kc ccurn

Poor thing! It may be teeth. Is she munching on her hand or drooling a lot? Have you tried ibuprofen to see if that will help her feel any better? I hope you can get some rest, that was great of your dad to come and get her. Sounds like a great grandpa!

If you think she will be up again shortly, you'll be okay giving it to her then. I would give it with food though. By giving her some food with her medication in the middle of the night this one time probably won't turn into a bad habit. Some medications can cause nausea or upset stomach if given by themselves and having a little food in their tummy helps to prevent this. Also, some medications absorbtion is altered depending on if there is food in the stomach or not. I would follow your physicians recommendations. You could give her a cracker with water/juice/milk whatever she'll take.

:chuckle :chuckle :chuckle That is so funny. My husband and I just got back from visiting Ucluelet and Vancover- what an absolutely beautiful area ! I have to laugh though because we were so "lost" when it came to the conversions....I didn't think that it was too bad out when the weather guy said it was only going to be 17 degrees. I was a little suprised to see surfers in the water when it was only 10 `C, and you could only see about 20 yards (don't know what that is in meters :chuckle ) because of the fog. They seemed to be having fun though!

Okay, I am going to sound biased but....I work at Swedish and feel that we have probably one of the best units in the city. We are not a dedicated CVICU. We are a 42 bed unit, seperated into 5 pods-8 beds on 4 pods, 10 beds on the 5th. We care for a variety of patients: post op OH, IABP, post cath lab intervention, we are a level I trauma hospital, pediatrics, surgical medical, neuro, neurosurgical and a comprehensive stroke center. We try to place our neurosurgical pt's in a specific pod, trauma in another but it depends on where we are open for admits. Our nurses love the variety and different experiences we receive caring for a variety of patients. I would imagine that with 17 years experience you would conceivably start in the high $20 per hour, more if you are per diem in leu of benefits. We have a weekend plan that gets more for shift differential and weekend differential. I think that the shift differential is 15% but don't quote me on that. Full and part time positions have benefits, you pay more if you are part time. Per diem doesn't have benefits but they get paid more hourly. We have time and a half for holidays. Over time is not mandatory but they have a pretty good incentive package for working over time. If you are scheduled 24 hrs a week and pick up an extra shift, it's for time and a half. Over 36 hrs gets double time for extra shifts. We also get 16 hrs paid education time a year along with paid time off and illness bank. We work 12 hour shifts. A few people work 8 hr days and others pick up the other 4 hrs to match it. As far a scheduling is concerned, we have a day shift scheduler and a night shift scheduler. My day shift scheduler is very flexible and willing to work with you as long as the shifts are covered. We are required to work every 3rd weekend. Our manager is AWESOME! I have worked with her for 12 years now. She still works at the bedside so she knows intimately what we are dealing with. As far as housing is concerned, it varies depending on what part of the city you are in. It can be anywhere from $150,000- 1 million. The average home sold last year was $250-275,000 range-ish though. -Kris

I wouldn't skip the third dose. I would give it to her at bedtime. Generally if you can give them 6-8 hrs apart that would be ideal-wake up time, lunch and dinner/bedtime. Hope she feels better soon!

I think that we have a responsibility to be compassionate to our families. If we can provide a private room on another floor for the family to have a more quiet area and privacy we should do that. But if it is felt that the pt's death is soon to come, don't disturb them! What a tragedy it is to disrupt the pt and the family at such a delicate time by moving them to another room. I once admitted a pt into the ICU from the ER who had died on the gurney in the hallway on the way down. What a terrible way to tell her daughter that her mom had died. Families deserve compassion and respect at this time, I am appalled (sp?) at the lack of compassion your manager has. :angryfire I hope that collectively, as a unit, you can all agree to how situations like this will be handled in the future. Good luck!

Poor kid, what kind of a life is he going to have? :angryfire

In the yellow tool bar at the top of the page, click on user cp, then on the left hand menu, click on edit avitar. This will give you a choice of avitars to choose from. I chose the tiger because he reminds of Tigger and the tiger from Calvin and Hobbes...sooo cute.

In nursing school, one of our instructors always told us that we didn't make mistakes, we had major learning opportunities. Some bigger than others. 12 years later I still think of that. With nursing, and life, it's not a matter of if you'll make a mistake, the question is when. Learn from your mistakes, be responsible and own up to it and most importantly learn from your mistake. That's one of the differences between a newer and a seasoned nurse. Get into a routine with medication delivery, assessments, VS, reassessments, charting, reporting, etc. Getting into a routine that is thorough makes it easier to listen to that small quiet voice in the pit of your stomach that is telling you something isn't right.

My heart goes out to you today, how sad for everyone!

hand lotion is an excellent idea!!

I'm at Swedish. Love it!

We get quiet an amount of food from families, which is thoughtful but my hips are starting to suffer-hee hee. Flowers are nice. I once got a gift certificate for a local salon for some pampering, that was nice. A letter written to the director and also the CNO with copies for everyone that has taken care of your dad is also a great idea!

I am glad to hear that you are thinking of moving to Denver. The mountains are gorgeous. There are so many things to do out here. I think though that if you are wanting to buy a lot of acreage, you may find that you are limited in the Denver area. Boulder is very expensive to buy in. You might find better luck in the Southwest Denver area, along with Colorado Springs and areas between. Also look into either Morrison, Conifer or Evergreen. These three are in the mountains a short drive to a majority of the city hospitals. You might also think about Loveland or Fort Collins. They are north of Denver but much better in price. Each have really good hospitals. As far as for NP, unfortunately we are a lot slower back here than the east coast in utilizing nurse practioners although the idea is catching on. By the time you get here, things will hopefully be better. Please feel free to email me with questions, [email protected]. If you would like, I know a good realtor who may be able to help you as well, he's a good friend of mine who sold my old house and helped me with our new house. [email protected]. My name is Kris and I am an ICU nurse at Swedish Med. Center in Englewood, starting NP school in a few weeks.

This does work well for finding hand veins. I also like foot veins. Whichever site you get, just make sure you secure it very well!!! I also try to NOT start an IV in their thumbsucking hand if possible.

hmm, having 3 young boys this is definitely good advice for any future bug incidents I might have. YUCK!

Finally, a diagnosis for my problems. I feel so much better. Is there a pill I can take?

The colorado state board of nursing web site has a link to colorado nursing schools and lists their pass rate, if they offer BSN vs ADN, etc. Transitioning from LPN to RN later may not necessarily be the fastest route. Hope it helps.

Yikes, what a nightmare. Our critical care unit has 5 "pods", 4 on the third floor, the 5th on the 4th floor. each pod has 8 beds. We have torn out and replaced carpeting in the nurses station, stripped and re-waxed/varnished what ever they do to the floors, and changed out bedside monitoring equipment a couple of times. It is a hassle. Basically what we do is the patient shuffle and will close a pod at a time to do what is needed in that pod. When done, we will open that pod, admit to it, transfer pt's from another pod, etc and start working on the next pod as soon as possible. Confusing-yes, pain in the keister-yes, is it possible-yes. It's just important that everyone is flexible.... how much remodeling are they going to do? It takes a lot of coordination and communication between the crew, director, charge nurse and staff.

gheez, took me long enough....... :rotfl:

It is exactly a control and ego thing. It is only some of our trauma surgeons. The others would much rather let the peds guys run the program. Like the above, it is not only about fluid, but also about vent management. It can get ugly and unfortunately sometimes the nurses and pt care get in the way. I wish the doc's could learn to play nice together.

I agree, chin to chest as much as possible to help make entering the esophagus easier. Once you get the tube past the nasopharyngeal curve you, the pt's usually automaticaly start to swallow and you can advance the tube pretty quickly.

What does she think? Has it been discussed with her? Maybe she is feeling way overstressed about reintigrating to nursing and doesn't know how to verbalize it? I agree that she needs to have a neuropsych eval done before making the decision. That way you've got an objective point of view.

Depends on the unit, the NICU doesn't take pt's that have been discharged home and then come back. in the ICU we take 6wks old and up, same on the peds floor. Any patient in the ICU under the age of 16 has to have a peds intensivist consult on the case which ticks off our trauma surgeons but they will have to get over it.....

Many times you have to set limits to their behavior. Sometimes my 2 year old behaves better than the patients. how many times have you removed their fingernails from your arm and tell them that it's not okay to pinch, swear, don't bite me....etc. If they don't change their behavior, tell them that you will be back when they choose to cooperate. If they don't want to cooperate, sometimes I will have the doc talk with them, or the family if possible. If not, well then, sedate/paralyze and intubate.....just kidding although we've all wanted to keep some pt's intubated until they are ready to go home :chuckle