cocco

I work in an inpatient urology floor. Our doctors place our 3 way foleys and we maintain them. Usually we titrate them until the urine is pink. Things to watch for are flow, output, color and irrigant volume. Make sure it doesn't go dry because it could clot off if the pt has a lot of clots and is running at a fast rate.

You can specify whatever you want to work with the agency. They might call you with other kinds of shifts but if you do not want to work them be strong and say no. I have not had a problem with many nurses treating me rudely, of course you are the outsider and kind of end up being alone most of the shift which I don't mind at all. I have had some bad assignments but everyone did and that's why I was there because they were short. It's not like everyone else was sitting there and I was running around, we were all running around. I have also never had a problem with the staff nurses not helping me. I have also used the supervisors as resources if the staff nurses were busy and not able to help me. I have been doing agency prn for about 1 yr med/surg and have worked at 6 facilities. There are some I refused to go back to but that was because of distance and the feeling that the facility was not a safe place for my patients and I do not want to work myself into the ground for any amount of money even if the staff there did like me it's not worth it so be as choosy as you want to.

If there is creatinine in the jp fluid it means there is a urine leak at one of the reanastamosis sites.

I work in urology/gynecology in one of those great magnet hospitals that are being spoken of and we do put our foley catheters on the floor. For some reason the catheters that they place in the or back up and cause horrible pain for the patient. We place the bag on the floor, on a chux, and the urine starts flowing. I am not going to leave my pt in pain just so I can keep the bag off of the floor.

1) Do you have your parents scrub up and gown before coming in and visting their baby/babies? Visitors are supposed to be doing a 3 minute scrub. I can say that usually doesn't happen, usually they just do a normal wash at the sink. They do not gown unless their baby is in isolation. 2) Can you wear your wedding rings? Can your parents? yes & yes 3) What do you do when a baby has MRSA? Do you have to gown? Do your parents or visitors? I'm not sure of the exact policy as I have not taken care of a baby with it yet but I believe it is a 1:1 with contact precautions. 4) Can you wear your own scrubs, or are you provided scrubs by your institution? We wear our own scrubs. Can you please tell me what size NICU you work in? about a 50 bed level 2 includes step down Is it in an academic setting? yes

According to our policy ELBW infants are bathed with sterile water and older ones are bathed with tap water and J&J soap.

I agree with the other posts. Only our neos go to consult and get consent and then they document a full page of their consult for the chart. It is not the rn's place to consult it is our place to educate about the environment and like pp said the visiting policies.

med-surg

I planned my second pg to be during my last year of nursing school. I had many kidney problems, was admitted to the hospital for 4 days. I was due 16 days after the final. I delivered on a Wednesday and took my final on the following Monday. When I was pinned my baby was 10 days old. I did not miss any school d/t the pg and I would not have changed a thing. I planned it like that so I could have the time after he was born off before I had to go to work. He was 10 weeks old when I started my new job.

There was someone in there that I could have just said hey help if I needed to but it is not policy that we have two people. There are usually more than two around to do an IV and look the kid over for a good one anyway when one blows!

Did chest compressions on a neonate last night for the first time. I have only been in the NICU for 10 wks. Before that I was in med/surg for 1.5 yrs and never did compressions. We only had 2 codes in that time on our floor that did require compressions. Most of our codes are stabalized and transferred to the ICU before that.

I got my first IV stick all by myself from start to finish!!! I have done good hitting veins but I usually need help to finish off advancing the catheter and flushing and taping while holding the baby. Last week I hit two and blew them both when I flushed. Yesterday I got a great one on my second stick great flash and flushed and taped it all on my own!! I also did chest compressions for the first time. That did not end up as well but it was a learning experience and the baby did not suffer. Over all it was a good night though. I am on my own on the 23rd

It is even worse when you work at one of the largest hospitals in the area and one of the best hospitals in the country, that is noted for having the slogan of world class care. If I had a penny for every time someone threw that in my face because I told them something they didn't want to hear. Or I didn't let their boyfriend sleep in the room with them when they have a roommate or when we tell the visitors that they can't have a party in the room because this is a freakin hospital not a night club. Spoiled, yes, but part of the problem where I work also comes from administration and that stupid slogan:angryfire

I just started in the NICU and love it. I always knew I wanted to work in peds/L&D and while I was looking for a L&D position and there were none available, I fell into a NICU position. A month into orientation and I am loving it and can see being there forever. Which is how long most people have been there!! I also like my previous job more now that I am only PRN. That is in urology/gynecology on a med/surg floor. I commend those that can do floor nursing forever it is hard work especially with the high nurse:pt ratios.

I did not get to vote in the poll cause it was closed, but I would not want a male rn delivering me. For the same reason I will not go to a male ob/gyn. It makes me uncomfortable to be examined by them. My husband would also have a VERY big problem with it. I'm not saying that they would not do a good job or that they are not as caring it would just make me uncomfortable. I work on a floor that has no males. I think men are better co-workers, but on my floor we deal with urology/gynecology and the gynecology aspect drives a lot of men away. Men needing to be cathed sometimes ask for a guy to do it and we have no guys to do it. It does not make us uncomfortable but it does for some of our pts and that is what we should be sensitive to.

I don't know our policy for new admissions cause I haven't had one yet. I have only been in the NICU for a month, but the only time I have seen them done so far is when a kid was changed from d10 to d12 with their tpn. Then a blood sugar is checked 2 hrs after the change. I know they get them on admission but I don't know how frequently. Other than that they are not done routinely on babies on tpn or full feeds or both.

We have our own stethescopes and we use the rolling thermometers with probe covers. We do keep the probe covers attached to the isolette and reuse them on the same baby.

There are a few floors at my hospital that do team nursing. I have never floated there but I think it is ridiculous. To have to float an LPN, RN or PCNA from our floor to their floor even though they have enough staff to run but they don't have 1rn to 1lpn to 1pcna is so stupid. I agree "I" want to care for "my" pts. Not rely on somebody else to maybe tell me something valuable that I need to know. If they forget to tell you then you're still held responsible.

I work on a 36 bed med/surg unit in a teaching hospital. On nights we like to have 5 rns which would give us 7 pts and one rn would have 8pts. Lately we have had 4 rns which gives us 9 pts each. I like nights cause you are able to find a place to chart, a computer to log into and you can actually walk in the hall and get things done without running into people. You can assess your pt without jumping over family and asking them to leave. Nights has its own set of challenges. Sometimes the resident on call is a very heavy sleeper and you can't wake him up when paging him and it is very important. Rarely do all of your pt sleep and if they do they end up being Q4 vitals and you have to wake them up and piss them off. We do have a secretary most nights, weekends we do not. There are fewer aides so you are helping with ADLs more sometimes if there are not enough aides you have some pts without one. Overall night shift is more cohesive than day. There is more of a comraderie between staff and we help eachother out a lot more than day staff does.

Just don't wear anything with lace. One of the new grads didn't even have to bend over; all she did was turn around, and I happened to be looking in her direction. It was like a train wreck; I couldn't divert my eyes. How can you wear lacy semi-thong panties under all-white scrubs?.

I have only been on the unit for 2 days so I don't know all the small details yet but we have a sheet that has all the pt assignments in our conference room. It is done by the charge rn. We then get report at the bedside from the offgoing nurse. All of the charts are kept at the bedside so if you need additional info it is right there and you can also start looking over things is the offgoing nurse is giving someone else report or isn't ready yet. It takes about 15-20 min.

At the NICU I will start in next week there are only RNs

I am also sick right now. I have called off since Tuesday, 3 nights. I have a bad cold, not enough to go to the dr but enough that I would be dripping snot and coughing and spitting up phlegm every few hours. The only reason I feel bad is because it is my last week at this job before I start a new job at another facility and go PRN at my current job. Normally I feel no guilt at calling off sick. I do not want to get a fresh postop sick or drip something nasty into a surgical wound. They are already comprimised and can catch things easily I do not need to help with that.

An hour, but my new job is about 45 minutes. YEAH!!

I have never done it but I know you can. If it is an enema our ET nurses do it.