JEANJAVE

I have not encountered this yet...we still mix acid baths to make 1meq for K if needed...what a very thorough JCAHO rep...

we use the tipstop brand (quite expensive)for the long time bleeders...tums - very interesting idea and cheaper too, questionable on infection control though...

In our hospital, very important to use a spacer...

I did not get sick...in fact my allergies went away when I worked with peds respiratory floor...just make sure you wear masks, wash your hands and build up your immune system...I used to work with adults, I don't miss that area...

I work in hemodialysis peds...I see these little clients 3-4 times a week...nursing care is holistic...I follow up everything for their care...parents are more appreciative of the work that you do for their young ones...We go to some events for Christmas,like we went to Sea World on a rock star tour bus (funds donated by a very appreciative parent)...all the parents and our patients enjoyed that trip...Nursing in this area is very rewarding and challenging as well...

Thanks for the advice...now I have to decide whether to take CPN or CHN (certified hemodialysis nurse)...I also work in peds hemodialysis...

Our unit has 3 extra machines that we don't use, a company technician told us that we need to rinse these machines everyday including the portable RO to prevent formation of algae/bacteria...what's your opinion?

If you're open minded to be trained and accept more challenging roles, go for it...I came from med-surg and loved the transition to dialysis...our hospital had to pay us more than ICU nurses (ssh) because it is a specialty (peds/dialysis/acute/chronic). We have to do on-calls for emergencies...but if you want to take the chronic dialysis clinics crowd, this is more slow-paced and I think this is better to start with, then you can go to the hospital crowd for more challenging events...hope this helps...

we used to flip the needles but since the vascular surgeon told us about the bad effects of it, like creating more damage to the graft, we stopped flipping even for fistulas...here in Miami...pediatric dialysis...

You are better off with Fresenius, we're stuck with Phoenix!!! It is also loud and alarms even more...unable to use for small kids...Needs more acid bath and bicart...

It seems like we have not totally explored the machine, some flaws emerged like mushroom on stormy weather...i'm not saying anything in detail...in fairness to the maker of this Phoenix M. I work with pediatric hemodialysis patients, my co-workers agree that it is not effective enough for our little clients. It alarms if we use the Hg100 dialyzer. One thing that irritates us also is the frequent air in blood ( no matter how careful we prime the machine), it is hard to resolve, unlike in Cobe (old model); we have to draw out blood from the port to reset it, the technique they told us to do does not work... I hope the company had updated it and the problems mentioned have been taken into account. We told the company about the problems we encountered.