I don't know if I'm alone in this, but I seem to have a knack for remembering pointless things.
I remember the names of restaurants that I've eaten at on vacations, the servers' names, and other useless information that I will never need to recall in my life again.
This also applies to my time in nursing school, which admittedly wasn't that long ago, but long enough that a lot of the non-vital "nice to know but not need to know" information that we learned has become a little hazy.
The one random nugget of seemingly useless information that I remember from nursing school is what a scleral buckle is and what it is used to treat. It was briefly mentioned in my second semester of nursing school and for some reason it stuck with me. I've never encountered someone that has had this procedure in clinical OR in my personal life and I really have no justification for remembering it, but I do.
Does anyone else care to share a random nugget of information they learned in nursing school that they still remember, but never actually came in handy to know?
Its not useless but I haven't needed this information in 6 years as a nurse.
It wasn't even talked about much, but I never forget "red man syndrome" which is an allergic reaction to vancomycin where the upper body, usually especially the face, turn red soon after the start of an IV vancomycin infusion. Edema and itching can be seen as well.
I have given vanc sooo many times and it always pops into my head but I've never seen it. I think properly diluted vanc can help prevent it though I am sure it still happens.
Red neck, or redman syndrome is a syndrome unique to Vancomycin. It is NOT an allergic reaction, but rather a direct result from that nurse giving this medication too quickly. Yes, histamine is released, and it may appear that the patient is having an allergic reaction, but this must be determined and assessed as you do NOT want your patient to be labeled as having an allergy to Vancomycin, when in reality, this syndrome is OPERATER ERROR!.
I was warned- seemingly every clinical day- by one of my clinical instructors that if you push reglan too fast, it will cause feelings of impending doom.
Metoclopramide (Reglan) is one of those drugs that I have tremendous respect for. I always administer it super slow. I remember reading research back in nursing school (~10 years ago) that two-minute IV bolus infusions had a significantly higher incidence of severe akathisia than a slower IV infusion over fifteen minutes. Metoclopramide has some possibly serious side effects and I always keep an eye out for extrapyramidal symtoms/disorders.
One random thing I remember from nursing school is the nonsensical mnemonic: Sure Beats Picking Corn for antiarrhytmic classes I - IV.
I Sodium
II Beta blocker
III Potassium
IV Calcium
I don't know why that particular one stuck.. I'm not really a fan of mnemonics, but this one I can recite even if you wake me up at 3 am
Its not useless but I haven't needed this information in 6 years as a nurse.
It wasn't even talked about much, but I never forget "red man syndrome" which is an allergic reaction to vancomycin where the upper body, usually especially the face, turn red soon after the start of an IV vancomycin infusion. Edema and itching can be seen as well.
I have given vanc sooo many times and it always pops into my head but I've never seen it. I think properly diluted vanc can help prevent it though I am sure it still happens.
My first patient in my very first clinical had red-man (red-person) syndrome. It was not pleasant.
From the quick google search I did, it appeared that the rate of infusion has more to do with the reaction than the dilution?
Posted before I saw the other responses. Apologies for being repetitive.
They still teach this in nursing school. We are told that the Foley needs to be clamped after 1,000mL due to bladder spasms. After about 30 minutes we can unclamp and drain another 1,000mL (if needed). I even saw a NP do this at clinical. I think the pt was a little annoyed at her clamping it though....he had severe urinary retention and was in a lot of pain, he just wanted relief. The NP told the RN to return in 15 minutes to unclamp the Foley. In total, just over 1,700mL was drained:eek:
Yes, I actually was not taught this in school but in practice and have found that there are bladder spasms if like 1 liter or more is drained but those are occasional...what I've seen more frequently in practice is hematuria, sometimes frank blood, if you drain the bladder completely and it was very distended. This usually happens in males and stops on its own in a few hours to a day and often is painless and causes no problems, but still freaky. I have wondered if it could be a serious problem for someone with bleeding issues but don't know. There is literature to support the hematuria thing.
What I remember from school? A slide with a picture of ruggae (spelling?) Which are basically wrinkles in the stomach to let it expand when you put something in there. Totally useless in my 8 years of practice so far. But I remember it like it was yesterday, can picture it no problem.
Not clinically related, but on my first day of LPN school in 1976, the director of the school (a founding member of the Crusty Old Bat Society - she signed the charter in the blood of former students) dismissed the two male students from the room, closed the door and told us:
"Do NOT wear your uniforms anywhere but straight home to change after clincals. Men are turned on by white stockings and caps and you will get raped."
She was 100% serious.
I had a friend who worked in a nursing home years g decades) ago and used to have a man who called regularly all turned on and breathless asking "do you have your TED hose on?" There's someone out there who likes anything
I had a friend who worked in a nursing home years g decades) ago and used to have a man who called regularly all turned on and breathless asking "do you have your TED hose on?" There's someone out there who likes anything
I worked Peds back in the 80s and every couple days for a few months, some guy would call and ask a bunch of questions about his wife and breast feeding. When the Unit Secretary would get the call, she'd hold up the phone and announce, "It's him!" We'd draw straws and the loser had to talk to him.
CO2 is acidic. Once I learned that, interpreting ABG's and respiratory acidosis, etc. was a breeze. Why did no one say this until my 4th semester? Never heard it in A&P even though we learned about acidosis/alkalosis.
CO2 the molecule isn't acidic. Blood is acidic when CO2 is elevated.
ameobicmeningoencephalitis- if I spelled it correctly, and that you can get it through your nasal passage from stagnant water, think you may have the flu, and die 3 or 4 days later. I hope my memory serves correctly since I learned about this 20 something yrs ago and have never once heard of a case.
There were many useless things I learned in nursing school(Class of 1974)
I think I knew so little about medicine and nursing that I felt like I needed to know everything.
As a new graduate I started out in ICU working nights at a university teaching hospital.
Only by listening and learning about taking care of patients and working with many nurses and doctors (the interns could be pretty scary) did I learn the most important thing .
If you have a question you don't know the answer to, keep asking until you get the answer you need to solve the problem. It works every time and kept me from making preventable mistakes.
No one knows everything but there are many well educated smart people in the hospital setting. Use those resources and you will end up knowing a lot more than you did.
You will then realize that people will start asking you your opinion.
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IVRUS, BSN, RN
1,049 Posts
Red neck, or redman syndrome is a syndrome unique to Vancomycin. It is NOT an allergic reaction, but rather a direct result from that nurse giving this medication too quickly. Yes, histamine is released, and it may appear that the patient is having an allergic reaction, but this must be determined and assessed as you do NOT want your patient to be labeled as having an allergy to Vancomycin, when in reality, this syndrome is OPERATER ERROR!.