Vent care question

Without a proper orientation to vents, I'd have refused, too. my unit has 2 vents (trach's, not endotracheal vents). THey often have to be suctioned. If you didn't know how to suction a vent pt, are you supposed to bag them until resp comes? that won't help.

you did the right thing. they can get pissy all they want, butyou have your license to worry about.

suppose you did take care of her and something happened. in court, you know, they ask you what any prudent nurse would do. but, ifyou've never taken care of a vent, you wouldn't even know what a prudent nurse would do in said situation.

you did the right thing.

I think you did the right thing. I would've felt very uncomfortable taking care of a vent patient without proper orientation. Even with orientation I was scared to death to take care of a vented patient and that was an adult one. I can't imagine a peds patient with parents around.

You really need to know what you're doing when something alarms or if they pull the vent off. What kind of a place do you work at where resp takes care of the pt when the vent alarms and you manually bag til they get there. Our resp suctions the patient when the round but we also are expected to suction. We also fix them when they alarm and if we have a real problem we page respiratory to come take a look at the vent and the patient.

If you're a regular float as a new grad I'd make sure someone oriented you to vents because it's more then likely you'll come across one again. Or else make sure what exactly the policy says about you being able to take vented patients. I'd assume that since you float you'd be expected to take care of patients like that. YOu were right to ask for someone to help you considering you've had no orientation.

You also need to put it in writing that you were very uncomfortable with the assignment and give it to the head nurse of that unit.

I do not agree with new grads taking float positions. How can you get an orientation to all the floors you are going to? Our new grads are hired into a specific unit and then get 3 months of orientation to that area. They also have to pass a vent competency test about the vents we use. I'd call Education and training and inquire about what type of orientation you should have received, esp if you are floating around like that!

If I could do it all over I would never take a float position again as a new grad. Way too much information overload. Extremely stressful. I had approximately 3 mths. total orientation to the hospital and the 6 areas I float too. Sad part is the only nurses who have vent pts are supposed to be rehab or ICU nurses and the rehab nurses do not take competency tests. Not sure about ICU. During orientation no one bothered to tell me they could even take Vent pt's down there. much less teach me a thing about them. This is the first they've had in over a year. I talked to my manager about it and she told me we'll just make sure it never happens again. I don't believe that but like I'm looking for a "home" floor anyways.

Ask your supervisor to schedule aVent Care orientation for you to attend as soon as possible. Since your hospital is now admitting vent patients, there is no question that you will find yourself in that same 'situation' a lot, and, sooner than later. After the orientation you will be able to care for vent patients with confidence backed up by knowing what to do through study. If an orientation is not available where you work, google or yahoo "Ventilator nursing orientation classes in- (your zip code). Go back to your Med-Surge Nursing textbooks and review everything about Respiration. Don't forget to visit http://www.respitatorynursingsociety.org. There you will find links to EVERYTHING, and EVERYONE respiratory. Best of luck, and, this is important: You DON'T have to apologize for your insecurity. It would be best if you kept it to yourself, as a new RN, team member, care giver and person. Ponder that free nugget of wisdom.