BlessedMomRN

Yikes, my least favorite part of caring for an intubated patient! We are a little country hospital and bag them all the way there, during the procedure, and back. We don't have port-o-vents. Everytime I see an order for a CT for one of my intubated patient I wish the physician would participate in getting them through the process. I think they would rethink if the CT is really worth putting the patient through the struggle to get it done. Especially my 85+ olds. By the way, it takes at least 4 people. RR to bag, One to manage the IV lines & poles and two to drive the bed. All 4 need to transfer on-off the CT bed. All while praying we aren't yanking out a line or tube somewhere along the way.

This is a tough position for you because even on med/surg blood is given routinely. I think you need to discuss this with the elders of your congregation and come to terms with if it is a violation to give blood. I work with a JW nurse and she has come to the conclusion that although she would never receive a transfusion, she feels ok giving a transfusion. I've read the scriptures that JW's stand on and they are indeed compelling. Even though I don't share the same faith ideas, I understand your feelings because I would never be able to participate in an abortion due to my Christian beliefs. I think that these are the times our faith is tested and we do have to pray and come to some sort of peace. Perhaps the Lord has another field within nursing He wants you to serve in. Blessing to you! :-)

You must, must, must report this to your occupational health department and to your OB. You did not do anything wroing, this is a bad needle design. Get the healthcare you deserve now; especially for your baby! Please keep us posted on your progress! :-)

I've seen fellow nurses get a flash, but once cath is introduced and flushed, no blood return. The IV still worked fine. I've been told that the cath could be against the vein wall. By the way, I'm a three year old ICU nurse and stink at starting IVs. The patients usually come up with an IV in from ER before being admitted to my unit. I try every time, but frequently don't get it. Then one of my fellow nurses start a 20 gauge with their eyes closed.

A different perspective... I know some physicians that are irritated that PhD prepared nurses are referred to as Dr. Smith.

i was 43 when i graduated from nursing school. i'm living the dream as an icu nurse! with age comes life experience. get your degree; the opportunities are so wide open to the type of nursing available, you can keep changing careers and never leave the profession! god bless your endeavors!

agreed. i read over and over that nurses don't get the respect we deserve for our clinical expertise, yet i see nurses running around in cutsie scrubs. i'm a big fan of solid navy blue, gray, black, and green. i wish we had a standard neutral color in our unit for both male and females.

Any doctor that sits at my work station the moment I stand up to answer a call light; logs me off in the middle of what every I'm doing and pushes my stuff to the side so they can log on. There is a doctor's office complete with computer and printers about 15 steps away from the nurses station. Then, they leave without logging off.

University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh BSN. Had to have a Bachelors,required sciences and a CNA to apply. $22,000 tuition only. Classes were online and all clinicals except the first were one on one precepted with a working RN in 4 to 6 week increments. I literally got an ulcer during the year but in the end it was well worth it. We got to choose our last clinical. I chose ICU and was hired right into the unit at the end of my clinical. I've been there two years and am really happy.

Unless the patient could walk on their hands, I'd tell the doctor who wrote the order that they may ambulate the patient.

i come from a low-tech country hospital which is one of 15 hospitals in a large system. we ship many patients to our mother ship which is a huge hospital equipped with state of the art medical technology and cutting edge procedures. however, my little hospital does a great job with copders, chfers, pneumonias, etc. we don't do cardiac caths, swans, etc. the most technological monitor i have in my icu is cvps (our motto is "yesterday's technology tomorrow.") with that being said, my tip is to watch urine output closely. it is often the first sign that the patient is crumping and it is really the only way in my low-tech icu environment that we can directly measure profusion. the kidneys are the most sensitive organs to profusion changes. if they aren't getting properly profused, urine output starts to drop subtly. if the kidneys are getting fed, neither are the rest of the patient's vital organs. don't get me wrong, i love my monitors, cvps, etc., but a patient's foley can be my best friend. also, with hypotensive patients, the map is more important than the s/d bp numbers.

Oops, looks like I need to use spell check prior to posting!

A tip... When a doctor tells you "stop calling me about this patient," (and you will hear that at some point), state "Let me repeat this order I'm writing on the chart... Stop calling me about this patient. Do I have that correct doctor?" I wish I could take credit for that brilliant statement, but a seasoned co-worker taught me that. I've only had to use it once, but it worked brilliantly.

I love my job too! I'm 45 years old and have only been a nurse for 2 years I was hired directly into ICU on the weekend program. I hate the alarm at 0500 and lay in bed for 30 seconds going through a list of deathly diseases that I must have which should keep me from getting out of bed; but once I get past that, I'm up and happy to be going to work. The only thing I have a hard time with is phlem I can handle poop, blood, and varies other bodily fluids, but yucky phlem still makes me gag.

Be careful about Wikipedia. The info is not always accurate.

We swab every admission to ICU. The med/surg floor swabs those with certain high risk factors. Once a positive comes back we put them in contact isolation. A local healthcare system stopped swabbing and decided it was too expensive to put everyone who has MRSA in their nares in isolation. I think it's going to be called normal flora pretty soon.

Thanks for asking! I was doing my first CNA clinic in a nursing home. I was assigned to bath a male resident with dementia. I was doing pericare and he reached out to me and started rubbing my hair like he was fantasizing. I almost puked! I ran out of the room and couldn't figure out what to do. The patient was MY INSTRUCTOR'S FATHER! I decided to ask another student to help me finish the bath. I was so grossed out. I couldn't bring myself to discuss it with my instructor because it was her father.

"being a fairly new nurse, i am wary of what i can and cannot do (what my scope is). i am even wary to recommend otc drugs. then the nurse that i was training with was telling me that if a patient calls in with chest pain, you can recommend that they try maalox to see if that helps, while you inform the md" if i had a patient call in with chest pain i would recommend taking an aspirin if they are not allergic and call 9-1-1-. i suggest never telling someone to take maalox and wait for a doctor's call if they use the words "chest pain."

There was a cat in a nursing home that always snuggled up with patients that ended up dying within a week. The staff starting notifiying family based upon the cat's behavior that their loved ones were near the end of life. The theory was there was an odor he sensed that the people were admitting before they died. It could be you have an acute sense of smell that is picking up that odor. (No, I'm not calling you a cat!)

This one's going up in the employee's bathroom for sure! Thanks for the laugh!