HemeNP

You have to make sure if the subclavian line is a PICC (longer) or an angiocath (shorter) that was inserted through the subclavian vein. If you are sure that it is short (meaning it doesnt extend to the SVC) then personally and our hospital policy will not give/allow us to administer continous infusions of vesicant solutions. we may give vesicant drugs by iv push. Most subclavian PICCs extend to the SVC. Midline catheters which are usually located on the upper extremeties don't extend to the SVC. Please make sure where the catheter tip is located by xray confirmation. That way ur sure if it's "long" or "short". It will be safe to consult with ur peers, CNS or charge nurse and hospital policy. for more info u can check out the INS (infusion nursing society) and the ONS (onc nsg soc.) websites. hope this helps.

watching my patients live through the pain and associated physical and emotional effects of cancer is painful to me. It is even more compounded when the prognosis is very poor, when the quality of life is poor, etc. you cannot avoid but be attached to your onc. patients and their loved ones. onc nurses offer tremendous support for cancer patients. to answer you question, yes it does get better but you will still feel some prick in your heart. it's not easy coz nurses are people too. good luck to you and may you future L&D nurse!

this is a case of febrile neutropenia and pancytopenia maybe coz platelets are down and needed prbc transfusion. pancultures should have been done already and a chest xray as well. identify obvious foci of infection. going back to the question, sometimes the fever doesn't go below 100. I would have called the MD again and inform him about px status. He might have assumed that the fever will go down after the tylenol. Where I work, we would have transfused the pt after all the cultures were done and antibiotics given ASAP (esp for febrile neutropenia).

purplecotton: Apheresis and the use of Haemonetics MCS System doesn't commonly fall under the function of an oncology nurse. Apheresis nurses fall under another specialty which is more in the blood banking area. There are jobs for nurses who have experience in apheresis but not that many.

GirloftheSun: I think 2 day review classes can help to a certain extent. If you are willing to pay the fee then go right ahead. I hope you can get a refund from where you work as part of you education benefit. Stick to the ONS test blueprint (that comes with your application form and available online at the ONS website). I don't think it's a disadvantage that you are working in transplant. I think it's a added benefit. Keep on learning, be curious and keep on asking questions at work. If you have a Clinical Nurse Specialist they are good resources and also the oncologists that you see on the floor. I usually pop a question to them and they are more than willing to answer. Good luck again and do let us know about the results! Peace.

Congratulations Plum!!! GirlOfTheSun you can get the book (Core Curriculum for Oncology Nursing) from the ONS Website (http://www.ons.org) or from Barnes and Noble. The book is great as Plum said. You can also get the Study Guide for the Core curriculum also from the same sources. Good luck on your test!

their wbc will not rise because they are immunosuppressed. that's why it is important to watch for non-classic signs of infection in caring for a neutropenic patient. some of them will not even develop fever, will not have localized signs of infection such as pus formation/redness on site of infection. they can become septic quite easily when their counts are low. very interesting question you posted. Martin S. Marino, RN OCN CMSRN

do not crush or let prevacid granules dissolve in a liquid before giving it to the patient. prevacid is timed release. we are beating its purpose if we crush them. we learned it the hard way. we got cited by dept of health services for that when i used to work ECF.

nurses only administer medications. we don't dispense them. it is the pharmacist's job to dispense them. using a medication already labeled for another patient's use may be construed by the law as dispensing a medication which is outside the scope of practice for nurses. does your pharmacy provide you with an E-Kit?

Oh no you are not alone! I'm not a vascular nurse but since IV teams are not too much "here" anymore, we have to start our own IV's. I've been a nurse for ten years. I've been checking out other people's veins for the past nine years. It's not a fetish is it? ROFL! :roll

i work in a skilled nursing facility. pre-pouring medications (pills or liquids) is a real no-no. you get writted up the first offense. third is bye-bye time. i know how it feels to finish the 6am med pass ASAP (plus all the fingersticks that we need to do). the state, as far as i know, allows the one hour before and one hour after allowance time. like if u need to pass meds sceduled at 6am, you can start at 5 and end at 7. i hope this helps.