aj1973

It depends what kind of nursing you're looking at doing. If you want to work in an acute ward situation, then you're going to have to do some nights, at least when you're just starting out. From my experience, there aren't many places that have enough permanent night staff for all the other staff to avoid doing nights. Of course, if you want to go work somewhere like day surgery, out patients, a doctors surgery, occ health nursing etc etc, there are no night shifts at all.

Wow - I never thought this would be such a big issue. I don't know that I have ever worked on a ward where you can't have water bottles, or your morning cup of coffee in the nurses station. Where I work now (ICU) we all have our drinks in our rooms, at our desks with us. Surely you're not expected to go up to 4 or 5 hours before your break without a sip of water? That's just crazy!! Most of us also (on nights) have our food in the rooms with us as well - I have to graze when I'm on nights to keep myself awake, and I've never had anyone say anything!! There are also always chocolates or biscuits given as gifts on the nurses station for everyone to share as well, and as far as I know IC have never had anything to say about this at all. I've also NEVER EVER heard of not being allowed to put lipstick or lip balm on!! I find my lips get incredibly dry working in the airconditioned environment, and I touch up probably 5-6 times a day!

AH I see, thanks for that. Being an aussie, it never ceases to amaze me how different the terminology is between us and the USA - I think I'd be stuffed if I ever decided to move to the USA to work!! :)

Yep, in my unit CCRN's can pull chest tubes, its one of the competencies we have to complete as part of the CCRN course. RN's can pull chest tubes if supervised by a CCRN. :)

hmm, i have a question - what do you guys mean by 'draw an artline'? do you mean drawing blood from an arterial line? just thought i'd ask, as i haven't heard that term before. seriously, some of you need to come work 'down under' for a while. i'm amazed reading these forums how little you guys are allowed to do in icu's in the usa. i'm not sure if you all know, but in australia there are no such thing as rt's, icu ccrn's set up, troubleshoot and care for ventilators themselves, including interpreting abgs, and making the necessary vent changes, nebs and intrapulmonary vasoactives. we don't put in any invasive lines, but assist the doc to do so, and we remove them all. we can put in rectal tubes, or rectal management systems if we think the patient would benefit from it. also, what is a 'dobhoff'? haven't heard of that either! cheers from down under mandy

In my ICU (which is med/surg/neuro/trauma/anything else!!) in Australia CCRN's set up, troubleshoot and maintain CVVHDF, but if an existing dialysis patient comes in, the dialysis unit nurses will bring down their CRRT and do the therapy. Only CCRN's and those studying to become CCRN's look after patients on CVVHDF except in rare circumstances, and the ratio is ALWAYS 1:1 (but that's the case for all ICU patients anyhow!)

hi there grant! i've lived & worked in adelaide all my life, i'd be happy to give u any tips u need to get settled here. feel free to email me with any questions! cheers, mandy:beer:

hmmm, interesting one, well I think 14 is old enough for a belly button ring. i agree with what most people have posted, its not permanent, so theres no big deal if she changes her mind down the track. On the other hand, 14 is WAY too young for a tattoo, i didn't get mine til I was 23 (i'm 28 now) and made sure that I was really getting something that I wanted and was happy to have on me forever:) My tattoo is only small - a dolphin on my ankle - but it still really gets noticed, not that I've ever been directly discriminated against because of it, but there sure are some people out there who are still of the opinion unfortunately that tattoo on woman = slut, and it makes me as mad as hell, but perhaps let your daughter know that too. I'm curently thinking about getting another tattoo - just have too many ideas and can't decide which one to go for. (would love to get my belly pierced, but lets just say i don't really have the belly of a 14 year old unfortunately)

hi there fellow picu nurses my names mandy, and i work in picu at the women's and childrens hospital in adelaide, south australia. its the only specialist picu in the state and we also handle retrivals from the northern territory and country victoria and new south wales. i've only been working here for just over 2 months and am learning so much, though still feeling very lost at times. this is my first experience with paediatric nursing and i'm just amazed at how many things kids can have wrong with them. i guess all my friends/family with kids have just been plain lucky. we're pretty desperate for staff in our picu at the moment, guess that's why they are hiring nurses like me with no paed experience. we're trialling the 12 hour shifts at the moment and i'm not liking that too much at all, looking forward to going back to the old 8 1/2 hour shifts - 12 hours can be a bit long if you've got a real sickie for that whole time. looking forward to hearing from fellow picu nurses.

Gee guys, I'm really starting to appreciate nursing here in Australia from reading these posts. The most recent wards I've worked on, we HAVE to take a lunch break, we aren't paid for it and we don't get overtime if we choose not to take it. We work out our lunch breaks first thing in the morning. I've actually been told to get my butt out of the ward when I've been busy and not been going to have lunch. On an 8 hour shift we also get a paid 15 min tea break. Now I work in PICU on 12 hour shifts its a little different, lunch can be at any old time of the day depending whats going on but we're still always encouraged to take our breaks. On nights we can basically split our breaks up however we want - you can take one whole hour or a couple of shorter ones, but there's always someone to cover, it wouldn't be a safe workplace otherwise. As for leaving the building - YOU BET!!! it wouldn't really feel like a real break if I'm still on the ward:D

Yep, loving this thread. I'm another mucus hater, but the trachy stuff doesn't bother me, I hate old men (and women in some cases) who just have to hack the stuff up day and night. I just can't cope with that, I think it's revolting and have said so to patients on occasions. My other pet hate is feet. Especially dirty toenails and flaky skin. Ever tried to wash the feet of a homeless person? Let me tell you all, it's not a pleasant experience at all!!