brewski09

Latest Activity

1. I'm Stuck - Need to Make a Quick Decision

   brewski09 replied to Nurse Beth's topic in Nurse Beth

   I have my ADN and RN to BSN both from online based programs and no one ever even asked or cared. The biggest thing they cared about is the BSN. My program had hefty community and leadership projects as well as a number of hours I had to meet voluntee...

2. Training for ER; Didn't do so hot

   brewski09 replied to RNEulogy's topic in Emergency

   Isnt that what the ED is saying by hiring someone with no hospital experience? "we will take the time to train you because we realize you don't have the experience necessary to hit the ground running." And I also believe your preceptor is a teacher a...

3. Being Pulled into the Office for calling CAT

   brewski09 replied to ryuunohime's topic in Relations

   This patient would have been an ERT (or whatever you want to call it) at my hospital and would have very quickly progressed down the ACLS pathway to pacing for symptomatic bradycardia. This comes from both progressive care/Stepdown and ED and it shou...

4. Barcode scanning in ED?

   brewski09 replied to Emergent's topic in Emergency

   A previous ED I was in made the transition and now it bugs me that my current one doesn't scan (yet). I'll likely end up a superuser since so many are resistant. Scanning meds cuts down on potential errors. Also, there should still be an emergency ov...

5. Ultrasound Guided IV insertions

   brewski09 replied to pluckyduck's topic in Emergency

   I echo the question of what part are you having difficulty with because there are bound to be plenty of certified people on here that might be able to help with more info. I've yet to use any lido or other pain mitigating mess for U/S PIV insertion ...

6. IO + Lab work

   brewski09 replied to applesxoranges's topic in Emergency

   It takes a fair amount of time to start an U/S guided PIV and it isn't 100% successful. Also remember that the PICC nurse couldn't do a PICC line in the ER (which I've never seen them in any ER I've worked in) so the likelihood of starting an ultraso...

7. New Grad in MICU, Now with Offer for PICU..

   brewski09 replied to Nurse Beth's topic in Nurse Beth

   When I was a new grad I thought I was going to be an ER nurse right out of the gate but due to better than expected retention they were overstaffed so I had to look outside my department. I ended up between SICU/NCCU and PCU/Stepdown. Both unit manag...

8. PCCN certification - Should I expect a pay differential?

   brewski09 replied to Nurse Beth's topic in Nurse Beth

   i would only expect a pay increase of the hospital says they give one. Otherwise it's still a good investment in yourself but probably not likely to get you a differential. It does make for a good bargaining chip if you are in a non-Union hospital co...

9. 6 months in the ED -- should I "get it" by now?

   brewski09 replied to dee789's topic in Emergency

   Whoa, lots going on here. I'm not sure this preceptor has the right training for the job. It takes an entirely different skill set to precept/train than we learn as nurses and it takes a lot of practice to get good at it. Ive been in the ED for 6 mo...

10. Age and nursing school

    brewski09 replied to tiny_dancer's topic in General Students

    Seriously, 22 is not old. I was 28 when I started nursing school and left a career as a retail manager to do it. The oldest person in my class was 52 and the youngest was 26.

11. My preceptor is everything they taught us NOT to be...

    brewski09 replied to Live..&..Learn's topic in Relations

    There are serious issues here as well as some thug a that aren't an issue. First of all, scanning mess and then not giving them until later can be viewed as a reportable medication error as well as falsifying documentation to the hospital and the BON...

12. Recent hiree - Do I need manager's permission to apply for Dream Job?

    brewski09 replied to Nurse Beth's topic in Nurse Beth

    At my old hospital my managers I interviewed with wanted a 2 year commitment to recoup the costs of training. This was for ICU & PCU. I took the PCU job and was a very productive employee, but still felt like 2 years was an appropriate amount of ...

13. Stethoscope.. Help choosing one.

    brewski09 replied to MyOwnBlueSky's topic in General Students

    Littman classic II around $80. It wirks well and I would get another one. Don't worry about a nicer one unless you get hired onto a cardiac unit. Then it's worth $150 or more. With that said, I still have my $10 stethoscope from my nursing school kit...

14. Cause of uneven pulse/ox wave form

    brewski09 replied to anon456's topic in PICU

    Was the patient having bigeminal PVC or PAC (really any premature beats)? I've seen something similar to what you described in adult patients where the second beat does not produce as big of a pulseox waveform because of the decreased preload caused...

15. Macbook Air vs Macbook Pro

    brewski09 replied to mmcc01's topic in Pre-Nursing

    I would go with the air. Great performance for the non-gamer, excellent battery life over 3 years out, the solid state components are more durable (think malfunctioning hard drive), and you can get a great cd/DVD USB driven player/burner for $50. Min...