NicuGal MSN, RN

NICU, PICU, PACU

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All Content by NicuGal

  1. NicuGal

    Who else is a 2-year RN new grad at a Magnet Hospital??

    NicuGal replied to indreams84's topic in General Nursing

    Congrats :) Out of 16 hires we only took one AD...although the ones of us on the interview panel thought that 4 other ones stood out more than the BSN ones....but we have to keep a certain ration of...
  2. NicuGal

    Are YOU terrified to be a patient (and your loved ones, too!)

    NicuGal replied to nervousnurse's topic in General Nursing

    I learned my lesson with my mom....she was at a community hospital, severe headache, worst of her life, and they wouldn't do a CT on her because the radiologist and tech had to be called in. I was a...
  3. NicuGal

    Grandmas doing kangaroo care?

    NicuGal replied to aerorunner80's topic in NICU, Neonatal

    We only give info to parents. We make this pretty clear when we give the extended visitation rights. We can tell them a general had a good/bad day, and what the weight is and how much they are...
  4. NicuGal

    car seat challenge/test

    NicuGal replied to ICNClinicalRN's topic in Ob/Gyn

    We do ours for an hour unless the car ride is longer, then we take it up to 90-120 minutes. We don't have much of a problem since we are in pods and always in eyeball view of the kid or they get done...
  5. NicuGal

    Grandmas doing kangaroo care?

    NicuGal replied to aerorunner80's topic in NICU, Neonatal

    We are family centered, but we prefer to have the grandparents come with the parents. That way they don't learn of something before the parents do and go and tell them wrong info. We had...
  6. NicuGal

    Fired because of Facebook???

    NicuGal replied to hairtocare's topic in General Nursing

    You do know that if you "like" your place of employment, you just gave them full rein to see your page, right? We just had an incident on another floor this week....nurse friended a patient's...
  7. NicuGal

    Fired because of Facebook???

    NicuGal replied to hairtocare's topic in General Nursing

    There is no law about this! We just had a mandatory inservice for every employee of our hospital that went over the new networking policy. What it comes down to is...don't poop where you sleep! If...
  8. NicuGal

    Continuous arterial ABG monitoring

    NicuGal replied to General E. Speaking, RN's topic in CCU, Coronary, Cardiac

    We used those in our unit for several years. We had troubles with it, a lot. You have to send samples to the lab to see if they are close and we were having a lot of issues with the electrolyte part...
  9. NicuGal

    Dealing With Child Abuse

    NicuGal replied to MeganDM's topic in General Nursing

    I've had to deal with children of abuse...and I will confess, I have seen some horrifying things on our PICU and peds floors....a few of them have been graduates of our NICU. The first time I saw a...
  10. NicuGal

    termination from nursing school

    NicuGal replied to cwgirl7's topic in General Students

    You should be able to sit down with administration of the school and go over why you were
  11. NicuGal

    Primaries, too close, and when/how to get out

    NicuGal replied to umcRN's topic in NICU, Neonatal

    I've been in your shoes, more than once. I'm sorry You need to step back for a little bit....talk to you manager and your CNS about it. First...you need to stop signing up to be there when they...
  12. NicuGal

    Charge nurse to secretary? Legal issues?

    NicuGal replied to rkitty198's topic in General Nursing

    Wow. Even before we went to computerized charting they stopped that practice where I work because of mistakes like that. When the docs wrote the orders, after rounds, they flagged the chart and it...
  13. NicuGal

    Grandmas doing kangaroo care?

    NicuGal replied to aerorunner80's topic in NICU, Neonatal

    Grandparents have to be with the family when they visit and if they are to visit on their own they have a special visitation paper filled out by mom. But, when we get the papers signed, they have to...
  14. NicuGal

    Sucrose for "fussiness"

    NicuGal replied to dalizard's topic in NICU, Neonatal

    We only use it for pain....why...because when we take it out of the pyxis it flags it for a pre and post pain
  15. NicuGal

    Pediatric Dosage Calculation Question

    NicuGal replied to crissik's topic in General Students

    In peds, you would never round up from 952 to 1000, that is my point. Even sometimes that small amount can make the difference in a peds
  16. NicuGal

    which med do I give first

    NicuGal replied to kbkbajs's topic in Nursing Student Assistance

    I'd be inclined to go the Zithro, Tylenol and then codeine route. They always want the antibiotics on board
  17. NicuGal

    arterial stab policy on your units?

    NicuGal replied to sweet0176's topic in NICU, Neonatal

    We do almost all of our labs from heelsticks. We do art sticks when we need over 2ml or the kid has bad heels. Art sticks are also done for all SWU's. We never do venous sticks. Nurses can't do...
  18. NicuGal

    Care plan help for postpartum please!

    NicuGal replied to Austio's topic in Nursing Student Assistance

    Think for a minute: c/s is abd surgery....what are your priorities there? Don't forget bonding issues with the baby in NICU. baby....if a baby is born before term, what is the number one thing that...
  19. NicuGal

    Pediatric Dosage Calculation Question

    NicuGal replied to crissik's topic in General Students

    The answer above is wrong. Most peds meds come in liquid form or you are going to make a suspension out of it. You will be measuring things in small doses. In NICU, we give 0.05 of some oral and IV...
  20. NicuGal

    What to do when new EPIC System delays critical meds in time crisis situation

    NicuGal replied to shenewton's topic in Critical Care

    We went to this last year.....we worked with pharmacy to make a list of meds that could be overrode without an order in. As long as the patient is in the system we can override and then link at a...
  21. NicuGal

    P&P Review

    NicuGal replied to 3yrDiploma's topic in NICU, Neonatal

    Also, ihi.org is a good spot to go for bundles, etc
  22. NicuGal

    open visitation/ 24/7

    NicuGal replied to kalamazoo's topic in NICU, Neonatal

    We have open visitation, actually I believe that a lot of this is coming down from JCHAO in the phrase of "Patients/families reserve the right to be involved in rounds, plans of care, etc" Yadda,...
  23. NicuGal

    Policy on working under your personal doctor?

    NicuGal replied to Devie06's topic in Ob/Gyn

    Since our insurance only pays for us to go where we work, unless we want a big deductable, we all work with our docs on some level of another. We haven't had any problems. I go to deliveries of the...
  24. NicuGal

    Bedside PPV Bag & Masks

    NicuGal replied to Love_2_Learn's topic in NICU, Neonatal

    We dont' leave the O2 on...it only takes a second to turn it on...and you should have checked it at the beginning of the shift to make sure the bag was okay. We also don't leave our suction on unless...
  25. NicuGal

    Policy development: Central lines

    NicuGal replied to aCRNAhopeful's topic in MICU, SICU

    We put our meds on a pump, some of our meds come in under 1ml so we don't have a choice but to use that syringe. But we always flush with a 10ml syringe because of the lower