ufmatt

For all you guys that told me this before I was actually in school-----thanks a ton! I started reading M & M awhile back, and I just finished my first month of NA school and wow, we have already covered a quarter of the book!!! For sure, buy it and read the crap out of it (you will anyways if you really like the field).

explain plasmanate to me please...I work in a CT ICU and we use LR/albumin and Hespan for volume resucitation, but I haven't heard of that.

Sim Barry, MCG, Duke, and MUSC

Sim--what school are you at?

First thing is you should find out if the xrays have shown anything (sometimes they will). And usually, if the patient is fresh out of the OR, they are still slightly coagulopathic and you won't even need to worry about stripping the chest tubes. and by the time they do clot, there is little incidence of causing more damage/bleeding. obviously, this weighs more heavily than fluid building up to the point of tamponade! The majority of my attendings agree to stripping.

To all you SRNAs/CRNAs: I am at that critical point where I am sending appy's for quickly upcoming programs. I have not taken organic/biochemistry. I am definitely not a chem wizard, but rather average with the stuff. Having said that, how critical is it that I take organic chem? I know some programs have much more need for an organic background, but am applying to only one that i know is like that. At this point, I am REALLY uninterested in taking another class. What do you think?

You're both right, and braden, you can throw this in if asked in an interview-- Nitro is also used effectively in reducing post-CABG coronary vasospasms.

you couldn't be more right Sam, and the sad thing is most of the future and current med students I have known are a bunch of trust fund cry-babies. I'm pretty sure that their contentions would be that we as nurses have "holes" in our training and education (totally untrue), but i can guar--an--tee that patients will appreciate our bedside manner especially when they have experienced some MD's lack thereof. :chuckle

It is great to know that the demand for CRNAs is way up, but I worry that sooner than we all think that the supply will be up there too. Take for example the boat loads of people we all know that are planning on becoming crna. However, I suppose the fact that the number of seats in each program are extremely limited. Anyone feel this way?