lapappey

Beth Israel Deaconess has a good reputation for treating their nurses well. They're also a fantastic hospital. Mass General is a wonderful hospital, medically speaking, but not as well paid as certain others; I have been told that the hospital quite seriously tells it's nurses that "the pay cut you'll take is worth having MGH on your resume." Also, the physical plant of certain parts of MGH leave much to be desired. Brigham and Women's is physically nicer than MGH. It's also a union hospital. They are much better paid than MGH, another member of Partners, but you'll have to pay union dues and so forth. Tufts/New England Medical Center is also union, and is smaller, it is seperated into the Floating Hospital for Children and the adult hospital. Boston Medical Center provides a lot of free care and probably works with a more disadvantaged population than the others. It also recieves A LOT of the major trauma. Children's is a very good pediatric hospital (again medically speaking). I am not very familiar with working conditions for nurses...

Acute Pancreatitis: I GET SMASHED I - idiopathic G - gallstone E - EtOH T - trauma S - steroids M - mumps (paramyxovirus) and other viruses (EBV, CMV) A - autoimmune S - scorpion sting / snake bite H - hypercalcemia, hyperlipidemia and hypothermia E - ERCP D - drugs, duodenal ulcers

Belize from Angels in America ... yes, it's a play, but it was on TV (HBO) ... so I guess it counts :chuckle . Doctor: Nurses are supposed to be in white! Belize: Doctors are supposed to be in bed in Westchester! :rotfl:

PACU's will probably like acute care experience, which can be a sort of catch-22, since most acute care nursing assistant jobs like acute care experience ... however, it may not be a requirement. In my PACU, PCA's are responsible for 12-lead EKG's (fairly easy to learn), drawing blood (takes some time to become proficient), attaching patients to monitors (not rocket science), taking out IV's and arterial lines, and doing a variety of other tests. You may be expected to transport patients on a stretcher up to the nursing units, with an RN if they are sicker. Most of this stuff can be picked up on the job, or the hospital in question may have formal training availible. Best of luck to you. If you have any more questions feel free to post or send a private message. As far as a pediatric unit goes I'm not really sure what PCT duties entail. Probably includes blood drawing and kids can be very tricky to stick.

Our PACU (large teaching hospital) has a few new grads who worked as PCT's here beforehand. Other than that, most RN's have med/surg if not SICU experience beforehand. If you're really interested in PACU nursing and still in school I would suggest going the route of getting a PCT job. You'll get to do and see a lot.

Ratios are nice, but some of these particular ones seem like oh so much pie in the sky. 1:2 in my PACU? I'd love it. But do we have it? No sir. But wouldn't it be nice? And what does: mean for Surgical Techs in Michigan???

Well, without seeing it, I'm not sure that quoting from a research study qualifies as "bashing." I know that there is research out there that says that CRNAs are just as safe as MDs and also that CRNAs tend to have better pt satisfaction ... what exactly is the study that they are referring to? I assume that it says that CRNAs aren't as safe as MD's. Is the other research just ignored? Or what?

Ideal? No. Safe? Maybe. But in these situations, you do what you have to ...

qd (night shift techs) and after a patient on isolation or if they are exposed to blood or bodily fluids ... infection control wise I'm sure we could be doing better, but typically, the pt is wheeled out of the slot (PACU) just as the next one is being wheeled in ... so in practice it's very unlikely ...

Introduce myself as working in the "NEUROLOGY" department to my UROLOGY pre-op patient (seeing as I work all services) and, without missing a beat, start the pre-op interview ... until I saw the look on the pt's face ... :stone ... I guess I was the one who needed some help 'up there' today ... :chuckle ... pt genuinely believed he was about to have "wrong site" surgery in a big way, wow ... :uhoh21:

Look at what showed up as an advertisement on that page (granted, not something that the author endorses, but still something that a pt could very easily come across) ... http://www.healthy-heart-books.com/ Just goes to show that you never can tell.

As the only male in one's class, one gets used to the class being referred to as "ladies, and, um, gentle-man" fairly quickly ... :chuckle

Oops Should've given credit where credit was due That was Carl Elbing's "Nurstoons" http://www.nurstoon.com/

You know, all those registered NURSES with associates degrees in NURSING who desperately want to be NURSES ... wait a second ...

Point taken, point definitely taken-- So should all pulseless patients be shocked in the field? Does ACLS only mandate not shocking asystole because in the hospital we have resources to confirm that asystole is asystole? I really don't know. Any opinions?