suetje

Anyone have an answer for why the so-called standard for setting the minimum UF on a dialysis machine seems to always be taught as 300? this would be when you are not taking any fluid off. There does not seem to be any documentation why this seems ...

Good for you! you should always take on a challenge! Can you get a job in an ICU so that you have some of the necessary knowledge to pass the CCRN? that would be best.

I teach and make jokes of this to the RNs I teach.." It's OK Mom! You are a fighter! You are only 102!" We are a terrible death-defying society. Even trying to discuss this topic is almost forbidden. I encourage all to have an extremely specific...

There are marvelous institutions out there (I work in one!!!) and you should move either to another unit or hospital! There are great people out there, great teachers and mentors. You deserve to have good ones!

Unfortunately, I think it is. We have to be so much more skilled, have so much more critical skills...and no more pay. It is equivalent to paying a company vice president the same as the office workers! are you kidding? I always say, "If they or t...

I believe the only clinical trial of the "wearable kidney" were in Europe. And yes, this is a working prototype but nanotechnology could make this much smaller. Not sure what you'd do with the ultrafiltrate tho!!!

You really owe it to yourself to just practice for a while as a nurse. You may find a CNS program to be quite a handful without any background experience in the real world of nursing. You surely can get a job in L & D without a Masters! The p...

The fact that you have done 2 semesters in a neuro unit is fabulous and probably you have learned a lot more than you thought you did! So you already are ahead of the game! If you want to learn more, you could always get a book on Neuro nursing, fr...

Thank you so much for having the courage to 'tell it like it REALLY is' in our ICUs. We have no idea how much many of our patients suffer because they cannot tell us. They cannot even tell us if they want treatment continued most of the time!!! and...

I agree with Julie A. The "standards" to raise nursing practice are all great, but what really IS the value of a DNP? It should reflect skills with clinical practice yet I hear the students I work with tell me, 'The nurses that teach us with Doctor...

Absolutely positively to the point! I see it in my ICU too. And the Attendings are often the problem. We all know it is going to happen, but the comment from them is 'Well, good news! The white count is down" Ridiculous! And WHY are healthcare ...

I agree with iluvivit. Saline is the only thing to run "with" blood, and clearly, the MD did not want the pt to get fluid overload the pt, so she slowed the rate of the infusion while blood was running. You also could have started another line as w...

@traumaRus- yes I am called an educator. Fine. The 'pseudo CNS' means I do that job as well as educator because we have no CNS and it dovetals into the whole mentor educator role. I suggesated to the Director I could be called something other than...

I agree that the DNP ius a worthy goal, but for us bedside expert clinicians, it is a title for....WHAT? Any of us that read academic journal articles can understand research, I think. So shouldn't there be a ladder, if you will, to check off level...

Trust me, in our large teaching hospital, a lot of the patients in MICU are frequent flyers like quads that come in for repeated pneumonias, CF patients with issues, and those chronic medical patients that keep having problems. SICU is fresh people ...

O!M!G! You are doing a GREAT job of quality assurance and your institution does not appreciate it? Geez! I would suggest to your Manager 1st you initiate a QA program for CRRT. Note the errors you have witnessed, and keep writing those incident r...

You definitely have to have the dicipline to sit down and do the computer work. All school, whether online or in school must have the same academic requirements so that you can get licensed. So you would always get hospital practice along with your...

Perhaps you could set up a little plan to make sure you don't miss things: for example, every day you 1) check all orders, 2) compare the orders to the ordered meds, and 3) double check that all your meds are given by the end of shift (electronic c...

Well, yes! And they should understand my Swedish! How ridiculous! We have a pt in opur unit who is Arabic. We have absolutley NO idea what she understands, if she can speak any English (she is trached) and so there is an isolation. It is terribl...

HI1 ANY help would be great to get input on your progressive care staffing. I am an old SICU RN, now the educator in a new "progressive care" unit (PCU). We have everything from tele patients to vents, weaing from vents, lots of trachs, wounds, dr...

Hey, wondered if you could give me a little info on your Progressive Care unit...sounds like it takes vents and I'm also thinkin it may be a med-surg unit? How many beds? thanks

Oh, yes! suctioning set up, ambu bag, extra trach, obturator visible at head of bed, and difficult airway sign at HOB too. you can't expect the facility to send that stuff. You need to be ready with it.

Nitric, CRRT (correct nomenclature for what many call CVVHD), HFOV, and ECMO are all higher-tech therapies. ECMO or ECLS -extracorporeal lung support is very technically demanding and requires MD's who understand bypass both veno-arterial (VA) and v...

It could be quite hard to pass the test if you so not have ICU experience. There are so many things you need to know so that you can make good judgements...experience is really valuable. Not to mention the technology. How will you know what CRRT i...

We just filled up after several weeks. Almost all the ICUs here were half empty!