brainkandy87

brainkandy87

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About brainkandy87

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  1. Cooler weather and homeless "patients"

    Funny/sad story.. We had one of our regular homeless come in quite a lot recently (a lot even for him), for stuff like back pain, knee pain, a fall, etc. It was so excessive, I wanted to explode. One day, I see he had arrived once again by EMS, to ou...
  2. Triage: Documenting Ambulance Handover.

    In T-system, we have an entire page that we can pull up to put in an infinite amount of information about EMS and their report, ranging from IV site and meds given to detailed information about a 12 lead. I rarely do anything more than the IV site, b...
  3. ED support

    Level 3, 20 bed main ER, 10 bed fast track. We have a nurse-patient ratio of 4:1. Typically we have 1-2 float nurses/medics (3 on a fully staffed midshift) and 1 am tech, 1 mid tech, 1 pm tech, along with a free charge nurse. If needed, we have lab t...
  4. Whats your biggest pet peeve working in the ED?

    The patient dictating to me their course of care and what I'm going to do. Sorry, no. You are in my bed, in my room, under my care. You are here because you need me to take care of you. Emphasis on the need me part. I don't need you bossing me around...
  5. Happy ER nurse week!

    On Monday, Krispy Kreme gave us donuts all day! That rocked the casbah, to say the least. Today we had catering from all around town and had the "Scrubby" awards. In the words of Nurse Jackie.. only the overworked and underpaid have a week devoted to...
  6. New Graduate ER RN vs. Floor Nurse

    This is an endlessly discussed topic. My opinion is that it depends on the new grad. A motivated, teachable new grad can succeed anywhere, just like a lazy, hard-headed new grad can fail anywhere.
  7. Ugh, those "I'm so stupid" moments

    This whole situation just blows my brains out. Does your facility not let RN's do EJ's and/or US PIV's independently (our ER docs "check" us off on skills such as EJ, US, etc)? I love my ER docs and the great procedures they do, but I'd never want a ...
  8. Organizing the maddness

    This. A simple way to explain it to someone who's not having a life threatening emergency is that we are here to make them feel better and their PCP is there to cure them.
  9. New to the ED

    Erowid This is a site really meant for people who do drugs, but I think it's a terrific resource for education about drugs. Personally, I think people who do drugs are a far more reliable source on the effects of drugs than most other sources availab...
  10. Certifications for an ER nurse

    Actually, let me correct what I said.. they are 1200 ml/hr. I had to grab one to double check it. For some reason I had it halved in my brain. My bad! Anywho.. 600.. 1200.. my thoughts on 24 gauges on adults remain the same.
  11. Certifications for an ER nurse

    24g angiocaths, that is.
  12. Certifications for an ER nurse

    Our angiocaths state 600 ml/hr on the packaging.
  13. Certifications for an ER nurse

    Sure, there are definitely varying degrees of trauma and yes, pretty much anything you can do in an 18 you can do in a 20 (however, I don't think a 22 should be put in any trauma pt, I don't care how negligible of a different the flow rate is). Every...
  14. Just a question to understand the ER better

    Maybe the 15 minute wait was due to shuffling. We have hall beds in our ER that get used when we are totally full (as was the case tonight). However, I'd rather have a pt hang out in triage/waiting room for 10 minutes while I move someone non-emergen...
  15. Just a question to understand the ER better

    I think Stargazer said it best: triage is an extremely subjective area. One man's emergency is another man's, well, non-emergency. There's a lot of variables we don't know.. the experience of both nurses, the other patients in the waiting room, what ...