yankeescot

Why is everyone at each other's throats? It is true that doctors stick together and nurses find a way to beat eachother up. What's the deal? I started out in a diploma program in N.J. and switched to a BSN program at a college in N.Y. I did this only because at the time I was in the diploma program I kept hearing every nurse is going to need to get her/his BSN eventually. I started out in a Diploma nursing school with some really great people and ended in a BSN nursing school with really great people. Lets be honest what really counts is why you went into nursing. Was it for the money or because you really wanted to help people? Nurse who puts her patients care first before the almighty dollar are the ones I want to work with. I'm not going to ask them are they a Diploma nurse or a BSN nurse. Can we PLEASE STOP beating each other up? Lets fight for good nursing care and the funding needed to provided a better nurse patient ratio. That's my 2 cents. Thanks for listening.

Sounds really interesting! Please post a message about your experience when you get back. I could do the 8 day trip and would like to know more about it. Unfortunately, I would be unable to get out of work for 3 months. Thanks, Rosemary

Hi! I am a RN is a busy CT dept. in NYC Only an RN, MD or a PA can inject Intravenous contrast in our hospital. Unfortunately for the patients, New York State is now going to let technologists inject. My supervisor is concerned about our exstravsation rates going up. I'm concerned not only for the patients but for our techs too. It is a lot to ask a tech to put in an IV, inject the pt., watch out for any reactions and scan the patient. We have a staffing shortage of techs as it is. O.K., I know I got off the subject. In our hospital we have a Radiology Nursing Progress note we fill out with every contrast injection that is done by a nurse. The MD and PA do not have to fill out any forms. On the nursing form we ask if the patient has any of the following conditions......Asthma, Emphysema, Cardiac disease, Renal disease, Diabetes, are they taking Metformin if they are a diabetic, Seizures, Multiple Myeloma, Myasthenia Gravis, Sickel Cell, Over Active Thyroid, Gout, and women are asked if there is any chance they are pregnant. We also ask if the pt. has any allergies. We take the patient's blood pressure, pulse, resp. rate and O2 Sat. before and after getting IV contrast. We document where the IV is and if we put it in or not. We document the type, amount and rate of the contrast. We request that all adult patients have a current (within 3 months) BUN and creatinine. Our creatinine cut off for injecting contrast is 1.5 unless the pt. gets has ESRD and will have dialysis within 24 hours after getting the IV contrast. The floor doctors get the pt.'s consen for IV contrast, the radiology doctors or the PA get the out patient's concents. We never inject in a lower extremity vein. We never power inject EJ's, IJ's, Central lines, piccs or ports unless the port/piccc line is a power port/picc. Regular ports, central lines, EJ's and IJ's all need to get IV contrast by hand injection only. If a patient has a reaction, the radiologist must ordered the medication (benadryl, epi, methylprednisolone, IV fluids, etc.) If a radiologist is not available then we call the rapid responce team or a medical code depending on the patient's condition. When the scan is done we flush the IV with saline and then give a verbal report to the RN caring for the pt. and put our Radiology Nursing Progress Note in the pt.'s chart. I hope this has helped you. Sincerely, Rosemary

Hi! I have a job interview tomorrow July 12th and wondered if any of you have some good tips to give me when interviewing for a Radiology position. I am currently an ER nurse and have been doing ER nursing for a looooong time! Time for a change:rolleyes: Any advice will be greatly appreciated :) . There are 9 other ER nurses applying for the same position....Think our ER has problems:chuckle Too many to mention. Time to move on and Radiology is the place I want to be. Need tips on how to convince the the radiology nurse manager that I'm the one she should pick out of the numerous people applying for the same position. Thanks in advance for any tips or suggestions you folks give me. I have been reading your posts about radiology nursing and it makes me want to transfer even more.:)