mountainjc

When did it show up? How did I develop this? I'm not sure. I am a year out of nursing school working on a very busy cardio-renal-pulmonary unit. We see basically everything. Maybe I developed this from my other experienced co workers? Subconsciously learning to see what they see. But what else do you call it when you think a patient is going to crash but have no other reasoning but " a gut feeling". I had an elderly male gentleman that came to us for generalized weakness. I had been with him for 5 nights. In that time he had been diagnosed with myestenia gravis. When I first met this man he was talking, a little hoorifice maybe, definitely understandable however. By the 5th night it's like he would try to talk but he could not get the words out. He said he was having trouble breathing. I checked his continuous pulse ox. It was reading 100% on 3L. Listened to his lungs. They were clear. I put his bipap on that was available to him just to give him some relief. It worked. Checked the pulse ox again. 100%. Blood pressure and pulse normal. So why am I still having this nagging feeling that some thing wasn't right? He took his bipap off too go to the rest room and his sats dropped to the 80's. That has never happened before: he was on room air 5 days ago and doing just fine. Again I check his vitals and listen to his lungs. Put the bipap back on and everything was normal again. There is something wrong here. I called in a more experienced nurse. I said I know all his vitals are stable but something is wrong and I can't tell you what it is. She said to keep and eye on him, make sure he keeps the bipap on, and call if something changed. My shift ended and I gave the oncoming nurse report who has also had him for the past two days. I say he has been declining slowly for the past 5 days. Please keep a very close eye on him. Something is wrong here.... fast forward 12 hours and I'm back. The day nurse find me immediately and she said " you were right he coded today". I wish I could have pinpointed what was spiking my senses and maybe then I could have avoided this. But I'm glad that this sense has found me. It really makes me feel like I'm on the right path.

giving a gift to a patient is unprofessional I understand. But what if you are trying to let them know that people do care about them? I have a patient that has been there for a month and will be for at least two more weeks and they said no one visited them in the hospital for the holidays. They are very down on their luck right now and I can see them wanting to give up the fight. Then I had the idea of getting them a little something. What are your thoughts? Is an exception possible?

I did say this to him," Do you honestly like working here?". He replied," honestly, yes. I wouldn't have stayed so long if I didn't." So that answer is what is making think I should go for it. Also a lot of my fellow classmates said they really enjoyed clinicals there. They want an answer by tomorrow. I think I'm going to see if i can negotiate the pay a bit.

It's a step-down unit, he didn't say how frequently that happened. So i'm hoping that maybe that was just a really bad day where everyone called in and their was no one able to float.

I spoke briefly with a nurse that has worked there for 10 years and he said he has taken on up to 12 patients.

The only job offer I have is from a very nice hospital. They have excellent benefits and the nurse manger is such a sweet heart. I have a few issues however, for one they offered me $18.10 an hour. Is this too low for a new grad nurse? Also they only have about 2 CNA's working a 33 bed step down unit, and the nurse manager was admittedly short staffed and was expecting to hire a lot of new grads in the coming months. It sounds to me like this is going to be a really difficult floor. Especially if they are having to train all of us new grads. Should I hold out for something more appealing to me, or am I being totally unrealistic and this is just how it is in the real world?

I posted this before I started nursing school. Now I am in my final semester and I no longer have the fainting problem! I still don't like shots but I don't hit the floor when I get one so I would call that an improvement! So if anyone wants to go into nursing and you are not sure if you can handle it, just go for it! You would be amazed at what you can get use to. I absolutely love the profession I have chosen and I am so glad I didn't let my fear hold me back. And thank you all for the wonderful advice it helped more than you will ever know!

I'm a RN student in my final semester for my ASN. This semester we are doing our preceptorships. I am so excited because I got my first choice and dream job the ICU! I'm also really nervous because we haven't had any clinicals in a critical setting so I was hoping to get some advice on some skills I should brush up on or equipment to familiarize myself with before I start. Any advice would be more than helpful! Thank you!

Yesss! I feel like you described it exactly! Im not particularly scared of getting my blood taken. Itso like one minute I'm sitting there fine and the next I'm seeing tunnel vision and my hands are clammy. It's not everyone else's blood that bothers me, just my own. I got a tb test and I was completely fine then the next minute I had to go outside and put my head between my knees. It's like I had no control it just happened! I hope it does get better, I'd hate to pass out in front of my professor. That would be embarrassing.

I have cleaned up (lots of) blood. However, when I get my blood taken, finger pricked, stub my toe and it starts bleeding, I instantly pass out. Every single time. This wouldn't really be a problem if I didn't want to be a nurse sooo badly! I have honestly sat up crying at night because I feel like this will be the one thing that will hold me back from my dream. Any advice or stories of nursing students overcoming this?