akulahawkRN ADN, RN, EMT-P

Emergency Department

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All Content by akulahawkRN

  1. akulahawkRN

    educational value of care plans

    akulahawkRN replied to OnlinePersona's topic in General Students

    The main thing you're not getting is that the written care plan is your "recipe" for taking care of patients. Like a chef, you must first learn to follow some basic recipes, memorize them through...
  2. akulahawkRN

    Sacramento State Spring 2016 Application

    akulahawkRN replied to coolmommy99's topic in California Nursing

    SCC, ARC, and Sac State do essentially the same thing... they "front load" a lot of stuff so expect to be in class quite a bit for the first few weeks and not in the hospitals. The exact schedule does...
  3. akulahawkRN

    If an IV catheter is coming out, can you just push it back in?

    akulahawkRN replied to Vani1925's topic in General Students

    Very poor practice. While the majority of the IV lines that I place end up with nearly all of the catheter in the vein, I've had more than a few where the catheter had maybe 1/3 of the length in....
  4. akulahawkRN

    PICC line blood draw

    akulahawkRN replied to greyL's topic in General Nursing

    At the top of the page (and perhaps previous pages) there's a picture of one kind of transfer device that you attach to your sample syringe and then push the vials onto the syringe. While I could use...
  5. akulahawkRN

    American River College Spring 2016

    akulahawkRN replied to MP_FutureRN's topic in General Students

    Check your losrios email as well. Also, my sense is that they send out acceptance and alternate letters in batches too. They make up the list of candidates and share it with SCC as well. They knew I'd...
  6. akulahawkRN

    American River College Spring 2016

    akulahawkRN replied to MP_FutureRN's topic in General Students

    You'll have a very good experience at SCC. I went there and know the majority of the instructors well, and have met all of the current instructors. They want their students to succeed. SCC's program...
  7. akulahawkRN

    Fastest route to the heart via IV access?

    akulahawkRN replied to Soran's topic in Emergency

    If you have 18's in each AC and both aspirate/flush equally well, just pick one, slam the adenosine in followed by a solid flush. There is going to be effectively no physiologic difference. The key...
  8. akulahawkRN

    American River College Spring 2016

    akulahawkRN replied to MP_FutureRN's topic in General Students

    SCC also offers ADN, however they changed their filing process to only once per year. That filing period will be this February and will be for the Fall '16 and Spring '17 classes. ARC still has 2...
  9. akulahawkRN

    C/O feeling dizzy

    akulahawkRN replied to ContraryMary's topic in School

    I'm an ER nurse... every single patient I've seen to date that complained of dizziness or vertigo NEVER were laughing/smiling/drinking Starbucks... they always looked really uncomfortable and were too...
  10. akulahawkRN

    Narcan for School Nurses?

    akulahawkRN replied to Farawyn's topic in School

    I've given naloxone many times in the past and the major danger with it is simply reversing the opiate too quickly. IM and/or IN routes are reasonably good for bringing people up and out of...
  11. akulahawkRN

    Fastest route to the heart via IV access?

    akulahawkRN replied to Soran's topic in Emergency

    Shortest peripheral? Right EJ... In any event, you're going to want to slam the Adenosine in and immediately slam a good flush in right after it to ensure that it gets into the central circulation and...
  12. akulahawkRN

    Can pushing fluids lead to pulmonary edema?

    akulahawkRN replied to Pseudonym's topic in General Students

    I've just a few thoughts on this as well. First, the scenario supports the Pulmonary Embolism picture. What it doesn't show me is the alkalosis. This patient is having an obstructive problem with gas...
  13. akulahawkRN

    Kinesiology and then Nursing?

    akulahawkRN replied to crystalq1's topic in General Students

    It really depends upon what you intend to do with the Kines degree. If it's Sports Med and you want to be a Certified Athletic Trainer, then that's not a bad way to go, just know that you really can't...
  14. akulahawkRN

    Does the ER get easier or is it time to call it quits?

    akulahawkRN replied to RNTEE's topic in Emergency

    You should be careful about generalizing the elderly and "obese" patients as being "hard sticks" because often they really aren't. The difficulty with the elderly is that their skin can be very mobile...
  15. akulahawkRN

    ADN vs BSN

    akulahawkRN replied to Kelmack's topic in General Students

    I'm an RN that happens to have earned a Bachelor's degree already... I got my RN through an ADN program. My prior Bachelors provided me sufficient knowledge to be able do many of the things that are...
  16. akulahawkRN

    American River College Spring 2016

    akulahawkRN replied to MP_FutureRN's topic in General Students

    You'd have to look back about 8 years now. Back then, you needed to have a certain prereq GPA and overall GPA (last 60 units), meet with a counselor to verify that stuff, fill out an application with...
  17. akulahawkRN

    Does the ER get easier or is it time to call it quits?

    akulahawkRN replied to RNTEE's topic in Emergency

    Just to amplify something a bit, perhaps... I'm usually in the Fast Track area and while I've become pretty darned fast (today I saw around 14 with 2-3 beds occupied for 3+ hours each), the entire ED...
  18. akulahawkRN

    Stethoscope Recommendations!

    akulahawkRN replied to LelahRN2be's topic in Scrubs, Uniforms, Gear

    For good "studenting" and early clinical use, the Littmann Classic II SE (or anything of similar quality) is an excellent choice. If you have the budget, the Littmann Cardiology III is a significant...
  19. akulahawkRN

    INR for cardioversion?

    akulahawkRN replied to UmmIbrahim's topic in Cardiac

    When that happens, how might a patient that can't/doesn't clot well
  20. akulahawkRN

    Mandatory SOAP notes

    akulahawkRN replied to Do_Good's topic in General Nursing

    Once you get the hang of writing SOAP notes, they're actually not that difficult/hard to do. They do, however, take a little time. Probably the hardest part of writing a SOAP note is knowing what...
  21. akulahawkRN

    American River College Spring 2016

    akulahawkRN replied to MP_FutureRN's topic in General Students

    Everyone should hear back from ARC about their applications, either way, by the deadline they provide. While I'm no prognosticator, in years past, they've usually responded during the 7th week...
  22. akulahawkRN

    American River College Spring 2016

    akulahawkRN replied to MP_FutureRN's topic in General Students

    While the official start of classes is on a Saturday, that's for the Saturday classes. It'll be just like any other class you've taken. Some of your classes have run MWF, some T-Th. Your first day of...
  23. akulahawkRN

    American River College Spring 2016

    akulahawkRN replied to MP_FutureRN's topic in General Students

    When they're ready, they'll send out the emails. Just keep an eye on your junkmail folders because it's possible for some of these emails to be inadvertently filtered there. I imagine they will send...
  24. akulahawkRN

    American River College Spring 2016

    akulahawkRN replied to MP_FutureRN's topic in General Students

    I would suggest that anyone that isn't accepted at ARC also apply at SCC. Why? The entry requirements are very similar between the two programs and people should apply everywhere they're qualified. If...
  25. akulahawkRN

    Does the ER get easier or is it time to call it quits?

    akulahawkRN replied to RNTEE's topic in Emergency

    I've been at this now for 9 months and I'm between "Beginner" and "Competent." While I can manage 4 patients, 3 is more manageable. Trust me, I have difficulty when attempting to manage more than 2...