suga_junkie BSN, RN

Yes, you're right. In Australia to work in maternity areas you must be a midwife. It's not a different educational path here, you may do a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, then do a post graduate degree to specialise in midwifery. Most Aus midwives we...

Yep, tapatalk isn't working for me either anymore. I will probably stop coming to allnurses, the website is that bad. I hate it. It's a shame because I have been reading the forums daily for years now and I will miss it.

300mcgs in 4-5 hrs doesn't sound excessive to me. It's not like you gave it in one go. I assume you were assessing her and she wasn't becoming really sedated/ showing signs of respiratory depression. Fentanyl had a fairly short half life also.

If the narcan didn't work then it wasn't the fentanyl. Sounds like the surgeon is trying to deflect responsibility for post op complications. Has she had any scans?

Yup, I feel safe but I live in Australia. We have almost no gun crime and zero mass shootings since gun control laws were changed in 1996. Obviously we still get intoxicated or mentally ill people throwing punches etc but nothing close to the gun or ...

Hough

Are you a nurse or a nursing student? If not, then why are you on the allNURSES forum? This is a place for nurses to discuss issues and vent in a safe, (fairly) anonymous arena. This allows us to blow off steam so we can provide excellent, unbiased c...

We've discovered a few large ovarian masses during routine post void bladder scanning in post op spinal patients. Usually after re-insertions of catheters with minimal output despite large amounts of fluid showing up on the bladder scans, we've sent ...

- inserting IVs/taking blood, including from art lines/CVCs etc - lumbar drains/ EVDs - maintaining fluid balance charts (I & Os) on people with lots of infusions/drains etc (appeals to my OCD side haha) - complex gross wound dressings (but not e...

This. Every human being deserves to receive compassionate, unbiased, competent nursing care. We care for people at their most vulnerable, words and attitudes can do a lot of damage. Anyone who cannot or will not leave their religious beliefs/prejudic...

Not that I know of. We have respiratory physiotherapists though. They get patients up and moving, do deep breathing/coughing exercises, peak flow measurements, chest physio, incentive spirometery etc etc. They don't do any medications though, definit...

I live in Australia, we do not have RTs. Nurses do all the respiratory stuff including manage patients on ventilators. As far as I know, RTs only exist in North America.

At my hospital the orthopods are probably worse than the neurosurgeons. We have one or two neurosurgeons who will very occasionally yell and swear, usually when something goes really wrong with one of their patients (can't take any hint of criticism ...

Our hospital doesn't do overhead pages. We press the emergency bell to alert ward staff, someone calls the emergency line and this sends pages to the MET call team (in ICU), the duty nurse managers, PCAs and resident doctors. It works well, usually t...

I've always been surprised at how US nurses usually refer to drugs by their brand names. I'm often stumped by meds they're talking about until I google them and find out the generic name. I'd bet you'd know almost all those drugs if the generic name ...

A ten hour plane flight has the same amount of radiation as a chest X-ray. Hope she doesn't fly overseas more than once a decade...

Oh my goodness, it's only been a MONTH. The poor guy is probably still getting settled in and learning to how to study effectively. It's a massive learning curve starting nursing school! If your marriage really has been perfect for 7 years then I'm s...

Have you tried/considered a CGMS? It's a lot more discreet than a service dog and most on the market have predictive alerts to notify you of impending hypos/hypers as well as giving you all your blood sugars in real time.

Phlebitis is really common though. I can't imagine having to stick IVs in patients not requiring IV meds, especially those with fragile veins. I could see how you could end up using up all their peripheral access when the unused IVs tissue/blow/fall ...

I'm in Australia. You will not have to calculate insulin doses, it will always be prescribed in units. Insulin is always given in an insulin syringe. It would specify on the prescription if the insulin were to be stronger than u100 and still reflect ...

Why on earth did you wipe the needle and recap it? What country do you live in? Is this your normal protocol for sharps disposal?

At my hospital, yes, we always use pumps to infuse antibiotics. You definitely add the 20ml you reconstituted the antibiotic with to the pump or there'll still be 20ml left in the bag when it finishes infusing!

All our bedpans, urine bottles and vomit bowls are disposable paper mâché and go straight in a macerator after use. So glad I don't have to clean bed pans!

Targin is a slow release combination of Oxycodone and Naloxone that lasts approximately 12 hours so is usually given BD for a background of analgesia. Note that Targin has Naloxone, an opiate reversal agent, in it. At first glance, this seems counter...

I think usually the hospital will get a court order to force the blood transfusion, though this doesn't help in a critical situation...