choughlesRN

choughlesRN

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All Content by choughlesRN

  1. Torn Between 2 Job Offers

    There are obviously exceptions, but I really think that cases like yours are the exception, rather than the rule. ED is a little bit of a unique animal, in a lot of ways, compared to inpatient...
  2. Torn Between 2 Job Offers

    I think all new grads should start in med-surg, any specialty. You learn so many valuable skills that will take you anywhere. I'm not sure how a Level II NICU stacks up in terms of "normal" vs...
  3. Acute COVID, What We're Seeing

    Holy cow do they crump fast. I'm in stepdown, rather than critical care, but the patients that we upgrade, we upgrade FAST. To the point where we have standing protocols to notify the COVID/ID team...
  4. My hospital has issued some guidelines and recommendations for high-risk staff who may work with COVID/PUIs, basically saying that supervisors/managers have been given some leeway or guidance in terms...
  5. New Nurse Blues

    Give it a year. You'll feel so much better. Some of our new nurses have started to pick up shifts occasionally. Those may help you feel more comfortable, however it can also make you feel overwhelmed,...
  6. What do you do with your wedding ring?

    I'm planning to get a tattoo on my ring finger when I get married. That way, I can keep my ring at home, but still have something on
  7. Dangers of teaching kids they can be boys or girls

    Shame on you. The system is designed to make it incredibly difficult for trans* individuals to transition. People like you who consider being trans* "fake" or "a phase" are a huge part of the problem....
  8. Meyers Brigg, Have you done it?

    I'm an ENFJ, on the border between E and I, and J and P. Definitely a borderline
  9. Ambulating post op day zero

    As tolerated is a magical phrase. I'm on stroke/tele, so we don't do a ton of surgery, but generally, I follow the surgeon's lead. If the surgeon thinks it's safe to ambulate the patient on POD 0, so...
  10. NP being used as an RN

    Not an NP yet, but I have left jobs before. I can imagine a response going something like, "I feel that my role has expanded far beyond my contract, and I haven't been able to modify my contract to...
  11. Sometimes the five rights make us look dumb

    Frankly, it depends on a patient's mental status. If I'm doing neuro checks or have questions about the patient's orientation, I do it just about every time. Easy way to get A&O x1 out of the way....
  12. THAT I can understand. Same idea as not using the bathroom in a patient's
  13. Commute Time

    45 minutes on a bad day, 35 on a good one. I find it rough, but I've been doing it, in variations, for 3 years. I plan my drive to 1) avoid the worst traffic and 2) get to work in time to take a 5-10...
  14. Discharging by Wheelchair

    Our hospital has volunteers who can assist patients down to the front door, however hospital policy requires that they use a wheelchair. If a patient wants to walk, though, I'll walk downstairs with...
  15. PTO use

    We can only request 1 weekend/year. But we don't have a ton of other restrictions on PTO
  16. Normal Saline Shortage

    We're about to switch a bunch of our antibiotics to IVP. Here
  17. scope of practice, the EKG/ECG?

    This. I work tele, not quite ICU (but hopefully one day?). EKGs are pretty common on our floor, but they have a readout that says "abnormal ___, consider ischemia". I look at that reading and the...
  18. Full Code required for surgery?

    The only surgery for which I've seen full code required for us is open heart. Otherwise, as far as I know, patients stay
  19. Research patient or see patient first?

    I like to at least glance through labs and most recent reports. 1) I can fill in any gaps in report (Brain MRI was positive, etc.), and 2) I know what questions I want to ask (Was that K or 2.9...
  20. You know what, if he really likes you that much and values the relationship, he'll find a way to help you make it work. If the work to keep the relationship going isn't worth it without working...
  21. Need a Rant

    Alright, so, I just need to vent into the air for a second. I was at work 2 hours after the end of my shift dealing with a ridiculous, unsafe situation. A patient came into the ER after a fall with an...
  22. Orders from hell...

    Physician consult for inpatient rehab. Reason for consult read, "Please get this guy into rehab. He keeps falling and going
  23. Nursing Dreams and Nightmares

    The two dreams that take the cake for me are 1) a dream in which our hospital had us "pre-admitting" patients in a house: no meds, no vitals machines or labs, just us. The other dream was one in which...
  24. Pseudo Seizures

    I work adult acute care, so feel free to take this or not. In my last patient with pseudoseizures, they were more related to the psych diagnoses than anything neurological. Maybe if you can get a...
  25. We haven't had a month without a fall in a while. Our staffing is