Medic946RN

Where I work now we seem to have cornered the market on adults who can't swallow pills. I'm not referring to children or eldery people with dysphagia. I'm talking about gagging and crying like they were four or something. They whine and beg you. "Pl...

Love the line about never ever mess with an ED nurse.

Had a patient like that years ago. Came in from the ECF in deplorable condition, had thick crud under his nails that also seemed to coat most of his body. Guy was brain damaged after an MVC bed confined, contractures, had to be fed, bathed etc. You k...

I have both the Cardiology III and the Master Cardiology. I prefer the Master, I have no trouble listening to little lungs and hearts.

We had techs that were EMT-I's (Higher than an EMT-B but short of being a Paramedic) They were huge helps, did vitals, inserted IV's, NG tubes, foleys. Great bunch of guys and gals as well.

I got the one from ENA. It's a Kendall-Hall title. I thought it covered the material well, it's also a good refresher of whole nursing education. It covers all the systems and sub fields from GI to Psych.

I must be strange because I love working triage. It's almost as autonomous as working in the field. You get to examine, diagnose and sometimes treat if there are established clinical pathways. Sure you get the moaners, complainers and rude patients, ...

As you can tell from the screen name I also hold dual licenses, as a paramedic and prehospital nurse. My medic skills and experiences were great for the ED. Where I sometimes felt out of place on a Med Surg floor I felt like the ER was a second home,...

Whenever a doc raises his voice to me. I tell him "You can stop right now. I am an adult. You want to discuss this issue as adults, then fine. But you do NOT yell at me." Has worked everytime. But I must admit as a male nurse I don't get 1/10th the s...

you can intubate in pa if you hold a prehospital rn certificate. i know the ed i work out of as a phrn allows the ed rn's who are phrn's to intubate if medical command physician allows it.

I've worked both sides of the stretcher for a more than two decades now and I can tell you that it takes a lot more than an ACLS/PHTLS class for an RN to function effectively in the field. It also takes more than a couple nursing classes for a EMTP t...

In the Endoscopy center I now work in RN's cannot push propofol or fentanyl. However when I work in the ED. I do it all the time. We give it for pt's placed on vents and use it for conscious sedation. I've given fentanyl to assist with placing chest ...

I once worked with an ER doc who would call the Doctor who sent the patient in and tell him to come to ED to write the patient's orders. That put a kink in a lot of the stupid ER visits. God how I used to laugh when he did that.

In some states there is no provision for this. In my home state of Delaware you're either a Paramedic or Nurse, they have an unofficial MICN but they can't do prehospital only interfacility. But where I work in Pennsylvania you can go either route yo...

Where I work the CRNA's and Anesthesiologist are using propofol, with little versed and fentanly. It works great, the people are out like lights and wake up and recover quite quickly. We used to use the Versed/Demerol route but to adequately sedate a...

I took my son to our pediatricians office for a sore throat. I just wanted a rapid strep done, and abx if needed. I took him right after school about 3:30. Our peds guy is great he knows I'm a nurse and collaborates with me on treatments. Which is un...

That's what I thought too. You'd think that someone who had enough gumption to take PHTLS would understand EMS a little better. PHTLS, I understand your frustration and I feel your pain. I have worked both sides of the stretcher for years. I'm sorr...

After riding "the bus" (paramedic slang for ambulance) for many years I can tell you that I've gotten out of my nice cozy bunk at 3 in am for toothaches, sinus congestion, lacerations that don't even require a bandaid to close and even one lady who s...

As a nurse that was (is) a practicing paramedic for the last 25 years. (I know, I'm old) I can tell you one of the best things to do is seek out the nursing staff or even the MD when you have one of those borderline calls that your not so sure about....

Depends on the service and their primary type of call. If your flight team does mainly 911 scene response, ED or Paramedic experience is going to help your best. If they are doing primarily interfacility high risk transports then they might prefer IC...

I always kinda thought this was basic stuff, but maybe because I was medic for year and years, but the two pt's you never let walk to the bathroom are seizure patients and cardiac patients. You can avoid a lot of codes that way.

I agree, I don't multi-task well either, I prioritize very well. Thereby decreasing the amount that I have to multitask. But I found as male in the ED it sort of fell to me to be the "enforcer" If knew what I look like you'd never pick me to be the s...

I always seem to get the ones who come to ED for routine illnessess, chest colds, strep, etc that have just come from their doctor's office. You see the doc examined them and gave them an rx but they want a second opinion, or they don't feel any bett...

Lets be serious. The only reason Bill Clinton was interested in nurses is the fact that the vast majority of them are chicks. (Yeah baby!!!......Oh Hi Hillary, No! No!, I was just helping the girls out with a very important...uh... nursing education ...

I routinely transport "no lights/no siren" though usually my rides are only an hour or two in length. I don't go Code 3 unless it's a true emergency. Even in my practice as a paramedic. If I have the patient under control, we roll to hospital Code 1....