Xiomara

I definitely think you need to pick your battles with the whole incident report issue. I come across things almost every day I could 'write up' if I wanted to. . . missed/forgotten medications, unbathed patients, writing the blood glucose from 2am as the 6am fingerstick.... But I pick my battles, I save writeups for errors that truly harm/could have harmed the patient. Example: the DKA 20-year old in a coma who came up from the ER on an incorrectly programmed insulin gtt. It said 12 units an hour, she was actually getting less than one. That, I wrote up. I would never have written up something as minimal as piggybacking D5 at KVO into blood tubing. Against policy? Sure. Could it have harmed the patient? No. That's where you go to the nurse and say, "Hey, you probably didn't realize, but...." Call me ballsy but after a few years you learn when to use professional judgement with your coworkers.

I am available for an interview, although it seems like you have enough candidates so far. I will be available by phone after 8pm ET tonight. (working shifts you see) Xiomara

Old Laura Gasparis videos I borrowed from a classmate, the AACN core curriculum, accompanying questions, and Gasparis' question book (also borrowed, and a few years old). I was a cardiac nurse before ICU. It's just that I'm surprised how I could be a nurse for so long and still so much of the material is brand new to me.

Perhaps because the same 'critical thinking' that makes good nurses makes us extrapolate and assume things about the people we come in contact with. Perhaps because as nurses, we get burned by patients and their families on a daily bases, and it's our armor against that. Perhaps it's our way of coping with what can be a daunting profession. I find that myself (and some coworkers) often become judgemental when we are confronting sad situations that are difficult to make sense of. It is especially hard at my hospital, where the average educational level and upbringing of our patients and their families is very different from that of the staff.

I am less than a week away from sitting for my CCRN. I have used up my extensions and can't procrastinate any more. I consider myself intelligent and a good test taker but am still getting many of the practice questions wrong. Any tips from those out there who have taken the exam? I have 7 years as a nurse and 1.5 years of ICU experience. But my ICU is a small, medical ICU and we don't see a lot even though in Baltimore City. Thank you in advance for your responses -Mara