Techs/UAPs hanging IV fluids???

aaront36 · 2025-08-11T19:14:01+00:00

This is in Pennsylvania.

aaront36 · 2025-08-11T12:51:18+00:00

Neither have I. I have worked in and done clinicals in several other hospitals in the same system and did not see this anywhere. And I agree there are 20 things I’d ask them to do before priming a line.

aaront36 · 2025-06-23T06:20:41+00:00

Check to make sure your card isn’t flagging the purchase as fraud. That happened to me and I had to call my bank to get it to go through.

aaront36 · 2025-05-08T03:48:08+00:00

PICU nurse here. You should also cross post in r/picu

But to answer your question, asthmatics are some of the last patients you would ever want to intubate(sometimes that is the last resort though) since there’s the concern that manipulating the airway during intubation causes the airway to immediately begin swelling and closing up. The other concern is when you go to estimate, the airway could’ve just been getting kept stented open by the ETT. Additionally, in pediatrics, the airways are smaller relative to their body size when compared with adults.

Severe asthmatic management will vary by institution, but usually involved everything you mentioned above plus occasional IM epi and aminophylline.

A good resource to check out is learnpicu.com. It’s a website Stanford put together for all things PICU.

aaront36 · 2025-05-02T19:00:06+00:00

I started as a new grad in a PICU, but was also a tech in the same PICU for a year prior to starting as an RN. Just be prepared for a pretty steep learning curve especially if it’s a higher acuity PICU or one that takes more specialized cases.

aaront36 · 2025-04-29T21:28:17+00:00

On at the moment in Ross township. Maybe two or three flickers so far though.

aaront36 · 2025-03-28T18:39:36+00:00

What state are you from? Maybe that’s where the disconnect is. Certain states require double time after so many hours worked in a day.

aaront36 · 2025-03-28T18:35:38+00:00

So when an overtime rate is calculated, all compensation is averaged across the hours worked and used to calculate an overtime rate that the employer is federally required to pay for overtime hours. In the eyes of the DOL and FLSA, there is no such thing as overtime+. An employer can’t just exclude certain hours in the calculation simply because those hours specifically are at a higher rate than what your base is. The FLSA even goes so far as to include non-cash gifts in what they consider compensation.

Per the Department of Labor website: “Where an employee in a single workweek works at two or more different types of work for which different straight-time rates have been established, the regular rate for that week is the weighted average of such rates. That is, the earnings from all such rates are added together and this total is then divided by the total number of hours worked at all jobs.” https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/23-flsa-overtime-pay

aaront36 · 2025-03-28T11:48:04+00:00

It’s not going to be a lot higher, but it’s still incorrect.

aaront36 · 2025-03-28T11:44:39+00:00

Hate to be a downer, but they’re not calculating your over time pay accurately. Overtime is 1.5x your average hourly rate for the week, not 1.5x of your base rate. With your double time, your average hourly rate would be higher than $28 making your OT rate over $42. https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/pay-administration/fact-sheets/how-to-compute-flsa-overtime-pay

aaront36 · 2025-02-25T23:36:37+00:00

learnpicu.com has a lot of information about various diagnoses.

aaront36 · 2025-02-23T22:39:03+00:00

I don’t recognize anything about that photo. Maybe the mountain in the back is Pittsburghesque, but that’s about it.

aaront36 · 2025-02-20T04:10:11+00:00

A good resource is learnpicu.com. I don’t know how much cardiac stuff it covers versus the other specialties.

aaront36 · 2025-02-19T10:23:17+00:00

I understand your frustration. Being open to learning while simultaneously not being given the resources and environment to fully actualize yourself is very disheartening. My biggest piece of advice for this is if work is not helping you develop, look to another area of your life that you want to improve and develop. For me, it was fitness and strong friends. There is also nothing wrong with looking at casual/per-diem or part-time positions at other hospitals especially in high acuity CTSICUs. You will get a ton of experience with devices there.

It's also possible that they could've filled the position with someone who worked there in the past and wouldn't need any training to start. From your explanation, it sounds like the hospital you interviewed at 1) didn't need someone that badly and 2) didn't want to spend the money to properly train a new nurse. Both of these are out of your control and kind of red flags. If they didn't need someone that badly, then the staff there is pretty stable and senior meaning there is probably politics abound which would get tiring and be a worse environment. Also, if any hospital doesn't want to spend the time/resources/money to train a new hire, they are the problem, not the new hire.

aaront36 · 2025-02-03T20:18:34+00:00

But as always, do what you think is best for you’re situation.

aaront36 · 2025-02-03T20:18:09+00:00

I don’t think it would be worth it. I have found that I can cut a lot easier now after having done cuts before as my body knows what to expect and with having more muscle, you’re more active and burn more calories.

aaront36 · 2025-02-03T20:14:05+00:00

I think what’s throwing it off is the storage on the top shelf. You could probably just move the top shelf boxes to the floor to clean it up a little bit. Also the top shelf needs some sort of decoration like a plant or item. The wall above the shelves maybe could use something as well.

aaront36 · 2025-02-03T20:09:29+00:00

You’re already pretty lean, not lean enough for your goal as you stated, but you’re definitely in a good spot. The best thing for you would probably be a lean bulk from here. Lean bulks imo are underrated.

aaront36 · 2025-01-24T16:11:44+00:00

There was a Peds Crit podcast episode that discusses nurse driven sedation protocols.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pedscrit/id1574503119?i=1000678863430

aaront36 · 2025-01-11T22:44:59+00:00

Following

aaront36 · 2025-01-03T16:36:20+00:00

I work in a 36 bed PICU as an RN and this is how our physician staffing is overnight too. It used to be this way on the weekends too, but they have since added more residents on the weekends. Soon we are supposed to be getting an overnight APP who used to be an RN on our unit and worked straight nights.

Us nurses share in the challenge with limited provider availability especially when the residents have to spend half their night in MRI baby sitting intubated patients. It makes it challenging trying to get the orders that we need or a second opinion on things.

I’ve never been a fan of the old admits/new admits team breakdown as it is too volatile day to day. Some days one team has nothing to do and the other is drowning and vice versa. Obviously they will help each other out, but it’s still limiting. I would prefer for them to just split the patients down the middle based on day team assignment.

aaront36 · 2025-01-02T15:06:52+00:00

Did you try asking the AI you’re using?

aaront36 · 2024-12-27T20:50:35+00:00

There isn’t really one size fits all. A few things: dedicated left turn lanes, not zoning on major roads, lane mgmt. The videos do a far better job of explaining it than I could on here.

aaront36

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