Twenty years ago, small, rural hospital and new to ICU. Pt. admitted for pain control with epidural drip. All through the night shift I was in the room titrating up and down depending on his level of...
Check out the web page of the Wound, Ostomy, Continence Nurse Society (WOCN.org). You'll find lots of information on the various programs including WEBWOC, the online program. To sit for the exam(s),...
It was irritated where the bandage was but how was the wound? I'm guessing it was all healed. You just got a lesson in autolytic debridement! I think you'd make a fine wound care
When I was told that I must say (to EVERY patient) "I'm going to close the curtain now to ensure your privacy"....I nearly gagged! Of course I'm closing the curtain to ensure their privacy, but I...
"can you control evacuation of the bowel with a colostomy." This was the original question. Since we're talking about evacuation through a stoma and not through the rectum, muscle and sphincter...
There is a way to control the timing of colostomy output, and thousands of ostomates do this daily. It is called irrigation. After the abdomen has had plenty of time to heal, irrigation teaching can...
Odors tell us a lot about our patients, especially the bad ones. You will learn to diagnose a pseudomonas infection without a culture, GI bleed without an CT scan, C.Diff without a stool sample,...
Oh the shoulda, woulda, couldas...I've got a million of them. My goal was to graduate from nursing school at 40. Check. BSN by 45. Check. MSN by 50...OOPS! Too expensive. Anyway, feeling behind at the...
I loved working in the hospital. But when I started spending more time writing about the teaching I'd done than the actual teaching and more time writing about my interventions than the actual...
If you go with the pre-fab, you should still use extra protection under the tubing now that it's going to be under the compression. Either foam or the cotton layer of your
I have done this but under hospital supervision, not as outpatient. However, I would consider an outpatient if the person was directly involved with their own care. After the dressing is in place, put...
For her comfort and to decrease time spent on dressing changes you can't go wrong with the wound vac. Drainage won't be an issue as it goes into a throw-away canister. Typically dressing changes are...
One time on night shift I was called to a code and left a bag of popcorn in the microwave. At 300 joules I smelled smoke and nearly ****** myself! Then I remembered the popcorn. The fire alarms went...