cappucino

I get to watch babies with congenital heart defects recover from heart surgery and go home with their parents. Without surgery these little guys wouldn't make it. What a great feeling. I especially love holding babies. Most of the time I can get them to stop crying by rocking them , feeding them and talking to them. It's so fundamentally stress relieving.

why do they always have to mess with us professional nurses. We should have the right to wear them if we want knowing whatever risks. They are at least washable. I wash mine frequently. They also allow your feet to breathe. It isn't interferring with the care we are giving, are they? they cover the feet like they should. Leave us alone. We have enough important stuff to worry about.

sorry I can't agree with you less. I agree with you that I have been on floors that have less than workable conditions. I did not remain there. I realize there are many nursing opportunities out there that offer better working conditions. I went from a terrible nursing home environment to one that offered better conditions until I passed my R.N. boards.Then I found myself working in deplorable conditions some of the time on an IMC. The other half of the time we weren't overwhelmwd and had fun playing on the internet. Next I tried a pcu where if you were a decent nurse they laid morer patient ratio on you because they knew you could handle it. I said bye bye to that too. Now I am working in an area thjat I enjoy most of the time. I work in peds cardiology. It is interesting. They never overwhelm with a pt load. Staffing is good. I am making about 80,000 a year with minimal overtime. I do work nights, however. No job is perfect and none of us are ever pleasesd as punch all the time. If a place is driving you crazy it is time to seek a new one. Get counseling from, someone that has been there and knows what you are going through. You can find the job you like you just have to be willing to open yourself up to see what is around you. Change can also be a good thing. I find a new job about every 2 years. It also makes me more motivatyed to continue to learn new things.

I was at work last night reading all your comments mostly about pfo's. I am currently employed at a floor specific to pediatric congenital heart defects. It in no means makes me an authority seeing how I just ventured into this field 15 weeks ago. I asked around the unit and the consensus is final. We are siding with Dinith's argument. It is only a congenital defect already existing. Possible to have without being symptomatic. But you can't have an foreamen ovale open once it closes 4-6 weeks after birth. It has to be a patent foreamen ovale in existence. To be absolutely certain, I will ask one of the docs next time I see one. Interesting discussion, though. You all impress me with your knowledge. You make me proud to be a nurse.:balloons:

i worked in an intermediate care unit where all pts were on the bedside monitor and we carried beepers for any arrhythmias or desats. I have also worked the pcu unit and the med-tele. The difference to me is clear. The med-tele's were the most stable and were about to be discharged. Pcu is more of the acute cases fresh from the e.r. or i.c.u. The i.m.c. was about the most intense. Many probably should have been icu, but since there were never enough i.c.u. beds we had the overflow. There were usually a code a week or every other week. That was a 3-4 pt ratio. Breaks were scarce.