NurseStephRN

Have you ever looked into cruise ship nursing?? I'm seriously considering it later on!

i order a bottle of peppermint spirits from pharmacy to put in the room. i take a piece of 2x2 gauze, unwrap it and dunk it in the bottle, leaving the gauze to act as a fragrance diffuser. works like a charm. we also set out a bag of coffee on the w...

We've also done that on my unit. Pre-op we have started them on Aranesp and PO Iron supplements.

I have some friends that work there and say there are pros and cons. Pros: Since it is a teaching hospital, there are a lot of interesting medical cases and opportunities for learning. Also, there are always physicians and residents available. Co...

This is a hospital, not a hotel. I don't have a special donut-shaped pillow for your dad to sit on.

i've totally seen that! i took care of a patient that was having major hypoglycemic symptoms when the accucheck read in the 300s.

We had a guy in VTACH, rate 170s, sitting up in bed talking to us. vital signs otherwise stable, patient had no complaints... I think 5 nurses running in to check on him all at once kind of freaked him out, but he was OK! His AICD finally fired when...

Depends. I've had an electrophysiologist write a parameter to hold the beta blocker for HR I also think about the dosage of the beta blocker. Some of my open heart patients have orders for 12.5 mg Lopressor, which most of the time doesn't lower the...

all the telemetry units (except ICU) at my hospital have monitor techs. our secretaries are secretaries only and the monitor tech is responsible only for the ekg monitoring. they take an intensive course on ekg readings, etc. and have check-up compe...

That's exactly the path I'm taking. I've regretted thinking that med school was going to take "sooo long that I'll be old when I finally finish!" I'm taking my sciences, etc and hoping to get into an MD program in the future or take the PA route.

My hospital is moving in that direction. They gave us all reusable water bottles to eliminate all the disposable cup use, our W-2 forms and pay stubs (if you get direct deposit) are available electronically, and have set up recycling stations. We are...

We do this in real life. after being called over and over for order clarifications, the docs/PA/NP will get tired of it and most of them start to make an effort to write legibly. some of them go so far as to hunt you down and go over the orders with ...

I would have asked that friend/family member where they got their medical training and went about my business taking care of the patient as per the orders.

I work in a cardiac unit in a hospital and always take a BP before giving a HTN med. If it is low or falls within the parameters for holding I'll hold the med, but check the patient's BP in a few hours to see if I could give the med.

higher molar mass = higher boiling point :)

so last weekend on my unit we received an ER admit: 100 year old female ruled IN for a hemorraghic stroke. SBP in the 200s, on a Cardene drip. Oh, she's a DNR. Throughout the night, the HR would dip down, then come right back up, BP was still ridic...

this woman's skin is surprisingly INTACT! she just has a few bruises that were present prior to admission d/t Plavix and ASA therapy. i have to give kudos to my fellow staff who has been doing a good job with turning and keeping her skin protected ...

Thanks for all the responses. I tried speaking to her son, but it sounds to me like he's really in denial.... the whole family is afraid to let go. He was telling me that the healthcare staff (MDs, nurses, clinicians, etc) are giving them conflictin...

We had a patient re-occlude within 48 hours post-op! Turns out he had some kind of hypercoagulable issue with his blood that had been undiagnosed until that point. He got fixed, got better and went home :) I've been working with Open Hearts for about...

on my open heart unit we keep everyone (diabetic or not) on an insulin gtt through POD 2 then we start them on a sliding scale. We've used to d/c the gtt on POD 1, but we had a few fallouts, so the surgeons changed the protocol and now we keep it thr...

I went to Barry for my BSN, but I don't know anything about the LPN-BSN program. The schedule for the BSN program was a little rigorous the first two semesters, but after that it got much easier. Tuition is ridiculous, but I have found it to be total...

to help me sleep, I have light blocking shades that I bought at Home Depot for $20. They totally black out my room and I love them. :) I use Melatonin 1mg every once in a while... maybe once a month. I don't usually have trouble sleeping on work/non-...

Many times the physician who ordered the BP meds will write parameters along with the order. I've seen orders to hold a BP med for SBP below 90, below 120, but i mostly see hold for SBP below 100. It depends on the patient, the goals for the patient ...

that's the same thing I do! :)

how about when a patient calls to ask to be repositioned/made more comfy in bed.... you spend 15 minutes fluffing their pillows and placing them in JUST the right spot, wrapping warm blankets around them, scooting them up in the bed, getting the HOB ...