bungee
Members
-
Joined
-
Last visited
-
-
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 rooms when they are trying to sleep. 4. Some rooms in our PICU have nice couches to for the parents while others get a recliner. This always makes me feel uncomfortable when they ask me why some parents get the nicer rooms. 5. Asking an RT to run a blood gas at 0630 and they get angry because they have not finished their breakfast while on the clock. 6. Having an excessive amount of PTO and the hospital refuses to pay out what you have earned at the end of the year. I can donate PTO to the "pool" but not to a cooworker in need.
-
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 friends about non-work activities. I could tell she was not listening to half of my report, seeming very disinterested. I told her calmly that in order for me to sleep well I would like her to listen to what I was saying. Well, about the fourth time she was gazing out down the hallway I said, "By the way, that scrub top makes you look fat!". I was waiting for an outburst, but nothing! Obviously she did not hear. After redirecting her eyes on my own (again) I asked, "Did you even hear what I just said to you?" She replied, "Yeah, of course". Then my reply was, "No you didn't! You would have slapped me if you heard what I said!". "What did you say?". My reply was, "Well, next time you should listen and you might find out!" Never had a problem since!
-
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 to take care of these kids and knowing that the perp is standing right there next to me. Seems like it is always Mom's boyfriend!
-
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 transported via ground, rotor wing and fixed wing. There is no better feeling having a solid RT next to you when having to transport difficult airway kids. It was a very rewarding experience and I miss it terribly (wife wanted to move to a dry climate). The only thing that was annoying was when you were not on transport, you felt as if you were under a microscope by fellow RN's and staff. I always tried to be visible and helped out with breaks, start IV's, etc.
-
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 though.
-
The producers of "Ghostbusters" called. They would like you to be the new "slimer".
-
She just found out that we have to document finger and toe nail length Q hour for every patient.
-
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 or air. The best part is knowing when you have a "difficult" patient/parent and you can drop them off at the unit and see the fear in the receiving nurses eyes!
-
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 mixed up my transcriptions to the state nursing board. Longest month of my life. Good luck to you!!
-
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 and base salary is about $33/hr with 7 years exp. Hope that helps. Oh, and I hope you like rain!!
-
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 nurses should be like Florence Nightengale and wear white caps and all. One of the best things about nursing for me is working with all the cool machines such as ECMO.
-
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 challenge to maintain BP and keep the circuit from cutting out. The docs decided to try Factor VII to help with the bleeding. Have any of you tried this with ECMO pts? I cannot say whether it has helped or not because we are still pushing lots of blood products, more than I ever have being with the ECMO team. The good news is that we recently started vasopressin which really has help the BP and MAP's stablize. I'm not having to push fluid Q15min!!
-
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 wife and I decided to move north the the great pacific west. What did we find? RAIN RAIN RAIN. I am currently employed at a Portland based childrens hospital and have been here for the past 4 years. The people here are incredible also. My only gripe is that we do not have 24 hour in-house coverage. Working 7p-7a can put a lot of stress on RN's with no doc in house. No place like the PICU!!
-
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. Unfortunatley, our number of ECMO patients has been decreasing every year, with a lot of near misses. So it can be difficult to stay on your "game" and be prepared.