Matt8700 RN, EMT-B

You need some bedside experience to gain the assessment and technical skills.

Thouhts on this matter.... I was orienting an agency nurse the other day and she mentioned that she was in grad school. I asked her what her major and she said it was nurse practitioner. Good for her, right? That doesn't bother me at all. What both...

Hello! Question for everybody who works in rehab. I recently began working in a Post acute Care facility which is really a skilled nursing facility that focuses on Post acute Care only, no long-term care patients. when I am receiving a new patient fr...

Let me just preface this all by saying I am new to corrections. My previous field was ER, so I am having to learn and adjust to the prison culture. I am the sick call nurse where I work, so I am lucky and get to see a lot of different things. One of...

So everyone at the prison I work was just recently taken off of their naproxen and Motrin because of all of the new literature that shows how dangerous they can be. Needless to say we have some very unhappy customers to say the least. We have been t...

We had people on naproxen and ibuprofen 600mg for 365 days a year. The problem is, they say, that there are risks associated with long term use of these meds, mainly kidney issues. They were not reassessed at 90 days and when they were reassessed, th...

For those of you that might be able to add to this discussion..... I recently left hospital nursing and took a full time job at a local prison. I had never worked in this sort of environment before, so it is all new to me. I am not a job hopper, so ...

How do you maybe a provider that is either unwilling to treat a patients pain or is under treating a patients pain. Example: patient waits 8 hours in the lobby to be seen. Provider orders Motrin for the patients chronic hip pain. I know the conditi...

You make good points here as well. I do agree that the wait should not dictate the meds you are given. But when I see a 60 or 70 year old get wheeled back to my room in wheelchair for something that they perceive an emergency, my first thought is "h...

KeeperMom, thank you for your response. I appreciate your input. I have my ever worked in one ER and I hear from our travel nurses that the nurse/provider relationship in the er I work in is very one sided. There is never any discussion of the pat...

KeeperMom, I understand your point. And again, I was not suggesting a narcoticnfor these patients. What I would suggest would be things such as toradol, ultram, etc. Non narcotic medications, buttoned that will offer some relief. I feel bad when you ...

This particular provider is of the mindset that their orders stand and that they should not be questioned. I am not suggesting narcotics at all, but the other medications that you mention could be very helpful and satisfying to the patient. I guess ...

The RN and APRN are two very different roles. It does not mean that the RN is less educated than the APRN. You can have an MSN and not be a practitioner. APRNs, in my opinion, do not provide nursing services, they provide medical services, and we are...

So many mis-spellings. Sorry guys

I think that it is very confusing to patients when a nurse walks in the room and tells them they will be the nurse providing their care, then comes the NP and explains to the patient that they are the advanced nurse. It sore of does make the bedside ...

Patient education question here. How do you all approach the ER patient that is admitted and awaiting a bed on the floor, it has no active interventions taking place when they tell you that they "might as well just go home since nothing is being don...

Looking for some input. In my ER, they stress pain control big time. We are supposed to do all we can to manage someone's pain adequately. My question, though, is how do you chart on a patient whose pain has not been controlled, but the MD won't gi...

Hello, Looking for input here. I know the basics of what to put in a rounding / update note. Things like "bed low, call light in reach," etc. However I would like to make my notes sound more clinically oriented instead of just adding the basic thing...

Hello, was wondering if anyone could tell me why the bedside telemetry montors will often times start alarming saying the patient has had 79 PVCs? Clearly based on the patients condition this is not the case, but what causes the monitor to read this...

I have a question about care planning..... when you formulate the plan of care and set goals, do you take into consideration how long the patient will be in the hospital? If the patient is admitted to the med/surg floor and you set goals for them, ...

Okay, here we go...... there is such a big push for staff to make time for our patients, always asking them what else we can do for them, etc. I have no problem with this at all, but the truth is, sometimes there isn't time. Sometimes when you get tw...

Hello, I have a burning questions and cannot seem to find any literature that answers it for me in my own research. What is the indication for IV fluids in a patient that does not seem to need them? I'm not talking about your nausea, vomiting, feve...

Thank you so much. I'm just trying to learn what I can! I appreciate your response.

To the ER ARNPs: could you explain what you look for when you draw labs and are trying to determine viral vs bacterial infection? Is there a pattern that will present to give you a clear idea of the diagnosis? thanks!

Man, it would be scary if I were an NP and didn't know how to diagnose!! Haha. Didn't realize that it might have come across that I was an NP in my initial post. Sorry, I should have explained.