kgriffiRN

I've applied to duke, rex, and wake med... nothing. I'm looking into traveling now but have to give 30 days notice at my current job so travel assignments are tricky. Ugh!!

Are any of you experienced nurses having a hard time finding a job? I still consider myself a relatively new nurse (2years ICU), but I didn't think it would be this difficult! I've applied for multiple jobs and have only been on one interview (duke univ, didn't get it). I don't get it... who's getting the jobs??

In the ICU that I work in we have general vent sedation orders along with a diprivan protocol for patients that need sedation. Typically we'll start patients on a diprivan drip and we are allowed to either titrate the drip up and/or give additional sedation such as morphine, versed, norcuron for desired effect. Lately I've seen a big push at other facilities to stop using diprivan and start using meds like precedex. So I'm curious, what are you using for sedation in your facility? And how do you feel about the sedation your unit is using?

Thanks for all of the replies! I thought that somewhere along the way I had heard of using PCAs for sickle cell pain but some of the other nurses looked at me like I was crazy! DeLannaHarvickWannabe, I was thinking the same thing about his pain and htn. I gurantee that if his pain was controlled better, the bp wouldn't be such a huge problem. And guess what... the next night I came back he was on a morphine pca!

Last night I took care of a patient who was admitted for Sickle Cell and Hypertensive crisis. His main problems were severe pain and HTN. I was giving diludid q 4hr & Lortab q 6hr and he acted as if all of that medicine didn't touch his pain; He never rated his pain below an "8". I know that sickle cell pt's generally have a higher pain med tolerance.... so I guess my question is have any of you ever heard of using a pca to control the pain on a sickle cell pt?

I just graduated from nursing school and have been offered an RN position in MSICU in July. I am estatic about this offer because I have such a love and passion for ICU nursing. This being said, I'm getting nervous because I know that I have so much more to learn! I've already done things like ACLS and critical care conferences to prepare myself, but I guess my question is... What else should I be doing in the month I have before I start work?? To all of you ICU RNs out there, what do you think are the most helpful things to do before starting in July?