I need three nurses with a bsn to interview!!! please!

suepozitory · Aug 28, 2008

:nurse: :yeah:

......a brief story about a time when a physical assessment made a difference in their patient care (I.e. prevented a mistake, changed the course/plan of care, etc)

I am a cardiac nurse, and a head to toe with focus on the heart and respiratory is very important and ongoing....not just once a shift. A patient's health status on this unit or for that matter on any unit can change on an instants notice. Physical assessments should not be treated or practiced as a once a shift thing. best practice is on-going!! :specs: However, I was discharging a patient one morning, did my usual a.m. assessments, vs, patient teaching, etc (patient was fine, ready to go...strapped on a gurney ready to be transported)... As I was doing my final sign-off assessment (vs, etc) lo and behold, my patient developed a fast a-fib....so I had someone else run for the ECG monitor, did a reading,reported to my supervisor ....hence the patient went back to bed, dig was ordered, patient went back on telemetry, etc, etc, etc, "On-going physical assessments never hurt anyone"!!!:yeah:Good catch!!! :nurse:

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Aug 29, 2008

had a patient across from the nurse's station who periodically rang the call light. one time i answered her light because no one else was around and i happened to be at the station watching telemetry when she was also calling out. after attending to her immediate need she began complaining about her side hurting her. i listened as she told a story about how she had been taken down to x-ray 2 days earlier and had fallen off the gurney there. i did an assessment of her chest, listened to her lungs, looked at her skin, had her move and do some rom. i found a huge bruise on her chest wall and she could hardly take deep breaths or move well from side to side in the bed. i discussed this with her nurse who said she had been told that the patient was a complainer so she hadn't seen the need to believe her. i documented what i had found, we made an incident report, reported our findings to the doctor, and x-rays of her chest were ordered. the patient had two newly fractured ribs. she was transferred to a medical unit afterwards and i never heard what happened after that.

destiney · Aug 30, 2008

":yeah:The best practice is on going!" I like that quote! thanx.

......a brief story about a time when a physical assessment made a difference in their patient care (I.e. prevented a mistake, changed the course/plan of care, etc)

I am a cardiac nurse, and a head to toe with focus on the heart and respiratory is very important and ongoing....not just once a shift. A patient's health status on this unit or for that matter on any unit can change on an instants notice. Physical assessments should not be treated or practiced as a once a shift thing. best practice is on-going!! :specs: However, I was discharging a patient one morning, did my usual a.m. assessments, vs, patient teaching, etc (patient was fine, ready to go...strapped on a gurney ready to be transported)... As I was doing my final sign-off assessment (vs, etc) lo and behold, my patient developed a fast a-fib....so I had someone else run for the ECG monitor, did a reading,reported to my supervisor ....hence the patient went back to bed, dig was ordered, patient went back on telemetry, etc, etc, etc, "On-going physical assessments never hurt anyone"!!!:yeah:Good catch!!! :nurse:

destiney · Aug 30, 2008

i appreciate that fact that you took the time to listen to the patient, and was not working in a tunnel vision view that day, you made a good great things happen before they got worse. i can definitely learn from that!...................... :yeah: :up:

had a patient across from the nurse's station who periodically rang the call light. one time i answered her light because no one else was around and i happened to be at the station watching telemetry when she was also calling out. after attending to her immediate need she began complaining about her side hurting her. i listened as she told a story about how she had been taken down to x-ray 2 days earlier and had fallen off the gurney there. i did an assessment of her chest, listened to her lungs, looked at her skin, had her move and do some rom. i found a huge bruise on her chest wall and she could hardly take deep breaths or move well from side to side in the bed. i discussed this with her nurse who said she had been told that the patient was a complainer so she hadn't seen the need to believe her. i documented what i had found, we made an incident report, reported our findings to the doctor, and x-rays of her chest were ordered. the patient had two newly fractured ribs. she was transferred to a medical unit afterwards and i never heard what happened after that.