GI unit

has anyone ever worked in gi unit where they have patients with gi bleed, pancreatitis, alcohol abuse? what was it like to work in this kind of unit?

hey - i did not too terribly long ago. it was a pretty good unit to work on. we usually had the same mds admitting the patients - they were all very nice and aacted like they appreciated the staff. the etoh patients were really the only pts that were kind of "problem children". we usually gave them librium on a pretty routine schedule, as well as banana bag ivf. we tried to spread them out among the staff, so one nurse wouldn't have all of them.

as far as the pancreatitis, they were usually with us for at least a week, and lots of ivf and ivp pain meds. on the gi bleeders, we sent them down to endo quiteoften for scopes, and some to surgery for repairs of perf ulcers and that kind of thing. we gave a lot of blood - the ones i had to watch the most were the etoh patients when they also had the esophageal varices from their history.

all in all, it wasn't too bad. i also have a hx of pancreatitis, so i was able to relate to the patients in with this dx.

anne, rnc