zacarias

Thanks so much, that's exactly what I was looking for!

You would make more money teaching English as a foreign language there. TEFL. You could teach in schools or even teach English to people in other countries on your computer. Honestly that would be much more fun then trying to legally be a nurse in Brazil.

Hi, So I'm a US RN considering applying for a nursing job in Saudi Arabia or the Middle East. I've lived abroad before and am just curious about how living on the compound works. When I go abroad, I like to make friends with locals and learn the language well which leads me to main question. Can a nurse leave the compound anytime they want to go explore the city? How does that work? Is there an expectation that you stay in the compound? Thank you!

Just wondering, has anyone that got their BSN through WGU been accepted to UW's DNP program? Does anyone know how many are accepted each cohort out of how many applicants? Thanks.

wouldn't epi raise your BP? I guess peripherally it would lower it...but centrally raise it?

SF Bay is not representative of the US so it's hard to compare using that. Also WA is many wonderful places besides Seattle with a much lower housing cost. In fact, hospitals in Seattle will pay about the same as hospitals in another are of WA with a much lower cost-of-living!

I didn't mean to imply that home health or hospice aren't stressful in their own way. I am a good hospital nurse and owe my skills to my years as an acute care nurse. I still believe I would be good at hospice and am inquiring about home health to get more of an idea of that. Z

Hi all! Just wondering if you must be working as an RN while you are attending WGU's RN to BSN program. Also, if you have to be working, do you have to be working acute care or is something like home health ok? Thanks! Z

Hi all, Due to hospital nursing being really stressful for me I'm looking to cut back and change possibly either to home health or hospice. I have a feeling I'd really be good at hospice but don't know anything about home health in case I can't get into hospice. I have years of hospital experience and good assessment skills. Just looking for ideas on how to start and to find out what it all entails. Thank you!

SageTXRN, Thanks for the info. Do you still live/work in RGV? It is kind of disheartening that most hospitals in South Texas are all for profit organizations. I guess I'm spoiled up here in Washington State where not-for-profit is how we do things up here. I will check out South Texas Health System and Doctor's Hospital. Thanks again. Z

Hello! So I'm looking to relocate eventually to the South Florida area and wondering if there's any hospitals that nurses would say are better generally and have an acceptable/doable nurse patient ratio. It seems all the hospitals are for-profit grr. I know I would take a cut in pay and also have more patients but I would be able to afford a house there and where I am now I won't ever be able to. And just so you know, I am an tele/pcu/stepdown nurse with more than a decade of experience. I lived in Mexico for eight years and speak Spanish fluently. Z

C'mon I know there's someone with info!

Hello! So I'm looking to relocate eventually to the RGV area and wondering if there's any hospitals that nurses would say are better generally and have an acceptable/doable nurse:patient ratio. It seems all the hospitals are for-profit grr. I know I would take a cut in pay and also have more patients but I would be able to afford a house there and where I am now I won't ever be able to. And just so you know, I am an tele/pcu/stepdown nurse with more than a decade of experience. I lived in Mexico for eight years and speak Spanish fluently. Z

Thanks for your comment. I think you're right. I also believed it was a fibrin sheath that was preventing easy flow. the part that freaked me out was that there'd be a little blood flow in the picc tubing and then a break with nothing and then more blood. I just have a hard time wrapping my head around that as far as explaining it. Thanks! Z

Hey all I've never seen this happen but I went to help a new nurse who couldn't get blood very well from a PICC. It was a double lumen and she was drawing from the brown lumen and she got a little blood in the syringe but it wouldn't draw more. It was greating a vacuum in the syringe and then there would be breaks in the blood flow with air?? or something similar. I've never seen in my life and it made me nervous. I tried the other lumen and it drew fine. My question is: On the first lumen she tried, if it was collapsing when she drew blood WHY on earth would there be clear areas in between a little blood flow like it was air? That seems impossible. I was worried about catheter migration but the other lumen drew fine. Thanks Z

Any ideas?

Thanks for your comment! I think I might look at dual FNP/ACNP programs or possibly just do the FNP and then do a post masters ACNP. Time will tell. Thanks again!

OK I see the afib for sure. How did you know the QTc was so long, just by eyeing it? The QT itself is like 0.24 to 0.28, but the QTc is way high like 0.90 or above.

Hello all! I am at heart a stepdown/cardiac and tele nurse, but as a travel nurse, I've taken recently many med/surg assignments with little tele although I was did true cardiac stepdown earlier this year. My question is the following: Can I still go ahead and take the PCCN exam even though greater than 50% recently has been with med/surg? I hope to go back to stepdown soon or even the ICU where I'm currently at. I ask because I really don't have the desire to be certified in med/surg, but rather PCCN. It seems to me the requirements for certification seem to do with general acute care experience. I didn't see anywhere where you have to have hours in specific disciplines such as med/surg or cardiac/stepdown/tele. I'll have to recheck. Just wondering what you all think or have experienced. Thanks! Z

So this first EKG has electrical alternans because of pericardial effusion...but it's going so fast it's hard to tell if it's ST or afib. I would say ST, but the darn p waves don't show themselves too much. On the second EKG on a different pt, this pt was in low ST like 105-109 and then jumped up to 150 160s. He was just moving a little bit in his bed. And then after a few minutes he went right back down to 105-110s. Where I'm working currently the tele monitoring is horrible so it's hard to see but what the rhythm looks like to me is Afib. What do you think? The isolectric line isn't that squiqly, what else could it be? We didn't do a 12-lead on the guy per MDs orders. Thanks all!

Thanks for for your comments! Yeah I hate Yankauers still. It's unfortunate that so many hospitalized patients do not take seriously about the need of pulmonary toilet to prevent atelectasis/pneumonia. Z

Hello all! As I'm preparing to go back to school, I am interested to know if anyone can tell me if one of the FNP programs in WA state offer good training in x-ray interpretation, suturing etc... I know a lot of programs don't focus a lot on that which is why I asked. I know there are some dual acute-care NP/FNP programs out there in the US but I'm specifically am asking about FNP programs in WA state and what you're experience has been. Thanks! Z

Hello all! So I normally work on PCU/tele but recently I took a job on a med/surg/tele unit and lately I've had some patients with decreased LOC with Yankauers hooked up. I absolutely hate them! Either patients can protect their airway or they can't! I mean, I can so a Yankauer possibly would be useful if the patient themselves knew how to use it on themselves but otherwise it seems not useful. On a non-responsive pt who doesn't cough on command, when you put the Yankauer in their mouth they obviously don't like it. It's hard and damaging to tissues and you barely get any saliva/sputum out of their mouth.Yankauer for oral suctioning is fairly useless. If they could cough on command and are productive, then possibly it would be useful but only in that case. I guess we just we have it the room just in case we go in an find them with vomit on the side of their mouth... Anyone else hate Yankauers? Z

Hello! OK so I'm a seasoned nurse working in med/surg in a smaller hospital. I usually do PCU/stepdown or tele but am doing med/surg during my current assignment. Anyway, last night I had a new admit that needed an NG tube preop and I've always thought NG tubes insertion was an "easy" nursing task. I've done some in my career and there's been no problems. My patient last night was a problem for some reason. The first attempt she was flailing and not taking sips/swallowing like I asked her to. The second time it met resistance and could not advance it. I don't understand it. Later the son told me that she had a traumatic NG tube insertion when she was 6 years old (she's almost 80 now) and she's still traumatized by it. I hate when my interventions don't go as I plan 'cause I feel like I'm too blame. I asked her about any nose issues before (of course later she said she stuck a whole apricot up her nose when she was a kid), I measured, I lubed the NG but it just wouldn't go. The surgeon was fine that she didn't have the NG but I'm going around in my head thinking about what I didn't do right or if I did what I could. Thanks all for reading. Z

Hello, I'm an RN with many years experience in PCU/stepdown, tele, and stepdown. All with adults. I'm an excellent RN that's starting a new travel experience taking care of peds on a general floor in a small community college. I will get PALS in the next month so that will help and I've been studying normal levels/vitals for peds. I'm just wondering if any of you all have any tips for me as I start carrying for a new population. Thanks! Z