Darkfield

I'm taking an informal survey here. I work in critical care and I see quite a lot of death. My attitude towards death has become quite callous - when someone is sick, they should be a DNR, and when someone is really sick, they should be comfort care....

Had a guy who aspirated his own vomit when he was drunk, ended up with empyema, loculated fluid collection, all out white out left lung. Five chest tubes. He was in the OR for a trach when I came on the other night, but he came back with 2 jp's drain...

I work in the northeast. I think our attendings are very good about addressing code status with the families when it starts looking bad or when the pt is very elderly or has a poor quality of life. If the family states they want to do DNI/DNR or comf...

Not all places are that terrible! You might feel bad for leaving, but if it is for your own sanity, do it. Go somewhere else, and switch to days. Having no circadian rhythm is a killer. I know what you mean about being irritated when someone starts ...

He went for a trach and came back with a 6th pleuravac, draining the pericardium and two jp's, draining the puss around his treachea instead. Then I was off for a few days. There is a happy thank-you card from his family in the break room, so I'm ass...

We started using them after evidence showed that MRSA is found (not on those stupid yellow gowns) most often in the basins. My friend counters that by getting a new bath basin each time she bathes someone, but that isn't very practical, landfill wise...

I've been a nurse for about four years and I find myself making a lot of little mistakes, but you learn. I do stupid things, but I never do stupid things more than once. If you break a rule, think about how important that rule is. The pt is supposed...

monotherm foley caths. Unless you've got a freak ICU pt that doesn't need a foley (that happens) or someone with a 3way, it's the way to go.

exact same at my place a little further upstate. 7 max at night on med surg and it only goes down. I worked days with a 5-6 max and it was unbelievably busy and sometimes unsafe. Would never take more pts.

I'm guessing the original poster doesn't actually know what a paralytic is-it is completely inappropriate to suggest for a post-extubation pt. The fact that the nurse in question's response to confusion is to "sedate" tells me a little bit about his/...

I'm feeling morbid. What is the worst death you've seen? I work in a MICU, so we don't get babies or gunshots (or babies with gunshots; they do in our ER, true story.) but we see some pretty dramatic stuff. A patient dying doesn't bother me too much ...

Just have to reply to this as well; the pressor you use has a lot to do with why you are using the pressor. If the pt is septic, for example, you'll want levophed because it constricts the periphery and increases flow to the central organs. Dopamine ...

I can't imagine ever ever running a drip like this on my old med surg floor. I may have had insulin twice and a lasix drip; otherwise the only thing resembling a drip was a pca. And why would a line be dc'd with a pt still on a drip, especially one t...

I just want to say I had the ultimate patient last night. Sometimes I feel like a terrible person because I like it when people are really sick, but I don't actually want them to be sick, right? But this guy was; one of those weird MICU pts that was ...

I know a lot of Europeans that wear scarves around their necks when they have colds...I saw a German girl do it in India, and it was about 85 degrees out.

That is not a ton of propofol. Are you sure you're not talking about mg instead of mcg? Most people I've met can stay awake on 15 mcg/kg/min. In answer to the original question, if the pt was comfortable, I'd leave her where she was. That's actually...

That's ridiculous. We have this old fashioned vents in CT and MRI that work on pts who are stable enough to transport. The RT sets them up and then bags while two people push the bed. How can you steer the bed and bag at the same time with an IV pole...

I have a pt who has been in our ICU for over a month now. Uncontrolled diabetes, severe respiratory distress. On the vent for about a month, he's since been trached. Can't wean him down from 100% FIO2. Five chest tubes. Around three weeks ago, he had...

We aren't allowed to do certain things because it is a teaching hospital, I think, and the residents need to learn to do everything and think of everything. With things like taking out staples, I think it is a nursing issue rather than a doc one. I ...

I love it when other people become nurses. I am in ICU, and I love what I do. There are days that I hate it, but I'm in where the drama is. Life, death, blood all over, old family feuds boiling over, some of the weirdest cases, good and bad doctors, ...

I would never lie to patient about their condition or prognosis, but about my own ability to do something? Definitely. Your patients need to have confidence in you, and if they think you can't do one thing, they won't want you to do anything else. To...

I always think they're going to sit back up again; I dreamed that it happened once. And I always leave their gown on when I bag them. They look different dead, though. Deflated. Their faces look like melted wax. There is a definite difference, and I ...

A distribution person who wears a scrub top with high rise elastic waisted jeans.

A lot of new nurses are in it as a second career, which contributes to the aging. I would say about half of the nurses I went to school with were over 35. And you have to be a little bit mature-I didn't see a lot of people who were fresh out of high ...

open fractures.