goats'r'us ASN, RN

what's your record? I recently did a caesarean where we went from knife to skin to baby out in under a minute. I was also involved in a DHS that took seven minutes from first incision to final suture. I'd love to hear about other peoples speed surge...

Patients always look at me askance when the anaesthetist puts in their IV and then asks me for a toilet seat. I used to try to explain, now i just show them this and they laugh.

it's more important to know what things do than what they're called. focus on that :)

Ha ha, i remembered another one.. Peekers. our theatre doors have little windows in them, and i get so so cross when i'm in the middle of a stressful emergency case and i look up at the door to see three or four faces peeking through. not trying to...

i have a lot of little peeves, most of them so petty that i feel silly about bringing them up, but they make me so cross! *med students/junior doctors who, while scrubbed, try to take instruments from me to pass to the surgeon. i know they're tryin...

fournier's gangrene debridement. I will never forget those two sad, uncovered testicles.

i've heard this one too, and there are a few surgeons who go with it, but most use saline. i got similar crazy looks when i started at a new hospital and found that they use saline in neurosurgery. i was taught at my previous hospital that ringers so...

i can tell you exactly why this happened. time is money. my hospital has a policy that before the patient can be brought up from the waiting bay to the anaesthetic room, the surgical site must be marked and initialled by the surgeon, and the consent ...

we all have them, and apparently mine is such a doozy that i now tell it to the new staff to make them feel better when they're feeling cruddy for doing something silly. the day after my work christmas party, i was at work, a little worse for wear, a...

i got busted the other day turning around so that my body was aligned the same way as the patient's so that i could work out which side the diathermy plate was on and which arm was on an arm board.

a friend of mine has just had her baby at 24 weeks 4 days. as a theatre nurse, all I know of preemies is their tendency to develop NEC, so can someone please give me the lowdown - obviously this is not good, but how bad is it? what can she expect?

hello all! I've been reading these threads for years, and for the most part have managed to translate your american qualifications, medications and abbreviations into australianisms well enough to understand what it is that you're saying. However, it...

it's funny, i work in theatres and i see a lot of stuff that most people would think is really gross, spanning a wide range from your run-of-the-mill 'where does all the poo come from?', though ridiculous random injuries, and finishing in bad smells,...

update, since i've just returned to look at this thread.. she's now closing in on 2kg, weaning off CPAP really well and in an open cot! mum and dad get to see her whole face!!

ok, i googled it. that's new! how exciting for you!

i'm confused. UTAS is University of Tasmania - how is it that they have a Sydney campus?

now, to the OP (and other interviewers), you touched on something dear to my heart, and my face. my nose stud. before having it done, i checked my work's uniform policy, and made sure to use a discreet little stud. nobody mentioned it once it was d...

i'm no expert on interview technique (i interview terribly due to nerves, and am always surprised when i get a job!) but i'm guessing what the OP means isn't so much 'be sure to wear make-up' as 'take a bit of pride in your appearance'. i don't reall...

please, can anyone offer me some advice - I need a way to remove alcoholic iodine prep from skin. I've been doing some organ procurements where the surgeon has used this prep and it breaks my heart having to send the patients back to their grieving f...

I've been meaning to knit some little hats to give to the NICU at the hospital where i work - they're easy to make and i like the idea of babies (and parents) having a nice little something to remind them thet someone's thinking of them. but i don't...

well, little lady is still hanging in there. a few days ago dad got to touch her for the first time, then the next day mum got to change her nappy, and yesterday mum got to have her first 'cuddle'.

i think she needs to harden up. honest mistake, immediate, sensible apology, no harm done. there is absolutely no reason to behave like she did. unless you're lying to us and you really tore her name off the locker, cut off her lock, pulled all her ...

probably feels to harrassed to return and respond! i feel a bit sorry for her, i too got the feeling that she's from a more modest culture, and an inexperienced nurse, and felt embarrassed and probably wondered if she'd done something to encourage hi...

what was i thinking becoming a nurse? that i'd snag myself a hot young doctor to whisk me away. unfortunately, i've since learned that most available doctors are that way for a reason (and look like godzilla's uncle)

i'm a terrible public speaker, and sometimes i get flustered and start panicing just making a semi-important phone call because i so want to make the right impression and say the right thing! but, i've learned that the people who actually care about ...