RoadRunner

We had a nice old lady in our CCU who coded, was declared dead and then stripped off all her IV, catheters, etc... You know the drill. So, we all are at the nurse desk when the bell rings from her room... My collegue went to find the lady sitting in her bed. "I think I skipped dinner and I'm hungry". My collegue went back at the nurse desk, white as snow. Well, the lady ate a toast with cheese, then coded again and died for real!!! We still talk about this day, shaking our heads...

I don't know about extra bones or tail (!!!) but I would suggest you go see an osteopath for your coccyx pain. I don't know if you have osteopaths were you live (not chiropractor, but osteopaths! there's a huge difference!) They do miracles with those kind of problems... I know, been there! Good luck! :)

We don't put a MRSA patient with a no-MRSA patient but we try to regroupe them if we can and if it's possible.

What exactly is a walk in my shoe program? You work in another departement for a day? I'm curious. Never heard of that where I work. Thanks!

Spirit1, you got me thinking.... What other work environement does not press charges against violent clients? (I'm not thinking about dementia or neuro challenged patients here) Jail? How wonderfull...

Thyroïd storms are a rare complication and can lead to multiple organ failure. The only time I had to care for a patient with this syndrome, she developped heart failure so bad she had to had a heart transplant... In a 24 hours period, she "coded" two times, was transfered to a transplant facility urgently waiting for a heart and was finally transplanted with a new heart! Let's just say it was the fullest 24 hours of her life... I don't remember her T4 or TSH levels but I think the clinical evaluation prevails over the lab results. A case of "treat the clinic, not the labs". Do you know if she pulled throught?

There's a great debate where I work on the precautions we should take when treating a patient with NO since it might be toxic for pregnant women. We have no specific guidelines other than "if you think your pregnant, you won't take care of this patient" and we place a caution sign on the patient's door. Do any of you use special precautions when treating a patient with NO inhalation ? Are the patients put in isolated rooms? Do you have a protocol? Thanks for your input!

Had that one too. This guy had an MI while doing it with his mistress. Oh the creativeness of the medical staff who had to explain what had happened to his wife! But she found out because it looked suspicious... The patient was intubated and unconcious for a while. He almost had another MI when he finally woke up and realised his life was now an open book!!! On the sex theme again, I've had a patient whose wife was so jealous of his husband being taken care of by nurses (dah!) that she forbid us to get close to him. Easy to do when the patient is just out of open heart surgery! Later, she was there, lying in bed with him, caressing and kissing him despite his intubation and the fact that everyone could see her... Poor guy! He must have thought he was going to be off while in the hospital... wrong!

Me again, sorry but couldn't pass this one. Sarah was COMATOSE!!!!! not DEAD!!! Comatose means you still have some reflexes, some brain activity, something! When you're dead, your not comatose! You're... DEAD! Sorry again! :chair:

I just saw this thread and didn't took the time to read all the post, so I'm sorry if what I say have been said before! It's just that I'm working in an organ donation team (not the transplant team or the OPO, only the donation one, sounds a bit complicated but it's unique to our center) Anyway... I work very closely with the families of patients who are asked about organ donation, thus brain dead patients. With time, it became obvious that once it's clear for the family that brain death really means death, they don't really get why nurses still talk to the patient... I think we have to be very cautious about not getting the family confused. We cannot treat brain dead patients as comatosed ones! The best is to see with the family how they feel about you reacting to the patient. Stating that FOR YOU, it's a matter of respect to keep talking to the patient, even if he's dead, would erase a lot of interrogations. And we should stop talking about "brain death" and start saying "death" instead, just as we do for death by cardiac arrest... but that's another debate! By the way, I really liked your answer NurseICURN! :yelclap:

Where I work, 8 hours are mandatory between shifts or I'm not covered by insurance and risk being suspended if it's know by my nursing board... If I were you, I would try to know what's permitted by law in your state and by your employer... Good luck to you... and get some ZZZZ's!!! :zzzzz

Guess what? It happened on my very first IM! I should have bought a lottery ticket that day, no?

I was wandering if any of your hospitals is participating in the "Organ Donation Breakthrough Collaborative" structure and how is it working for you. We improved in a lot of ways since we did but when we read the reports of some hospitals, it's phenomenal. Is it really true or just "showing the good numbers"??? Thanks!

I live in Canada where the americain dollar cost almost 1.50$ canadian so when we have to give ativan or haldol or whatsoever to a patient who REALLY needs it, we ask for an "USA dose"

I'll just add that nursing means "caring" a lot more that "treating", so, I think what you did was great. We sometimes think that a procedure or a medication is more necessary than our empathy but in cases like these (and you'll learn with experience when to react and when to just be there), I think reassurance and listening was the thing to do. People who feel they are dying need to be heard and understood. I think it was great that you called the husband at the demand of your patient. Because a patient who says she feels like she's dying... well, she feels like she's dying! (wheater they are or not in our professionnal view). Not a benign feeling! As someone said before, death is an important part of life, and we tend to forget that in our super-mega-extra-stronger than God-today's medecine. Take care and good luck!

I was what you call a charge nurse for about 4 years in ICU, night shift... and didn't get too much free time!! I didn't take patients but I did everything PJMommy said they do in her hospital plus - managing emergency admissions/discharges on the unit (26 beds) - making sure there was enough nurses for the next shift. (Hep! That was me waking you up at six to offer you an extra-shift or overtime!) - planning the next day admissions for elective surgeries patients. - and of course, being on the hospital CODE team!! I was glad to work part-time because most of the time, it was very stressful and demanding. I was very involved with helping everyone, nursing shortage being what it is... So, I had no problem sitting and chating on the not-very-often less busy days... Let me repeat not-very-often...

Is there any ICU's out there who sends letters of condolence to family of patients who died in the unit? I know of palliative-care units who does it but in a unit like ICU??? Our family-intervention commitee has come up with this idea that I think can be great if done properly but I was wandering if it's been done somewhere else. I would like to hear from you because I have a loooot of questions!!! Like, do you send the same letter the everyone? Or do your personalise it with the name of the patent or significant commentary? Do you send it to every grieving family or those you've known for a while, say, a day or two? Who signs it? Any ethical questionning in the process? I'll be glad to hear from your experiences and opinions.

Besides the usual all-the-above, I once went back home with the keys of the narcos cabinet of my unit. The hospital had to change the locks on the cabinet and they charged me with the bill... Very very funny... not to mentionned embarrasing!

I've been working in ICU for almost 13 years now and still love it. It's dynamic, never routine. I feel like I haven't stop learning and that keeps me challenged. It's been changing a lot though since my first shift :new technologies, older patients, early discharge, etc... and I think it's a lot harder now than it was. With this pace, I'm not sure I still want to be there in 13 years! But I never regreted my choice. Nursing gives you a lot a carrier choices, so good luck with yours!

It happened to me this morning. After my 35 years old patient was extubated, she had a lot of secretions. So I told her to cough and try to spit them out. She couldn't, but she said she had swallowed them instead. To which the doctor said "So, you're a swallower?" (Moment of silence allowing for widening eyes from one and serious blushing from the other!) They changed the subject.:chuckle

You know what? If my facility forbidded piercings and tatoos at work, they would cut off half of the nightshift staff I work with!!!! Some have eyebrow, tongue and multiple earring piercings, and guess what, they are wonderful nurses!!!

ICU ghost... Everytime something strange happens in the unit (and it does!) we say "it's just the ghosts". But something strange is always happening in bed 1 room 96. I work nightshifts and we go get some ZZZ's in this inoccupied room (closed because of nurse shortage). Four beds in the room. Bed 1 is almost never used, because everyone lying there feels someone's watching them. One nurse, you say, she's imagining things, but one after the other, without having spoke about it? Creepy!:chair: In ICU, people die in very awfull conditions, often coding, not always pretty let me tell you. I sometimes say "this one will come back hunting us!". I thing someone just did! Does anyone has a "cursed" bed? You know, the worst patient of the unit dies in this bed, and for a while, it seems every new patient in this same bed goes from bad to worse... Revenge???

Since May, we have a new policy at the hospital where I work. We have to ask for a written consent by the patient (!) or a member of his family to use restraints ...... I work in ICU, and let me tell you that this policy is a bit awkard for us! Chance is, there's a part in the consent form about using restraints without written consent if the patient puts his life in danger. Vented patients, with central and arterial lines, in ICU (they are not here for nothing, are they?), they fit the description!

Tonight, at work, we were discussing our most embarrassing "nursing" moment. What's yours?? I think mine is when I asked a patient who had a gastrectomy and liposuccion for morbid obesity (he weighted over 500 pounds) if he had any family, you know wife, children... His answer was "I can't even tie my own shoes, how could you expect me to satisfy a woman?" euh........... Or this memorable time when I accidentally pierced a blood unit and it all "rained" over my patient... horror movie vision!

Damn!!!