KailuaNurse

I have worked in PICU for 5 years. It is a great career. You will see lots of interesting diagnoses and get to work with great people. It can also be very stressful at times. As far as a stethoscope, the PICU that I work at currently uses an assigned stethoscope for each child- so we don't use our own. However, I would recommend getting a Littman cardiology II (This is what I have- I don't know if they still have the II or if it is now a III). Anyway, the nice thing is that you pretty much have two sizes of diaphragms to work with. This is so nice in Peds since you take care of babies all the way to teenagers. A huge diaphragm will not work with kids or babies - all the sounds will mix together. And with a teenager a pediatric sized stethoscope will be too small. As far as reference book. I would recommend the AACN's Core Curriculum for Pediatric Criticial Care. A new edition came out and it is quite good. All the the information is in outline form, allowing the reader to find the key points quickly. Good Luck!

Nursing takes on a different focus than medicine does. Nursing is focused more on the holistic approach, which is totally different than medicine which just focuses on diseases and pathology etc. I personally had this debate before I started college and I did alot of soul searching along with volunteering in the local ER to see what the two professions had to offer. For me, nursing was what I was looking for. I don't think that nurses have sold themselves short. I have seen nursing collegues whom I highly admire and who our physicians respect and listen to what they are saying. That said, it sounds like medicine is what you would like to do. If that is the focus that you want then I say go for it.

Honestly, if I had my choice (and someone was willing to pay me a salary for it) I would love to be a full time student. There are so many interesting subject areas out there. I am looking at going back for a Masters in Nursing to either become a nurse practioner (family or pediatric) or an Advance practice forensic nurse specialist. Both sound incredibily interesting to me.

We usually try to give people who are floating very nice assignments and similar to what they would tend to get on their regular unit. For those NICU nurses who come to the PICU, we usually try to give them a baby rather than the 15 year old. For the most part whenever i hae floated things have worked out okay.

Find another new nurse to talk and vent with. Nursing can be very stressful at times especially due to the fact of all the different personalities nurses come in contact with. It is nice to have another nurse to talk to who knows exactly what you are talking about and what a normal workday is like. (And all nurses know how wonderful some days are) :chuckle

WHAT?????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have to agree, I try at all costs to go to an NP rather than a MD. :chuckle

I have worked two types of work schedules. The first type that I worked as a new grad was on a medical floor. The full time position that I held was a mix of 8 and 12's (3 eight hour shiftst and 4 twelve hour shifts in a 2 week period) with 8 hours of call required every two weeks. I have to admit it was always nice when I worked an 8 hour shift. The shift went by so much faster, but I felt like I was always at work. I was working about 4 days a week, but with doing some 12's in there it was horrible. There were weeks that I would be working 48 hours because of the required 8 hours of call. I reciently switched units, the PICU. Only 12 hour shift are offered. Honestly I like it so much better because it doesn't seem like I am always at the hospital. And I think the PICU is just a better fit for me anyway. I don't know how it would be working straight 8 hour shifts. That sounds like it would be really nice.

Totally know what you are going through. I am 23 and look probably around 15 years old. I work in the PICU, and often times parents will ask me my age, and will be surprised that I went straight through college after highschool. The funniest thing that happened to me, is that I went to a movie with my boyfriend recently. On the way of going to our respective theater, the usher taking our tickets asked me, " Are you old enough to see this movie?" :roll "Uh, yeah, do you want to see my driver's license?" I replied. Of course my boyfriend got a good laugh out of that one.

At my facility if you only use one of the lumens, the not being used must be flushed with heparin q 4-8 hours in order to maintain patency.

Went to school in Washington, sat for the NCLEX and applyed for RN licensure in Hawaii. No problem. The only thing is to make sure that you have the stuff needed for the application. The BON in Washington required different things than Hawaii's did.

At the facility I work for, after orientation, they usually try to give new grads relatively easy assignments. Usually one or two busy kids and two easier kids (four is the usual assignment). We also have a Resource Nurse on staff besides the charge nurse. This resource nurse is just for the medical unit, and is available for any nurse to ask a question, or just ask for help if their assignment is really busy. That extra person floating around is a really big help.

Members of our ECMO Team are either RN's or RT. We don't usually have perfusionists doing it because they are in the OR (and we only have 3 on staff). Our staffing Ratio is usually 2:1, however there have been times when the ratio is 3:1 (2 RNs to the pt) just because the kid is so sick.

Don't work Halloween this year, but last year I went to work as Dorothy from the Wizard of OZ. The kids loved it. :)

Good Luck. It sounds like you have the right type plan laid out! You can do it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) Edit: Actually forget the "Good luck". YOU WILL PASS!!!!