get it. Sure, it may be that nurse's second admission of the day, but you may have 40-deep in the lobby and have to kee...
chansen replied to Frizbeeboy's topic in Emergency
I've paired down quite a bit. Used to carry full sets of IV start kits, but our nurse-servers in each ED room carry a good many things. - stethoscope - hemostats with a tape roll on them clipped to my scrub top with my shears down through the tape. -...
The sheer number of young female "abdominal pains" that arrive by medic and then elope when their urine HCG comes back positive never ceases to amaze me. Hooray for 911 pregnancy tests they never have any intention paying. And people complain that a ...
Similar to what was said before, the ED is so much more task oriented than other places, and the biggest thing you need to do to provide the safest care to your patients is continuously reassess what tasks need to be done and place them into three ba...
There are definitely a few instructors who I think are just burnt out from their support at the school (or lack thereof) and the swap to semesters is definitely a large source of that anxiety. There are also instructors who very much care about the e...
December graduate, in the OhioHealth critical care fellowship right now. What we learned in terms of clinical application was on par or beyond that of the other area schools with BSNs or ADNs. Skills are one thing, and as previously mentioned, any mo...
chansen replied to trulyblessed2's topic in Critical
You need to really start developing those critical thinking skills. It's not enough in an ICU setting to just memorize things like, "if my patient has low blood pressure, put them on a pressor." You need to know what that's doing, why it's increasing...
As a new grad you have an easy and effective "weakness" you can list if the question comes up. Delegation. "As someone who has been in a position of learning until this point in my life, I've had less experience delegating tasks. I'm not in a positi...
I love cargo uniforms, because I'm a walking boy scout in the ED. I don't like to have to leave the room for additional supplies for IVs or gather up extras for med admin when making a trip to the pyxis. Stethoscope around the neck, small flip pad t...
20' and above tends to be the height at which falls get ugly. Had a construction worker fall 60' off a roof, landing feet first on the hood of a car. L1 and up on the CT were pristine. Some minor damage to L2-L4 (never found out if there was cord inv...