vera4130

Arterial line is best. Especially if they are on pressors or cold (hypothermia protocol), or even have very calloused hands. When I have an art line available I never use finger sticks.

A few options in the future: Document when there are safety shortfalls. No chair alarms? Document it. I had to document a "system" problem when the phones were apparently down and my trauma patient decided to de-recruit a lung. Not my fault, not the...

I'm not 100% sure this is what you're looking for, but the book 'When Chicken Soup Isn't Enough' by Suzanne Gordon is fantastic.

I think many people fail to prepare for HESI, they assume that they will be prepared without actually doing much preparation. Did that 25% invest time in studying or doing practice exams? I personally prepped for exit HESI by reading, reviewing, and...

This is not unheard of. They're setting a minimum passing score based on exams. I cannot even think of how this would be a "legal" issue, how schools grade is not regulated. If it's clearly stated it's definitely fair game. There can be all kinds of ...

That's really a little rude. I think it's totally normal to worry about "being behind." The OP hasn't shared anything about themselves other than they're worried about delaying graduation. OP, don't worry about it at all. You'll work with nurses who...

Had a patient come in with hyperkalemia and was going to need dialysis, wasn't currently on dialysis and so didn't have access. Didn't seem emergent and renal was swamped so they decided to hold off until the following morning. Throughout my nightshi...

Why not just get the experience? Short cuts are not always the best route. What makes you qualified as a manager if you have no experience? My best managers have had clinical experience and an MBA or MSN in admin. I honestly can't imagine working for...

There are research nurses too, and many do more than just taking patient histories. Public health could be a good option too. I hated nursing school so much I almost dropped out. I also had a previous degree and thought that I wanted to do research,...

Yes. It is as much me evaluating them as it is the other way around. I care about how units schedule, floating, staffing, education opportunities, etc. Well thought out questions should be seen as a bonus. And I'd get benefits info up front from HR.

I'll second that. Some places may be an outright no, others will want more information. But I'd want to find out before spending the time and money to go to school.

I had one who was a "therapeutic touch" practitioner and believed she'd healed someone's DVT or some non-sense. She taught our first semester lecture and I've never had a more worthless class. Thinking back it's clear she wasn't really qualified to t...

Get familiar with how to look things up at your hospital. For example, if I have a question about what is best practice for a certain diagnosis, I usually start with UpToDate. Find where to look up information about diseases, medications, equipment, ...

Nursing is stressful, and critical care is stressful in a different way. I think the only way to survive sometimes is to have a life outside of work. It's not that I'm not a team player (trust me, if you need help I'll probably stay late), but someti...

YES! Do everything in APA format up front, it will make revising easier!! Your assignments the first three weeks (I think - I've already starting blocking out the painful memories of that class) will result in a rough draft of your final paper. Do th...

I'm in it! So, so ready for this 'journey' to finally be over.

THIS. I've never worked M/S, but the idea scares me. Even most of my nursing school clinicals were done on step downs or ICUs. A nurse I worked with made a rude remark about a patient who came back to us after coding on the floor (trach secretions I ...

Anyone else having trouble scheduling their shadowing?? I emailed my coach, but I feel like it sounds an awful lot like 'I-waited-until-the-last-minute-and-need-an-extension' even though that's not the case.

I have to shadow someone? Ughhh...... can't wait to pick a manager at my new job to bother. I'm sure someone won't mind but I hate to ask not having worked there long.

Haha, did she have anything to say to that?

This class is a joke. The email response I got was "well Purdue OWL says to do it this way." Never mind the quite I sent her was straight out if the APA manual. And funny, I checked Purdue OWL and they recommend page numbers for paraphrased portions...

I'd take a very careful look at your graded papers if you're borderline. I'm not, but I decided some of my teammates might be and I found what I consider to be grading errors on APA issues. I own an APA manual and looked everything up, and emailed my...

I am, no joke, screen capping where Dr. H said it was "ok" to do something a certain way. Because I can so see them coming back and deducting big time points and going "well the rubric said to do x" or whatever.

I was deducted a point (I won't complain too much, my coach has been decent for once, total shocker), for including information not discussed in the OOH on the first assignment. Whatt??? I sat down, thought about the question, and had something to ad...

I found the quiz - for whatever reason it was not showing up under assignments. I was able to do well on it but the studying I did the last two days? Of no help. After seeing the email I was so, so glad I took it earlier than I planned. I hope they ...