Chaswald

We use propofol quite a bit in the CVICU i work in. Though i have found that the off service intensivists tend to use midazolam/fentanyl combos more often. I have had that experience with extubating a morbidly obese patient from propofol. He was incredibly confused and pulled at lines for much longer than a normal extubation would. Turned out he had rhabdo, so after treatment for that and he was fine. I have only had that experience once though.

In our open heart patients we see them about 1/3rd of the time. The SICU in my hospital uses precep catheters quite a bit. It seems that most of the time with our open hearts we are just treating numbers with primacor when the patient is plenty stable to have the swan removed. Thus they keep the swan sometimes a little longer then they probably really need.

We have a hard wired desktop per 2 patient rooms and we have quite a few of our computers on wheels. Enough of them that if almost all of our unit is 1 to 1 nursing care then we would only be short a couple of computers for each room. Most of the time we are doubled, so we either move our computer room to room or use the pod computers. The nice thing about our electronic flow sheets is that we only have to input changes in patient condition, assessments, vitals that don't record properly and verify them, our i&o, and vent settings really. So it can be quite convenient

Speaking about the chlorhexidine oral rinse. I work in a CTICU at a university hospital with a level 1 trauma center and we use chlorhexidine for anybody they plan on venting for longer than 24 hours really, and if there isnt an order we get one. Our VAP rates are relatively low due to this i believe.

I work in a CTICU and our cardiac and thoracic services have NP's and PA's on the unit. That is our main patient population. Off service patients, we are contacting the residents and attendings accordingly. They do hire a decent amount of mid-level practitioners, even though we are a teaching hospital.

I too am a new graduate and new CCU and cardiothoracic ICU nurse. I am just hitting the halfway mark of my orientation and i feel more stressed and overwhelmed than i ever did. I have had some crazy experiences as well. Just a couple weeks ago we took a 2 patient assignment and within 2 hours both patients went into torsades and obviously coded. No warning, in fact one patient was slotted to be discharged. I have found that organizing my time and keeping up with the hourly tasks has been the some of the hardest. I am alsp beginning to deal with titrating drips and taking what knowledge i have gained and managing the patients status. I think that we all struggle in one way or another. I feel it will take time for us to feel comfortable, you know? Or at least to get a rhythm and routine down. We will do it!

I dont work in a trauma icu, however i work in a cardiac icu and i will tell you; keeping up with your documentation, i&o,vitals,assessments, labs, etc, is very important. There was a day where i had 2 seemingly walkie talkie patients who, within 2 hours of each other, they both had v fib arrests despite having good labs and everything. Luckily my documentation was on par and i didnt need to be present for the second patient coding while i was stabilizing the first one. I am still very new to my unit as well and it still a constant struggle sometimes to keep up. It is getting better though. The biggest thing for me is making sure my critical alarms are set up, i have suction ready to go, my ambu bag is ready and i have a patent, easily accessible line in case of a code.

I will be starting orientation at my new position in the Cardio-Pulmonary ICU at our local teaching hospital and level 1 trauma center starting tomorrow. I have been an LPN for about 5 years in long term care and sub acute rehab. I very recently got my RN. It has been my goal to be not only a cardiac nurse but ultimately an ICU nurse. So this is like a dream come true. Honestly for me it was more about who i got along with in school and who my instructors were. One of mine worked on this unit for 13 years and felt I would be a great fit there. So she gave me a glowing reference. So excited!

I took the NCLEX-RN in new york on the 26th, PVT was a good pop up. Got the unofficial results on thanksgiving and my license popped up on the online website look up. Also got my "pass letter" in the mail yesterday.

Yeah, I wouldn't say there is a correlation between the amount of SATA, at least too much of one. It seemed like mine was sort of random. In fact I felt like I got SATA questions after questions that I was very unsure about.

To the OP: It would appear to me that perhaps your English skills are a bit low if you are taking the NCLEX in the USA. A lot of answering the questions appropriately is understanding the words, terminology and what the root of the question is looking for. If you struggle with any of those portions you are going to have a really hard time. If your English and medical comprehension is good, then you need to look back to the basic strategies of tackling an NCLEX question. These questions, often times, aren't so much based on super advanced knowledge or content, it's more about being skilled at taking these questions. A lot of times, if you have a good basis of knowledge, the questions are pretty straight forward.

I know this is a bit late for the OP but... I have a hard time finding shoes. I am a 10.5 and EEE to EEEE shoe size. If you need/want a good supportive shoe, brooks addiction walkers are amazing shoes. They come in all white. They aren't the coolest looking shoes out there, but when it comes to having good support for your tired dogs, these are great. I was able to wear mine for well over a year without any change in comfort. After working full time and using them in school, they finally wore out. I went back out and got another pair of brooks. They are on the expensive side, around 110$ online or so.

Yeah, I took mine this morning as well and I was wondering if we would get our unofficial results even with the holiday this week. Here's hoping there isn't a hitch! *fingers crossed*

Sorry to flood with my own posts here. But I also used the online resources for the Saunders Comprehensive Review and that was pretty nice. It had thousands of questions and they were tough questions, I felt. The only complaint I had about it was that it was down last week for a couple of days due to some kind of problem on their end. So that hindered my review a bit.

I sure hope it is quick. I have a job lined up already and I want to start ASAP. :)