I never would have thought of that...

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Gah! too many threads beating dead horses on this forum right now.(cough...nety...cough)..

So, i am going to beat a FUN dead horse! Lets get started!

Tips/ Tricks/Hacks for getting through your nursing shift... (hint: I never would have thought of that...)

1. Shaving cream for stinky areas that refuse to be clean (works for PANNI as well)

2. Flush and irrigate your fms to get rid of the chunks in the tubing that impede the flow (some people only irrigate and the chunks stay constant in the tubing)

3. when switching over lines with pressors, INCREASE the rate for a couple of seconds so that you do not have bottomed out pressures while you wait for the pressor to prime the new catheter hub/line(do not forget to change it back to the right titrated dose)

4. pesky radial A-lines? have pt hold a folder up towel/abd pads and it helps to keep the waveform constant while you track down the fellow to either rewire or give you an order to titrate via Nibp.

Specializes in Nurse Scientist-Research.

Different area, but should be useful to NICU & mother-baby people.

Need to get heelstick labs from a kid & you're either:

A. Not super-experienced at it

Or

B. Sure this kid is not in a bleeding mood. . .

1. Though inner & outer lower thirds of the heel are safe to poke, the outer heel has a richer capillary bed.

2. Apply your unit's approved heel warmer, if you have it available, secure it not only with that thin useless adhesive strip, also wrap a stretchy piece of gauze around the heel making a heel "cast" out of that heel warmer.

3. On top of that whole set up, wrap a warm burp cloth around the whole lower leg & foot (we keep these in our blanket warmers) and secure that snugly w/a strip of plastic tape.

4. If permitted, elevate the HOB, get gravity on your side to help pool that blood.

5. Use that burp cloth as a protective layer for your bed during the blood draw.

6. Use the gauze to wrap the heel like a little cast instead of using a bandaid, less adhesive. If your kids a real bleeder, stick a smidge of cotton ball right at the heel stick spot, then the gauze "cast".

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Antiperspirant/Deodorant on the soles of the feet keeps away patient stinky foot smells

This also works for contracted hands.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Emergency Department.
We put expired IV bags in our blanket warmer and then put them in a pillow case to keep them clean. Or in LTC we have a hydrocollator. Only problem with that is that they get really warm so we need to make sure that we use thick towels.

I did sports med originally... the hydrocollator is just absolutely OUTSTANDING in it's ability to provide a seriously soothing moist heat. I'm a big fan of the larger pads for lower backs. Throw one of those into a large terry cloth towel and put another between the pack and you... truly wonderful. The tough part about hydrocollator packs is that once people discover you've got them, you start getting lots of requests for a pack.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Corrections, Psych.

This is my kinda thread! One of the reasons I love corrections nursing is that it affords the endless opportunity to "invent" new ways of getting a $2 dollar job done on a 10 cent budget.

My favorite is the jail icepack for assorted facial injuries/boo boos. (The nice ones are contraband, donchaknow!)

Get a Ziploc baggie of ice , squeeze the air out, and squish it into the toe end of one of those blue surgical shoe covers. Twist ice-y bundle and pull the other end of the shoe cover over it a la one of those Popples toys (I'm probably dating myself here). Voila! Ice pack.

I've got more, but I'm drawing a blank at the moment.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
We used to do this in L&D for back labor. Unfortunately, it was highly frowned upon because the temperature cannot be controlled/monitored and it must have caused burns on someone, once. So instead we would have to order a K-pad, wait for it to be brought up, and then wait for it to heat up to its tepid warmth that wasn't particularly effective.

Thank you for making that point. I should have done so myself. If doing this, one must be very careful to heat the pad up in increments and rotate often while heating to get an even heat. Never apply it (or any heat/cold pack) directly to the skin. Also, don't use them on people w/ frail skin (mainly elderly in that category).

I thought of another "hack". Might be kind of obvious but I have seen a few nurses doing this the hard way so I guess not everyone knows about it:

When filling up one of those ice packs with the ties on the corners, tear the bottom off of a styrofoam cup, insert it into the opening of the ice pack and then dispense ice into the cup. This holds the ice pack open and allows the ice to flow quickly from the machine into the bag. A lot quicker than holding it open w/ one hand and filling it one cup at a time.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

A little peroxide dabbed onto a small blood spot on a sheet or your scrubs makes blood spots disappear.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in SICU.
A little peroxide dabbed onto a small blood spot on a sheet or your scrubs makes blood spots disappear.

I just learned about this the other day! after a complete bed change/ patient all fluffed and buffed, RT drew a blood gas and got some spots of blood on the sheet! (i have slight issues when i get my patient looking just so and was very irritated with the 3 drops of blood) A co-worker talked me from the edge and told me about the peroxide! worked wonders!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ICU.

Yeah, Ohio, it drives me crazy when people don't use a towel, washcloth, pad, anything to keep a bed clean! People don't seem to care that patients have to live in that bed. Family members and visitors do not want to see dried blood on the bed, esp. parents of sick children.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.
A little peroxide dabbed onto a small blood spot on a sheet or your scrubs makes blood spots disappear.

This also works for chocolate stains on your white scrubs pants, which I found out when I sat down on a break-room chair where there had fallen two smallish chips of a Hershey's bar.......I was bemoaning having to work the rest of the shift with brown stains on my rear end, when a co-worker handed me some peroxide and a couple of gauze pads.

It was a miracle!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Emergency/Cath Lab.

Bring a bag of candy for your coworkers. Sugared up coworkers are much more likely to help.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Emergency room, Neurosurgery ICU.
Bring a bag of candy for your coworkers. Sugared up coworkers are much more likely to help.

or a nice plate of homemade cookies...works like a charm! (though in my case it was homemade pies, apple, blueberry, peach, mmmmm.. now I've made myself hungry!)

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Oncology.

When I have a patient become unstable, I erase the white board and write the time and dose of all interventions preformed in a running list. As other doctors and nurses get involved, they can just glance up and see what has been done when. Then, later, I can go back and reference that list for charting. I've had doctors take pictures of it to reference for their charting (no identifiable info).

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment