Annabell

I am one of those cheerful and bubbly people!! A co-worker once told me if she could bottle me she would be rich. And no I do not take any "mood altering drugs" as ohbet suggests. It doesn't matter how bad things are going I always think "Ya know it could be alot worse." And if you think about it, in nearly any situation, it could be alot worse. I love my job!!! I will never regret becoming a nurse :)!!! Taking a break with a cig and cup of coffee always seems to help too!!!

I work on a 33-bed women's med/surg unit, and we presently have 8 telemetry beds. We do do not have monitor techs on our floor, but our sister floor does. The techs monitor our patients along with the ones on their floor and notify us of any changes. We have a phone that rings directly to the monitors once receiver is picked up. No dialing necessary. :) We have ACLS RNs who take care of these pts. Taking care of the telemetry patients isn't really no different than taking care of other patients. The only difference is that u are dealing with the heart. Once I received my ACLS, I felt just as comfortable with them as if with med/surg. Our floor is used only for monitoring. Our sister floor always gets the positive heart patients or they go to the unit. At first you will feel uncomfortable, but you will get use to it and it will come natural. I kept my ACLS book with me for awhile to get use to the different rhythms. I still carry a small booklet in my lab coat pocket just in case I need it. Hang in there!!!! The best thing about telemetry "you know when your patient is going bad", and can act fast!!