appleorchard

I've co-written or "Dummified" several of the "Dummies" series books, all medical related; the last was NCLEX-RN for Dummies, which I felt really good about doing because I felt I was really giving back to a profession that's been wonderful(not every minute, of course) to me. I'll never get rich doing these books; the advances are modest--but I love to write and I enjoy seeing my name in print, and I love anything medical. All my childhood dreams have come true with this combination of careers--I still work full time as an RN.

My then 6 year old son put a Lego up his nose in the morning and went to school with it there. When I picked him up that afternoon, he was extremely reluctant to tell me why his nose hurt. One trip to the ER, a pair of long handled forceps, and several hours later, he was good as new!

I was just thinking about this the other day. When I was a kid, I played "nurse", devoured Sue Barton books, idolized Tom Dooley(a doctor who worked in the jungles of Laos before the Vietnam era), loved babies and wanted to write books. I grew up, FINALLY went to nursing school in my thirties, worked in L/D, worked in the NICU,wrote 4 "Dummies" books on a variety of medical subjects, and went on a medical mission trip to Romania. I've satisfied all my childhood dreams through nursing--what more could anyone ask of a career? Am I glad I'm an RN? You betcha!

Thanks;I didn't even know we had these in the office(they never had an RN in this office before). We're talking very small quantities of only a few drugs but even so...I want it to be done right.

Does anyone know, or know where to find, regulations governing dispensing of narcotics in a physician's office, for a simple procedure? Do you need a daily count sheet; if you're the only licensed person, who do you count with? Who counts on the days you're not there? Do you need to count at all? Do any of you have physicians who occasionally want a patient to have Tylenol #3 for a procedure?

I wrote the book!

Two things kind of funny from my first GN job in the mid 80s, one not so funny in L&D 10 years later. I was working on a 20 bed oncology floor that also served as an overflow floor as well as the VIP unit(strange bedfellows indeed). We had an addict recovering from an abcess scheduled to leave that morning. Wanted to take a few things out to her car so she wouldn't have so much to carry when she left. I went to ask the other nurse--I still can't believe I was this stupid in 1986--and when I got back, the patient, of course, was gone. Did she come back? Nope! Another night there were 2 of us GNs on with 1 other nurse. The other GN discovered a tick on one of our old guys thigh--who knows how it got there? She was working really hard on getting it off when I came in and our conversations went something like this: Me:"Abby?" Abby:"Hold on, hold on, I think I've got it!" Me: "Abby, I think he's dead." Yes, the man who fortunately was a DNR had expired during his tick removal and Abby was so focused on the tick that she didn't noticed he was no longer breathing. The third was on L/D; the OB ordered an IV pain reliever, I forget which, and after I gave it the patient's contractions stopped almost immediately. I was SURE I'd given her Brethine by mistake and even took all the vials out of the trash, looking to see. Called the doctor, who said not to worry, just wait and see what happens. She started contracting again within an hour and I've never been sure that I didn't push Brethine.

No idea, but I do remember getting stuff like this in the past, even before I was famous (I wish!) for writing a few books and being fairly well known on certain infertility chat boards.

I got one, too, and immediately threw it in the trash. While I realize I'm fascinating, and have actually written two Dummies books, I'm also fairly sure this is a money making thing. Since it wouldn't be making ME any money, I tossed it.

I work in an opthamologists office administering Visudyne IV; this drug is used in conjunction with laser treatment to decrease fluid leakage in the eye in pateints with macular degneration. I do anywhere between one to nine cases per day; each takes 30 minutes or so. In between I do IV dye injections of fluorescene so pictures can be taken of blood vessels in the retina; the office I work in does between 15-30 of these a day. I love my job! You really need to be good at IV's; this patient population is older and many have terrible veins, plus the dyes can be quite caustic if they infiltrate. I'm also the only RN in the office, so it helps to have basic nursing procedures down pat; what to do if someone has an anaphylactic reaction, passes out, gets terribly nauseated, etc. It's a great job but not one I'd want to tackle right out of school.

We do lots of FAs too, probably 20 or so per day. I had a terrible time getting halfway decent at using butterflies, especially on older veins! I still miss more than I'd like and have read everything on the internet about starting IVs on older people.My previous IV experience was all on people under 50 (infertility patients and labor and delivery). I hate blowing the vein and knowing the patient is going to be in pain from the dye. We don't do surgeries, strictly an office setting, but a busy one; our docs see 60-70 patients a day. Most days there's 1 doc in the office; those days aren't bad! When there's 2, it's very hectic. I don't do anything but PDTs and FA injections, but PDTs take about an hour each; I have 7 slots a day for PDTs, and they need to be watched the whole time the dye is infusing, because extravasations can be so destructive to tissue. Opthamalogy is really an interesting field; I feel very fortunate to have found this job!

I'm the only nurse (RN) in a retinal practice that just starting doing photodynamic therapy in the office (involves IV infusion of dye, which is why they needed an RN). I'm really enjoying it, especially the hours, which are 8-4, more or less. Flexible schedule and I'm in charge of myself and no one else, which is a big change from my last job as nurse coordinator of an IVF center. Any other PDT nurses out there?