SFANURSE2011

Congratulations!! I remember my first leadership role. Everyday is a new day with different set of challenges. It can be very rewarded. Remember, balance the work with outside life. Good Luck!!

Turning patients and doing progressive mobility is actually very beneficial for patient care and outcomes. Does anyone want to turn a 600 lb bariatric patient? Probably not, but we do a lot for patient care. A physician ordered proning on a 580 lbs who was 5 ft 3. Needless to say it was done but with caution and needed equipment to help facilitate patient care.

I worked with many a nurse in IR who couldn't start any IV to save a life. Now some IR will have you place PICC or US guided IV. However that is a skill that can be taught and US does help. Don't worry about IV, I would worry more about knowing the procedures and conscious sedation. ? This depends on where you work. in EP the physician is technically handling the Fluoroscopy while the nurses are charting/scrubbed in. Mostly everywhere else I worked I had an ARRT to handle the Fluoroscopy.

Nurse Beth, I wanted to let you know, you were right. I did go on and get my NE-BC and just as soon as I did received a job offer for an ICU Nurse Manager position. I know the road won't be easy, but life is a journey and I am excited about where it is going.

We use shift select and is able to handle most what you are looking for.

Yes, you can find a job with a radiology group and just perform procedures all day. At some facilities I have worked at. They mostly do midlevel procedures thora, para, port placement, dialysis access, and may get access for an angiogram. That being said one is doing rounds on inpatient while the other is doing procedures. Just know wherever you go, you maybe limited as a NP on patient population since some IR will cater to pediatrics or be looking for a NP/PA with procedure experience already versus trying to teach them procedures. Good luck! Procedure nursing is very rewarding. ?

Exactly. Just enough to get them through the procedure since you are doing moderate (twilight/conscious) sedation. They are suppose to respond to you during the procedure. Any deeper, you might be crossing over into Deep Sedation where you run into airway problems. Not the end of the world if it does happen, but it happens just gotta maintain and if applicable reverse.

I work in IR where we occasional remove tubes. These are the instructions I give: Change dressing as often as needed if bandage becomes soaked. Nothing by mouth for four hours following tube removal.Use food coloring to dye any food before eating. Eat only very lightly after four hours. Limit the amount of liquids until you are certain there is no leakage from the tube site. If food contents (dye) are seen to leak from the wound site, stop eating/drinking; wait one hour; repeat the trial. Only small meals should be eaten for the first 48 hours to allow the stomach to close. Larger meals may stretch the stomach and prevent closure of the wound. The wound may continue to seep for several days. This is normal and should not be concerning unless food/liquid continues to leak. If so, call your doctor. Change the dressing as often as necessary to keep the wound site dry. Once there is no longer seeping, no dressing is needed. Try a food dye and see if it comes out the wound where the g tube use to be. Also make sure her diet isn't crazy with heavy solid food.

I recently asked an old professor about getting PhD. This was her response, "I think the big difference is the research focus. I see DNPs as docs in practice who come up with great ideas for evidence-based practice changes and PhDs more as academic researchers. Together, we are a good combination." First, think about what part of the equation you want to be. Were you wanting to teach nurses? Might look at programs that teach the area you really want to be. Had an old classmate start school at Duquesne University Doctor of Nursing Practice. She is more Evidence Based practice than a researcher and still wants to be a nursing educator which won't interfere with her tenure track at the university she works at.

We use to have them stay if they have a EVD. However things changed and we only call the neuro ICU charge if we have any issues with the EVD. Otherwise, it's only the neuro IR nurse in the room if the patient is intubated, stable, and coiling is happening. We only get anesthesia involved if they weren't already intubated or if they were unstable. Hope that helps.

Sorry to hear about what happened to you. I was kinda in the same boat. Had only 4 classes or so left and left back in 2015. I recently started going back but switch to MSN in Leadership which allowed more room for wiggle (electives) instead of 4 I have technically 6 classes but, much better than starting over from square 1 with someone else. Once you obtain your MSN you can always take additional courses to get your certification for leadership or education if that is the true path you want. Food for thought. Thanks!

We use to have them stay if they have a EVD. However things changed and we only call the neuro ICU charge if we have any issues with the EVD. Otherwise, it's only the neuro IR nurse in the room if the patient is intubated, stable, and coiling is happening. We only get anesthesia involved if they weren't already intubated or if they were unstable. Hope that helps.

IR nurses in my department are also chemo certified not OCN but chemo training is provided. We verify with the the ordering physician and another RN and release the order from the treatment plan for the pharmacy to make then have the radiologist administer the chemo.

My biggest thing when I transitioned from ICU to IR was the call. We ended up taking 7 to 14 days of call a month. This was in due to being part of a teaching facility who was also going for stroke accreditation and we have to have two IR teams one for neuro and one for body. Once I came to terms with that, I love procedural nursing. My IR we take care of critical care patient without the ICU nurse. Manage drips, vents, A line along with providing adequate sedation for procedure is what I was meant to do.

We required the referring physician to prescribed oral medication before their exam. That being said. One group, breast specialist had standing orders for Xanax for their patients before a MRI where we didn't have to call and get the order. If the patient couldn't tolerate oral and do the MRI, I would provide them with locations where they could receive general anesthesia for a MRI. Honestly though, I feel that is always overkill and you may die of the anesthesia than be able to go through 30-40 minutes for a typical MRI exam. To each his own though.