okienurse68

You also learn how to announce over the intercom for whoever lost their bag of crack in the lobby to come to the desk and claim it. This is hard to do with a straight face.

We have some docs who read the triage note and say ***!! Give them a dose of lobby time then I'll see them.

How about bit on lip by parrot!! Had that one not long ago

My favorite complaint was after our first Tulsa earthquake. Nothing spectacular but a little shake for 45 seconds. This guy comes in with a complaint of post earthquake anxiety. I look at him and say "you're afraid of earthquakes yet you come to the ground floor of a ten story building just after one?" Sounded like a candidate for therapeutic wait time to me.

We keep a doc inhouse all the time now. We have gotten busy enough that it isn't practicle to call people in any more. Used to we did without a doc for about four hours a day, now we don't have that much time without patients.

I don't know about New Zealand but in the states when you work rural you have to be prepared for just about anything. You will see everything from simple to complex laceration and foreign bodies in every orafice imaginable. Be will to laugh with your patient, it is true that many times laughter is the best medicine.

Remember being on nights in a rural ER you will be all things to all people. You will go from tedium to terror in 2.2 seconds. If you have an experienced LPN don't be afraid to pick their brain, the LPN's I work with are the most wonderful nurses on the planet. The most important thing you can do is keep and open mind and be willing to learn.

I graduated from Langston at UCAT a very long time ago. The program then was solid and you came out of school knowing what you are doing versus some of the new grads I see from other programs today. Always remember "the only stupid question is the one you don't ask".

You will get the pharm and dosage calc early in first semester and throughout the program specific to what you are studying at the time.

working in a rural facility you need to remember that you are all things to all people. Common sense is your best friend. Good luck

The frequent flyers in the ER where I work can greet all of the nurses by name and walk straight back to a clinic room to wait their turn to be seen.

When you took pts to the OR on a surgical lift not a gurney.