MelissaRN

I had a weird case. This lady had suffered an intracranial bleed and had held on and held on in a coma on a morphine drip for almost a week. The family had been at her side non-stop and had been trying to get in touch with a son that had been estra...

When I was a new orientee I found that I was bored because I was doing things as I learned them and not doing everything at once. Once you get your own assignment and you don't have a preceptor doing things behind the scenes then you'll find that yo...

I'm thinking that perhaps this new nurse isn't ready for a full assignment yet? Yes she didn't do her job correctly and yes she copped an attitude, but why is she made to feel defensive?? I'm sure this isn't the first mistake she's made due to a fu...

I don't know if this is a true story or urban legend, but I was told a story about this guy that came into a walk in clinic VERY ill with a very high temp and extreme abdominal pain. They did xrays and found the skeleton of a snake and a mouse up hi...

As a nurse we know from schooling what could happen as the result of a clamped off carotid artery (which is what they do during an endarterectomy) so it's essential to know BEFORE leaving the room that the patient wasn't compromised during that time ...

I've never seen a doc throw instruments, they will slam them down on the table sometimes, but never throw. I think that it's really dangerous to throw instrumets or knives or needles, we take such effort to avoid getting stuck with contaminated shar...

We do neuro checks after the carotid surgery is finished. We have one particular doctor that likes to keep the back table and scrub sterile until the patient is awake and he sees that the patient is moving all four limbs.

I've been doing this a little over a year and I really enjoy my work hours which are three 12 hour shifts, only one weekend every 5 weeks and not as much holiday work. I worked the floor for over a year and it was a miserable time. Patient care was ...

I work in a hospital that's the "trauma center" for a wide area in our state. Nights can be dull or they can get slammed. They get alot of emergency appy's, emergency splenectomies from car crashes, broken bones, the occassional AAA's etc. We hav...

I for the most part enjoy my job as an OR nurse. The only piece missing is that I can't scrub and haven't come up with a way that I could consistently learn. We have a scrub tech program so they don't have time to drain the nurses consistenly. The ...

I worked for a year as an acute care RN on a ortho/neuro floor. The stress and constantly trying to coordinate care for several patients at once was tricky especially when you had new admits and post ops on top of all that. The OR is stressful but ...

I've been working as an OR circulating nurse for about 9 months. My orientation was long (about 6 months) and I still feel like a rookie. I think that being able to function in any kind of capacity as a circulator after 6 months is a huge accomplis...

The BON might have something to say about "the nurse dose".

Associates Degree in Medical assisting.

I really love my New Balance slip ons. The are like sneakers but slide on. The part that goes over the top of the foot stretches so they don't dig into your feet. Everyone is always asking where I got them. I bought them online at Brown's New Bal...

I worked nights for a year and I never felt right. I'm on day shift now and am a happy camper. Feels good to sleep at night and wake up to the birdies in the morning.

I've had patients with really bad staph infections and have had to be on 3 different types of IV antibiotics. I always use separate tubing for each antibiotic because some of them are incompatible. I also flush the primary tubing with the maintenan...

I work in an OR at a small hospital and work Mon-Fri 7-3. The only problem is that I'm stinkin bored to death and am lucky to get my 40 hours in because we don't have many patients. Wish I could find that perfect job where I'm challenged for the wh...

Their next question after they ask my age, if I'm an RN and do I like the job is if I'm married and have children. They usually have a whole new respect for me after I tell them I have 4 kids. :roll

I hear you. I'm 34 but am younger looking. My patients always ask how old I am and call me "that little blonde girl". To a 75 or 80 year old everyone looks young. lol :chuckle

I don't understand the whole thing of it being ok for a male OB doctor but not a male OB nurse? If they are qualified to do the job it doesn't matter whether it's male or female.

They sometimes use an LMA instead of intubating. Sounds like maybe he changed his mind and intubated you? Maybe because of the drugs he gave you effected your respirations too much? Who knows what could have caused the change of plans. I've heard...

I'v never heard of doing that, maybe I'm wrong. I've run morphine through central lines at slow rates for comfort care patients and never had to flush and also ran heparin through them with no trouble. On the triple lumens I always flush the other ...

We have patients that come to our day surgery unit and have blood transfusions on an outpatient basis. It all depends on the patient and their ability level and how they are feeling that dictates their activity. Alot of them are there for about 4 h...

First you have to check with your hospital's policy and procedure manual. They should give you an inservice before you do them on your own. Where I work you flush the line with about 2 CC's NS, pull back 2 CC's of blood to discard and then with ano...