CactusFlower

I am increasingly irritated in my current position regarding the management of ventilator patients. I am working in a small rual hospital, 6 bed ICU and have been told repeatedly by the respiratory personnel here it is no longer accepted practice to...

Sorry for your experience, but hang in there. You learned alot from this patient, and recieved some very good advice and thoughts from the posts here. Personally, I have worked on pt's that there was no limit to the levo. I've gone over 250 mcg/min...

Really enjoy the input here--and sometimes miss the days of the Swan. Yes, yes, we can go on and on about not having them used. It all boils down to the patient responded and got better. Good job!

Thanks guys for all the input. This whole situation boiled down to the RT not suctioning, the nurse (me) suctioning. When the patient was suctioned for lots of secretions, it was an appropratiate intervention. To justify not suctioning (ever) by c...

This particular patient had a very big pneumonia and pulmonary edema. She was a postoperative abdomen and did not do well. I haven't seen any current literature that supports the stance of the Respiratory Dept here, so I will continue. Thanks for...

I just posted a thread asking if it is current practice not to suction. I have been lectured extensively by the RT's at my current hospital that current practice is not to suction, much less break the circuit. I suction, when needed all the time. I...

The most recent rationale was that "current research states that one should not suction and the circuit should not be broken". I am not a nurse that will call respiratory when my patient needs suctioning, so if it offends, that is not my purpose. Cl...

All the above posts are excellent, but I am a career nurse and I just wish nursing would get off the word "care"! Just is too cutesy for me anymore. We have struggled as a profession and to this day still have a difficult time with just the definit...

I had a very strange experince not so long ago while recerting for PALS. A video was being shown of an infant in very obvious distress--the instructor hands me this baby mannequin and says "ask a question, give a treatment or pass." I sat there for...

Any of you starting your own artlines? At my current facility this is under the realm of respiratory. Have had too many bad experiences for some reason and I want to get my hospital to get the P&P started with an instructional program for the IC...

Hi TNnursejane. I went thru burnout and didn't realize it until it was too late. I worked many years in an intense environment until my mother suffered a debiliating stoke. It was hard to be a caretaker on my days off and then go back into the tren...

I need this small hospital. Coming from my background I am running to them. I want to be circled. As a nurse, I have seen Camelot once. I am looking for it again.

I am a nurse. I have done alot of different things being a nurse. I believe I can rob Petter to pay Paul, I can certainly make anything work with duct tape, and I always look at the clock and say--"I can do anything for four hours!" I have even--w...

Flaerman, my thoughts are with you during this troubling time. As for me and my most stressful moment as a nurse--there have been way too many. I have taken pause in my career in nursing over the last two years. I relocated to a rural environment a...

I am a long time ICU nurse facing floating to a medsurg floor with the expectation of taking a full assignment. Just the opposite from you. PO pills--if it hasn't been IV, I haven't been given it--ever! Many ICU environments can be "balls to the ...

sbadalamente, you hit the key. The CNA's at this facility are entrenched, some have worked at this little hospital 20-30+ years. They "run the floor" and believe they can make or break the nurse. Why we have to play this game, I don't know, but I ...

I moved out of a big, inner city, level 1 trauma, teaching facility--it just came to me one day, "what am I doing here?" I was standing in a crowded ED hallway assisting a flock of sleep deprived wackos crack one more chest. Our facility was bulgin...

I am new to the boards and totally impressed with this thread. There is no union in my state or sufficient organization that can echo my disenchantment with my professional frustrations. -jt, you are fighting my battle. I am compelled to ask, how ...

I am new to the discussion boards, but have browsed thru many times as a quiet observer. Today, I need to get something purged from my soul--I must put it into words and hopefully make some sort of sense to it. "It"" has haunted me, coming into my ...

I am saddened to hear of the conditions in which you are beginning your practice. There is alot of anguish in your words, but I hear loud and clear that you want to be a nurse and you want to do a good job. I think many of us in this profession a...

Putting this in writting has been powerful. I am at the crossroads of my career, I think that I have felt it for quite some time. When I pause to reflect, and re-read the words I first wrote to you in a dark, and depesate moment, I see that I said ...

I was surprised to see a reply so soon. Thank you all for your kind attention and soothing words. This situation was a tough one. Yes, the family was involved and anesthesia brought in the ethics committee before they would do the first surgery. ...