manda691

AI'm a new grad RN who works as an RN supervisor at a 250 bed facility LTC with a 50 bed sub acute unit. I tend to have to use my judgment a lot because I work night shift on the weekends and I either have to ask an experienced LVN or try to google it unless I want to wake my boss up. This weekend I had a patient on a GT feeding that is 50 ml/he for 20 hours on at 12 noon off at 8 am. The feeding pump stopped working at 3 am and we had no extras in the building and we can't order a new one until 8 am when our supplier opens. I asked if we could give a bonus feeding and was told it was too much give via bbolud. I asked the experiences LVN who's worked there for 4 years what we could do and he said that they hang to gravity and only unclamp the tubing slightly. I wrote on the shift report what happened and that the feeding should be stopped at 8 am and was running to gravity I also endorsed this to the am RN supervisor. Unfortuantely the feeding was not stopped by the LVN at 8 am it ran to gravity until a pump was delivered at 330 pm. The patient received an extra 500 ml of feeding an we were unable to resume the feeding until much later because of high residuals. The morning RN says she never reminded the LVN about the feeding and never checked on it herself but that I am at fault because I hung the feeding to gravity. Obviously I'm glad the patient is unharmed because it could have been worse but I'm just wondering if I had this situation again what the correct solution is? Does the patient go without a feeding until the pump is delivered?

Hbaum I am in California my recruiter told me two weeks about a week ago ". He is very good about contacting me and keeping in touch so I trust that as soon as he knows I'll know. That being said I'm probably going to check in with him today.

Medic.89 were you going the NTP route? I cant see how they were looking for prior experience if it is a program for nurses with less than 6 months of experience? Congrats to those who were selected. I will be bugging my recruiter tomorrow, lol.

I am trying going the Air Force route as a new grad so not sure about navy but yes they look at GPA I think the minimum is a 2.5 but it is extremely competitive to be accepted in any branch so the higher the better. Also I was to that the Air Force wants to see leadership skills so any volunteer service or leadership type experiences are a plus. I would say in general icu is a good place to be when starting as a nurse but they do not look to closely at that according to my recruiter. The best advice anyone could give you is to decide which branch your most interested in and go and speak with a health professions recruiter or nurse recruiter or whatever the name is for that branch. Whatever you do don't just go speak to a regular recruiter who will only know about enlisted recruitment and not officers.

Im waiting as well for the NTP boards. I was originally told the 15th too and then my recruiter let me know that the results should be about two weeks from today. I was given the option to say how soon I would be available to leave for COT but didn't get to pick. Everyone who is selected will be told when they are going once they get their orders. Our 3 closest options are october 2013, january 2014, or march 2014.

Hey everyone, I am a student who will be graduating with my BSN in June and I have an interest in trauma. I plan on going to get a master's or doctorate at somepoint after having gained experience. I have looked into a few programs that offer specialties in critical and trauma nursing, either as a nurse practitioner or a CNS. I know that the university trying to sell you on their degree isnt going to be quite so truthful but I wondered if trauma centers and ERs are actually hiring either CNS's or NP's. My understanding is most of the time there is a physician present in an ER or trauma center so its a possibilty the degree exists but no need exists I suppose. Just wondering if anyone has actually seen these degrees put to use.