owensmommy

Typically, unless you are working in a smaller hospital, there are nursing directors in between the CNO and nurse managers. The director role is a nice stepping stone to gain other important leadership skills before taking the responsibility of all n...

Admission/discharge nurses are most often only successful in very high volume hospitals. The hours worked have to be justified by the number of admissions or discharges. At organizations I have worked for, this model has been tried numerous times and...

I use the McKesson Admin-Rx program. Once I got used to it, it got to be pretty nice. Although we scan the meds and the patient's arm band, we still have to ask the pt their name and DOB. It has been proven to cut our med errors way down!

I don't routinely milk JP's, but if it seems sluggish in the tubing, I will. No big deal, just make sure you have a good grip above where you're milking so it doesn't pull at the sutures!

I think that most MRSA pt's go undiagnosed for a few days and everyone that had contact with them have been exposed. Unfortunately, things are forgotten in report which makes it even more frustrating. You are most likely fine and they say as you cont...

We just have to get a doc's order that it's okay to transfuse. And we usually would then premed with Tylenol.

I was taught in school to always pull back after inserting the needle to make sure you aren't in a vessel. But more recently I have been told that it is no longer necessary. I tend to still check for a flash of blood...better safe than sorry. Once yo...

I would go for the LTC position. You would at least be able to get experience in medication administration, wound care, Foley care, assessment skills, etc. The abortion clinic seems to me that it wouldn't offer much if you were doing the same procedu...

I work on a tele unit and day shift nurses have 4-5 pts, nights 5-6.

I took a dosage calc class in school. It turned out to be an easy "A". But it also was a great reminder on how to do certain conversions and a bunch of other things you tend to forget from jr/sr high!!

I don't think I have ever mixed Toradol with anything! If it's 30mg or less, we usually give it IV anyways...

6mg IVP Q4hrs was the most I've ever given.

I was preggo and worked 12 hour night shifts. I did just fine. I had a great pregnancy though. I gues it would depend if you had frequent nausea or other complications. But, you'll have the same problems whether you work days or nights. I found night...

Yeah, you never know what you can get from a needlestick! But, I'm sure you are at a very very low risk of any kind of transmission. But, I agree that is very scary especially when you are breastfeeding and feel you have to protect your little one. S...

Just wondering what your policy is for floating to other units. Especially for new hires...is there a minimum time frame they have to be out of orientation before they can be pulled to other floors? Ours is 30 days for an experienced nurse, and 90 da...

That is awesome! I need to suggest it to administration!!!

Not allowed to wear them at my work. Personally, I don't like how thet look anyways...

I agree that you are being set up for unsafe nursing practice. I have had multiple orientees at once (at one point I had three). This was on a med-surg floor at the time. It was very difficult to manage more than one orientee at a time. I felt somewh...

My hospital has recently implemented bedside report and almost every nurse HATES it!! Besides the obvious breech in privacy, it is very time consuming. As stated by others, there's only limited amounts of information you can say in front of a patient...

From ED to tele bed, just a transporter and the pt gets put on remote tele monitor that they stay on once on the floor. From ED to ICU, an RN plus portable monitor/defibrillator.

At my hospital, once we give a bed number out for an ED pt, the ED nurse has to wait 30 minutes to send them up. But, that way the floor nurse knows they have 30 minutes to get ready for a new admit. We don't get report over the phone anymore. It's a...

We recently started training nurses US guided PICC insertion. All nurses that are becoming "PICC certified" are trained in the use of the machine.

Mine shut off after 75 questions. I was SURE I failed miserably because I had to guess on what seemed like most of the test!! I went to my car and started crying. But, I passed. So, hang in there, you probably did fine.

At my hospital, you can also initiate ACLS protocol (CPR, defibrillation, meds, etc) as long as you are certified. An ER doc is responsible for coming to all floor codes and they usually show up pretty quickly. They take over the code when they arriv...

I think that most nursing/med assistant students have some aversion to at least one type of body fluid. (mine happened to be vomit!) But, the more you work with it/around it, you become used to it. Cleaning up some old man's poop doesn't seem to phas...