assidere

Technically, if you look back far enough, its actaully a traditionally male profession. We have Florence Nightingale to thank for making it a "female profssion" in the 1800s... As far as politically corret goes, I much prefer "nurse" to anything else. I of course answer to "murse" when I'm among friends, but I'd rather be addressed as "Hey you!" than be specifically called out as a "male nurse." I get "Hey, you are a really good male nurse" alot, and it sorta makes me feel like they were expecting lower-quality care because I wasn't a woman like they were used to...

Obviously you are more vaulable in an emergency than the gen surgery or internal med teams, lol... Good thing you came though, and helped the patient out. We have a dedicated PICC team at my facility. They say we in CCU are the only ones who actually notice and come running when they tickle the ventricle on a deep insertion...

First of all, to the OP, "saline" doesn't count as a drip, lol. As far as my experience, it was an exercise in futility, trying to save a patient who over-dosed on Calcium channel blockers. Having witnessed it first hand, its an awful way to go, since in his few lucid moments between vomiting his guts out, he was beggign me to save him. For Ca-channel blockers, we don't have a true reversal agent, like we do with narcs... I believe it was Levo, Neo, Vaso, Dopa, Dobuta, Insulin, Glucagon, Calcium Chloride, Mag/K/Phos replacement, two misc antibiotics, and low-dose Versed.

I have considered corrections nursing a couple of times throughout my career. Four years in ICU and on a few occasions I have thought about wanting a change of pace. I haven't pulled the trigger yet, and may not ever do so, but it is nice to hear your first-hand account. Thanks for the great work you do!

I am hesitant to recommend anyone going into *any* healthcare field right now, until we figure our how the ACA/ObamaCare is going to pan out after full implementation...

A little more in-depth, but Welcome | Jeffrey S. Guy, MD, MSc, MMHC is a great resource. Check out the Critical Care Notes and the ICU rounds podcasts. Stuff is a little dated, but still great info...

Never had any personal experience in problems with bradycardia. Hypotension on the other hand, is real and has caused problems fairly often for me. We aim for RASS between -2 and -3 (just changed from MRS 3-4), and check Trigs q48 hours on everyone. Our max is 80mcgs, and we do daily wake-ups in AM unless ordered. I have found that the larger patients hold onto it longer (IE- the fat soluability), but never had real problems "for a week" like one post said. Green urine happens occasionally, but is really only good for confusing the new grads and students when I quiz them on it...

Or they are like me, and just love to run their mouth about unimportant stuff. Which now that I think of it, isn't technically part of report... On a serious note, I am def a type-A when it comes to report. I just use a blank peice of paper and only write a few quick notes. I trust keeping it in my head more than on a piece of paper I might lose...

I drive an hour each way, going from a small town and into the big city with a Level I trauma center to work in CICU. When you account for the commute, my "12-hour shifts" are actaully 14.5 hours each. Makes for a tough stretch doing three in a row... I wouldn't recommend driving two hours each way unless you have no other prospects, but at least going to the interview couldn't hurt. You will get the experiece, and you may find you like the unit/hospital/city enough that you want to relocate...

Or big boy nurses, like me... As far as celebrating after owning the NCLEX, I met up with my then-fiance to finish wedding plans Four and a half years later, I am celebrating that she hasn't kicke dme to the curb yet...

Hi all, I've been a member here for over three years and was very active for the first year or so, and have just been lurking since then. Just wanted to ask a question to those of you that are NPs (or are at least in school)- Which is better, picking a specialty when pursuing an MSN (ie- Psychiatric/Mental Health, OB/GYN, etc), or getting a more general MSN (in this case, I am referring to an FNP which seems to have the largest scope of coverage, though on a less in-depth level), then getting a Post-Mater's certificate in a specialty? I like the idea of both Psych and Adult/Gero focusing on Cardiology, but I hate to pick either and be pigeon-holed into a very specific job. I feel like getting my feet wet, so to speak, with an MSN as an FNP will introduce me to a little bit of everything, then I can decide for sure where I want to focus a few years later. I would like to get my DNP at some point, so I suppose an MSN-DNP program would be a good choice as well, and lots of places offer different concentrations within their DNP programs... I hope I made myself clear. Any input is apprecaited. Thanks!

We always change our pumps in 1:2 just long enough to get a strip, then change it back. Probably 10 seconds max. Of course we also pause them briefly to ascultate heart/lungs, and make sure to allow a couple of minutes between these two exercises in order to let the patient rebound. If they can't tolerate that, there's gotta be something else going on...

Looks like you've got some good replies, but as to the subject of being labeled- "Oh, you're a male nurse!?! They didn't tell me that! I don't want one of those. I need a "regular" nurse who knows what she is doing" That one really stung. Even after assuring her that I was a healthcare professional and took the same classes the female nurses did, she (and four others that I can recall) maintained that she wanted a female nurse. I understand from a cultural/ehtnic point of view where a male taking care fo a female could be frowned upon and I respect that, but these were all American Caucasians...

The best solution is to do what I did- move to an ICU where most of the patients are sedated and can't eat ice cream But in all seriousness, dealing with families is most of what makes our job so hard. In the 16 months or so that I have been a nurse (and two years of nursing school that doesn't really count), I've only had two or three patients that I had a difficult time dealing with. Families are another matter, as there is usually at least one a week that really grates my nerves, for the same reasons you mentioned above. In the ICU environment, we stress the importance of rest, calm, and a haeling environment. It really irks me to see family members run in at visiting time (we have 30 minute increments every three hours) and try to talk to an intubated, sedated patient... But thankfully, for every family like that, there is usually at least one that is understanding and gracious, and those are the ones that make it all worth while. I am thankful though, that I can leave my work at the hospital and don't have to bring it home with me.... Edit: realized I didn't answer your question at all- my solution was to focus on the patient. Its hard to realize that even though it can be annoying, families do what they do because they care about their loved one. It helped me to cope by thinking that I made a difference for that loved one, and if having to answer the same question 12 times made the family feel better about the care the patient was receiving, I could get through it