murmur

I think you guys are right people get the idea that the Docs do everything from watching these shows. Recently a family member wanted me to call an Anesthesiologist to start an IV. I thought to myself yeah it will probably be a guy who I taught how to start IV's. I work in the ER of a very busy teaching hospital. I am nice to the interns and residents I teach them stuff. I used to work in the OR I started the IVs not the anesthesiologist. I start 10 IVs a day - I am very good at it. If I can't get it you probably need an EJ and if I say so the Doc knows I am right. Whoever said so was right we do work collaboratively in the ER. We usually enter the orders - and start the care. If we waited for the Docs forget about it. We start the protocols for chest pain pneumonia cva everything not the Docs. The Docs look at everything of course and add whatever they think they might like to add. But we get the ball rolling and we are #1 in the state for stroke and mi care. There really should be a show where nurses are more out front. I think ER is a pretty good show, but it is not very popular anymore.

I had a jerk dr. call me senorita slow poke yesterday. It took me longer than 5 minutes to run an ekg start an iv and do intake on a hearing impaired man who did not speak my language all the while doing postop on two patients at the same time! All of the patients received their teaching and when one of them asked me if the md was any good I said "terrific". How could I be so slow? The ass yelled this out for all to hear. I work in an ambulatory surgery center he is there three days per week and whines constantly - even one of the anaesthesiologists told him to stop whining. I am going to confront him. I am just going to say if it is fair for you to refer to me with an ethnic slur then I will do the same. How do you like Khalif (sp) cry baby? I am of Italian descent - I refer to myself as an american. He referrs to himself as Iranian although I think he has been here his whole life.

My first cath was this week. The woman had 3inch labia minora - the inside lips. The urethra was directly on top of her lady parts at least 3 inches below the labia minora. I was amazed, I did not know that female anatomy was so variant. I spoke to a few of the other nurse interns and they related similar experiences. They should really explain this and show diagrams in school, because I was cleansing and inspecting in entirely the wrong place!

My advise is to read the front of the nclex books - the information about strategies. For most of the questions I had (75 passes 1st try two weeks ago), I used the ABC's & ADPIE. Another strategy to use when you have no clue is to look at the options and try to find similarities. For example, three of them will be interventions the fourth will be an assessment - the different one (assessment - A in ADPIE) is your answer. Maybe three will be circulation, one will be airway. I had no clue if I was answering correctly - but I knew from reports I had heard that the questions I was getting were the hard ones all the way through - the prioritizing and delegation type questions. These questions require you to have some knowledge of the diseases and procedures being presented, but if you just use the above criteria you will find the answer. I have noticed that the people who were struggling students got more of the practical questions. If you are getting the critical thinking (priority, delegation) questions you are on the higher level track. Of course you will pass with the practical questions, but you will most likely get more than 75 questions - so do not freak at the number of questions. One guy at my work flunked with 76 - so you can't go by the number of questions only - it is the difficulty level that counts. Just remember to use ABC & ADPIE and find the difference in the options and you will do well. Good Luck it is such a great feeling when it is over!

I once cut three fingers on one hand (removing blade from non-disposable scalpel 20some years ago). I will attest the lidocaine injection hurt way worse than the suture needle. I know this because the lido wore off on the last finger and I opted for no more injections so I had 2 sutures on a non-numbed finger - it was way less pain than the injection. Granted nerve blocks are very painful, and your case probably was not a nerve block, but ask the Doc because there was probably a good reason to skip the lido.

Thank you also Timmins, the freepalmware site didn't work? I'll try again.

Thank you Chris, I will check those out. Tidings to Oz - visited Melbourne a couple of times - beautiful city - beautiful people. I lived in Drummoyne (Sydney) in 1995. I would go back in a New York minute.

I am a GN in the ER. I am looking for recommendations on PDA software to ease my work day. I still have trouble with documentation, so that is a focus. Thank you all in advance for your help. There so many beautiful, talented, and kind nurses in the world it is an honor to be among you.