luckynurse_1234

Thanks for both of your advice and kind words. I met with my scheduling manager about my concerns, and unfortunately only doing 8 hour shifts won't be an option but they did say for my upcoming 4 shifts in a row (3 12's plus 1 8) maybe I could be on...

Hello all! I am a new-ish (3 years experience) nurse in a CVICU. Long story short, I have been away from the bedside for six months due to an ankle injury/surgery/complicated rehab. I return to the bedside in a couple of weeks and I am honestly ter...

Hey all! I am a relatively new grad on med-surg-peds-telemetry unit. Lately, a lot of more experienced nurses have been telling me just to give the PRN meds early if the patient really needs it. As in "his pain was going up really quickly, so I just ...

Had that happen to me a while back and to make things worse I had a student with me...luckily the patient did fine and the docs joked "well, they must have known they were ready to have the tube out!"

On our unit a full patient load is 2 patients. Charge nurse takes 1 patient, does daily chart audits and sometimes acts as the unit secretary in addition to the usual charge nurse stuff.

I have had a very bad experience this week (not sure if qualifies as bullying or just back-biting) and am hoping this is not common in the ICU, or nursing in general. I had a demanding, substance-abusing patient who made for a busy shift. I survived ...

Hi all! I have just started a new job in a TICU at a Level 1 trauma hospital. I am still in orientation but I feel like it's going to be a constant battle to get all the "tasks" done on my shift (labs, meds, assessments) on really critical patients. ...

I just started in trauma so I bought Nurse to Nurse Trauma Care: Expert Interventions by Donna Nayduch, and I highly recommend it. I already owned Critical Care Nursing: Demystified and the Little ICU Book by Paul Marino. For me, personally, I though...

I think I am still adjusting from my previous PACU experience; there it seemed so easy to get all your charting done and everything wrapped up nicely. Unfortunately, the expectation is you will chart everything within an hour of it happening or you h...

Thanks all! My current brain has boxes for UOP, temp, and BG; I might have to add some for neuro checks. My preceptor said I need practice getting everything done efficiently which I should get by the end of my orientation.

Hey all! I am orienting to ICU with a few years of Med-Surg/PACU under my belt. This is going to sound silly, but so far I have only ever taken care of 1 patient at a time. Now, I will have to start taking care of 2 patients at a time in order to pro...

Thanks for your suggestions! In my facility they do walking report and at first I thought it was awkward but I guess at least you know they're alive and in no acute distress. I really appreciate all the help and encouragement I get here.

Our surgical recovery is split into two areas for ambulatory procedures: acute anesthesia recovery in a gurney, then we move patients into chairs before they go home. I am curious how long patients in other hospitals spend in acute recovery i.e. the ...

Ah, I was wondering about the "nausea and pain free" part. A few nurses that worked in other hospitals told me sometimes you have to send the patient home puking because they won't feel better until they sleep it off and get the anesthsesia out of th...

I don't know if you can ship your car because COT and NTP are considered "tdy" i.e. a short temporary training. If you are staying at the base where you are doing NTP, then you can probably ship your car. At COT, you are not allowed to touch your car...

Hello everyone! I will soon be training to become a CCU nurse coming from 2 years experience on a low-acuity Med-Surg and 6 months of PACU. I am wondering if anyone has any advice or if there' s anything you wish you would have known when you started...

Aaah scary when the MDs don't know what's going in; I guess there's new docs in ICU too. Thanks for the advice. Did you go in as a new grad?

I am a new-ish nurse (2 years) and I have long-standing anxiety about screwing up in my nursing practice. When I was in nursing school, I had nightmares about being unprepared during clinicals and getting yelled at. Last night, I had a nightmare that...

I am not a faceless robot that exists to wait on you hand and foot! I bother to learn your name and treat you like a human being so please do the same!

Today, i missed the fact a patient had a JP drain. I am a newish med-surg murse (1.5 yrs) and just switched to PACU. This is my 1st week off orientation the OR told me the patient had 2 lap sites and i looked and saw them so i didn't look any further...

Thanks guys i feel like now i will alll but strip search the patient it was a rookie mistake and probably won't ever forget it :) and several people told me don't ever take the OR's word on dressings!

Silly question: would you give insulin to a patient who was NPO before surgery? It seems like the answer could be obvious, but I am feeling a little guilty. Scenario: Mr. Smith was an elderly, diabetic patient admitted at 3am for SBO on a busy night ...

Scary. Although I do notice the same nurses get tagged in discrepancies over and over again in my facility. Not that I think they're drug-using, but they tend to be the ones that get in a hurry and take 2 doses when they put they're taking out 1 (or ...

I was just wondering how many people work on a Medical-Surgical floor that split up medical and surgery patients? Where I went to nursing school, the whole 3rd floor was called Medical-Surgical but one side only had medical and the other side only ha...

Agree. You can always request an overseas tour since you are eligible after two years TOS. Good luck!