I have a recurrent nightmare as an ECMO Primer. For some strange reason my patient is on circuit while being in my garage. There is no one around while the ecmo machine is either "cutting out" or...
1. Family members walking barefoot in the patients rooms and down the hallways. 2. Coworkers licking their fingers during/after their lunchbreak. Gross! 3. Loud talkers surrounding my patients...
One time I was giving report to an RN after a long night. She seemed more preoccupied on who was walking down the hallway, and frequently interrupting my report so she could talk to her dayshift...
I have noticed a huge increase in the "suspected non accidental trauma" patient population recently. Most of them are young infants ranging from 1 month to 2 years of age. It is wearing me down having...
My previous employment was with a Transport Team that did both NICU/PEDS. The team consisted of usually one RN and one RT. Both were trained to intubate just in case one was having difficulties. We...
VA Hospital in SF brings back memories for me! Did my first clinical rotation there as a student from SFSU. Never forgot the smell! They were very nice people
I started out working in the PICU for 8 years and just recently last year got a job on our neonatal/pediatric transport team. So far it has been lots of fun going out to different hospitals by ground...
I took my NCLEX board examination in California in 2001. I also experienced the dreaded 265 questions and passed fine. I had to wait 1 month though to get my results because my fine alma mater had...
I moved from the bay area 5 years ago to work in Portland Oregon. My starting salary was much lower than I was getting in Childrens Hospital of Oakland at that time. Currently I'm employed at a PICU...
I don't have any regrets on being a nurse. I luckily work in the PICU with a lot of male RN's and we try to make it fun and get the job done effectively. There are those few however that believe...
Last night we placed a 2.5kg infant on VA ECMO in the OR due to not being able to come off bypass. The infants cardiac defect was a DORV, coarc of aorta, and VSD. She was bleeding profusely and was a...
Hello all... I started out my PICU career in 2001 at Childrens Hospital of Oakland. I loved it there and miss many of my old friends. After not being able to afford a good home in the bay area, my...
In my hospital we also utilize RN's in the PICU and NICU as ECMO specialists and primers. I have done ECMO for about 3 years now and find it very fun and interesting, especially as a primer....