healingtouchRN

Personally, I do not accept insurance although I was trained in school to chart & give the client the paperwork for reimbursement. I find it too much hassle, as do the other therapists in my practice. We take cash or check. Makes it simple for us. We have referals from a local chiropractor & health food stores. We provide a fair discount to hospital employees as well as state employees & police/fire personnel. We found it so time consuming to even consider it. I would probably make $15 hour if I took insurance at best. NO thanks. I charge $60+ an hour for swedish and more for ortho/deep tissue/spa therapies. About 1/3 to 1/2 goes to my overhead depending on the month but I can control the type of client I want to see (peds, geri, adult, sports, general...) and the time of day & amount of clients I want to see. It works for my life now. I really enjoy it.

To Lauren, take ACLS & follow protocol put into place by your institution. Be pro-active on learning the medications & what they do for the CV system. It is ok to take a little longer to look up meds that you don't know. That is how one learns over time. I studied ACLS & other CV media (Laua Gasparas VonFrolio, RN, PhD has several good ones) at home to become comfortable with CV patients. One day at the time. :redbeathe

For those ney-sayers, do a little research. Read the works of Dr Barbara Brennan, Dr Valerie Hunt, Dr Carolyn Myss, Dr Deloris Kreger, Dr Herbert Benson, Dr Barbara Dossey, Dr Larry Dossey, Janet Mentgen, RN, Dr Erminia Guarneri, Rauni King, RN, Dr Victoria Slater, & Dr Candice Pert, Dr Martha Rogers; just to rattle off a few. These are pioneers in the field of energy medicine and required reading for those in Healing Touch Program training. Everything has an energy field. It has nothing to do with belief. It just is. Just because someone is embarrased by talking about it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Be forward in your thinking-non judgemental & you can really learn about something. If someone had told me 20 years ago I would have a board certification as a Healing Touch Practitioner, and working on a Master's in Natural Wellness, I would have said "do what?". Experience & Patience is the best teacher. Read, open your mind. Better yet, make an appointment & have a go at it.

My CRNA is a door away & my MDA is 2 doors away & all on speed dial on my cell.

So glad that AL has licensure. One step towards professional practice is licensure, even though it is an expensive process. Our neighbors in GA are getting there but not there yet.

As for LPN's in holding/PACU, my hospital employees no LPN's in surgery except under the heading of Scrub tech. They have their own reason's probably the case of if they are the only one with the patient then an LPN can't push emergency IV meds, intubate, etc. I am only the messenger here... It is annoying for those whom I must hold all night or all morning who get an eyeful of my recovering a Phase I. It happens. I am not able to wave my magic wand & solve the problem. Our PACU is small, 16 bays, NO bathroom for staff or patients. Only a hopper in dirty utility room. So patients must potty the yucky way. I have to grab a staffer to make my own potty runs in the OR proper. Aside from all the negatives, it still WAY less stressful than my jobs charge nursing a 12 bed CCU or an ER which I've done both. BUT not as fun or fulfiling as running my own private practice! yup, I do that too!

War Eagle Tiger, Good school you're in & good luck on your May graduation. Tell Finch RN Hi for me in the ICU at EAMC. He's a dear friend. Glad you gotta scholarship. Those are right handy when you have a spouse in school as I've been there!

I am thinking 0.9% NS & some PRBC's. wondering if she has a CV history, depends on the rate to rehydrate. I forget the formula, sorry. I agree on the C.Diff. assay on the stools. Aggressive pulmonary toilet for this lady. All to common type of patient from nursing/ LTC facility to our ICU's... Hope she fairs well.

Hang in there, been there myself. Nightmares in my sleep as well. Dreaming I forgot to chart, etc... Amazingly enough, I've seen some people who I would have swore were gonners, come back & actually go home with a decent quality of life. Prayer, good nursing, good medicine, family support & miracles all must have something to do with it. Wanna read about some really rough nights? Look at what Nightingale went through in Crimea when she set up that hospital with a hand full of nuns to help her. I read her ordeals & thought I have no idea of what she & they went through. She was truly a saint & leader. Keep up good work!!

If the intensive nature doesn't interest you, then definitely find another cup of tea to sip! I didn't think I'd work cardiac ICU in school (on go on to do a board cert in CV), but once I got the feel for it, I did it for half my career. Same for ER. The lovely thing about nursing is the ability to go from one area to another if your tastes change or a window of opportunity arises. I ended up in PACU currently due to the schedule, allowing me to run my business during the day & work PACU 3rd shift. I didn't know I'd be in PACU or running my business 18 years ago, I assure you. just find some area that you really enjoy.

since I work 3rd shift FT in PACU (only one in our city), I get to hold patients over night at least once a week if not more if the census is up. they can be a combination of floor or ICU patients. IF I do then get a recovery patient that I have to wake up, I call the back up RN or house supervisor to come help. They can watch my others while I do my PACU wake up thing. I have gotten used to it. I have been in critical care for a long time so it doesn't bother me to hold a vented or really sick patient. It's a bother for the more ambulatory patients since we don't have a bathroom right here, it's in the OR side. they have to use BP or urinal. Not so fun for them. But no one thought to build us a potty. Smart huh??

Our hearts, AAA's, valves, & generally most chest stuff goes straight up on the vent to CVICU or SICU. I've cross trained to these units & taught critical care so I am comfortable with these patients. However, the few chest patients that come out with their pleural tubes & Atriums (collection chambers) go on the surgical floor. they do like their narcotics for a good reason. & a good thing to start pulmonary toilet asap to prevent atelectasis. Good luck! PACU can be fun!

please consider how much critical care is required to work in PACU. I work with some people who have never done critical care & not comfortable with intubated patients. It happens that the units are full & they have to roll the patient out of the OR to somewhere, they come here & stay for a while. I have done critical care for my entire career so I am A-OK with vents & IABP's, PA catheters, etc... only 4 RN's out our entire staff can do it. Ask about these things. This is worse case scenerio. who to call for help? I am in a position that I have the MDA & CRNA & my boss on speed dial on my PACU cell phone that I carry. I am confident I can handle what gets handed to me. But that took 18+ years of work. Good luck. PACU is a good job. I like it.

I work 3rd shift so I am the 1st call but I have a back up that rotates a different RN each night of the week. We have to take turns for the weekends. I usually pull the Sunday night 3rd shift call, voluntarily, 1) because I like the money, & 2) that way the day RN's come in bright eyed monday morning. I am required to pull NO call since I am 3rd shift. The day/evening RN's are required to pull. It evens out. The money is good. At least I think so.

yeah, we "hold" pre-op CABG & valves, neuro cases, & some general stuff in PACU since the latest constuction landed our holding area with 6 less beds. Hey, the xray dept is even larger... but I get to "baby sit" until the OR nurses, CRNA's & teams arrive to take over. No way would I leave them alone. They are here for surgery after all. No, we didn't really have any input to this, it just happened & it's what is now. Granted I am 3rd shift so it's early a.m. that these come through the PACU before we really get churning with all bays full.