nerdtonurse?

nerdtonurse? BSN, RN

ICU, Telemetry

Member

All Content by nerdtonurse?

  1. You just can't make this stuff up....

    nerdtonurse? replied to nerdtonurse?'s topic in Nursing Humor

    No, just the denizens of the local trailer park on the rampage....we get EMS runs from out there every payday or check day....I can still hear the "circular logic" between the doc and "John" -- "why...

  2. Dreaming about work?

    nerdtonurse? replied to kool-aide, RN's topic in General Nursing

    I've not exactly dreamed it, but I've always been worried we'd come in to a packed house, patients in overflow, and we'd forget to assign a nurse to someone until the next morning when we'd be going,...

  3. Take your wage and plug it into this inflation calculator... Discuss

    nerdtonurse? replied to tater.jake's topic in General Nursing

    I use the McDonald's calculator. When I was in school for my BA in 1980-84, a small hamburger, small fry, and small coke was 1.04. Now it's 3.86 in rural areas, more in specialty markets. So, I...

  4. need tips how to measure BP on really obese patients

    nerdtonurse? replied to Blackheartednurse's topic in General Nursing

    What we do: 1) upper arms 2)wrists (of course, that may be where your only IV access is, so that can be a problem -- and we've also had folks so fluffy that the IV cannula can't reach the vein, it's...

  5. OT vs NURSE

    nerdtonurse? replied to SneakySnake's topic in General Nursing

    Okay, watched too many murder mysteries this weekend, so first thing I thought was, 'what did she do to the patient that she didn't want you to

  6. ER and strange phenomena

    nerdtonurse? replied to EmergencyNrse's topic in Emergency

    We had a "river runs thru it" GI bleed period...I kid you not, we had 5 GI bleeds admitted in a single shift, and they were rough -- hgb in 3's, 4's....not from the same place, some from home, others...

  7. What makes a co-worker someone you look up to?

    nerdtonurse? replied to xtxrn's topic in General Nursing

    1) They're smart AND curious -- why is that patient sweating? why is their rhythm suddenly having peaked T waves? 2) They treat their patients like family 3) They aren't "too posh to wash"--...

  8. Patient fell and died a few days later, was it my fault?

    nerdtonurse? replied to GlitterRN's topic in General Nursing

    To the OP: If you've been a nurse for a while, you've had patients fall. I had one on a bedside commode and he threw a seizure (no prior history) and slammed his head on the sink while I was making...

  9. Keeping TV on while sleeping = Depression??

    nerdtonurse? replied to nurse678's topic in Health, Stress Management

    I work nights....I listen to audiobooks to drown out the daytime noises...I love reading "I, Claudius" by Robert Graves, but it's boring as all get out to listen to...puts me to sleep every

  10. Work bags: What do you take and what's in it?

    nerdtonurse? replied to PediNurse3's topic in General Nursing

    I don't do a work bag, as I have a locker...but in the locker I have: Power bar/breakfast bar Advil ACLS book ICU Book steth flashlight/penlight scissors imodium pepto tums 5 bucks in 1's (bad side...

  11. Bedside procedures---any of them stand out?

    nerdtonurse? replied to xtxrn's topic in General Nursing

    I've wondered how many cases of "elder abuse" are people who can finally turn the tables on their abuser. I had a pleasantly demented old man, sweet, "yes ma'am, no ma'am," who needed something like...

  12. Bedside procedures---any of them stand out?

    nerdtonurse? replied to xtxrn's topic in General Nursing

    Kneeling on the floor under a surgical drape holding a patient's hand trying to start an IV. The MD was trying to put in a central line on a crashing patient, I managed to get another IV started...

  13. what are these yellow gowns for?

    nerdtonurse? replied to meghan91's topic in General Nursing

    At night, sometimes your body temp falls around 0300, and I've seen nurses throw on a yellow gown because they are

  14. nurse extern in ICU

    nerdtonurse? replied to meghan91's topic in General Nursing

    Externship is a wonderful way to see what nursing's really like. It's good if you can get one like those at our hospital, where you spend 2 weeks in each area of the hospital -- OR, ICU, M/S, PACU,...

  15. Report without Orders?

    nerdtonurse? replied to missbutton's topic in General Nursing

    LOL @ vacu-colon! And we've got some frequent fliers who'd line up for one! I swear, if I had a dollar for every time I said, "Ma'am, do you usually get up at 3 am and give yourself a soap suds...

  16. Domestic Abuse

    nerdtonurse? replied to Yiggs's topic in General Nursing

    Ruby, keep in mind this was back in the 80's -- we honestly didn't know what else to do, we were in a rural area that didn't have women's shelters and groups to help. We were just trying to get her to...

  17. Report without Orders?

    nerdtonurse? replied to missbutton's topic in General Nursing

    With us -- nightshift, anyway... 1) we get the heads up that we may be getting one -- we let the ER know know many beds, how many nurses we have. That gives the charge time to decide if we need to...

  18. Float ICU RN to Med-Surg?

    nerdtonurse? replied to mturner88's topic in Patient Safety Issues

    I wonder if the OP went from nursing school straight into ICU? I'm lucky, in that I started on a telemetry floor and ran nights with 8, sometimes 12 telemetry patients, so I know how to run a crowd....

  19. Could use some advice or a listening ear...new RN, newly abusive husband

    nerdtonurse? replied to seekinganonymity's topic in General Nursing

    First -- call the cops, and what the #*#*Q( was wrong with your ER that they didn't report the abuse themselves? A hand print is a hand print, and I've called the county on folks before. Second -- I...

  20. BBB and ST elevation after pacer insertion...

    nerdtonurse? replied to miss81's topic in General Nursing

    I've seen patients pop in and out of BBB after insertion (my gut tells me it's the heart reacting to the presence of the pacer leads...). When we've had BBB that occurs post pacer, it usually clears...

  21. PT/INR/PTT info?coumadin/heparin-

    nerdtonurse? replied to angell883RN's topic in Patient Medications

    Coumadin is warfarin -- it was actually used as rat poison until the 70's. Think "Kats kill Rats" -- vitamin K (K for Kat) is what's used to treat a high INR from too much coumadin. Heparin has a "P"...

  22. Domestic Abuse

    nerdtonurse? replied to Yiggs's topic in General Nursing

    A million years ago when I was in my 20's and worked retail, we had a cashier that would come in with black eyes, obvious hand prints on her arms, split lip, etc. So, we all decided to do what would...

  23. MD: Why did you get a BG on this diabetic patient???

    nerdtonurse? replied to Murse901's topic in Emergency

    If I see a patient who's sweaty, confused, just seems "off" and then says they're diabetic, I'm going to get a blood sugar. And any doc who yells at me about it on the wrong day is going to get a big...

  24. vip floor in a hospital

    nerdtonurse? replied to JM RN's topic in General Nursing

    I read that and thought -- the floor I'd never be able to afford to be a patient on, and the one I'd NEVER want to work on. It's like when we get VIPs in the unit....who are in the unit to get the...

  25. Are the "chest thumpers" new?

    nerdtonurse? replied to cogath's topic in General Nursing

    They're a life saver for the nurses when you've got "Team Do Everything" as a family. We had a guy go into arrest 4 separate times in one shift. We put in a temporary pacer, had every drip in the...