ICUPrincessNurse

ICUPrincessNurse has 5 years experience and specializes in Surgery, Trauma, Medicine, Neuro ICU.

Latest Activity

1. nursing care for chest tube of cabg patient

   ICUPrincessNurse replied to Altin's topic in Critical

   Strip them. Often.

2. Pushing meds through NGT/OGT with the plunger

   ICUPrincessNurse replied to delphine22's topic in MICU

   I've done it both ways. Depending on how much time I have and if I'm giving a free water bolus as well. Neither is wrong. If I'm giving tube feed boluses which is basically almost never I'll use gravity. I've also taken the whole notebook writing ...

3. Fluid bolus by gravity or pump?

   ICUPrincessNurse replied to delphine22's topic in MICU

   Depends. Through a PICC? Sometimes I'll use the pump if it doesn't flow. Mild hypotension/low UOP through a well flowing PIV or CVC? Gravity. Legit hypotension/code? Pressure bag. Code/trauma/bad GI bleed? Level I transfuser.

4. Acidotic patients

   ICUPrincessNurse replied to Go-GetterRN's topic in Critical

   I was typing mine out. Then read the above. So yeah. What he said. There's something magical about a pH of 7.2 that seems to magically make meds work.

5. Flushing IV sites with pressor drips

   ICUPrincessNurse replied to ONE-TWO--'s topic in CCU

   I'm mostly hoping the vasoactives are going through a CVC and not a PIV!!! I flush my PIVs and any ports on my CVC that I'm not currently using. If I have a drip running through it and my pump isn't beeping because flow is occluded- I let it go (L...

6. do you mask/bag during DNI

   ICUPrincessNurse replied to SarahT1974's topic in CCU

   I loathe DNI most of all when it comes to a code situation. We'll do Bi-Pap like whoa to try to avoid intubation but we try to be pretty clear to the patients/families that insist on full code but no intubation that in the event of a true cardiac ar...

7. Are swan-ganz (PAC) still around in your area?

   ICUPrincessNurse replied to ninis's topic in Critical

   All of our CVICU patients have them. Our MICU and SICU (mostly MICU) will get them if they are worried about Pulm HTN. I've floated them in organ donors before when the choice is "float a swan or go to cath lab" to look at numbers for lung transpla...

8. Neo/Levo

   ICUPrincessNurse replied to LNRN11's topic in CCU

   Oh. Hail. Naw.

9. "You are now a stepdown nurse too"

   ICUPrincessNurse replied to SummitRN's topic in Critical

   We get "floated" to tele/pcu sometimes but lately our patients have been so sick and there have been so many of them that we've been overflowing ICU patients into PACU so NOOOO ONE has been floated to tele in years I think. But technically...we flo...

10. Question for trauma icu nurses

    ICUPrincessNurse replied to helpinghands93's topic in Critical

    Assess, turn, medicate, turn, chart, assess, turn, medicate, (eat????) turn, bathe, assess, turn, scramble, chart, turn. Somewhere in there are trachs, pegs, level 1 infusers, codes, poop, blood, drama, traction, labs, care rounds, labs, meds, dail...

11. Should ICU get more pay than floor nursing?!?

    ICUPrincessNurse replied to francoml's topic in MICU

    My hospital gives a "shift diff" to ED and ICU. Mostly because we had the worst satisfaction scores in the whole hospital!!

12. Code rolee

    ICUPrincessNurse replied to NurseYe's topic in Critical

    When in doubt- record. Gives you a chance to learn the flow of experienced coders and know what comes next. Plus no one ever wants to record. Also...if the room is totally full- don't go in. They have enough people. It's already enough chaos....

13. Prolonged use of paralytics

    ICUPrincessNurse replied to ICUNurseStat's topic in MICU

    4 weeks once. Very unstable airway in a patient who needed a specially built trach with an extensive history of pulling out his ETT/trachs. Seriously. 4 weeks. He got his special airway, woke up and got sent out of the unit. I'm assuming there wa...

14. Proning ARDs patients

    ICUPrincessNurse replied to catamounts303's topic in MICU

    What he said. We've done that in the middle of the night when we couldn't get a hold of the bed. Otherwise...we use the RotoProne pretty much exclusively. What about the RotoProne has been unfeasible for you? We've been pretty successful with them...

15. Verbal Orders

    ICUPrincessNurse replied to ktliz's topic in Critical

    It's not unreasonable for a computer to be close by if they're on call covering the unit. When we went all computerized we got multiple computers at each alcove, extra COWs and extra desktops all over the place. They should understand that if they'...