ccer99

Hey Castaneda, congrats! You get payed during your 13 week training however it is 15$/hr. When you finish and sign on with your hospital you will get paid more...whatever that specific hospital pays. Good luck to you :)

I do math everyday...and I had a pharmacist make an error mixing double concentrated levophed last night. When we program meds into the pump there are different choices depending on concentration as well. Plus, in a code you need to pull straight from the code cart and RSI box yourself, no one to precalculate those meds.

I agree with all of the above posts, and would add reading up a little on vents and vent alarms...what they mean/trouble shooting them. You will do great!

Thanks for the input :) I did follow chain of command and get the orders my patient needed so no worries there. I was just unsure of what I should have put in my charting.

New nurse here with a question about appropriate charting. 1. When you guys/ladies contact a physician, do you chart their response word for word in quotes? For example, I contacted a physician the other night because my patients SBP Was in the 190'S. I administered the prn meds I had available (apresoline for SBP Above 160 And Trandate for SBP above 190) without adequate results. When I called and explained situation I was told ,"I don't have time for this, I'll deal with it later" and was hung up on. I was told to chart this response word for word, as opposed to charting what I told the doc and that there were no new orders recieved. What is most appropriate to chart? 2. I recieved a patient the other night and their central line dressing was half off and saturated, vent tubing hadn't been changed in 3 days, Ativan gtt hanging for almost 36 hours, Foley care had clearly not been done in days...do you chart a nurses note that you recieved the patient that way? Thanks for the input!

Thank you again for all the info and articles, I appreciate the input and knowledge. Looks like I have a lot of reading to do :)

Thanks for the input! I haven't found any research and when I asked again all I got was FDA white papers...going to be mandated soon...and no research lol. When I have a day off I'm going to look around some more. I'll definitely look more into goal ranges etc, thanks again :)

Hello all, Questions for you... is everyone still doing fingerstick blood sugars in their ICU? As of yesterday we are no longer allowed to. We can either draw off a central line or PICC, or we have to use a butterfly to get a sample (we can choose arterial or venous sample in our accucheck). Our director says that there has been a ton of research that shows there have been many incidents/deaths because of inaccurate readings, and soon this will be mandated. I believe this is mainly in grossly edematous patients, as the serous fluid you get in the fingerstick does not contain the same glucose as the blood. (new grad here, so if my though process is wrong let me know!) I asked to see the research and haven't gotten anything yet. Just curious if this is only us, or if anyone else is doing the same. My concerns are BSI's going up due to frequent access of lines, or even needle sticks increasing. Plus, what about the DKA patient who has no line and needs 1hr glucose checks? They are going to get stuck an awful lot. Or what about the patients that get downgraded and are still very edematous, this protocol change is only in ICU..their fingerstick will be still be inaccurate regardless of what floor they are on. I want to do best for my patient, just curious if anyone else has gone this route. Thanks!

Hey, I'm excited to start on the 19th as well....which hospital are you going for? I'm be doing class at Lincoln college...how about you?

How many days a week did you have actual class?

I didn't know about the program until I interviewed with a hospital that was involved with it. They told me about it during the interview and I got the same information. My recruiter said they are still looking for more new grads at several of the hospitals. If you apply to a hospital that has this program the recruiter will usually look at resumes of those who applied and call anyone who he/she thinks may be a good fit. Call the number on the information and I am sure they will let you know about it! Good luck!

Hello adrijel, congrats! I am actually going to start in the January class as well, due to the fact that I would deliver during the October class and wouldn't have been able to complete the clinical portion. Thankfully, the hospital has been awesome about my pregnancy =). Maybe we will be in the same class....I am going for ICU, how about you? There is no paperwork for me yet, but I keep in touch with the recruiter and she said that in November she will start the paperwork process for the staRN program with me. From what I understand, after the program and clinical portion is completed you will then sign a contract with the hospital you will work for. During the program you are employed by Parallon and they are the ones paying you. Any other questions let me know and maybe I can help! Congrats again!

I remember classmates fighting over skills practice in clinicals...just remember that skills can be learned.Any junkie on the street can stick a needle in a vein. A good nurse, however, knows why he/she needs the IV regarding the patient and pathophysiology, what medications they should expect to go into that IV, side effects, possible complications....and so on. Skills are great, but don't get so caught up you forget about the most important things!

Congrats to everyone! I was just given an offer for the program that starts October 20th =) Can anyone who has been in the program tell me what the classroom and clinical hours were like. I want to take the offer but the nurse recruiter doesn't have that information, and I am afraid that I will not be able to manage childcare. The site that I would go to is 1 1/2 hours away so it makes this a little difficult. Any input would be realllly helpful! Thanks!

Hey everyone, I just got offered a spot in the staRN new grad program for St. Lucie Medical Center's ICU! The program is not until Oct. 20th and the site is almost 1 1/2 hours away....so I am trying to figure out how I will manage childcare at that time. Can anyone who has been in the program tell me what your classroom and clinical hours were like? Did you have your clinicals at the same hospital you did classroom work at? The nurse recruiter does not have this info for me right now.....so any input would be really helpful! Also, I am pregnant and due to deliver right in the middle of clinicals, so who knows how that will work out when I tell the recruiter. Hopefully it doesn't stop me from participating in the program....