Carrig RN

CVICU will serve you much better as a CRNA.

I just passed yesterday. Used Pass CCRN question bank, Kaplan book, and AACN online review. Overall, it was difficult but just doing practice questions over and over again was the most helpful.

Our docs/NPs ultrasound the IVC to monitor fluid status. Are you sure that's not what your's are doing?

Amniodarone is my pet peeve. It's AMIodarone people.

We're using standard wall suction... How do these shortages keep coming up?

For airway I would probably do impaired gas exchange r/t COPD. Also, why were they intubated? Mental status change, blood loss? Good things to know to ensure you're finding the right care plan. Risk for bleeding and risk for infection I agree with.

I'm taking this class at the end of October. Any tips?

I don't know how much is delivered but I think adult ambus are 2000ml in the whole bag. Clearly we don't deliver that much volume - but a place to start...

Also protects your eyes from splash back of blood when some is Hep C or HIV pos.

To assess corneal reflexes I start non-invasive and become more invasive if I cannot elicit a response. I start by touching their eyelashes - if they try to blink they have an intact corneal reflex. From there I do saline drops in the eyes and if that doesn't work I do the cotton wisp. The eyelash or saline drops almost always work if their reflex is intact.

I line up and connect as many 3-way stopcocks as I need for all my pressors and connect them all to the port on the CVL with a 10ml/hr carrier behind them. Everything runs into its own stopcock and the carrier brings then to the pt a little faster.

My hospital uses the arctic sun. I love it. You set it and it does everything automatically. Pts on the cooling protocol for cardiac arrest are usually 1:1.

You forgot the briefly asystolic patient when someone flushes the line without withdrawing the drug first...

$5.00 for evenings $7.00 for nights $4.00 for weekends

There were 35 or 36 that started in the ICU program.

I guess I should give a little more backstory to this. It's a brand new 18-bed Med/Surg ICU that opened in a large teaching hospital. We get everything from sepsis to large traumas. More than 1/2 the staff began as new graduates last April and we just don't have enough experienced nurses to keep charge staffed appropriately and that's how I was asked. I do have management experience in other jobs, I'm 27 years old and nursing is a second career.

I haven't heard anything about it. Most of the ICUs are fully staffed right now except our MICU but they just hired a bunch of people. I don't see anything about them opening another residency for the new graduating class but if I hear anything I will post it here.

I've been a nurse for just under a year, new graduate in the ICU and was asked by my nurse manager to begin training for the role of resource nurse. Any tips/tricks to dealing with the politics as resource/charge and any things to keep in mind as I make this transition?

Auscultation when placed, usually hooked to suction to view contents, confirmed by CXR/KUB. After confirmed by KUB, q4h aspirates/residuals and auscultation of air.

I take all the air out of the balloon, lock the hub, empty the syringe of air, reattach the syringe and then open the hub again. This way air can escape if the balloon did not deflate all the way but the patient can't roll over and inflate the balloon because there is no air in the syringe.

ICU: Q1h VS and I&O if stable, if titrating drips VS with every change in drips (I usually write the pressure that made me make the change and then a f/u set to show the effect); Q4 body balance; Qshift head-to-toe assessment or with major change in pt condition.

Jan 7 by Alvindudley I saw a picture of all the new folks who participated in this program on facebook. Interestingly they were all young, pretty and white. Interesting, huh? That post which is on the previous page.

That's a ridiculous statement. We are a diverse group ranging in age from 20s-40s. The fact that most new graduate nurses are young seems to have escaped your attention. And in fact we have several graduates who are from other countries. Your comment is just plain ignorant.

I was one of the graduates of the program and can say the experience I gained was invaluable. All people who completed the program are now working in an ICU at MGH, independently and at full RN pay. While it was difficult to make ends meet during the program, looking back I wouldn't do it any other way. The 30 or so of us that made it through the program are all competent nurses and work as a team in a way I haven't seen very often. I am so grateful for the faith that MGH put in me and that I had the guts to put my faith in them. I can now say that I have worked at one of the best hospitals in the country for almost a year, feel competent in my practice, and appreciated by my employer; things that unfortunately not many new graduates from the past few years can say. If anyone has any other questions about the program, feel free to ask. I would be happy to respond.

And when that happens, document, document, document. CYA as my preceptor always says :)