bakpacker13

Hey, Have any nurses participated in Doctors Without Borders or the Mercy Ship? I was just wanting a nurse perspective. How did you prepare, where did you find classes for learning about tropical illnesses? Did you like it?

when you and the rest of the nurses want mexican and margaritas at 0800. NO LUCK!!!

Until pts. are held accountable for their actions. I'll tell you what I tell every new employee. Learn to duck. Never wake a patient by touching any part of their upper body. If they don't wake to your voice, touch their feet and be wary (feet can kick). Know where the pt is in the room at all times. And always keep your eye on them when giving medication or starting IV (we just had a phlebotomist have her jaw broken when an pt. punched her while she was drawing blood)! ~You are there to care for, not to be a verbal or physical punching bag!

Sorry to tell you this but you are going to find nurses that will make you work life horrible. The most you can do is do you job and care for your pts. I've changed shifts before to get away from the drama/politics and I was so much happier on the new shift. That is something to look at different shifts have different personalities.

Five questions to answer: 1) What type of setting do you perform nursing? Surgical with medical overflow 2) What type of nursing care do you perform - team nursing, primary nursing, or other? When we have the staff it's team nursing, more often than not ALL PRIMARY 2) How many patients do you care for usually per shift? Typically 4-5 3) What is the maximum amount of patients do you care for? 7 pts. primary care 4) What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? My fellow co-workers, other nursing friends/family, and sit down and take a deep breath and then get back out there.

Alright, I wear scrub shirts with 2 pockets. The scrub tops with the pocket up on the left upper chest are crap, whenever you bend over to do anything everything falls out. Now back to the 2 pockets: in the right I have my keys (med-box, PCA, random locked doors on unit, mini-sharpie pen) it actually has a pocket face shield, then I always carry a dry erase marker to update pts. boards, at least 2 pens (different colors(write report in on color, changes in another)), in the left pocket is typically paper tape, some 2x2 gauze, alcohol swabs, 10cc NS syringe. I also prefer the cargo pants. In the Left hip pocket I carry my wallet/money, in the right pocket is were I attach our work phone (so telemetry can call with changes, lab, MDs, other nurses, and veterans can get ahold of us). In the right cargo pocket is where I have little pocket organizer (in this I have a pair of scissors, and 2 hemostats (very useful to disconnect those stubborn/tight IV tubes)). The left cargo pocket is typically stocked with what the pt load looks like. Also I have one of those clip boards for nurses with little cheat info and a calculator (this is were I put my report sheets) And of course the stethescope, the neck is the best other wise it gets left in rooms or other random place. The retractable ID holder works great and stays out to the way most of the time.

Thank you everyone that has given tips and ideas of how to report off. I have been in a few more codes and have gotten better at providing information to the RR team and the MDs. Luckily all pt. info is on the computer so more often than not, now, I just drag the computer in the room and can now rattle of more info even if I have only had the pt. for 6mins (Yes it has happened). So thank you again!

i have been a nurse for less than a year on surgical floor that more often than not gets medical clients. i have already had to call a few code blues and rapid responses. however, when i call the code or rapid response, i am never quiet sure what to tell the doctors when they finally get there. example : doing primary care on 3 clients from 1930 to 2359 all stable and doing well. however, at midnight got report on 2 additional clients that i had never seen before. one client was there for pre-op for a lap chole (this guy was basically a walkie talkie), the second client however was my main event of the night. when i first got report i was told that he came in 5 days ago from the er with a strangulated hernia, he was pod #5 and had previously been in 5 point restraints and had a sitter with him, he was currently allowed to ambulate ad lib. the client also had a history of etoh, his last drink was 5-6 days ago. currently the client had already took out his iv x2 during days and evening. the previous nurse got another iv started and had just started to give him the start of his 2200 medications. when i first assessed him, about 0015, he was a little hostile however i had expected it given his history. all of his vitals were within normal limits bp116/74, hr 115 (normal for him x5days), rr 16, p02 93% on room air, and a/o x 2 (person and place). by the time i got his 3rd ivpb he was stating that he was going home in the morning and he was not going to be taking anymore medication, i had his last ivpb to give but he refused to let me start the new bag (i educated the reason for the ivpb and what it was for, but he still refused), i consulted my charge and she stated to chart it as refused and just keep watching him. he later took out his iv again and refused to let me start another, i documented and kept going in offering to start another iv. around 0500 he agreed to let me start an iv, he was (i don't know how to say this) he was acting weird!!!. at first i thought he was just playing around but when i said he was acting like a silly monkey. he started chanting "i'm a monkey, i'm a monkey." and other off the wall comments. something was not right. i called my charge and another nurse (who had him the night before) in to talk to him immediately. he was no longer able to say his name, only my name and he had urinated all over the bed, pupils were sluggish to respond, his vitals were all within 1-2 points of the previous vital check, his blood sugar was 105, physically he was fine, however mentally he was not there. i tried calling his doctor twice but she didn't call me back so my charge said to call the rapid response team. when they showed up i told them his vitals, the surgery he had, what had happened during my shift, but they kept looking at me like they wanted more information. i had this guy for 5hrs between dealing with him and my other 4 clients, all primary care, i didn't have time to sit down and go through past charting, i didn't know what else to tell them other than what i had seen during the last 5 hours. when it was all done and over with the abg c/ lytes were normal except his k+ was 2.7, the cbc was all normal, and here's the real kicker he was back to his cantankerous self saying his name and where he was, like nothing ever happened. now to end this long winded scenerio, what else could i have told the doctors, is there a checklist that i can go through to give the doctors all the information that they need? i just want to be able to give the information in short effective manner.