emt2rn82

It's the same scope, I second the Allheart.com vote

The only watch I wear is a fossil, have many different ones but they have wide bands, a second hand, and keep time.

That happened to me as well with the 12 hour shifts. Granted you get 4 days off a week, i found myself sleeping most of it away, and not having energy to do anything else. I changed to 8 hour shift with everyother weekend rotation and found it be much better, got into a "normal" sleep pattern and have energy again. Just my opinion.

Shouldn't be anything new, BCLS= BLS CPR. You should be fine.

if you are licensed in PA, go here http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/gateway/PTARGS_0_159698_742027_0_0_18/FAQ%20RNce.pdf this has all the information and what is approved. Hope this helps

I have found if I dissolve the miralax first like 5 minutes before I add the thickening agent the thickener after the miralax is totally dissolved. It is thick and not too chunky atleast tolerable. hope this helps

The soft diaphrams are use alone, they fit over the chest piece. I have had better experience with the hard diaphrams. I hear like an echo effect with the soft ones. The hard diaphram is louder than the soft ones. Also try adjusting the ear pieces a little bit or try different eartips, something isn't fitting right. Hope this helps.

6-8 patients isn't bad for night shift on med-surg, the hospital where i came from staffs one nurse 8-10 patients on nights. the charting is very redundant. Hang in there. You'll be able to streamline better and able to spend more time with the patients the longer your around. The charting will get quicker. Good luck

I always use the bell for blood pressures, for me any ways I can hear a faint blood pressure almost all of the time. the bell never failed me yet

American heart Association allows you to take the theory portion of the class on the internet but your skills must be verified by an Instructor, I know in my area the only CPR that most healthcare facilities acknowledge are from AHA healthcare provider or ARC professional rescuer.

In my institution if we have stable blood pressures we do them weekly. If a resident isn't on any blood pressure medicine we do them monthly. If the blood pressures aren't stable then we keep the hold parameters with each dose. hope this helps

I'm ENFJ, I'm in LTC, Pre-hospital, Cardiac Critical Care. Alittle of everything I guess. LOL

You also might want to look at the CMS center for medicare/medicaid they have information about staffing levels in every nursing home. Also look at the department of health website for information. Good luck

Actually I found that Kila Lab stethoscope are a real close second to the littman cardiology III and for 29 dollars. I just bought one this month and I like it but everyone ears are different. I got mine on Ebay from stethoscope r us. Just my 2 cents.

I find nursing is where I belong, It is just taken awhile for me to find my niche in nursing. Started off in the hospital setting bounced around unit after unit never truely happy in that atmosphere. Left the hospital and went onto long term care and pre-hospital found that to be more home like to me. I love providing care while making someones day and being able to joke around with the residents, dancing with them in the halls. Although there is a ton of paperwork, the paperwork cannot come between the nurse patient relationship, I am truely happy with the career decision I have made, and see myself teaching and coaching and more likely being an advanced practice nurse.

Having worked both of them, In the Surgical Cardiac ICU, i found nursing kinda like a PACU, you have the patient for 24 hours, extubate them within 4-6 hours after surgery, watching for fluid deficit, maintaing tight blood pressure parameters, surgical wounds, monitoring chest tube drainage looking for an increase of drainage, maintaining a stable cardiac rhythm more often A-fib with a rapid vent response, and PVC's. early ambulation, very intense nursing during the first 12 hours, but normally settles after that unless the patient is sick, occasionally will have one with a balloon pump, or a VAD. In the medical cardiac ICU I find that we get the people from the cardiac cath lab, groin management, blood pressure with less tight controls. more medical management, more medications, CHF exacerbations, VT, V V fib s/p arrests, totally different relm, I have noticed that it depends on the nurse if they prefer Medical patients over surgical patients, For myself I have found that I prefer the medical population, because every person is treated with the same but different treatments and medications, while in the surgical side is more "cookie cutter" in nature, very protocol driven, if a happens then do A,B,C. Atleast in my institution. Hope I helped out alittle.

I have to agree with you. I hear it all the time at work and people just wanted to put in their 1 year of ICU experience just to get into the CRNA course. It happens most of the time on the unit I came from. It was quite sad to me that people went to nursing school not for the patients and the care, the giving, the empathy that a nurse gives, but in it for the moeny that comes with being an advanced nurse, This almost sickeneds me. Sorry about my rant.

Thanks to all

Her patch was placed two days ago, she is a renal patient, and we change our patches every 72 hrs. Thanks for the reply

I need some help with my thought process. Today I had a resident with deteriorating mental status, beginning of shift was awake and mildly confused. Normal base line is awake and alert orientated x3. Started on fentanyl patch 2 days prior. Midway thro shift noticed increase in confusion and started neuro checks, later in the shift resident is with increase in lethargy and becoming stuporus, increase confusion orientated to person only. Notified MD to remove fentanyl patch, fentanyl patch removed and area cleaned. patient back to baseline by end of shift, But requesting opiates for pain management. I was relucantent to give the opiates due to the events prior, but the resident insisted and become aggressive when I voiced concern. I gave her percocet x2 tabs as she wanted, still not wanting to give them to her, I did a complete neuro check and vitals, everything was back to baseline. I was just wondering if anyone has anything else they would have done, or maybe something I missed all feedback is great. Thanks

Hi I'm new to LTC and am wondering if anyone has any references for documentation help, mostly involving Medicare/Medicaide charting. So far I will only have 1 day on Desk orientation and am fearful of not documenting everything that needs to be documented. I received a small book on all the paperwork for the agency but nothing on the makings of a nursing progress note. I work in Cardiac Surgical ICU presently and know how to chart on the critically ill, but am a little wheary on charting on the "healthy" in the nursing home. Any advise would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance

I just started in LTC this week. I came from Cardiac Surgical Critical Care Unit, where I am used to having 1-2 patients. I had my first med-pass yesterday with 21 residents, I tried to prioritize my med pass with the people who have appointments in the morning, and who I thought based on the kardex card would be the quickest to dispense to, I am just wondering it took me approximately 2 and a half hours to pass the am meds. guess my concern is that am I prioritizing my med pass correctly, and any hints that I can get the medications passed with out being technically late on 3 residents. Will this get easier as I become more custom to the residents and med-pass routine. Thanks