Christopher McDowell

I will give you the same answer I give people when they ask me if they should become a paramedic. Do you have a why? What is a why? A why is WHY you choose this profession, it is an intimate and personal reason that grows from the core of your being and draws you toward taking up this career. It is the thing that you come back to time and time again when all else, the money, the hours, the pride, the status, have been stripped away. My father died because of a negligent provider, I decided that if I could prevent one single family from going through that then my life would be worthwhile, that is my why. If you have a why you will do great in nursing. If you dont, you will either break under the pressure and workload or become just another jaded nurse that puts in the bare minimum.

Hey guys, not sure where this post should actually go so I'm going to just drop it here. So I'm a critical care paramedic and I've been looking at possibly going to nursing school. Here is my only catch though, as a paramedic I get a tremendous (and sometimes terrifying) amount of autonomy in how I treat patients. If I believe a pt's vent settings need to be altered I alter then, if I think they need a cricothyroidotomy I perform it, if I think they need a pleural decompression I decompress. Now my question is what kind of autonomy do nurses have, I understand that it probably various depending on the department you work in and the area, but just in general. Like do you have standing orders that you can follow that allow you to treat a pt. when a doctor isent on hand? is there like an approved skill set where you can perform them without a doctor's order? Please excuse any ignorance (and I am fairly ignorant of nursing) that these questions show, I really am just looking for some information. Thanks everyone!!

To be honest, call your state office and report their POS ***'s, I'm ***ing sick and tired of nursing homes putting patients lives in danger to make a buck.

In my 10 years I've never seen a patient vagal into asystole or an idioventricular rhythm. A very low sinus brady sure, pretty common, but never into an idioventricular. I think your probably right that this patient should have been sent for a cardiac workup.