papawjohn

Brett has a good answer. I would only add that you should be thinking that you are going to work in both MICU and SICU sometime and in a CCU also. There are lots of things to learn from all the 'specialties' and to be the best nurse you can be you ...

Well, Username33, that's a simple question that actually covers a huge am't of ground -- how would you tell a seizure from a stroke? There are similarities of course. Changes in consciousness, deflections of gaze, loss of speech. A seizure is a...

I will admit that I am a TERRIBLE delegater! In ICU where the usual 'load' is 2 patients, I find I can focus down on just my two patients and develop a scheme for meeting all my expectations. When someone stops me and says 'what can I do to help?' ...

I've noticed over the last few years that the field of Case Managers and the like has expanded amazingly. In my little ICU the last 5 RNs to move on all went to Computers and phone-conference type work instead of "bedsides". Makes sense in this "...

My sister tells this story on herself and I'll pass it along. She was a new RN working in a CCU and a patient was admitted with an irregular atrial rhythm and a peculiar heart sound. She called the Cardiologist and was trying to describe this. He...

Well KSL777, I'm trying to imagine the situation that has you posing this question at like 0100. (Of course -- where you're at, maybe it's 4pm! But the time-heading says 0139.) And I imagine you've just finished your shift and you had a push to g...

Well Stacia, I'll give you a bit of advice -- bear in mind that things that worked for me might or might not work for you. You say you work with Tele. Use your monitor skills and try to get all the pulls to the Unit and pick up whatever overtime th...

My personal favorite. Young pregnant gal contracts Guillian-Barre, ends up with paralysis to her ears -- worst case I ever saw. Vent and TPN and the whole 9 yards in our Neuro ICU. Part of assessment was documenting fetal heart tones. Whenever I ...

Joe, my friend, I didn't bother to check on all your other posts but would I find something on the order of 'What a great experience I had at work today!' if I looked? I've occasionally put that sorta thing here. Three nights ago I was pulled from...

Sounds like you're working in a Hospital with very slack management. But so are a lot of us and it's likely you'll be doing it a lot in your future. So as aggravated as you (justifiably) feel....get over it and do something on your own. Here's what...

Hello, fellow ICU nurse!! I've been at this over 30yrs now and still find that giving (and to some extent, getting) report is sometimes the most stressful part of the 12hrs. Isn't that nuts!! Think about it for a minute. You've watched your pat...

Well, I'll chime in. I'm a lot older than you but let me be boring, as grand-pa's tend to be, and explain that I was a military Medic (think--EMT) in the early 60s. I became a 'para-jumper' (think Para-Medic but in a helicopter) in VietNam (there w...

Ms Do-Over, you are correct and wise. People do NOT die from CO2 narcosis; they die from lack of Oxygen. And the Ambu-bag is your and their best friend-in-need. PapawJohn

Well, as you can tell I've had to think about this quite alot lately. I already belong to Medicare. I pay a lot of attention to politics (comment regularly as JohnMcC if anyone reads the same blogs I do) and worried extravagantly about the economy ...

If your workplace doesn't allow you to do EKGs yourself, or order them stat prior to calling the MD -- which I guess is true, you did exactly what your Facility planned for this sort of thing. Nurses have great responsibilities and tend to obsess o...

You should pay attention to CanesDukeGirl (with the very nice avatar, by the way) and get tested ASAP. You indicated that you practice somewhere besides the US. Here, your delay would be a serious problem for the Facility you work for (there are re...

My friend Do-Over. I agree completely that students are given a huge jumble of numbers and -- sadly -- not enough organization of those numbers to find real information. Numbers are NOT the same thing as information. So I try to help by using lit...

Had a frightening needle-stick back in the mid-90s. Working @ level 1 trauma center in large eastern city. Pt brought to my ICU with head injuries (beaten with pipe). Pt was young African-American male and is very androgynously dressed, skin and ...

Hello, PayItForward. I think that your question is kinda non-specific which makes it hard to help you out. Let me give you a couple of examples of people presenting in resp failure and how we'd help them, OK? Worst situation: Sadly debilitated per...

Hey Y'all I did CoronaryCare 20yrs ago. When they introduced drive-thru cath labs and one-day heart attacks, it quit being so much fun and I migrated to Trauma. Now I'm working in a small combined Medical-Cardiac unit. Mostly my old cardiac skill...

Hey!!! Ran across this. Had to share!!! "He has a defibrilator...he is out partying with 2 hookers and his brother..." http://drhelen.blogspot.com/2006/06/fun-with-defibrilators.html Papaw John

Hey!!! OMGosh. As much as I love my computer, it drives me crazier than my cat does!!! Try this: http://drhelen.blogspot.com The 'defibrillator' threat is from June 30th. It's worth it if you have a warped sense of humor like I do!!! P-J-

Hey KR!! I applaud your determination to do what you thought was right. I bet you guessed that the Dr was gonna be p@#%ed off; so your decision was particularly admirable. Those are really weird results. I can understand why you wanted them confirm...

Hey Angelique!! #1. You are correct, this is in a 'normal' person. But remember that the Pts you will see with PACatheters have had a long time to develop heart/lung disease and to compensate for it. There was a Pt in a Unit I was working in a yea...

Hey Barkley!!! I bet there's people who can help you better than I can but I hate to see a post like yours get to the 2nd page of the '24hr' forum without a reply. So let me try my best. I had a BA degree, was totally broke (it was a long time ago...