AliRae

AliRae

PICU, surgical post-op

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All Content by AliRae

  1. What is different about peds? How to adjust to each unit?

    AliRae replied to kukukajoo's topic in General Nursing

    Well, the patients tend to be a bit smaller. Really, though, the peds world is wonderful. Do expect to take a bit longer checking meds since there's really no such thing as a "standard" dose ......

  2. Question about ages in the NICU and PICU

    AliRae replied to SoontobeAdrienneRN's topic in General Nursing

    Babies born in the car or the Wawa parking lot come to our NICU. Anyone IN the NICU stays there until they NICU runs out of room. Then they get dumped on us. Kids from outside NICUs come to our...

  3. Pediatric PICC lines

    AliRae replied to UK2USA's topic in General Nursing

    Depends on how sick they are ... I work PICU, so most of our kiddos aren't dancing jigs and they're probably getting a slew of IV meds. They get 3ml NS through each port for a KVO. (Big kids I...

  4. Is there power in the color white?

    AliRae replied to bbfw2's topic in General Nursing

    Well, all I have to say is yay for peds nursing! It takes all the guesswork out of this debate for me. Last week clinched my love for bright colours and prints. I was taking care of an irritable...

  5. I need to know...

    AliRae replied to Lisa CCU RN's topic in PICU, Pediatric

    Also, when your 13-month peds overflow kiddo wakes up from his nap, crawls into your arms and spends the next 10 minutes contentedly poking each and every neon lizard on your shirt? (And even stands...

  6. I need to know...

    AliRae replied to Lisa CCU RN's topic in PICU, Pediatric

    I almost quit nursing school to become a german teacher after working for a summer as a tech in the adult world (sorry grown-up nurses ... I'm just not one of you!) Once I got my foot in the peds...

  7. Would you take this assignment??

    AliRae replied to SICU Queen's topic in MICU, SICU

    Maybe we're all spoiled, but in our PICU, we rarely pair vented kids. End of story. (Well, unless they're trached, but those are easy!) Doesn't matter how stable the kiddo is- they can be sedated...

  8. "Hardened" Healthcare Providers

    AliRae replied to cwinlv's topic in Patient Safety Issues

    I try to stay out of heated threads like this one, and can already feel the flames that are going to be thrown my way, but I can't help myself ... How can any of us pretend to understand someone...

  9. SCARED to death of conscious sedation

    AliRae replied to b eyes's topic in Emergency

    We do conscious sedation lots in our PICU. We use propofol mostly, sometime versed. I've also done it off the unit, in MRI for example, when anesthesia wasn't available to do it. Like others have...

  10. New to the PICU

    AliRae replied to jamonit's topic in PICU, Pediatric

    Just yesterday I got officially replaced at work! The next new grad started orientation, and I'm no longer the new kid on the block. In fact, I was precepting another new hire for the day! How are...

  11. I'm Taking a Poll

    AliRae replied to NotReady4PrimeTime's topic in PICU, Pediatric

    We've got the residents too! It took me a bit before I wasn't scared of my own shadow and was ready to tweak like you said. Now, I'll tell them just what I think. And most of our attendings don't...

  12. Inspiring stories

    AliRae replied to googabin02's topic in PICU, Pediatric

    We have a large population that we call "our kids" ... frequent fliers for one reason or another, most trached, many vent dependent. One of the very first things I learned was to listen to their...

  13. I'm Taking a Poll

    AliRae replied to NotReady4PrimeTime's topic in PICU, Pediatric

    Isn't there a point where you can thumb your nose at the dang bundle and just lower the bed? You have NO sympathetic docs who realize that, yes, nurses know what they're talking about and this...

  14. Ummmm..are they ALLOWED to do that?

    AliRae replied to NurseJacqui's topic in Emergency

    We dealt with this just last week ... our entire children's hospital was full, we had the only open bed (and already had 7 peds overflow kids). We got reamed out by the peds HN for refusing to accept...

  15. med administrations via GT/NGT

    AliRae replied to travel4ever's topic in General Nursing

    This is the adult world, right? Because I'd be dealing with an awful lot of aspirations if I was giving my kiddos that much in their bellies! I usually check placement with a good 2-4ml of air, too....

  16. I'm Taking a Poll

    AliRae replied to NotReady4PrimeTime's topic in PICU, Pediatric

    Our head of respiratory hates in-lines with a passion, which really gets my goat. So much to the point that we don't even have more than 2 or 3 sizes on the unit at a time if we even wanted to put...

  17. Not brain-dead, but ripe for transplant

    AliRae replied to gwenith's topic in Neuro Intensive Care, ICU

    Not to try and change your mind, but, heck ... I'll be dead, and I could care less if they all go crazy over me at that point. =) I had a cousin who died at the age of 17 and I think one of the only...

  18. CRRT training.

    AliRae replied to km5v6r's topic in PICU, Pediatric

    We go to an 8 hour introductory class before being certified to work the machine. After that, at some point, there's another 8 hour advanced class to be taken. When we have a kiddo on CRRT, there's...

  19. Not brain-dead, but ripe for transplant

    AliRae replied to gwenith's topic in Neuro Intensive Care, ICU

    I'm not an OR nurse, but from what I've heard, that's not too far off the mark. I've heard some vicious stories of surgeons pushing each other out of the way to get their organs first. I still shiver...

  20. Please share something GOOD that happened at work!

    AliRae replied to RNsRWe's topic in General Nursing

    I'll add mine to the misty eyes. Oh, what the heck ... I'll admit it; I'm bawling. My story happened a couple years ago in Zambia. I was there for the summer after my third year of nursing school,...

  21. Not brain-dead, but ripe for transplant

    AliRae replied to gwenith's topic in Neuro Intensive Care, ICU

    We've done one at our hospital thus far, I believe. I think it's something like the first cut for harvest has to be made 10 (maybe a little more, but it's a low number) minutes after the heart stops....

  22. med administrations via GT/NGT

    AliRae replied to travel4ever's topic in General Nursing

    I can't remember what we were taught in school, but I'm wondering why on earth it would be necessary to flush between each med. Do we make them swallow each pill seperately if they're capable of...

  23. picu scheduling

    AliRae replied to Kbray's topic in PICU, Pediatric

    Everything on our unit is based on seniority. As low-woman on the totem pole, it's been rough on me! Our schedules are in 4 week blocks and we do a sort of self-scheduling. When we start a new...

  24. Finally!

    AliRae posted a topic in PICU, Pediatric

    After a year and a half, yesterday was finally the day that my own kid coded on me. Granted, it was only a 3/4 code (we never ended up doing compressions), but it's the first time it was MY kid that...

  25. Are students in the way?

    AliRae replied to MelodyRNurse's topic in General Nursing

    I'm a PICU person, so students with us are just shadowing and don't really do much of anything (if they do anything at all). I'm the newest one (actually, not anymore... just replaced last week by a...