ICUNurseStat

No, they cannot send you a ticket in the mail, you would have to be cited on the spot. You are very fortunate that the police let you go without a ticket as having any alcohol in your system is illegal since you are under the legal drinking age.

109.2 rectally, can't remember if he was a TBI or an anoxic injury but absolutely nothing would bring it down and he died the next day.

If the patient has a trach but is not on a vent they are not brain dead. People who have progressed to brain death are unable to breathe independently. Perhaps this patient is actually in a persistent vegetative state. With regard to suctioning, does...

I just realized the last paragraph of my reply was missing. It would be very uncommon and probably not very useful to use a number scale to rate symptoms such as SOB or nausea. Anxiety, maybe. Typically those symptoms would be described as mild, mod...

You really can't just pick a number that you "feel" best fits the symptoms the patient describes. That's called guessing. There are several tools such as the FLACC and Faces pain scales that take observed or stated symptoms and assign numbers based o...

If you are taking the two day course take good notes of things the instructors emphasize on day one. Then go home and study. As stupid as you may feel go through your scenarios and algorithms OUT LOUD at home just as you would while being checked off...

If you are only searching for Quinton catheters it is probably limiting your results because that is a brand name. Look for non tunneled vascular access devices or non tunneled hemodialysis catheters. That may broaden your search quite a bit.

I am happy to say that we nearly always use propofol and no longer carry Precedex in my facility. There were so many patients who were WILD and acted like they weren't on any sedation at all while on Precedex. It always seemed really hit or miss.

Our policy just requires that the patient wear a standard surgical mask during transport. Whomever is transporting the patient does not wear a mask, just practices good hand hygiene. The patient, of course, should only be transported if absolutely ne...

We have one to two assigned admit beds at the beginning of each shift if the unit isn't full. After the admit beds are filled any nurse who gets rid of a patient is up for an admission. There will ALWAYS be nurses who whine about getting admissions. ...

Ours are 1:1 the whole time until they are rewarmed.

How shocking that your coworkers treat you badly. You certainly describe all the traits of a professional CNA who takes their job seriously. It takes a lot of integrity to give people regular coffee so they can't sleep although they requested decaf (...

I'm glad I could entertain you but I work PRN in the NICU as well as working in the adult ICU. I'm also glad to see you've survived being near stinky people to initiate kangaroo care without developing any life threatening illnesses.

Unless you're burying your head in his shirt your exposure to the smoke would be nearly nonexistent. Bad for baby, yes. Bad for adult nurse in semi-close proximity, hardly.

I can't help but wonder if your fellow students are just acting like you're so difficult to understand. Unfortunately, even adults sometimes gang up and pick on people who are different. Don't let their attitudes deter you from becoming a nurse. As ...

Does anyone have any good resources/references/anecdotal instances on the effects of prolonged use of paralytics such as rocuronium and vecuronium? (10+ days at this point).

Ok maybe I wasn't clear enough. We all do things without an order when an emergency arises. However, it is terribly unwise to give someone advice to do so on a public forum. At our hospital, if the patient was still somewhat arousable and was able t...

Even though you think DVDs wouldn't help you, I would still recommend the Laura Gasparis Vonfrolio review DVDs. She puts things in terms that are easy to understand and remember and she truly teaches to the test. My MICU doesn't ever really have PA ...

I was just trying to find a polite way to point out that you shouldn't shock asystole.

Single dose vials of the vaccine do not contain the mercury based preservative. Neither does the nasal mist.

I hate to be a nitpicker(even though I'm pretty sure that's not a real word) but defibrillation doesn't "restart a heart that's in true asystole", reversing the cause does. Defibrillation (hopefully) restarts a heart that's in pulseless VT or VF. Th...

It's been my experience that with myoclonus, you tend to see a very rhythmic generalized twitching. With seizures associated with an anoxic injury, they are often focal, rather than generalized tonic clonic. Our therapeutic hypothermia patients are ...

I work in a 35 bed MICU. We seem to be VERY behind the times in treating ARDS. In the 3 years that I have worked on this particular unit, I think that we have pronated a total of 5 patients that I can recall, and always as an absolute last resort. I ...

We actually still do SLED but nearly always run it continuously. We take a 4 hour class and then do 3 shifts orienting to a pt on SLED with an experienced nurse. We set up our own machines and do all of the cleaning as well.