TulsaTime

Yes I am. I work at Hillcrest on the night shift. I also joined the FB group

I work on a dedicated rapid response team. As we have grown we continue to try to find other facilities with a dedicated team to benchmark against for activities or ideas to increase the value of our RRT. We do not have patients and we work closely...

I just have to point out that as a male, it doesn't matter what degree you have. You walk into many patients rooms and you are a doctor despite how many times you correct the patient that you are a NURSE. I can only imagine it will be worse when I ...

I am also staring the dual role program in January at USA. I'm also very nervous as I'm trying the full time option and still working full time. I just sent a request to join the FB page. I think that was a great idea!!!!

The reason to use a central line for phenylephrine and many other drugs is related to the pH of the infusion. Yes, we have many biologically similar agents already running around in us but they are not in a solution that is acidic and can damage the...

I agree completely. If you're sick stay home! And if you have staffing issues (I work Rapid Response so there is only one of us) call early if you are even thinking you might not be there! We try to even call the day before sometimes so we can fin...

when i worked in a system with computer charting & no interface we still did our frequent vitals on paper charting because of the huge amount of time it took to put it all in the computer. we entered hourly into the computer but all our 15 minut...

It is correct the patient needs to be comatose and hemodynamically stable with or without pressors. There are a number of other factors (overdose, coagulopathy) that may make a patient unsuitable for the protocol. It should be initiated within 6 ho...

Another option if you are having that much trouble & need it emergently is I/O access. Our ER keeps an IO kit available and the ER docs will come up & help us out if needed. I've only had to do this once but it's soooooo good to know it's a...

This is an issue that comes up frequently in our hospital as well. I am attaching a link to an excellent article about DNR status. DNR does not and should not be inferred to a refusal of care of treatment!!! Every major group of care providers, in...

If you're a member of AACN go to their site & search for effective communication. There is an excellent webcast there from nti 2008 that gives some ideas & tools to help make that phone call to the doctor a little less stressful. I thought ...

Another option if your pumps will do it is to run your IVPB concurrent. We have the plum pumps & we can run 2 lines (the primary & piggyback) concurrently so you don't have to add another fluid, more pumps, etc to the mix.

You did the right thing. I know that calling a doctor in the middle of the night can be daunting. But think of it this way--if you didn't call & your patient coded because you left them sit & didn't call for orders--who do you think is goin...

Our rapid response team in our hospital consists of a dedicated RRT nurse who does not take patients & a respiratory therapist. Our team has really grown in breadth of resource calls we get over the last year & we have been discussing how be...

I agree with you 100%. I have an ICU and ER background having done both areas. I've been in the RRT role for just over a year now and LOVE it. We just can't figure out how to "measure" that part of the job prior to someone being hired in.

I was wondering if it was Bedside Gas & Electrolytes like on an Istat? We can get results at the bedside in 2 minutes.

I am also an RRT nurse. In our hospital we have an adjoining office with the house supervisors & are all cross trained for house supervisor as well. We are all ICU RN's but as the basis of rapid response is to bring the ICU to the patient we sp...

I am a rapid response nurse & we have had a couple of issues recently with patients we were having difficulty in gaining vascular access either peripheral or through a central line during code situations. We of course gave drugs down the ETT. I...

I just took a new position at a new hospital doing rapid response team. I am looking for input from others where there is a dedicated rapid response nurse. What are your duties/responsibilities when you are not on a RRT or code call? We have been ...

Thank you all for the feedback. I have been there 3 months now & we have grown the proactive portion similar to what many of you have suggested. We now get a LOT of "resource" calls also for help with admits, iv starts, or just to troubleshoot ...

this is the ICU report sheet I use. I don't know if it will help at all for getting a start to ideas for long term care but thought I would share it. St. John ICU Report.doc

That's what I did at the last hospital I worked at (took an assignment with RRT). But I am now at a hospital where we do NOT take an assignment. Rapid Response is a position all in its own. We are under the administration not the ICU so that we ar...

Here is my report sheet that I currently use when I'm in the ICU as well. I've had a number of people PM me and sent copies via email so here is a copy of the one I like! St. John ICU Report.doc

I have a question for eveyrone. It seems like a silly issue to me but it's causing some problems in our unit. Which side of the bed should IV pumps and transducers be placed on? We have a new unit with great huge rooms so space is not an issue. ...

Our unit is room 17. We opened our unit in january and about 75% of the patients in that room have done very poorly. We actually DID have one of the sisters at our hospital do a cleansing but so far it still seems cursed!