MamaGinger

I moved to Omaha eight years ago, and wouldn't be living anywhere else. My family and I live in NorthWest Omaha by Elkhorn. I love this area of town. It is quiet at night and is generally that way during the daytime as well. We have lots of construction going on our here so I expect it to be a completely different scene in five years. I always thought I wanted to raise my children in a small town here in Nebraska, but to tell you the truth...you get violence, crime, etc in even the small towns in Nebraska. I'm really looking forward to raising my children in Omaha. There are lots of activities for them, and they have all the sports, dance, swimming, etc opportunites that a kids could dream of. There are certainly parts of Omaha I wouldn't be caught dead...or could be caught dead in at night. North O or South East O is pretty hairy at night. As for the Iowa/Nebraska thing...I would pick NEBRASKA over Iowa all the way. I got my nurses training in Iowa...and things just make more sense here in Nebraska. This may be a bit inappropriate but we fondly refer to IOWA as "Idiots Out Wandering Around"...also...Council Bluffs...Council Tukey...get my point? :-)

I use to work within the Alegent Health system when I first started nursing. I worked on a step down/cardiac unit, and I worked 12hr nights. Our pt load was 3-5pts at night, and days was 3-4pts. Currently I work at Methodist Hospital as a cardiac nurse. Our pt load at night is 3-5pt's. If you are open heart recovery trained then that ratio goes down to 1:1 or 1:2 (we get our CABG/valve pt's from recovery and they come straight to us on the cadiac unit as long as they are extubated). I moved over to Methodist Hospital 6 years ago...it was a tough transition, but it has been well worth the time. At first I had a hard time transitioning over to Methodist, but they had a lot of nursing practices I wasn't use to (ie protocols, order sets, etc). One of the great things at Methodist is we are ranked nationally in cardiac care. Research based evidence is highly valued at Methodist. Both hospitals I have experience at are NOT teaching schools...so if you are interested in a teaching school...I would go with Nebraska Medical Center or Creighton University Medical Center. They both happen to be our level 1 trauma centers as well. As for pay...it depends on your experience level. I started out making $16/hr with differential 8 yrs ago. Now I'm making somewhere around $24/hr plus night differential. Hope this helps!

At the hospital it work at...it is part of our pre-cath order set to have 2 lines in the pt. We will start two lines in the pt before the cath unless they are a hard stick. If they have poor venous access we have our iv team or cath lab nurses put them in. As for the Sod Bicarb...we start that the night before ALL of our pt's have open heart (CABG or VALVE or both). They always have two lines in. The only med I know that is compatible with Sod Bicarb is Regular Insulin IV. Our precath pt's with renal insufficency/failure get mucomyst/sod bicarb/or both...and get a second line as well.

I hate to sound like such a tardy, geek...but it's really not within our scope as RN...unless you are an advanced practice nurse...to try and tell this patient if it is a normal thing they are going through or not. Post pacer/avr is really something for the pt's cardiologist/surgeon to deal with. I would suggest they call their cardiologist asap to get checked over. :redbeathe