Intuition??

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.

So, this AM I walk into a patient's room I have no business in, not knowing even why I'm there. Turns out he's in respiratory distress, I call an RRT and he's sent to ICU to be tubed.

Things that make you go hmmmmmmmm.................

Also, let me say Rapid Response Teams ROCK!!! Great teamwork and so nice to no longer be on my own during these times.

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Specializes in ob/gyn med /surg.

wow , you were ment to be there at that time. awesome !! that inner voice sure comes in handy dosen't it?

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Specializes in ICU, Telemetry.

I absolutely believe in intuition....the times I've looked at a pt (when I was in the room asking the pt's nurse did they want this admission or catch the next one) and thought...."hmmmmm, let's check that sugar...." only to find it was lower than my age.....

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it's all so mysterious and extraordinary, isn't it?

you were where you were supposed to be.

yay for tweety!

leslie

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Intuition is an awesome thing. It has never led me wrong.. Good thing you "listened" Great job!:yeah:

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Specializes in OB/GYN, Peds, School Nurse, DD.

Intuition is really something mystical. We use it all the time, especially those of us who have been doing this a long time(I've been nursing for 32 years.)

I work in a school. Earlier this year I had an 11yo girl walk into my clinic c/o aches and pains. Sometimes when I'm really busy(*like 20 kids/hour--yikes!) little things will get by me. Thankfully, this day it was slow. I was thinking, "hmm, she doens't look sick. maybe she has a low grade fever or fell on the playground..." Intutition...I stopped my thoughts and asked,"Why do you think you have aches and pains today?"

"Because my mother beat me last night."

Holy cow. Beat her for not cooking green beans for dinner. This 11yo CHILD was supposed to cook a whole meal and got beat for missing one vegetable. What kind of parent does this? :angryfire

Obviously, I had to make a full assessment. With the girls permission and the assistance of a female counselor we were able to document the terrible bruises and contusions she sustained, all of which were hidden under her clothes(we don't look under bras & panties.) Of course, CPS was called and she went straight to foster care that day. Very sad.

I still ask myself, what about her alerted my senses. She looked like any normal 11yo. She did not have any kind of relationship with me, other than that I'm the school nurse. What made her confess to a virtual stranger? How did she trust me? How did I know the right questions to ask? And how close did I come to dismissing my gut feelings--would I have missed this?

Intuition...

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.

You may have saved that little girl's life. Good on you!!!!:yeah:

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Specializes in Oncology/BMT.

TRUE STORY... I was working telemetry one night and just out of nowhere got up and decided to check on a patient. Completely out of the blue. I walked in to find blood flowing onto the floor. The patient was having a GI and was starting to become lethargic. He could have bled to death if I hadn't walked in. We sent him to ICU, and I discharged him 2 weeks later.

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Specializes in ER/ICU/Flight.

Good job everyone! that little "gut" feeling makes all the difference in the world sometimes. Last week, I had a patient with chronic liver failure in septic shock, went into DIC. He had been tachy the whole shift and then his HR dropped to 70s (pressure had been in 80s all night on levophed). Had a bad feeling and got the defib, as well as some D50, insulin and calcium gluconate. By the time I got finished drawing a chem panel from his triple-lumen, he went into V-tach, got his DCCV and converted. The doc said "we need a chem 7", I told him it's already cooking in the lab. It came back with a K+ 7.9, he started his orders and I said "I've already got it all here ready to go".

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

Something similar once happened to me on nights, answering phone asked my colleague to check on a patient who turned out to be in cardiac arrest, sorted her out and afterwards the doctor wanted to know why I wanted to check her out, just shrugged my shoulders and said not sure something just told me....

Sometimes it amazes me when we do stuff like this and just can't explain it

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Yea Tweety! You rock!!!:yeah:

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Specializes in School Nursing.

call it intuition, a hunch....whatever. it was the leading of the holy spirit !

praiser :heartbeat

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