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I've justs finished my RN degree and although getting the 3 years out of the way is awesome I'm really making GBS threads myself about my new grad next year. Its gonna be fun times. For those wondering whether or not nursing is for them the fact that you're asking yourself that is a good indicator. On paper its something that isn't very desirable, bodily fluids, bitchy docs, long hours, usually subpar pay compared to amount of effort you'd puit in any other field. The thing is that you're always around, at the very least, interesting people and you'll be on your feet pretty much all your day. And you'll get some loving hilarious stories.
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Nov 25, 2008 01:30
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Just finished up 6 months working at a prison hospital it was one part eye opener and one part boring as hell. Aged Care nursing lifers was certainly interesting though. I managed to score a critical care nursing mentorship program at a major teaching hospital in Sydney, anyone got some tips for ICU?
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Oct 18, 2010 12:16
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Ohthehugemanatee posted:Useful Words Of Wisdom Yeah I'm certainly one part making GBS threads myself and one part absolutely excited. The program includes an 8 week supernumerary period where I'll be buddied up with another RN so that I can sort of get gradually eased into it, along with a whole heap of L&D packages. I've got some ED experience from my new graduate year so I've got some rudimentary airway management and ventilation skills. But of course having worked in a prison hospital for the last 6 months the last time I used those skills was just one guedels insertion on a patient. HollowYears posted:I'm taking A&P as a pre-req to get into nursing school. I'm really really hating the first few units and I think I just bombed my first quiz. Not really day to day but its definitely helps to understand the pathophysiology of the diseases you'll encounter. Its not expected that on your 2-3rd year out in the ward that you'll be able to recite all the different organelles and their function but its certainly helps to have a basic understand lurking in the background.
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Oct 19, 2010 12:53
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So I've been in icu for about three months now and god drat, I love my job. The other staff I'm working with are awesome, management by and large arn't total are wipes ( as much as any management can help it) and the range of cases has been great. I'm at a general icu in a major teaching hospital in Sydney, the unit is 25 beds all single rooms ( great for infection control) and is only a couple of years old. The amount of stuff I've been learning between ventilation, caring for intubated patients, haemodynamic monitoring, evd's and more has been just awesome. Daunting at first but awesome. I'm glad I didn't hold off getting into critical care, to be doing this stuff as a second year is great.
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Jan 18, 2011 13:06
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I've never had any issues with on the whole male nurse thing, a couple of patients have commented on 'how good it is to see more male nurses'. I think I've been pretty fortunate where I've worked, I haven't ran into much bitchiness at all. On the icu vs other nurses debate, he'll just another argument that proves nurses can be their own worst enemies. I love icu, working with other really skilled nurses, seeing a huge range of cases and really making a huge difference in a patients life. But he'll ive done deployments back to the wards and I've got nothing but respect for med surg nurses who can juggle 6-8 patients and be ready to jump on a deteriorating patient and stop them bouncing back to us. And emergency? I worked there for 5 months as a new grad and I've done a bunch of deployments down there and I freaking love it, not for everyone though. So I've done my third pm-night shift over time this month (1330-0730), after each of those shifts there's a short pm shift 1530-2130 and for each and everyone if these shifts my patient has had a septic shock crash 5-10 minutes into the shift, it's freaking scary how regular it's happened each time.
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Feb 3, 2011 13:05
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Hey there's a nursing thread?! Aussie RN here, I work in a large teaching hospital ICU and am loving it. Smells have never bugged me but the combination of smell and image of a fungating lesion has always gotten has had me cringing inside.
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Apr 22, 2012 13:07
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Man, feeling really cro magon with the newspaper spreadsheet flow charts we use. Only digital thing we have are the centralized monitors and vent which we copy down anyway.
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Apr 29, 2012 10:58
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Today I'm starting a three month swap between ICU and ED. I've been in ICU for about one and a half years and haven't worked in ED since I was a new grad in a much smaller hospital. Any tips for the switch? The hospital I work at is a major adult trauma referral centre in Sydney, Australia. I love ICU but I'm really looking forward to something different.
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May 28, 2012 03:09
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Silentgoldfish posted:I work in ED in Melbourne and know a lot of ICU nurses who switch between: expect the pace to be a lot faster. The name of the game these days is stabilize and move on. You won't be able to provide care at anywhere the same level as in ICU because the environment is far more chaotic and you'll have more patients at any one time - what will make you effective is if you're good at prioritizing and recognizing that it's better to provide adequate care for 3 people than brilliant care for 1 and crap for 2. Been having a ball so far and the above points are certainly true. I did have a big wtf moment though when the respiratory team reviewed one of my patients and told me they'd fixed his respiratory acidosis by changing his set rate on bipap from 8 to 16. His actual rate was 34 and he had a ph of 7. 119. >.< Made me realise how insulated the ICU is of idiots. I was so happy when a Resus bed was freed up for him to take and ICU reviewed him. Definitely do ACLS as soon as you can, but it does help to have a bit of critical care exposure so you can apply the theory a little easier.
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Jun 1, 2012 08:24
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Is it an American thing to not include referees or is that just a privacy, shared on the internet thing? Looks good otherwise. Anyone here have any PICU experience? I'm working in adult ICU and emergency but I'd like to get more pediatric experience. Other then the more stressful family situations, med calcs and, easier pressure area care is it hugely different?
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Oct 6, 2012 10:43
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Hellacopter posted:I've never been in the ICU before even though I was supposed to do my preceptorship there, any ICU goons have advice? Books/materials to review? Words of advice or caution? Pretty much what Roki B said, especially, on getting ACLS and asking questions. -Airway, airway, airway! Of all the new ICU things relatively straightforward but the consequences of mucking it up are incredibly dire. It is indeed very hard to kill an adult but robbing a patient of their airway during a turn is an easy way to do it. Make sure your ETT/Trache is secure and keep an eye on it. -Ventilation: Can be difficult to get your head around at times but very important. Learn your modes and how pressure, volume, compliance and resistance work. If your patient is on volume control find out why. The acronyms can get ludicrous (SIMV (PRVC)+PS) so ask questions! Does your patient need more fiO2, pressure(or less), volume or do you just need to sit them up more? -ABG's! They're a great guide of how a patient's going systemically, trends can foreshadow something nasty. Learn how to interpret you're pH and what sort of respiratory or metabolic changes may be going on. -Basic nursing cares are at there best in the ICU because you've really got the chance to focus your patients needs. Oral, pressure area and, eye cares are vital in an unconscious patient -Repositioning. The best best thing you can do to preserve and improve respiratory function is repositioning your patient regularly and sit them up as much as possible, or tilt. -Don't be distracted by the gizmo's. ICU has some wicked kit that when used properly is awesome. Despite that the best way to assess your patient will always be to look listen and feel. ICU is pretty overwhleming and it takes years to really nail it. Just questions and use common sense and you'll love it!
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Oct 23, 2012 05:35
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| # ¿ May 4, 2024 00:15 |
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I've been watching some videos of presentations from a crit care conference that was held at the in Queensland Australia a few weeks earlier (SMACC) There was an awesome presentation given by a retrieval doc about clinical courage that all clinicians should see. I've been switching between emergency and icu in a major Sydney metro trauma centre for about 3 years now and I gotta say I freakin love my job. It's not easy but the stuff you see and people you meet and work with can be mindblowing. There's certainly a lot of shoving tubes in holes but not that much yelling even when things hit the proverbial. Nursing's a lot more piss, poo poo, blood and paperwork.
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Oct 21, 2013 06:05
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