RedBait

This is entirely correct. Pay and differentials are driven by and reflect the local market. They are NOT recognition of persons or their contributions or their jobs.

This is not an either/or situation. While the code progresses, an emergency c/section would be set up (there would be preparations to receive a poorly perfused preemie, as well). This is a very high drama situation, as you can well imagine!

I learned to start IV's in the '70's. And when, in the 80's we began to use Universal Precautions, I complained that I couldn't feel the vein and blah, blah, blah. A surgeon friend pointed out that if a surgeon can appreciate the facial nerve with gloves on, I could certainly feel a vein. I began by wearing sterile gloves for the best fit. In no time at all, I was completely comfortable doing any and all procedures in gloves. Now, I can wear any old gloves, any old size. I also said I could never start IV's without a Jelco, which is what I learned on. Needless to say, in these nearly 30 years, I have worked with and around a half dozen different brands and styles of angiocaths. If it is a choice between getting it on the first stick and exposing yourself to blood borne virus, learn to get it on the first stick with gloves. It is not a question of either/or. Really, it isn't.

CCRN means something. It means your nursing care "reflects an integration of knowledge, skills, experience and attitudes necessary to meet the needs of patients and families." Getting around the rules is not one of the desired qualities. This is the wrong gestalt. What are you thinking? How would you reply to a person who asks if there is a way to get around the clinical hours required to sit for nursing boards?

Quote: "A frequent med error made by the patient is to over use Timoptic drops. Timoptic (Isoptin) is the sam drug as verapamil and over use will cause heart block. I can't even begin to say how often I have seen patients needing temporary pacemakers to deal with this self administered drug error. " Timoptic (timolol) and Isoptin (verapamil) are NOT the same drug. Timolol is a beta-adrenergic receptor blocker and verapamil is a calcium channel blocker. Timoptic is the brand name of the topical ophthalmic preparation of timolol. Isoptin is one brand name of verapamil, an oral medication.

Bullous pemphigoid (BP) is a chronic, autoimmune, subepidermal, blistering skin disease that rarely involves mucous membranes. BP is a chronic inflammatory disease. If untreated, the disease can persist for months or years, with periods of spontaneous remissions and exacerbations. In most patients who are treated, BP remits within 1.5-5 years. Patients with aggressive or widespread disease, those requiring high doses of corticosteroids and immunosuppressive agents, and those with underlying medical problems have increased morbidity and risk of death. Because the average age at onset of BP is about 65 years, patients with BP frequently have other comorbid conditions that are common in elderly persons, thus making them more vulnerable to the adverse effects of corticosteroids and immunosuppressive agents. Treatment is directed at reducing the inflammatory response and autoantibody production. Although target-specific therapy is the holy grail for immunodermatologists, non-target-specific treatments are currently used. The most commonly used medications are anti-inflammatory agents (eg, corticosteroids, tetracyclines, dapsone) and immunosuppressants (eg, azathioprine, methotrexate, mycophenolate mofetil, cyclophosphamide). A recent article from Europe provided evidence that strong topical corticosteroid treatment may achieve disease control while avoiding systemic adverse effects from systemic corticosteroids. This information was taken from an article found on eMedicine.com. It took me less than a minute to go there and search their database. It is a free site and contains massive amounts of information on medicine, disease, and drug therapies. Research is a good habit for a professional.

TV programs like ER promote/support just such a notion. If you wonder what you might do to change this, go to

First of all, don't give up this soon. It takes every bit of a year to be a free standing citizen in a new unit when first out of school...maybe more. The learning curve is very steep, the bedside is different than the classroom (I'm sure you know that well) and today's nursing programs are very thin on bedside hours. (I had more than 3200 bedside hours when I was graduated in 1976.) It is a tough job to learn the realities of bedside care and develop organizational skills at the same time. That said, you will learn them. Just give it a little more time. I have worked ICU for more than 22 years, and the only time I ever could count on a real lunch break was on units that build it in to the shift. We report off to a nurse, designated at the time of patient assignments, and leave the floor for an hour. Even on the night shift, we close the break room door. At the end of the hour...switch. Brief breaks for the bathroom, or just to take a deep breath...use the smokers on the unit as your models, don't they always manage to get away, you get away, too.

i wear calzuro clogs. they are rubber and go in the washing machine (they can be autoclaved). you can google them and see a variety of places to purchase online...i paid $60 delivered. but...you need to be comfortable in clogs.

You need a job in a CCU! Not trying to be glib. It would be more than useful to have spent at least a year working on a med/surg floor. It is worthwhile to have your basic nursing skills and organizational strategies down pat, critical care builds on a base of these skills. It would be more than useful to have spent some time working on a telemetry unit to aide your comfort around monitoring equipment. But, once you are hired, you will begin a preceptorship that will give you time to learn. If you would like a sample of the things you will be expected to master, surf around the AACN.org and SCCM.org, these are the major critical care organizations. If the unit that interests you, doesn't promise you support for your learning, find another unit. Critical care is a most rewarding field, I have worked ICU for 22 years and I have learned something almost every shift.

First of all, the origins of this thread are in the recent presidential elections right here in the US. We are not discussing the world, we are discussing this little corner of the world. Don't lose the frame of reference, it is important. As to the actions of many moral Jews, many moral people of all faiths and beliefs do not donate, I imagine, since only a few of those who might, do donate. The Jews I know (and that includes every member of my family and all my friends), are willing to donate...I have not discussed receiving. As an ICU nurse of several decades, I have had many discussions about the importance of organ donation (as well as the importance of having a designated power of attorney for healthcare decisions). I do not suggest it is immoral to refuse to donate. I merely claim there is not a religious basis for this refusal. And, once again, I hope those who will not donate, will refuse to receive.

Actually, in the Judeo-Christian world that we live in, here in the US, there are NOT many cultures and religions that don't believe in organ donation. In the 80's and 90's I attended many national Critical Care conferences that included distinguished panels of rabbis, priests, and ministers of many denominations that all agreed that there is no scriptural teaching that forbids cadaveric organ donation, and much moral and ethical writing to support it. That doesn't require anyone to donate. But I would hope that those who would not donate, also choose not to receive. JMHO

It seems to me that the difference lies in that here on allnurses, we are acting as individual persons without moral or ethical standards to uphold, other than our own personal ones. At work, we are paid for our professional services and operate in a therapeutic milieu and are obligated to forego our personal needs for a patient/family centered needs base. Do you want me whispering in your dying ear that there is no afterlife or heaven and I hope you have made your life worthwhile and not wasted it waiting for a greater reward?

Your hospital has a list as part of Policy & Procedure. Unless you work ICU, where the patients are monitored, you may assume that NO meds are IV push.

Thanks so much for the complete and concise review of blood and blood products administration. I would only add, that when you have a particularly fragile patient, one with a history of flash pulmonary edema, for example; get an order for the blood bank to split the unit which will buy you a little more time. You could give the first half in two hours and then wait to pick up the second half until diuresis can be accomplished. The blood itself cannot go in slower, because opening the unit to repackage it reduces it's "safe" life, just like pooling units does, but you can space out the delivery times and minimize the risk of overload. In theory, it could be divided into three or four aliquots, but I have only seen two.