gemmi999

Hello, all! I am an ED RN that currently lives in California. I have 2 years of acute care ED experience. I am also single. I say this because I don't want to get married/have a partner but I do want to adopt children from foster care. California h...

I'm not going to advise you differently from above because it's what i do. Dinner before work, snack at work, toast/fruit and water in AM. One thing I've found is that oatmeal is the perfect midday meal. I love that it has a lot of fiber, not to muc...

I've seen a few different things. If a pt. is hypotensive and tachycardic and a CHF-er, we'll give them a fluid bolus AND albumin AND lasix. I've seen patient's have Albumin for IV maintenance for the first 24 hours in order to keep fluids from th...

I've only done ED, started there as a new grad and never left. I agree with what most people have said--ED is about 80% not sick people and 20% sick people. The difference is you don't know what you're going to get and you have to be on your toes a...

All the ERs I've worked at have been like that--ER is PCP and people come in for many non-urgent dx such as UTI, URI, etc. We aren't even supposed to put in labs/tests without the provider having seen a pt! Our only new standing protocol's are for St...

Hi, all! I work at a small, community hospital ER. Right now due to flu season we are INUNDATED with pt's and the hospital is basically maxed out. We are holding tons of pt's in the ER and people are waiting 6 - 10 hours just to be seen. Because of t...

So, as someone who has been forced to go to the last three staff meetings due to timing, I can understand why RNs don't want to go to meetings. WHY hold staff meetings at 0700 at change of shift when night RNs just want to go home and sleep? Before r...

I was horrible at IVs when I started. What helped me the most was practicing palpating my own veins (in my hands, arms, etc). I would practice whenever I had a minute or two by just clenching/making a fist and touching the surface of my hand. When I ...

One thing to consider about transitional care and/or hospice is if they're run as a SNF, they might not be 12 hour shifts but rather 8s. I'm not sure if that would effect you and your current situation, but it's something to consider. I was original...

Sometimes, headaches aren't emergencies, but sometimes they are. Just because that's the main symptoms doesn't mean something else is going on. I've had pt's come in with headaches and after a CT they are diagnosed with brain bleeds, tumors, CVA's, e...

We stock them on our IV start trays. That way they are used and only replaced when all the tubes in the tray are gone. It works pretty well!

As an ER RN, a lot of kiddos come in with ankle rolls r/out fractures. A lot of time the providers will basically xray it and say "It doesn't look fractured now, but there might be swelling that is preventing me from seeing the fracture. Come back fo...

Just one thought--the patient's you had on your Med-Surg floor had to come from somewhere, and likely the majority of them were ER admits. If you thought the acuity of the med-surg patient's was too high, how would you handle having 4 (or more, depen...

I'm a relatively new nurse of approx. 1 year; I just switched hospitals for the first time. I loved the people at my first hospital but we were always short staffed and it got to be pretty dangerous. I switched to a larger ER that is better staffed ...

One thing I've learned over the past year as a new grad is 1) assess the pt. and determine level of pain; 2) look at MAR or doc to see what is available at the time for that level of pain 3) Tell the pt. without allowing them time to try to manipu...

I know quite a few RNs who had non-RN jobs in summer. One loves working with kids so she organizes summer camps for the Y every year. She says it refreshes her and gives her "fun time" where she can focus on things like what field trips to plan! Ano...

I'm an ER nurse in Southern California. I had about 10 months of experience as of April 2016 and was not happy with my job due to short staffing. I applied to about 8 hospitals in LA/Riverside/San Diego. Got interviews at 5 of them within 1 week, off...

I'm a new grad in a small community ER. I've been on my own for about 1 month now and so far it's been pretty good. I know I have areas I need to work on but I feel like I've been able to handle the assignments so far with little difficulty. I especi...

I have to constantly remind myself to "fake it until I make it" with regards to self confidence. If I go into work with a defeatist attitude, it's going to be a bad shift. Instead I'm upbeat, even if patient's a crazy and the off going nurse apologi...

In my experience ER docs tend to be wonderful to work with. It does take them a bit of time to get to know the new nurses and for you to know their work flow (which ones are okay with giving pain meds, which pain meds they like to give, etc). Most ...

I couldn't go to open lab because of schedule conflicts with work, however, I discovered that my school library had the various bone boxes and muscle figures available for check out for an hour or two. I would go to the library, check out one thing a...

I have been looking for a new job for awhile now. I thought I'd go the Hospice route but in the end decided to stay in the ED for now at least. I currently have two job offers that I really like but need help deciding which to take. They are both i...

Hello, all! I am an ER RN turning possible Hospice RN. I currently live in California and while I make enough money to support myself, I do not think I can live in California and adopt children (as is my wish). So, I started looking around for more...

True story--I helped another RN by putting in a foley on an elderly pt. post fall. She had unusual anatomy and took 3 attempts (and 2 RNs) to find urethra. Months later I had to put a foley in another elderly pt, post fall. Mid attempt recognized ...

What is the best way to deal with toxic nurses? After a night shift from hell, I was giving report on my patient to a day shift RN. I explained an antibiotic had been given late because I was infusing blood, tried to start another IV, couldn't get i...