carolina4

well i'm not even going to bother arguing about this with you since you work in med/surg and really have no idea what you're talking about regarding how "stable" the pt is coming into the ER vs. several hours later when they're in the STICU....people with life threatening injuries don't just become "stable" over the course of X amt of hours..

Tooootally agree w/ the chest tube comment... and make sure when you admit a new trauma that the chest tube ISN'T CLAMPED! May sound crazy, but yesterday my new trauma came up from the bay with both chest tubes clamped.. If your pt goes to the OR or anywhere else where you hand off to anesthesia and they're on an importany gtt (i.e. esmolol for transsected aorta) have another bag sent up from pharmacy to have on hand for when they arrive back to the unit incase the one they went down w/ is BONE DRY. Bring a BP cuff & cord on road trips incase your pt rips out his art line I have many more, just gotta think...

the real learning & knowledge that you'll use in the ICU as a new grad won't come until you're working as a new grad in the SICU. promise. i am 8 months into my job in the SICU/trauma/burn ICU as a new grad and even though ppl told me this same thing time & time again, i didn't realize how true it is til now!

all our dressings are done using "clean" technique other than central lines/PICC & anything neuro. open belly or not, they aren't sterile. everytime the surgeon comes in the unit to take the original OR dressing off it's not done sterile. neither are any of our burns...or wound vacs...nothing is done sterile except central lines.

ok, meandragonbrett, thats nice of you to take "walk me through an assessment" to the max, but honestly i can not believe that however interviewed you had the nerve to make you do that!!! i would have FREAKED.

umm..its not really a situation worth reporting...it's a PCA..half an hour (or so) after 0400 she checked it? she's only human. i don't know...just not understanding why this is so devistating..

in our icu (surgical trauma burn) we run it in wide open using normal primary tubing, using gravity (aka climb on a chair and hang it waaay up high)...always flush after/between albumin infusions b/c albumin is super sticky. p.s. burn pts most definitely receive albumin wide open to gravity as well...unless it's the initial day of the burn or the one after

I work in a level one surgical trauma burn ICU and I graduated this past May. I am making it just fine. I am blessed that I have super intelligent experienced nurses that work with me and help me to understand things I don't know yet, all which have no problem doing so.

I'm a new grad in the surgical trauma burn ICU so, no, you don't HAVE to work anywhere else before.

LOL so true.... man oh man, sometimes family is the icing on the cake. calling q 2 hours to ask if the damn bolt is out of the pt's head and continuing to receive the SAME ANSWER. AHH so glad i'm home drinking wine.

I'm a new grad in the surgical trauma burn icu and i don't think i bit off more than i can chew...it's awesome. that being said, i definitely take advantage of my preceptors every single day while i'm still on orientation b/c they are SO smart, it's unreal. if you want to constantly learn and like putting pieces of the puzzle together, you'll be fine (probably). ps. i have 1.5 months of orientation left of 6, so i guess i'm on one of those units highly receptive to new grads (:

So very very true... hospitality will never go out of style down here (; If I was on my death bed I'd rather a nurse from GA but, like you said, that's probably d/t my upbringing down South!! btw, that's so sweet a/b the little lady on Thanksgiving (:

hmmm....are you secretly a teacher just posting on this board? i mean, you mention the love for teachers that doctors have in more than 1 post (1 is random enough...)

We crush pills, dissolve pills, open up capsules and put all the junk down the PEG tube with a good water flush. no big deal. if they can't take things by mouth, then there's a reason that tube is there.

traumas usually go to the SICU or TRAUMA ICU..not that often the MICU