Perpetual Student

Vicodin with 500 mg of acetaminophen is still out there--I got a bottle myself very recently. It has indeed been banished from the inpatient end of our system, however. As to the posters questioning why oxycodone would be ordered along with Vicodin o...

The difference between oxycodone and Percocet is the acetaminophen in the Percocet. Most patients seem to understand that when I explain it. The pertinent difference between hydrocodone and oxycodone is that mg for mg the oxycodone is more potent. So...

What other professions allow you to play guess "what rectal foreign body will be removed tonight?" Or try to convince a normally a&ox4 dude that he's really in the hospital, not at Lowe's.

I heard it was the vena cava that was leaking. It's generally frowned upon when an RN does a bedside thoracotomy.:thankya:

How do you do without sleep? There comes a certain point where exhaustion makes it unsafe to practice. If I go much much longer than 30 hours without sleep I start to go kinda crazy. I sure wouldn't want to wear a mask all day and would use PTO just ...

I think there was some miscommunication here. It's not that you don't ever intubate, it's that if you're ventilating well with the BVM you should keep doing that and focus on compressions, shocks, etc. until you hopefully stabilize the patient. The E...

Not to mention you're not going to get a useful neuro exam on someone who's paralyzed. And of course it would be incredibly cruel to let someone be awake and paralyzed, unable to communicate.

Very recently I lost my only close family member, my mom. I arrived home from work to find her dead, after having talked to her during my lunch break that afternoon. She was feeling fine when I spoke with her, and appeared fine when I left that morni...

Thanks for the kind words everyone. I definitely will let the instructor know in the morning before the class kicks off. Taking time off work probably wouldn't help. Now when I'm not at work I mostly find myself alone in the house I just bought for...

That's a mighty strange policy. I would seek to clarify and likely revise that if I were you. The only similar thing I can think of off the top of my head is that a lot of EMS protocols have exclusions for CPR for people who're obviously not coming b...

If there's any possibility of this being related to a claim or involving you directly, contact your malpractice insurance company. Better to be safe than sorry. If it's a criminal or civil action against the former patient (or perhaps a person who ha...

If the waveform was as crappy as you said and the patient was doing as described, totally right. Treat the patient, not the monitor. Esp. when there have already been issues with the instrument giving you the reading. Believe the number that is compa...

Chronic vent patients aren't that hard to care for. You just need to understand how things work and what to do in an emergency. A decent preceptor and some decent reference materials should be able to teach you that during those 2-4 weeks of orientat...

Yeah, I agree with Dixielee. 0300-1500 would really bite. I've worked nights happily, but that shift sounds terrible. 1500-0300 wouldn't be bad, at least for me. It's actually pretty close to my internal clock. Even when I've got to be at work at 110...

Honestly? They cannot. Unless the organization's leadership embraces the concepts--which they clearly do not if they're firing experienced people to save money--it's a totally futile waste of time to engage in such activities. A strong nursing union ...

I read a case report a while back of a fellow who presented similarly, was d/c'd from the ED, and returned later after it ruptured that same day. I can understand a doc's reluctance to get sued like the doc in the above case. I am curious what the pl...

indirectly. i'm pretty low down the seniority roster and we're a union outfit. i smile every time i see a new person hired into the hospital. wow, that's crazy. where did she expect people to want to go?

I just encountered a couple of the above mentioned threads re: "bullying" and so on. I can't help but wonder why so many nurses are so weak and unable to stick up for themselves or tolerate a bit of a verbal smack down without it crushing their self ...

When I worked nights I typically slept during the day even on days off. The only exception would be if I had something planned. Most everybody else works during the day anyway, so it's not like you're missing much except maybe on the weekends, which ...

Yeah, AAAs can be bad news, esp. in a patient who has an atypical presentation that delays identification. Patient came in for a scheduled lap chole, ended up having a diagnostic laparoscopy with biopsy of her gallbladder cancer. Pt VS taken in preo...

Private duty home care is quite easy most of the time. There certainly are challenges at times, but overall it's easy. Esp. on night shift.

I agree with the other posters who say go for it, as it will be great for your resume. You may find that you actually enjoy it. I've never done it, but talked to quite a few folks who do it and they love it. If you do refuse, don't be surprised if yo...

I totally love working with nursing students. I encourage the students to do as much as possible with me standing next to them, guiding them. I still wear the pants, if you will. Most students require a lot of direction in the PACU, as it's quite dif...

Being a dirty not-quite old man is good enough.

The flip side of that is why would the patient feel entitled to care? Particularly those who're not paying? Shouldn't folks be grateful when someone anticipates their needs and works hard (doing more than the minimum standard of care) to keep them sa...