isis73

hehe...me too! told my hubby i was going to get a journal and fill it with my name, rn--just for practice!:dncgbby:

congratulations, vballman, rn!!!

[color=deepskyblue]congratulations, inthehomestretch and dazeylpn2b!! :ancong!:

Thanks, guys! I look forward to congratulating you tomorrow, vballman!

[color=deepskyblue]i passed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! look out micu, here i come! wahoooo!:anpom:

Almost time! Good luck to everyone and post when you find out!

Drinking husband's conconction of a wine/fruit smoothie...does make the wait easier!

I took mine yesterday and I have no idea how it went. Except for med calc, everything was just best guess...and it stopped at 75. Good luck to everyone waiting! 24 more hours.....:anbd:

i just wanted to post an update...i'm going to the mccu! i just graduated, and now it's off to kill the nclex dragon...thanks for the advice and encouragement!

Thanks to everyone for their helpful advice and encouragement! I am in my senior semester, about to graduate in May, and my biggest fear is time management. I feel slow and all thumbs, and I tend to proceed cautiously until I am sure of what I am doing...I know I will get faster as I get used to different tasks and gain more conifidence, but my attention to detail and hesitancy has resulted in one instructor telling me that I was very slow and sure to have a very hard time in my final semester. Our last round of clinicals start next week and I really want them to be great! Thanks for the help!

Had the case study today, and you're right--pt had a temp of 96 and with everything else we were trying to think of and work on, we didn't catch it right away. Pt had 36% BSA burned.

Thanks to both of you! Great advice. And you're absolutely right ukstudent--my teacher's two loves are critical care and psych, so I'm sure she will be interested to know what we are doing to care for the wife and two daughters who are on the way. And thanks for the warning on fluid volume overload, trauma_burnout71. Why are they at such risk for fluid volume overload? Trying to think that one through...they could go into shock, but then their BP would drop...After being a little burnt on nursing school (the end is finally in sight!), I love all the thinking and learning involved in critical care. Feels good to know I may have found my niche (it was definitely NOT OB-Peds...) So the biggest priority is airway, and likely intubation since their airway may be irritated and swell secondary to smoke inhalation and the possible loss of consciousness. Second is fluids and establishing an IV to maintain BP and prevent dehydration, being careful not to overload pt (indication for hemodynamic monitoring?) And once these are established, with pt on spinal precautions and heading to x-ray and CT, a call to the hospital chaplain for family support. Thanks again! (And who wouldn't be enthusiastic with the end of nursing school just around the corner!)

Yes, that is extremely helpful. I had forgotten about the Parkland formula (having only recently learned it). I think the focus is mostly on assessments, but also on prioritizing care, and your suggestions are all very helpful. (How is your first year as a nurse going? How was the transition from student to nurse?) Thanks for taking the time to respond and offer the voice of experience!

I know it is extremely vague, and I do apologize for that--that is all the information we have been given to work with. More info will be given when we show up for our case study and we will have to know how to respond--we have just finished covering increased ICP, cardiovascular and emergency nursing, so the idea is that anything goes and we will need to be able to think on our feet and prioritize care quickly...I am loving the critical care aspect (and hope to work in critical care after graduating in May), but I like to be prepared. Thanks again for the help, if it really is possible with so little to go on...

There is no teacher like experience, so I'd love to know what those of you with years of experience make of our class case study...Thanks for the tips and advice! 39 year old truck driver, male, admitted to the hospital following an accident in which the cab of his truck caught fire. He was freed from the truck by a passing motorist, who stayed with him until the rescue team arrived. The rescue team decides to call Skycare to transport him to the regional trauma center which has a burn unit. His wife and two daughters have been notified. How do you stabilize the patient and maintain airway and ventilation while also assessing, stabilizing physical trauma and the degree of his burns?