lisag1

Thanks, I guess everyday you learn something new. My initial feeling was to ditch it all (and she did), but in the future I will advise to do differently. I have only been out of school for about 2 years, so I know I still have so much to learn-never ending. As far as checking VS, I wasn't involved in his direct care-we do have the policy of every 30 minutes so I tend to think that the nurse caring for him probably wasn't doing what she was supposed to. Thanks for the input! :)

I think the standard answer is Med/surg for the first year. I did an internship, so I could pick 3 areas and at least got to try them out. I did end up on a med/onc floor and am still there. Lots of good experiences and it gives the chance to gain a lot of basic knowledge that you don't see in school. I didn't much like surgical in clinicals and really don't care to get pulled there even now. Too much of the same stuff over and over. But, that's only my opinion. :)

I have a question. Another nurse had a patient the other night who was receiving his 2nd unit of blood. The patient pulled his IV out and when she went to check on him, she found the cannula on the floor in a puddle of blood (no clue how long it had been there, how much was wasted). My feeling was that she should not restart the infusion because the blood was contaminated at this point. Should she have just changed the tubing and continued with the infusion? Thanks much!