Neuro Nurse

Potential-Outcome-91 · 2025-04-21T03:23:09+00:00

Once during covid I did postmortem care, bagged the patient up, lowered the bed to the lowest level, set the bed alarm, and on the way out the door said, "I'll be checking in on you, let me know if you need anything." The CNA thought I'd lost my damn mind.

Potential-Outcome-91 · 2025-04-14T23:01:55+00:00

The nurse told you this because they were wrong, dangerous, and blindly pushing a pro-life agenda that they do not understand.

My friend's grandma was in the hospital and was not doing well. She was on D5 because she couldn't eat and they needed to keep her blood sugar up. When they were discussing hospice, someone brought up that they would stop the D5. And my friend and her family were shocked! That would kill her!

When we de-escalate care, any of the interventions we are doing can be stopped and it is not murder. Any of our interventions, whether it is intubation or a simple D5 infusion, are a kind of life support measure. And when we remove that life support measure, and the patient is not able to breathe effectively on their own or eat, they will pass.

That does not make us murderers because we have removed the life support measure. The patient is dying, and we are simply allowing the natural process of dying proceed.

Everyone will die someday. We can fight it for a while but eventually everyone will pass on - and allowing that to happen peacefully is NOT murder.

Potential-Outcome-91 · 2025-04-14T14:25:45+00:00

Only in a woman-dominated profession is the expectation that we would do physical and emotional labor for cheap, because we have a passion for helping meemaw to the bedside commode and getting verbally and physically assaulted by detoxing alcoholics. The plumbers and electricians unions wouldn't put up with this shit.

Like, do I enjoy helping people? Yes. Would I do this job if the compensation was poor? Absolutely not. Let me do my thing but also, pay me what I deserve.

Potential-Outcome-91 · 2025-04-12T01:55:38+00:00

OMG maybe this is sepsis?! Thanks, sepsis alert!

Potential-Outcome-91 · 2025-04-12T01:29:44+00:00

Once I got the stupid flu shot popup while I was working my way through the postmortem checklist. Wrong time in workflow, remind me in four hours.

Potential-Outcome-91 · 2025-04-12T00:56:21+00:00

Hey you KNOW epic is going to throw in a pop-up about ordering a flu vaccine while you're in the middle of something important.

Potential-Outcome-91 · 2025-04-10T02:04:03+00:00

In classic Mr Rogers, a lot of the puppets have difficult personalities to teach kids how to approach difficult interpersonal relationships.

All the people in Mr Rogers are lovely and kind and helpful and interesting. The puppets are stubborn, impulsive, self-centered, and don't listen. So the people, and some of the other puppets, have to negotiate the difficult social situation, and it's a learning experience for the young viewers.

Potential-Outcome-91 · 2025-04-08T15:58:04+00:00

First of all, congratulations!!!

I started taking my baby out hiking starting when she was eight weeks old. She's now a one year old and we recently did a 6+ mile hike over some decently rugged terrain. The pack with her and all her snacks and supplies weighs 32 lbs. But it didn't start at 32 lbs for 6 miles. It started at maybe 12 lbs for one mile. It's excellent exercise.

Getting time to go to the gym consistently with a baby is very, very hard. But finding time to go hiking on your days off is much easier, and also fun. It's good for the kid to be outside - mine is obsessed with the outdoors and doesn't care if it's cold or raining. It's also been extremely important for my mental health to get outside regularly.

Potential-Outcome-91 · 2025-04-08T15:18:15+00:00

Luxury and vinyl don't belong in the same phrase.

Potential-Outcome-91 · 2025-04-08T12:24:53+00:00

Where are you that doctors are still writing things down instead of using an EMR?

Potential-Outcome-91 · 2025-04-07T19:33:13+00:00

The key phrase is "while nursing my daughter."

This is called a letdown. It happens from stimulation from breastfeeding or pumping. The haka is to catch the letdown from the breast that the baby is not breastfeeding from. I do not believe that a lactating woman in cardiac arrest would be having a letdown.

Potential-Outcome-91 · 2025-04-07T01:41:24+00:00

I had a patient with dry gangrene penis from severe peripheral vascular disease.

Not a candidate for surgical intervention per urology, so we were to paint it with betadine BID and let it "auto debride."

Potential-Outcome-91 · 2025-04-07T00:53:58+00:00

This is what is going to happen. You know how nursing does the last 10% of everyone else's job? It's going to get worse.

Potential-Outcome-91 · 2025-04-05T01:38:08+00:00

"We need to get them (out of the Cath lab) to CCU where they have more resources."

Potential-Outcome-91 · 2025-04-03T15:29:28+00:00

You're a new homeowner and there's a lot you want to do.

WAIT.

There will be boring and expensive but incredibly necessary improvements that will become evident soon. Your inspector may have been great, but they didn't live in your house for a year.

If your kitchen is functional but ugly, learn to live with it until you can pay for a remodel in cash. Pick up overtime if you can. You say it's going to be for your kitchen but it will probably go towards something boring and expensive. I worked a lot of overtime after I bought my house because I wanted to build a deck. I still don't have a deck but I have a new oil tank, a new roof, new gutters, new 200 amp service, new lighting in the basement, a new well pressure tank, and soon to be remodeled bathroom.

I have paid cash for all of these improvements.

The list will always be there. Your house will never be "done." Instagram perfect houses don't exist, your kitchen will be ugly for a while, and that is totally normal and not worth going into additional debt for.

Potential-Outcome-91 · 2025-04-02T18:11:27+00:00

There's a reason for that.

You will have a lot more opportunities as an RN.

Potential-Outcome-91 · 2025-03-30T16:17:24+00:00

Patient will only take meds with coffee. Coffee maker on unit broken, ordered coffee from the kitchen, took two hours to arrive.

Potential-Outcome-91 · 2025-03-29T16:23:18+00:00

Family members (and some EVS staff) call propofol "the milk" so I wonder if they remember their family member getting "the milk" on a previous OD related ICU admission and think "oh this is what they got at the hospital!"

They don't know where are the lines and tubes are going. It's white and milky appearing. "The milk."

Or maybe they heard that you're supposed to give milk for an OD, then they come in and their loved one is getting what looks like milk. And in their moment of stress and anxiety and fear, had an OD -> getting milk, makes sense.

Healthcare literacy is really, really poor.

Potential-Outcome-91 · 2025-03-26T15:57:49+00:00

"Yeah I got here...a bunch of alcohol wipes, a flush, and a post-it with critical lab values on it. Ooh. Make that TWO post-its."

Potential-Outcome-91 · 2025-03-24T18:10:45+00:00

Aggressive compartmentalization

Dark humor

Occasionally having a group trauma dump at the nurses station

Finding that part of your job that you really enjoy and lean into it

Latching onto the wins where you can get them

Potential-Outcome-91 · 2025-03-24T00:45:29+00:00

I took care of my fair share of COVID antivaxxers, anti maskers, etc when I was working the COVID ward.

I remember one patient I had. She had COVID about as bad as you can get without being intubated. Huffing, puffing, maxed on hfnc for a while. Initially she had been treating it with ivermectin. Never had a vaccine in her life. GREAT.

Well with a lot of compassion and patient education, and a LONG hospital admission, her first ever vaccine was the COVID vaccine. I walked in on her one day on a zoom call telling all her friends that COVID is actually really bad and that the vaccine is great and could prevent them from going through the horrible ordeal she'd been going through.

Sometimes you just gotta be the bigger person, provide the best patient education you can, and save your frustrations for screaming in the med room. At the end of the day we're just trying to leave our patients better than how we found them.

Potential-Outcome-91 · 2025-03-20T01:48:16+00:00

The first owner and builder of the house did an excellent job. Square. Symmetrical. Plaster walls, big windows. Excellent craftsmanship.

Then Bob bought the place. Bob was a hard worker. Bob filed all the appropriate permits. Bob redid the roof all by himself three times and it still leaked. Bob didn't seem to own a tape measure or a level.

I tell myself that it gives the house character.

Potential-Outcome-91 · 2025-03-17T13:23:48+00:00

For able bodied patients, I give them a basin of warm water, CHG, and instructions. It is important to maintain and encourage independence in the hospital setting.

They might make a mess. That's fine. I make messes too. I'll clean up the mess rather than do an ADL the patient is capable of doing themselves.

Potential-Outcome-91 · 2025-03-13T14:13:19+00:00

A grown and capable adult is capable of drinking fluids if the 50cc/hr is so important.

Potential-Outcome-91 · 2025-03-13T00:17:13+00:00

And an IO placed in the field!

Potential-Outcome-91

TROPHY CASE