ER Cheatsheets

[**Kalko**]

I see ER Nurses carrying ER Cheatsheets in there pockets......anyone want to share some ideas???? I recently moved from a med surg floor to the ER and need to keep a pocket full of cheatsheets. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!!!!!

[Larry77, RN]

The one my friends and I use is Pocket Guide

I think these books are more useful than just a "cheatsheet"...

[MikeyBSN]

The best, and IMO only useful guide, is the ACLS pocket Guide. There are various ACLS pocket guide, but the better ones have medication charts for quick-reference acls drip rates. For example, if your heparin come in a specific ratio, you can look up the ratio to determine what the drip rate is for a specific drug. I have found the previous poster's suggestion to be the best guide.

[HippyGreenPeaceChick]

I only use one cheat sheet, and that is to keep up with all the interchanging IDs and passwords needed on the 4 different computers systems at work. That and they have to change every so often for security.

[MikeyBSN]

I only use one cheat sheet, and that is to keep up with all the interchanging IDs and passwords needed on the 4 different computers systems at work. That and they have to change every so often for security.

I feel that pain. We just got a new, dumb lab system that had 3 different user ID's and passwords before you can get any labs. It's ridiculous! We are trying to get it changed. We also have different ID/pass for our tracking board, our email and our training page.

[chare]

the informed pocket guide mentioned above is good. i also like the nncc er/trauma checkmate or kathy white’s fast facts (although they are both considerably more costly) and when i worked the adult world, always carried at least one of them in my bag of stuff.

if you want an acls type pocket guide, you can not find a better on the handbook of emergency cardiovascular care 2008.

[Lunah, MSN, RN]

I feel that pain. We just got a new, dumb lab system that had 3 different user ID's and passwords before you can get any labs. It's ridiculous! We are trying to get it changed. We also have different ID/pass for our tracking board, our email and our training page.

Our hospital implemented "single sign-on" that automatically populates the user ID/passwords for several applications (email, EKG look-up, the patient info portal, and our McKesson lab/x-ray ordering system), but it's not working so well ... we have a separate ID/password for our Logicare tracking board, a user ID/passcode for VoiceCare, and now we've added a new 8-digit long distance phone code. It's getting RIDICULOUS. And we also have to change our single sign-on password every 90 days, and it "remembers" the last 8 passwords we've used. And then to top it off, we have to change the passwords for the various applications that single sign-on automatically populates every 90 days or so as well. Some require all caps for the user ID/password, others don't. And each and every application uses a different form of our names as the login name -- like first intial and last name, or first five of your last name followed by first initial, or "ER" followed by your first initial and first four of your last name, in all caps ... CRAZY.

[Glaiza_mei]

I don't really keep cheatsheets.

I have tried carrying the Pocket guide with me, but I somehow find it a bit useless. It's too big and bulgy especially since in the ER I think I can't have enough time to peek on them. But when I'm in the ward, I have a cheatsheet of IV calculations, drops, number of hours, etc.

[rjflyn, ASN, RN]

It's 2009 so its the

iPhone

[JBudd, MSN]

Mine is all the extensions that I call often enough to need but not to memorize.

[GleeGum, BSN, RN]

I have made my own "cheat sheet" that I carry around with me with important info. Our pharmacy put out a short list of ICU drips with dosages. I photocopied that to size (shrank it) and put my cheat sheet on the back.

And useful phone numbers I made in a word document, printed it out, cut it to size, and "laminated" it to the back of my badge with a tegaderm.