needing vent time

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We were overloaded with trauma patients last night. I work on a unit that gets what we hope are stable patients from the ED. Last night we had a pt who had a retro peritoneal bleed after falling off of his coffee table. So he comes from the PACU after surgery where in one hours time they gave him x amount of pain meds in one hour ( I can't remember the specifics but I do remember it was too much) and he started to go into respiratory depression. So his nurse just calmly calls the Trauma team and goes to get a non rebreather and doesn't tell the charge nurse what's going on, the only reason she found out is because she couldn't find the non rebreather and asked her where to find it. And of course she wants to know why. But anyway, long and short of it is that he had to be intubated in the room and sent down to CCU. All the while, his nurse is just sitting out in the nurses station on the computer while the other nurses (like myself) are in his room trying desperately to obtain his rapidly fading BP last (last read was 68/32). So she wasn't even in there to help save her pt. After we transferred him she and I were walking back and she says "I don't know what everyone was fussing about. I don't get stressed over my job because I know it's all in God's hands anyway." Now I gotta say I am not one to knock religion, but is that a little off to anyone else? Another nurse put it like this, "I feel that God works through us to help heal these people. If we have exhausted our resources and this pt goes anyway, then I feel that is God's doing." I happened to agree with her point of view. Just because it might be in God's hands from the get go doesn't mean we don't try. And this other nurse, she was just so aloof over the whole ordeal like it wasn't anything she had to be worried about. That man now is still on a vent, will probably never recover and his poor wife is just in agony. I don't know, it just blew me away the nerve of his nurse that night. No replies needed, just needed to vent (no pun intended.)

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Specializes in Registered Nurse.

Sounds like a stressful time. Vent away! I sure do! Wondering if Narcan would have been appropriate.

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Specializes in Critical Care / Psychiatry.
All the while, his nurse is just sitting out in the nurses station on the computer while the other nurses (like myself) are in his room trying desperately to obtain his rapidly fading BP last (last read was 68/32). So she wasn't even in there to help save her pt. After we transferred him she and I were walking back and she says "I don't know what everyone was fussing about. I don't get stressed over my job because I know it's all in God's hands anyway." Now I gotta say I am not one to knock religion, but is that a little off to anyone else?
WHAT A FREAK. :angryfire

Heck yeah it's off but sadly I'm not surprised.

And that's all I'll say about that.

Shel

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Wondering if Narcan would have been appropriate.

My thoughts exactly!

And yes, her attitudes seems way off. Have you considered speaking to your NM about this? There may have been others who have gone to her/him about this nurse w/the very same concerns.

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What a freak is right Shel! :uhoh3:

Wonder what can be done in this situation about the nurse?

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We were overloaded with trauma patients last night. I work on a unit that gets what we hope are stable patients from the ED. Last night we had a pt who had a retro peritoneal bleed after falling off of his coffee table. So he comes from the PACU after surgery where in one hours time they gave him x amount of pain meds in one hour ( I can't remember the specifics but I do remember it was too much) and he started to go into respiratory depression. So his nurse just calmly calls the Trauma team and goes to get a non rebreather and doesn't tell the charge nurse what's going on, the only reason she found out is because she couldn't find the non rebreather and asked her where to find it. And of course she wants to know why. But anyway, long and short of it is that he had to be intubated in the room and sent down to CCU. All the while, his nurse is just sitting out in the nurses station on the computer while the other nurses (like myself) are in his room trying desperately to obtain his rapidly fading BP last (last read was 68/32). So she wasn't even in there to help save her pt. After we transferred him she and I were walking back and she says "I don't know what everyone was fussing about. I don't get stressed over my job because I know it's all in God's hands anyway." Now I gotta say I am not one to knock religion, but is that a little off to anyone else? Another nurse put it like this, "I feel that God works through us to help heal these people. If we have exhausted our resources and this pt goes anyway, then I feel that is God's doing." I happened to agree with her point of view. Just because it might be in God's hands from the get go doesn't mean we don't try. And this other nurse, she was just so aloof over the whole ordeal like it wasn't anything she had to be worried about. That man now is still on a vent, will probably never recover and his poor wife is just in agony. I don't know, it just blew me away the nerve of his nurse that night. No replies needed, just needed to vent (no pun intended.)

I would write up this incident and encourage the other nurses who were helping to do the same.

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He did recieve Narcan. Unfortunately it didn't help. They also found an internal bleed very late in the game, apparently they found a liver lac along with a splenic lac and he had lost a lot of blood. They replaced 15 units but he ended up going into DIC. I spoke with the charge nurse that evening and she understood how I felt and even agreed with me. So I don't know what's going to happen with it. I haven't been made aware of any action but I will definitely follow up. Thanks for listening!

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Specializes in Family.
He did recieve Narcan. Unfortunately it didn't help. They also found an internal bleed very late in the game, apparently they found a liver lac along with a splenic lac and he had lost a lot of blood. They replaced 15 units but he ended up going into DIC. I spoke with the charge nurse that evening and she understood how I felt and even agreed with me. So I don't know what's going to happen with it. I haven't been made aware of any action but I will definitely follow up. Thanks for listening!
Please excuse the dumb question, but what is DIC? Thanks!:imbar
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Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation

it's when your blood stops clotting....bad news.

here's a link....http://www.emedicine.com/emerg/topic150.htm

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I am not one to knock religion, but is that a little off to anyone else?
This wasn't religion, this nutcase abandoned her patient, grounds for a complaint and potentially a loss of license.....

Also, DIC is when your blood begins to clot in lots of odd and unnecessary places (hence the name disseminated intravascular coagulation). One problem with that is that the clotting factors and platelets, etc. are all busy elsewhere, and then when you need them, they are nowhere to be found, so you begin to bleed out.

This is why it seems odd that the treatment of choice for DIC is anticoagulant.....

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Specializes in Family.
This wasn't religion, this nutcase abandoned her patient, grounds for a complaint and potentially a loss of license.....

Also, DIC is when your blood begins to clot in lots of odd and unnecessary places (hence the name disseminated intravascular coagulation). One problem with that is that the clotting factors and platelets, etc. are all busy elsewhere, and then when you need them, they are nowhere to be found, so you begin to bleed out.

This is why it seems odd that the treatment of choice for DIC is anticoagulant.....

Thanks for the replies y'all! :)
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