flo136

I have friends that hurt their back and were tired of the hard physical labour of adult ICU, and they went in neonatal ICU or paediatric ICU. Also a step 'back' in intensity is Recovery (post anaesthetic), or Anaesthetics instead. Everyone I know who...

I started in ICU, did the specialist ICU course after 6 months and 1 year's worth of consolidation afterwards. Crazy times! But after about 8-9 month mark, after getting the course under my belt, it clicked. I got sick patients and I could take care ...

I did something similar years ago learning CRRT but forgot to document the fluid off amounts. I felt like rubbish because they thought I was a 'good' ICU nurse. However, the nurse in charge told me the problem, the solution; they fixed it up on the c...

Certainly there are patients and families that can be 'challenging' with their requests but ICU is still an amazing speciality to work in. Every shift can be so different and exciting professionally. For those sorts of patients and families we have s...

We've all had shifts like that. I find as much as I dread returning to work, it really helps to find out what happened to the patient. And talk to a trusted friendly colleague, someone whose opinion and work you admire for a different perspective. I ...

What happened?

I wish I had learnt more about managing agitated and confused patients. I always felt so useless managing them, so ineffective. Making time to sit down and talk with a patient and their family. I still really enjoy that after nearly 30 years doing nu...

I'll be honest- the doctors on night duty lack much experience, let alone the guts to make big decisions. We often feel like we are just babysitting the patients until someone in charge with a clue can come in and actually make a definite plan. Its f...

I love it when the visitors sit by the bedside for hours glued to their mobile phone. Or watch the whole unit work, not interested in their loved one in bed. Visitors- they drive you nuts! I've got my hands full enough already thanks.

I don't regret it. There is so much variety, every day is different, and what we do is so important. But I am finding it harder, 20 years down the track. I love doing critical care but I find today's nursing not particularly patient-orientated. Some...

I worked in an Australian city public ICU that had a burns speciality for 3 years. A few random thoughts that entered my head when I read your note: The rooms are really hot, which is hard to work in when you are in scrubs/gowns. The smell is awf...

I agree with all the comments of life-threatening situations: fast-paced, exciting, etc. But also I like the nurse:patient ratio and also the support available when things go wrong. I have equipment, manpower and expertise available instantly. It is ...

Give it a good six months. I felt like I made so many errors when I started. The patient deteriorated, and it was all my fault? Of course not, but I could not see why. I was so tired and stressed, the whole anatomy and physiology of intensive care wa...

I agree with the other posts about experience guiding inotrope titration. But also, with disease processes such as sepsis,or multi-organ failure, you will get a feel for how far to go up or down. For example, in sepsis, levo really can be moved up ...

Help each other out, without asking. Little things like turning pts, suction- all the two-hourly things we do. It's just done in time for breaks. And done well. Using each other rather than the access/in charge people. Takes the pressure off everyone...

I'd say also 'aorta'.

I'd say 3-5 years. I start to get really low about hospital politics and procedures after 6 months (the 'they-do-it-better-elsewhere' thing); but by 5 years I am really taking a sick day every month for my own mental health! I do love the job thoug...

I guess it depends if you believe in God! I agree we do prolong things now in ICU. And I do feel sad for those patients when you, and they, know the inevitable is coming. The hopelessness of it. But I am relieved when they do die, because ICU is a mi...

We use Swans here all the time in Adelaide, Australia. The docs use them mainly for number-crunching. Seeing the trend in the numbers: SVRI not so much. More CI/CO. I don't think they are good. I have worked in the UK and larger Aussie cities that ...

Here in my Australian public hospital, we do 4 CABG per day, 5 days a week. They do well. Some bleed and go back to theatre, but after that they're OK. Some come back on aortic balloon pumps, but after a few days they are off them. There are a lot of...

I end up retching with them! Thank goodness I work in ICU where they are all intubated-yay!

I think you did the right thing. It was a peri-arrest situation so your priorities are Airway, Breathing, Circulation. ABC...not TPN. That can wait.

Because I make a difference in someone's life, and it is a big difference. You can be there at the last breath, or when everything is being done to save a life such as cracking open a chest. It is an amzing area to work in.I have done it for 15 years...

In Australia, dialysis aptients are 1:1. We use citrate rarely. We use the suction tubing hooked up to the effluent bags and drain them into a outlet in the wall, and reuse them too. 3 litre exchanges. 5 litre bags. We use Edwards Aquarius machines. ...

I still would have held the meds. Does the Dr want the patient to go into arrest by the morning? If your colleagues agree, and we are educated people, then I don't get the big deal. Re:badness: we use Nipride every day here for our CABG's. Crazy. I h...