agldragonRN

It's part of being a new nurse. Things will get better as you learn the routine. Don't hesitate to ask for help when you need it. You will have tons of questions and remember that there is no stupid question. Good luck.

Good job. It's nice when you make correct nursing judgements, right? I called 911 myself in the past and sent out patients and getting the orders after the fact. I would just like to make some suggestions when this happens again in the future so you can add extra nursing interventions in this situation and chart it as well. Next time, you can use a non-rebreather mask instead so you can give more concentrated oxygen to the patient and see if this brings up the oxygen saturation (make sure patient has no dx of COPD before you crank up the oxygen). You can also put patient in high fowler's position and see if this will bring up the oxygen saturation. Lastly, you can elevate the legs and see if this will bring up the the blood pressure. You probably did these already and just didn't include them in your post. I usually do the above interventions in your scenario before calling the doctor and tell the MD if they were effective or not. I then chart everything. Again, good job and be proud. You probably saved this patient's life.

Hello and welcome to allnuses.com Glad you are enjoying LTC for the most part. Not sure if you are aware but we have a geriatric-LTC sub forum here where you can discuss any LTC issues you have.

Welcome to allnurses.com Congrats on getting accepted at ASU ABSN program. Good luck with school.

Hey Jean! Welcome to allnurses.com I'm glad you are enjoying being a float nurse. Congrats on the upcoming BSN.

Nice!

I would call it a surgical wound as well on my wound sheet and charting. But now that you mentioned this scenario and if I get a patient like that in the future, I will probably include "Per hospital records, surgical wound was previously stage IV." But I will always call it surgical wound in my charting.

What break?

Was it fungal rash? If nobody inform the doctor yet, you should. The doctor will probably order Nystatin powder BID x 14 days.

Usually, steri-strips is not removed until they fall off by themselves. In your case, I would have removed it as well so I can clean the whole wound properly. If the treatment order says use steri-strips, I would call the doctor to get it changed. Your skin tear is +MRSA. Did the doctor order Bactroban oint? If I were to recommend a Tx for your skin tear, I would recommend the following: LLE skin tear - Cleanse with NSS. Pat dry. Apply Bactroban oint. Cover with Vaseline gauze, 4x4. Wrap with Kerlix (Kling) BID, PRN x 14 days. Do you have a wound care nurse in your facility? I would let her/him know if you have one.

You are a new nurse NuringBro and willing to learn from your mistakes. I applaud you for that. Same experience happened to me when I was a new LPN. I was embarrassed after a patient asked me and I did not know the answer and that made me look up every single med and become familiar with all of my patients' meds. I had 25 patients on 3-11 shift in LTC. I would go home and review the meds again. After a while, several of my coworkers were asking me "what's this med for?". Keep doing what you are doing and try to learn as much meds as you can and you will be a talking PDR in no time. Maybe next time this happens, you can say "You know what, I am unfamiliar with this medication. I looked this up earlier but I want to double check your chart again to give you the correction information." Good luck!

Can you be more specific? What kind of discoloration? Bruise? sDTI? In my facility, an incident report needs to written when finding bruise and sDTI.

The day you enroll. You can take two nursing exams before enrolling-Health and Safety & Transitions. You have to apply to do this though. I recommend you do this as this will help you not pay the second annual fee if you finished the program in less than 1 year. Please double check my information as things may have changed since I completed the program. Good Luck!

Congrats! Keep the momentum going!

Congrats RN!!