WalkieTalkie

WalkieTalkie RN

CVICU

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All Content by WalkieTalkie

  1. Doctor as a patient

    I call my patients who have PhDs in other areas Mr. and Mrs., so why is it necessary to call someone "doctor" unless they specifically request it? I don't want to be referred to as Nurse so and so...
  2. Bad night last night

    I love those kinds of patients... keeps you on your toes. After you take a few of them you will learn how to deal with the multitude of interventions, meds, treatments, and whatever else the patient...
  3. Magnet and the "Hilton Hospital" Mentality

    To me Magnet is a PR stunt. I haven't noticed anything different about our hospital since getting it... the only slight difference is that they ask yearly if we are ASN or BSN and if we are working...
  4. "Spoiling" patients?

    For some reason this reminds me of when I was in college and someone put regular dish soap into our industrial dishwasher. The e-mail we got said "While the intentions may have been good, the results...
  5. Gift for a preceptor?

    Gift cards are always a good option, but I never feel anything more than a nice "thank you" card is necessary... especially from students since I know they don't have any $$$ right after their...
  6. can the family reverse a patient's decision?

    How sad I've seen this happen at my hospital
  7. This is how my hospital does it... We do have enough perfusionists available to continue a regular OR schedule, but they are frazzled after a few days of
  8. Did any of you find Tele interesting?

    You might like something more cardiac related such as a cardiac progressive care unit (CPCU). We have one of these at my hospital and they mostly get either post-op (but mostly stable) CABGs, valve...
  9. I think that adult ECMO will not be widely used for the treatment of flu as the benefits of treatment are limited to a very select patient population. I think my hospital has 4 Centri Mag units that...
  10. blood administration

    I routinely give PRBCs without a pump using wide-bore tubing and a pressure bag, if necessary. Depends on if the patient is crashing or not and other contraindications, such as CHF and renal
  11. I know that just for a patient (non-isolation) to occupy one of our ICU rooms, they are charged something like $900 a day. That doesn't include anything else but the room. Throw in monitoring, a vent,...
  12. Incorporating ECCO

    I can tell you how not to do this. When I took ECCO, we were required to take it online in our own spare time. We were not paid to take it, so most of us tried to take it at work as opposed to at...
  13. Enjoy complications...which unit would be best?

    ER or pretty much any number of ICUs... I work in the CVICU, and you never know when your patient who is doing seemingly well will suddenly start bleeding out, develop an arrhythmia, or any other...
  14. Low Platelet Count

    Did he receive heparin at all for the CRRT or for any other
  15. How high have you titrated levophed?

    I've had some patients who I've titrated up to only 18-20 mcg/min without any real change in pressure. I've also had patients where I've titrated up to 30 mcg/min and had increased pressures. It...
  16. hospital policy on Facebook, cellphones= suspension

    I know of a couple of techs in our ER who got fired for uploading stupid (non-patient related, but taken in the hospital) pics on Facebook. Just don't do
  17. Silly reason for ER visit?

    Buddy tape it and call it a
  18. Working with the mentally ill...No, not patients, other RN's

    Yeah, I'm one of those ICU & AD/HD types :) I'm not usually a butt,
  19. Gender and Pain Management

    How well does this work? It seems like a great idea in
  20. How do all the experienced ICU nurses feel about....

    Really? I was simply trying to emphasize that it's not necessary to have experience to be a good nurse as a new grad in the ICU. I'm certainly not condescending to floor nurses, I just recognize...
  21. breakaway lanyards?

    Lanyards? LOL, I quit wearing those the first time I bent over and dipped mine in a pile of
  22. Support for life support?

    I sooooo wish I could have said this to a few
  23. Question about C-diff

    "How is C. difficile-associated disease usually treated? In 23% of patients, C. difficile-associated disease will resolve within 2-3 days of discontinuing the antibiotic to which the patient was...
  24. Am I being too sensitive?

    I like the ad, and I agree, whoever designed it probably has no idea what a trach or a PEG looks like. Just looks like deflating a beach ball or something to me, but I can see where you are coming...
  25. So, Can I do this someday?

    I started as a new grad in the CVICU. I had previously worked many years as a tech, with experience in a nursing home, SICU, and ER. I personally love taking care of the really sick patients. If...