Bookworm14

I worked adult critical care for almost 12 years before I switched to the NICU. I was already familiar with many things and just had to "translate" my knowledge to how it applied to the NICU. Of course there are issues that are unique to the NICU, ...

We can go from a Clinical Nurse II to a III or a IV. Each step is worth 5% in pay. It sounds like the work that goes into our clinical ladder for a 10% raise is worth much more than some of you that get a $1 raise. I wouldn't bother with all of th...

Congratulations!!!

I am lucky to work with people who are more than happy to help. I worked with vented adults for almost 12 years and switched to NICU recently. THE most nerve-wracking thing for me so far has been repositioning babies on vents. It still makes me ne...

I barely restrained from voicing this one out loud to a patient's girlfriend. He was detoxing, on the vent, wild and combative despite major sedation. "Oh, I am so sorry he can't afford his meds. Perhaps if he didn't drink two CASES of beer a day a...

I know exactly what you mean dawngloves! I recently switched from adult critical care to the NICU (and loving every minute of it). You definitely need to realize that VS for the NICU population are very different than adults. I was laughing the ot...

I worked adult critical care for almost 12 years and now I am in the NICU. I am very familiar with arterial blood gases but would like to know more about capillary blood gases. How do they correlate with ABG's? What situations or results would lea...

I am making a switch in the opposite direction. I have worked in adult critical care for over 11 years and finally got into the NICU. I can tell you that there are some things that are very similar, but there are also things that are very different...

Thanks for the suggestions. I figured I would probably have to wait until I started orientation and see shat they use but I am just trying to be prepared. Plus my iPod is pretty new and exciting and any excuse to play with it works for me.

After 11 years in adult critical care, I am making the change to peds and nicu. I have wanted to work nicu for YEARS and finally landed a night float job that I will be working nicu, picu and regular peds floor. I am super excited and wanted sugges...

I would wish that they never eliminate weekend only positions.

This would be wonderful. We have computer orders but the doctors aren't required to enter their own orders (except the residents) so sometimes they will leave the unit and call from their cell phones to give verbal orders that the nurse now has to e...

I've been on weekends for 6 years and we always just worked the holidays if they fell on the weekends. Now they are trying to have us go on a holiday rotation. There are several problems with this that they haven't clarified with us yet. 1. If I wo...

Wow! That sounds like a horrible night. It sounds like you rocked and did what you could do. Did he survive and/or go back to surgery? I've been back on nights for 2 years (after 9 years on day shift) and feel that it is very hard to get the doc...

I had a patient that told me she was allergic to Lasix. When I asked her what the reaction was, she said it "made her pee". Of course she was admitted with CHF.

Which company are you talking about? Arctic sun? We are not going to get new equipment to do this. We get to try this with ice packs and 2 cooling blankets. I am so hoping we will get the Arctic Sun or the transvenous equipment. I didn't find any...

We are starting this at my hospital. I've been gathering information on this for almost a year and I'm excited that we are finally going to use this. I am working on education for the nurses and have a lot of information to pass on. Can anyone shar...

I thought I read somewhere that they are custom made for the actresses. They wanted "flattering" scrubs and not the boxy fit.

We also have trouble with "air in line" alarms especially with Diprivan and Lipids.

They are great but keep in mind that they could be set up incorrectly. Make sure you check the setup and don't just go by the med on the screen. I had amiodarone infusing but the rate was wrong. When I looked at the setup, the nurse before me had ...

I don't totally disagree with your statement. I'm wondering who decides what is noncompliance and what is ignorance and what is apathy. I have heard people say "A full arrest just died in the ER and he was only 58 and had no history." But then it ...

The great thing about nursing is there are so many areas to go into. If you get bored you can change areas without having to change careers.

So why is CRNA a villain because they have done well financially? I am sure he/she worked very hard to get the education that made their job possible. Why should he/she feel like they have to pass out their money to those that don't have it? I unde...

So would this punishment also apply to people who felt they were healthy and didn't get annual physicals only to find out during a massive heart attack that they had high blood pressure and high cholesterol? Would you say "no CABG for you"?

There are people now who have insurance that are non-compliant or don't use their insurance for preventative medicine. Who's to say that universal health care will improve the amount of preventative medicine that is given? I have seen too many peopl...