I've been told HD is 90% boredom and 10%

Specialties Urology

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All out heart pounding excitment when something goes wrong? Was I told incorrectly? I am trying to get an idea of What things CAN go wrong in dialysis. Anyone want to give me a clue? Has anyone seen a patient code during dialysis? Had a big blood exposure? Wrong dialysate? wrong meds... Etc....

Thanks.

AustinRN

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Specializes in Corrections, neurology, dialysis.

I've heard that said of lots of things from being a pilot to being a weatherman. I think it's on over-used expression.

Naw, dialysis is great. I've been in it for about a year and haven't seen anybody code. I have been splashed by blood - lots of times. Every day I go home with blood on my shoes. It's part of the job.

Things do go wrong, but most of the time people react calmly and correct the problem. The worst thing I've seen is when a patient's venous needle slipped out and his blood was shooting all over him, including his face. The guy was covered in blood in a matter of seconds. He yelled for help and we all ran over and did what we could to help each other get things under control.

One of the things I like about dialysis is that we all help each other. We have to. Everyone has a situation that they can't handle on their own, and you need your co-workers to jump in and give you a hand. Then the next time you see someone struggling you jump in and help them too. It's the nature of the job.

I think like all kinds of nursing, you get used to the pace. Something that seemed horrendous in the beginning becomes routine after a while.

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Thanks natkat. I'm going to give it a good long try. Now I just have to decide acute or chronic.....

AustinRN

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We've had one pt code in the 2.5 years I've been at my clinic. It's rare. If a pt starts to look or feel funny, we usually dc their tx and send them off to the hospital before anything really happens.

AmyLiz, OCDT, CHT

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