Mountain Nurse

It's not unheard of where I am. None of the ICU nurses like it, but, we weren't consulted....

Sorry... long post...but there is a point, I promise! I recently had an order to hang one unit of blood. H/H wasn't bad, but it was right at shift change. So I decided not to "pass the buck" and went to lab to get the blood. When I got back I grabbed one of our nurses to check blood with (policy is two nurses check). and went to hang tubing. I usually have it ready and infusing before I pick blood up, but like I said, shift change and there was a high critical sodium. The other nurse gives me crap about doing this at shift change and staying w/ the pt for 15 min and yadayadayada and then she looks at the bag I'm just about to spike... and it's D10. crap. So, we fix it, no harm no foul. And I continue on. So, I listen to the pt, do my assessment, and then I realize.... no consent is signed. crap. The pt is not A/o so I have to call around and around to get verbal consent. And finally, I start my blood and stay w/ the pt for my required 15 min. I was very upset about the whole ordeal and decided that next time, I will NOT start the blood at shift change. Then I get a call from my manager today. She wants to know what happened. The other nurse wrote me up for this (even though none of these reached the pt.) I am being required to do 4 remediation classes withinin the next 10 days. I know that something has to be done, but I'm very upset. I caught all of the mistakes. And apparantly, she told my manager I didn't intend to stay with the pt for the 15 minutes. How would she know? Did she ask me that? Did I try to leave? NO! I know what I'm supposed to do. I've only been a nurse for 5 months, but I have hung blood. It's not my first day. I'm angry with myself for the mistakes, but also for the assumptions that I would've not stayed with the pt. I have to meet with my manager soon, and I'm not allowed to hang blood until the courses are complete and I've spoke with the unit manager. She wants me to "think about how to avoid this in the future." Like I will ever forget this! I just hope none of my pts need blood and I have to tell my whole story to two other nurses. Even though i'm sure the other nurse has already spread the word. I'm not sure what will happen with my meeting. It could be worse, and I guess I could be in worse trouble than I am. I guess i'm mostly angry with myself... Any advice?

Not sure if anyone is familiar with the Cherokee Boxer Style Pants....the waist band is like 4 inches thick and rides up to your chest! Not to mention the legs are tapered like 80's style....ugg. Those are the exact same ones we had to wear for my nursing clinicals! In galaxy blue.. I don't remember the name of the kind I got, but they had the same requirements as you do. I'll look for the brand name tonight!

Good for you CseMgr1!! Stand up for what yourself. You definately deserved more respect than you got.

My husband is also a paramedic, so I can sympathize in knowing that these guys wouldn't even think of going to work drunk, much less in front of their supervisors!! It's ridiculous that one waitress could change policy, even though public opinion is important for any public job. If five, ten people complained, maybe I could see them turning the party non-alcoholic. However, they did explain to them that there are three parties just so that all of them will be able to enjoy it.

These two semesters are two 14 credit hour semesters offered through online or web-enhanced classes. They wanted you to have most of your pre-req's, ex. A&P, 2 English classes, etc. before you get in to the ADN. (My english classes were online and so were humanities.) That is mostly because the program is so competitive. I am married and want to start a family soon, so two years going and one at home was a better choice for me.

I had the same decision to make, but where I live they offer a RN to BSN, so it will take me two years to get my ADN and only two semesters after that for my BSN. That is a total of three years, two years at the cost of a community college, and only two semesters at the university cost. You may want to check into whether or not a program like this is offered.

Hey! My husband is an EMT-Paramedic and I am an EMT-B and he and I both think that both answers are very good ways to stabilize and the only thing we could add is just remember that the hip in connected to the spinal cord and to keep that in mind!!

A Level I and Level II trauma center are different in what the center can handle. A Level I could handle anything and a higher volume. most have a helicopter and OR Surgeons on call 24 hrs a day. They always have an orthopedic and can handle mass casualty incidents. A level 2 doesn't always have those things and has a cap on the number of patients that they can see. A level three is a bandaid station, for the most part. Hope this was helpful!

Well, I am a CNA and I used to work in a LTC facility. We had a man, who was maybe sixty. He had had a quadruple bypass surgery, and had came in on my 3-11 shift. The other aide I was working with went in to check him, and came back out as wide eyed as an owl. She said that mr so and so had a, had a, and then whispered to me that he had an erection. She weighed about 265 lbs, at least, but was convinced that it was her and refused to go back in. Later, we found out that he had ED and his propriopism was permanant. Wasnt the aide after all!!