wendyssmile

Latest Activity

1. Rural ICU's and education

   wendyssmile posted a topic in MICU

   Hello, I work at a rural hospital with a four bed ICU. I am developing a competency program. One of the biggest educational weaknesses are hemodynamics. We put in myabe 2-4 PA catheters a year. According to the literature an annual review is no...

2. Hemodynamic leveling

   wendyssmile replied to mattcastens's topic in Cardiac

   We have a laser level that actually fits on a tranducer holder. The company is or was Baxter, I think it may be vigilent now. I am not quite sure.

3. A funny thing happened last night

   wendyssmile posted a topic in General Nursing

   I was caring for a patient in which the family was considering withdrawal of care. The family had finally come to a consensus to "take the tube out" and withdraw care. The resident I acknowledged their request. We left the room for a minute and t...

4. What do you all LOVE about night shift?

   wendyssmile replied to indeed's topic in General Nursing

   When I work nights I feel like a nurse. I work in an ICU, I can take time to give some quality nursing care and do little things like wash someone's hair, give backrubs, and maybe a shave. Nights is my respit from the chaos of days.

5. Charge nurse woes

   wendyssmile replied to wendyssmile's topic in General Nursing

   Thank you for your thoughts and encouragement. It is very helpful.

6. Charge nurse woes

   wendyssmile posted a topic in General Nursing

   I have recently been oriented to the charge nurse role in an ICU. I am afraid I am not cut out for the job. I lack assertiveness when confronting the more seasoned nurses and ask for too many opinions when I am making decisions. Is the charge nurs...

7. ice vs no ice with cardiac outputs

   wendyssmile replied to gpip's topic in MICU

   I work in a CVICU and we predominantly use Baxter CCO but when we have a patient with severe heart failure we use ice in order to gain an accurate value. Many times there is a significant difference between the cco and the iced output.

8. How long will it take? Some say 2 years??

   wendyssmile replied to JMP's topic in MICU

   Don't give up hope!! I started as a new grad in an ICU where I had been a technician then I left after a year because I felt I wanted to see new things I ended up in a very fast pace ICU and with some very strong personalities that intimidated me!!!!...

9. Charge Nurse in ICU

   wendyssmile replied to pjdRN's topic in MICU

   I have been recently oriented to the charge role and have had my eyes opened. First of all I work in a CCU/CTICU and our travelers are usually well qualified to handle an ICU assignment. We have had a few which we had problems with and subsequently...

10. Nurse: Patient ratios

    wendyssmile replied to PButler's topic in MICU

    I work in combination CCU/CTICU the ratio is 2:1 or 1:1. Post-op hearts are 1:1 initially and sick patients, patients with devices are 1:1. We never have 3:1 rthe charge RN takes an assignment first and then we would call management.

11. Why become a nurse

    wendyssmile posted a topic in General Nursing

    I have been a RN for three years now. Prior to going to school I was told by a nurse that nursing is the last profession to pursue as a career. Currently we have a nursing shortage and there are less and less people pursuing a career in nursing. I...

12. Pain management in Post-CABG patients

    wendyssmile replied to MeganWoods's topic in CCU

    I work in a CTICU in the immediate post-op period our patient's get indocin times 3 doses which aids with inflammation. While they are intubated Morphine is used then Vicodin is the drug of choice. I have also noticed that our younger patients have...

13. IABP Removal

    wendyssmile replied to BJRN76's topic in CCU

    I work in a combination CCU and CTICU. On our surgical pateints the nurse practitioners d'c the IABP's. If it is a CCU patient the IABP is d/c'd by the cath lab fellow or the CCU fellow. I would not want to be responsible for pulling the IABP. A...

14. Traveling Nurses

    wendyssmile replied to CTnuse's topic in General Nursing

    Hello CT, I work in a CT-ICU and we have traveling nurses and for the last year the traveling nurses took only the chronic assignments. Currently we have two traveling nurses that have returned to us and they are being trained to admit the fresh hea...

15. Wages and incentives

    wendyssmile posted a topic in General Nursing

    I work in a hospital that has their own in- house agency program. The nurses in this program are paid very well and tend to work overtime. Why can't hospital administrators put the money that they pay for these nurses and traveling nurses back into...