MatthewRN

My parents are on faculty at the school I'm attending which qualified me for free tuition. That made for a pretty easy decision. All of our clinical sites are within a 30 or 40 minute drive max from the school which was also a nice draw.

I went through a divorce my second semester in school. We'd been having problems for a while though and my wife was not supporting at all after I started school. Thankfully we didn't have kids.

If your credit is good enough or you have a cosigner, GradPlus loans in addition to the Stafford loans are generally enough to cover everything you need.

MAT 90th percentile, 3.5 gpa, 2.5 years experience in 24 bed CCU. I believe they waive the GRE or MAT requirement if your undergrad GPA was 3.75 or higher. They've already interviewed and sent out acceptance to people for the class starting in 2012.

What unit are you applying for? They have a pretty nice new OB service line wing there.

Ha, being the program director's kid. Although, if anything, I think I was scrutinized more carefully. My interview ended up being twice as long as anyone else.

It's one flat fee for tuition for anesthesia at FHCHS. No difference for in or out of state.

Yes. SRNA Class of 2013.

The biggest part of my decision was that my parents are one faculty at the college so I get free tuition. With that being said, I believe that it's a good program. You get top notch clinical experience in the Florida Hospital system, and the system is big enough in town that you're never more than about 40 miles away from downtown on a clinical rotation. The anesthesia faculty seem to genuinely care about everyone in the program and it is a very welcoming environment.

I'm in the junior class at FHCHS. Congratulations on being accepted (I'm assuming)! I know one of the people in passing who was accepted and a good buddy of mine is on the wait list.

Some schools will also accept the MAT in place of the GRE.

I believe Maquet is the company you were trying to think of.

What does DTO'D stand for?

Your patient's just have to have a vent to be a 1:1? Where do I apply?!

i think i'd have an mi if i saw my patient with an iabp ambulating.

We'll do that frequently for VT refractory to IV Amio. As stated above, make sure daily lido levels are drawn as some patients can become lido toxic fairly quickly.

A guy I used to work with here in Nashville is working MICU at Parkridge and they have an incredible overtime/bonus structure. I don't remember specifics but it was pretty lucrative. Pt ratios and hours are all going to be unit specific.

First off, 8 patients in a step down unit is ludicrous even if none of them are vented. I don't see how one nurse is supposed to take care of that number of high acuity, task intensive patients in any 12.5 hour period. Second, the whole disciplinary process in regards to the med errors was not handled very well by management. This is just my opinion, but for the purpose of disciplinary action, I think that the two med errors the OP was originally written up for should have been taken as one occurrence, hence, just a verbal warning rather than a verbal and a written. Also, given the ridiculous amount of time it took to do chart audits and bring these occurrences to light, I don't think the third med error warrented any additional disciplinary action. Unless there were med errors being made every week, it seems reasonable to institute a "grace period" from the time the first two errors occurred up until the time the first disciplinary action was taken. Third, it is not at all necessary to include on a resignation letter that it is being offered at the request of management. That's going to remain a part of your personnel file and can be reviewed by any hospital you apply to in the future if allow them access to your previous records as part of the application process. Generally, less is better. If you are leaving under bad terms it is fine to just write something generic thanking them for the opportunity but that you are leaving to explore other avenues of employment. Last, I'm glad you got out. That sounds like a floor that would just chew you up, spit your out and guarantee a fast burnout. Good luck at your interview!

When I last worked 2Central in the summer of '08 the entire hospital had certain colors set aside for RNs, certain colors for techs, yada yada. I don't remember offhand what the tech colors were, and that info is almost two years old now. I imagine they still have the color policies in place, though.

Alot of getting to be comfortable in codes is understanding yourself and what do well. If compressions is your thing then gravitate towards that. If you're comfortable working the defibrillator and med cart, do that. If you like pushing meds, so on and so forth. When I initially started in the ICU I was only comfortable with doing compressions so that was all I did. Lately I've been handling the defibrillator and med cart. Just know what you do well and do it.

My mother has been a CRNA program director and staff professor in CRNA programs for almost fifteen years. Through that time, the biggest reason students have dropped out or failed is having a new baby while in the program.

A liberal application of crack spackle.

60mg of cardizem IV push is a huge dose.

My facility nips it in the bud and has a combined MSICU.

It's fine to run it through a peripheral. As for how fast it should go, that's up to the doc's order. We almost always have standard order set for our patient's on insulin gtt's that maps out what dose they need per hour based on glucose values and trends.