WATCH OUT!!! New ortho nurse coming up!!! And I need some wisdom from y'all....

[Kent]

Hello all!! My name is Christopher and I am a recent graduate and survivor of the NCLEX examination! I am new to nursing (having decided that seven years of counseling experience as a licensed professional counselor was a good way to barely stay above the poverty line). I was recently hired at our local health center (Anmed here in beautiful upstate South Carolina) and got a position as staff nurse on the orthopedics floor. It was not an area I had even considered but it is where I landed and I have decided to love it. (Plus, no weekends..how lucky was that???)

I had ABSOLUTELY NO orthopedic nursing experience in my clinical rotations and only a few days of lecture on it in school. I am humbly asking for your collective wisdom.

What are some cardinal rules of orthopedic nursing? What are some things that an orthopedic nurse just absolutely must know?

What are things that are good to know?

If you would like to respond to me personally at my e-mail, feel free to do so.

Thank you in advance!!!:

Christopher

[TillyC]

Dear Christopher,

It all depends on what your ward does ie,TJR, Trauma, etc.

Let me know and we can discuss the MUST KNOW stuff.

All the best,

TillyC

Hello all!! My name is Christopher and I am a recent graduate and survivor of the NCLEX examination! I am new to nursing (having decided that seven years of counseling experience as a licensed professional counselor was a good way to barely stay above the poverty line). I was recently hired at our local health center (Anmed here in beautiful upstate South Carolina) and got a position as staff nurse on the orthopedics floor. It was not an area I had even considered but it is where I landed and I have decided to love it. (Plus, no weekends..how lucky was that???)

I had ABSOLUTELY NO orthopedic nursing experience in my clinical rotations and only a few days of lecture on it in school. I am humbly asking for your collective wisdom.

What are some cardinal rules of orthopedic nursing? What are some things that an orthopedic nurse just absolutely must know?

What are things that are good to know?

If you would like to respond to me personally at my e-mail, feel free to do so.

Thank you in advance!!!:

Christopher

[P_RN, ADN, RN]

Gosh I didn't realize we'd had so many posts since I was here. I had to get TWO new hard disks and I didn't make an allnurses mail outlet!

Never Demerol?

One: it doesn't work on bone pain.

Two: The metabolites of Meperidine/Pethidine (norperidine) are really BAD. They build up rapidly and can lead to seizures. Most hospitals I know of are refusing to allow Demerol in PCA's anymore. I know the sickle-cell doctors are changing over to Dilaudid etc. I've had a couple of patients who seized and one who stroked during an event.

Demerol=Bad bad bad.

[armyrn]

Curious here, too. Why not?

IMO, because morphine is better.

fentanyl is better still, but watch your patient.

if you want a crash-course in understanding ortho, trek down to your local OR and see what we actually do to these patients. pain management will take on a whole new dimension for you, at the very least.