PatricksRNMommy

PatricksRNMommy specializes in PCU/Telemetry.

Latest Activity

1. Fair Patient assignments

   PatricksRNMommy replied to GoNightingale's topic in General Nursing

   I am a charge nurse and when I make assignments for the next shift I look at several factors: 1) Patient acuity - I try to split up "total care" patients as much as possible, as well as isolation patients, post-op patients, confused patients, and pt ...

2. Your body did what?!?

   PatricksRNMommy replied to pink_shoes99's topic in General Nursing

   I had a patient when I was a fairly new nurse who had gone into SVT. While we were waiting for another nurse to bring in the adenosine, the charge nurse asked the patient to bear down like she was having a bowel movement. It wasn't bringing down her ...

3. Does anyone know...

   PatricksRNMommy replied to dioness's topic in General Nursing

   The MRSA patients are on isolation for a reason, to protect caregivers and visitors who go into the room. As long as you are following proper contact precautions (gown and gloves) and thouroughly washing your hands after you leave the room, you shoul...

4. DNR does not mean do not treat, people!

   PatricksRNMommy replied to rnto?'s topic in Geriatric

   I can't stand that! There are quite a few doctors at my facility who get the attitude of "Why are you calling me, they are a DNR" if we call with concerns about a patient. And if you try transferring a DNR patient to the ICU, you definitely hear it f...

5. Errors that you caught...

   PatricksRNMommy replied to sabrina_RPN's topic in Medications

   I came in one morning and got report from the night shift nurse that my patient had come in in rapid afib and was on a heparin drip and a cardizem drip. The heparin drip had started at 900 units/hr (18cc/hr) and the Cardizem at 15 mg/hr (15 cc/hr) at...

6. Is bedside report a HIPAA violation with 2-4 patients sharing a room?

   PatricksRNMommy replied to Paulieg69's topic in HIPAA

   Just being devil's advocate here, but then wouldn't almost any contact with that patient be a HIPPA violation if you are discussing with them their plan of care, ordered med/treatments, diagnosis, medical history, etc....?

7. Just wondering...

   PatricksRNMommy replied to NurseFrustrated's topic in General Nursing

   They absolutely can and they should, IMHO. At my facility the PharmD calls the doctor for order clarifications UNLESS the original order was a telephone order written by the nurse, in which case it is the nurse's responsibilty to call and speak with ...

8. Chief Complaints

   PatricksRNMommy replied to saymo82's topic in Humor

   I always find it funny when someone presents to the ER at 2 am on a Saturday with "headache x 6 months" or "foot pain x 2 years"....

9. Funniest real orders you have seen in a chart?

   PatricksRNMommy replied to nilepoc's topic in Humor

   "Help the patient to poop" (yes he really wrote POOP in the chart lol) And this was not an order, but something written in the MD progress notes in the chart of a patient who had been having very high blood pressures (think 220's/110's) that nursing ...

10. Pulse oximeter

    PatricksRNMommy replied to sarpound's topic in General Nursing

    The end-tidal co2/pulse ox machines have an adapter that we plug into the call light system and then we set the alarms for whatever parameters we want to be notified of. It's very helpful, except when you have a patient on the end tifal co2 monitor w...

11. Pulse oximeter

    PatricksRNMommy replied to sarpound's topic in General Nursing

    On our post-ops, we wire the O2 sat and end tidal co2 monitor to the call light system and if the numbers drop too low the call light alerts us.

12. scared about to quit ...

    PatricksRNMommy replied to erin01's topic in General Nursing

    Talk to your manager, be honest, tell her your concerns and issues, and see what your options are.... Sometimes when you talk things out, a solution will present itself. Bottom line is that you have to do what is right for yourself as well as your ch...

13. ER handoff report to floor

    PatricksRNMommy replied to PatricksRNMommy's topic in Emergency

    Agreed, both are very different... Busy in their own ways, though. We have had ER nurses float to the floor and could not stand it d/t all the charting, the constant phone calls from family, doctors, cat scan, pt, ot, speech, pharmacy, lab, etc. And ...

14. ER handoff report to floor

    PatricksRNMommy replied to PatricksRNMommy's topic in Emergency

    There are some fabulous ER nurses out there that I know do their best to make sure the patient is taken care of and that important information is passed on to the floor nurse, and I appreciate those nurses tremendously. I understand the push from adm...

15. How much IV fluid to give?

    PatricksRNMommy replied to brownbook's topic in General Nursing

    Shouldn't this be based on a doctor's order or a writtin policy or protocol? What if the patient had an adverse reaction from being overhydrated that was unexpected and you were not covered by a policy or a doctor's order. Wouldn't this be considered...