kvsherry

Hi Guys- I work in a Trauma ICU and we frequently have patients who are either full axial or log roll spinal precautions. My question is this, when you turn your patient to the side, how do you prop them up? We have "Macgyvered" a set up by taking a ...

Along the same lines, from the surgeon... "you're not going to save him".

Regardless of the program requirements, it would be a good idea to have real world experience prior to the NP. Your chances of being taken seriously without it are slim.

I like working with other guys, until they start getting all bent out of shape and pissy about being called a 'male nurse'. That is what I am because I am trailblazing in a field in which I'm a minority. By the way, I love my "Rosie the Riveter" lunc...

i hope this helps!

Do you belong to a union? If so, talk to your rep. Then, since I'm no expert on labor law, I would second the other posters advice about speaking to a lawyer and finding greener pastures right quick. You may not have done anything wrong, you may be t...

First off, let me correct Mr. Singer's 'research'. ICU nurses do, in fact, know the difference between clinically dead/brain dead. Those of us that do talk to our dead patients do so for many of the reasons laid out below. However, the reason that I ...

With regard to the question about drainage and checking ICP. It depends on your surgeons preference for that particular patient. Some patients, the really sick ones, require having the ICP open to continuous drain at XXcmH2O. On these patients, we cl...

First question of the admission assessment for round two should be: "You can't be serious...again?!"

my family usually drops the RN bomb. I don't say anything personally unless I am asking for something like lab results. I like the staff to know that they can give me as much information as they are comfortable sharing and not have to worry about me ...

you can accurately predict a patients BAC by his breath.

yeah, sorry about that, I was trying to reply to something in the middle of the conversation.

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smartest thing would to say you misspoke and drop it. anyway, back to your original question...Dickie's scrubs work great for me. They sell Unisex (no flaring obviously woman's pants or plunging neck lines) and have some really nice scrub cargo pants...

I meant if the patient has a chest tube connected to Pleur evac and wall suction and the CXR showed no pneumothorax. The doctor writes and order saying to turn suction off. Do you just turn suction off and leave suction tubing connected to suction so...

The risk of the chest tube being off of suction is that what ever is causing the pneumo won't get sucked out. If it's an empyema, blood or something else, it needs to come out, and the suction helps that. As far as your second question, I don't know ...

First off, I would come right out and ask...something to the effect of, "I can't help but notice the scrubs, are you a nurse?" If so, engage her on a professional level. It's obvious that whatever capacity, this person is not ICU. Either way, she is ...

jmunrs2010- My advice to you would be to speak to the nurse manager and see if you can leave the float pool and go into ICU full time. If not, the two month preceptorship/capstone would be a huge help. I would recommend doing that regardless of where...

The hospital that I externed in had a combined med/surg ICU. So no rivalry. However, the Neuro ICU one floor up...big time rivalry (same manager). The Neuro ICU nurses hated floating down to ICU and the ICU nurses felt like the Neuro nurses thought t...

Maybe it's just me, but I don't take reimbursements into consideration when I'm caring for my patients. If they can't handle a turn or bath, they don't get one. However, I do document as such and pass on in report so no one thinks I'm being lazy or f...

I had the same feeling after I completed my orientation in the ICU. I was shocked because I had always had a high level of self confidence but as soon as I was 'on my own' I was terrified. I talked it over with a few of my collegues and one of the mo...

I can not stress enough the importance of prior experience. A job as a nurse tech is almost always an in and a successful externship goes miles to impress. As for CRNA school, I know others said "no" to that, but I think that managers are realistic n...

I don't know if this helps, but everyone (MDs, RNs, Resp. therapy) told me when I first started, some patients know better than us when they need to be extubated. Apparently, it happens alot and I have been told that many times, they don't need to be...

UAPs are not allowed to give anything. UAPs are not even allowed to touch IV pumps or change an existing Normal Saline bag (its considered a med). For the externs out there, I don't know if its just New Jersey or others, but when I externed I was tol...

You have my sympathy, I am also a new grad in ICU and would not like to be in your shoes. The only thing i can say, from another noobs pov would be to go over it with your preceptor, that is what she is there for. If she says there was nothing you co...