kimmie4476 ASN, RN

Hi all, I am trying to find some peer review articles or any data on the safe minimum number of nurses in an ER. My ER is a 22 bed level 3 trauma center with an average census of 80-100 per day. We have no policy stating the minimum number of nurses ...

Thanks for a starting place, I was getting no where

If I have someone who tells me they are feeling faint, or that they normally faint with blood draws, the first thing I do is whip out an alcohol pad and stick it under their nose and tell them to take slow deep breaths. This also helps wake them up i...

That's the thing, the pt had no DIAGNOSIS of meningitis, nor does he even sound like he has it. The pt's I've seen with meningitis were extremely sick/about to die. This guy doesn't sound like that. It's always a possibility (see my above post) ...

Anyone with a fever and confusion "might" have meningitis, (or they might just have a uti or low sodium or with the chest pain, reduced cardiac output or reduced oxygen to the brain, hell, maybe he wasn't wearing enough oxygen at home) just like...

So, it's the ER nurse's responsibility to diagnose a pt with meningitis? Why aren't you advocating for the Ed Dr or the admitting dr to be written up? Both have the capability to diagnose, not the nurse, but that's the one you throw under the bu...

The night before last, I walked into the Ed for work and took report from the of going nurse "good news and bad news, I'm discharging the last pt in this pod (of 4) but you have an ambulance coming with a shortness of breath". OK, I think, I can...

My hospital is wanting to begin holding a skills fair yearly and since it will be new to us, I was wondering if you all could give me some ideas as to what your skills fairs are like? Things like what the stations are like, what you review every year...

Make sure you know the assessment process and practice saying it OUT LOUD. They will go over most of the book in class, so you can take good notes there, but KNOW THE TRAUMA ASSESSMENT. You will only get about 30 minutes the first day of class to pra...

I can answer some of these questions. A little background....I got my LPN in 07 and my RN in 09. I have worked the same hospital as both an LPN and through school for my RN. 1) In my hospital, when I was an LPN, it was 1RN and 1LPN for up to 12 acut...

Ok, this may be a stupid question, but I had a patient the other day that was post CVA and had right sided weakness. The patient's family member started freaking out when the CNA started to take a blood pressure on the right arm, telling her "you can...

Wow, this is great! I for one am horrible at interviews because I am so shy. On the positive side it keeps me in the same position for many years which looks good on my resume :)

It really doesn't matter what anyone else does. You are responsible for what you do and for holding yourself up to your own standards. You have to find a way to keep your full assessment and fit it into the time constraints you will be under. Now, i...

Had a really rough night at work...one patient in particular ran me ragged all night...so much so that I was begging the other nurse to just answer their call light once. Then, just as I'm about to leave, there goes their call light..."okay, just one...

Yes, it wasn't requests that they were calling me for, it was because they were critical and in addition...anxious about it so the thank you was for getting her through the anxiety...talking her down etc. No, I'm not a new nurse and it's not a honey...

Take away the "That's not MY patient/job" mentality. Everyone where I work answers call lights regardless of whose pt. it is including the ward clerk and DON. It only takes a second of your time to see what the patient wants/needs and relay that to t...

I'm lucky in that our hospital uses the disposable kind and we have an abundance of them. Our DON who is extremely budget conscious (tight with the money lol) Says they are actually cheaper than trying to sanitize the reusable ones. We encourage pts ...

I started as an LPN on my floor then became an RN on the same floor...no one had a problem with it but me lol, I was the only one having to make the change from an LPN mentality to an RN mentality. (That and the fact that I didn't get any orientation...

Thanks for posting this, everywhere it says that the cover letter is the most important part of the resume, but all I've ever been able to find are generic ones that never really fit me...yours has given me ideas of what a really great one looks like...

My In addition to studying content, maybe try reading up on test taking skills. I think that a lot of times when a person has taken the same test over and over again, it has to be something with the WAY THEY TAKE THE TEST. After all, you passed nu...

regardless of what the other nurses say, always assume your patient can hear you. I had a nursing instructor who developed sepsis and was coded 3 times, was in ICU for awhile unconscious, but she heard and remembered everyone who took care of her, th...

I think maybe there are different degrees and types of photographic memory, I too can "see the page", I can also remember every single word of conversations, picture exactly where everyone was standing and who said what which my husband HATES (you st...

I worked as a waitress after school and on weekends during pre-reqs and the first year of nursing school (lets you make the max amt of cash in the fewest hours and truthfully the skills will come in handy lol), then got my LPN and worked days Fri Sat...

I don't understand.. the patient was holding a medicine cup and syringe when the first nurse arrived on scene... what was the student nurse doing in there? was the student nurse the one that called for rapid response? How did the pt get the syringe, ...

The character of the nurse is as important as the knowledge she possesses." ~Jarvis, 1996