2bnursenikki82

I've worked in a Med/Surg/Trauma ICU for just over a year now. We're a Level II Trauma center that functions as a Level I minus major cardiac surgery and appropriate research (we just got audited by the ACS) so we get some sick patients. I had four ...

I work night shift and here's the thing about working holidays: the holiday is whenever you and your family celebrate it. If it's Thanksgiving the night before, then that's when Thanksgiving is. If you have to do family dinner and presents on Chri...

I've gone up to 100 a few times (they both ended up dying- that high you're just buying time for family to get there). We add vaso at a sepsis dose (0.04) generally if we're up around 50 of levo and not seeing any changes. That's ICU for ya...you ...

I've had a few pedal A-lines. When you need a line, you need a line. We let our residents stick twice and then either an attending or one of the nurses with the A-Line cert do it. We RARELY have RT do our gases. They do them a lot in ER and on t...

Our ER tubes OD pt's almost immediately. They don't play!! I had one like that a month or so ago...tubed in ER, kept her sedated over night and they extubated at 0700. (then we had to sit on her and her suicide precautions for 2 days because tele...

In theory we have visitation every other hour for the first half hour from 6am to 10pm limited to two visitors at a time. Of course, this never happens. Our rooms are generally full of people. When I get admissions, I try to make it clear when I ...

Our pharmacy has a satellite office on the unit, but we still end up mixing a lot of our pressors and stat cardiac drugs that aren't in the pyxis. Plus...they are long gone by the time night shift rolls around so you have to call pharmacy at the beg...

Our pharmacy would enter it in the system as three entries: 5, 10 and 15mg each separate entry with a 3 hour window. Were it warranted, you could give rotating doses every hour on the hour. If a nurse were brave enough, he/she could give up to 30mg...

give me more than 5 minutes!!! When our ER calls report and says they're on their way...Darnit, they're on their way!!!

When I was little I always wanted to be a cheerleader... I loved teaching preschool too.

So can I just say that I am SO glad that I'm not the only person who has endured GT spray!! I did this in ICU clinicals with a not so understanding preceptor who made me feel like a big ol' butthead. I've given too much of a med (mixed levothryoxi...

Look for a hospital that has an ICU internship. They may be called different things, but at the hospitals I applied at (and the one I got hired at) they were all seperate listings from other RN jobs. They were listed as either RN I or GN Internship ...

I took mine yesterday and I am SOOOO anxious to get my results!!!! I got 78 q's and I'm not sure I can name 5 that I know for sure I got right...they were hard!!!

We have a 12 week orientation for the ICU I work in. The first three weeks are spent in the classroom going over policies and covering specific things we'll see on the unit by body system. Some of it is a little nursing school all over again, but w...

I sent out a bunch of applications in mid/late June and had interviews by the first week in July and job offers during those interviews and I graduated last week. I was VERY proactive with my applications and follow ups since I am moving.

I graduated last Friday (BSN baby!!) and I started applying in mid-late June and I had a job by July 15th. I sign contracts next week. I'm moving about 300 miles away, so it was important to me to have something set up before I moved. Other girls...

I'm graduting in August with my BSN and I'm moving back to FW after graduation. I have interviews with JPS, Cook's and Harris set up for this weekend. Here's my question...what are the general opinions of those three hospitals from local nurses?? ...

4 more sleeps until graduation.

Yes and no. It sort of depends on the semester and your particular study habits/testing abilities/skill sets. I've been able to work 2-3 12's a week on top of the time I spend in the clinical and in the classroom without it affecting my grades, but ...

Harris Methodist is a Level II. So is JPS in Fort Worth. JPS is the Tarrant County hospital.

Resurrecting an old and gone post...but this has great info!!! I start my internship in a month and I get more and more nervous the closer it gets!!!

Parkland in Dallas.

As a new grad hired to an ICU...I think that with the right orientation and the right management focused on teaching me what I need to learn and with my own perseverence and willingness and ability to learn, there's no reason I can't be a great ICU n...

I'm in my last semester of school (two more weeks!!!) and our last semester is basically an internship. I'm up to a full patient load now, which is 5-6, depending on how we're staffed. I do all the charting and pass all the meds and do all the proc...

I feel ya girl. I'm tallish and a big girl too and I do NOT like some of the pants that come in my size...they're frumpy and I am NOT frumpy. I like Landau for Her...they come in plus sizes and up to 3X in tall. I like the cherokee flexibles. The...