Toastmasters
I thought I would take this opportunity to post about an organization that has helped me tremendously as I prepared for and assumed a role as a nurse. Since 2003, I've belonged to Toastmasters, an...
View ArticleConfucius Reads This Blog
My venture to the local Chinese restaurant tonight yielded a fortune cookie with a great message:You have a charming way with words.I'm not sure if that's in reference to my writing on Uncompromised...
View ArticleA Few Fun Facts About E.J.
From the outset, it's been a goal of mine to avoid making this a personal blog. I've hoped to share with you what my work is like without revealing too many specifics of who I am. After some...
View ArticleExplained to me with a straight face...
... by a nurse who was telling me about the high rate of "toasterheads" at her NICU, a level 2 center that almost never keeps babies at less than 32 weeks."Repositioning is not as much of an option for...
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It might be a tough day in the NICU if...
With our unit's booming census over the last few weeks, I've learned a good bit about how to recognize a crazy day. I'm pleased to share some of that here. Can't even make this stuff up.It might be a...
View ArticleNICU Survival for the Student
Just a few tips for nursing students rotating through a level 3 neonatal intensive care unit. After precepting students for a few semesters, here are my suggestions.Before the shift:- Study necrotizing...
View ArticleLittle Voices
I can still hear the tiny voice inside my head early this afternoon:EJ, this is a public restroom in a gigantic, impersonal hospital. Do not set your briefcase down along the wall here by the paper...
View ArticleAsk me some questions
I'm preparing for an EMS conference presentation and I need some help. I'm hoping to make my talk as relevant to prehospital personnel as I possibly can. That's where you guys come in.If you're an EMT...
View ArticleHolding Pattern
Just a quick update since it's been a while. I'm currently jumping through the hoops of hospital orientation at the new place. I haven't been working any agency or PRN shifts while going through this...
View ArticleEmergency!
I got the H1N1 vaccine today. Read the consent, agreed, signed, took the shot. As I walked out into the very sunny day and drove away only minutes later, I was wracked with a sharp pain around my...
View ArticleA thought for 2010
I like this quote, although it is attributed to several sources, depending on your reference. "Resolve to be tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and...
View ArticleOver a month?
I know I need to sit down and write. It's been too long. I finished orientation at the new place and it's absolutely great. I probably run into material just about every day that would make a great...
View ArticleThe First Call-In
So I hate calling in sick to work. I also dislike people who insist on coming to work with frank toxic manifestations of infectious disease. I guess I've just been lucky in my nursing career so far and...
View ArticleACLS, PALS and Beer
I've just knocked out the didactic and written exam portions of both ACLS and PALS. After all these years, I've landed upon an amazing truth: Emergency cardiac care education is so much better if you...
View ArticleFear not...
Every once in a while I throw in a pause for dramatic effect. Don't worry, though. I'm back to blogging and should be posting in the coming days. Enjoyed reading the comments and emails yesterday that...
View ArticleIs it hard?
I have a pretty disturbed work/play balance in my life. Even when I'm off, I read for work, I talk about work, and I blog about work. My layperson friends are actually enablers of my affliction,...
View ArticleBeatdown
It just never fails. On that rare shift when you just don't feel quite right, things will, like clockwork, go straight downhill. Rare combinations of events will create the perfect storm.For...
View Article"Sign here. Oh... and this is my first time."
Here's the question of the day. Do patients and their families have an explicit right to know about the experience levels of their providers as a part of every informed consent?This is the report of an...
View ArticleCold Feet
Thoughts of a brand new ECMO specialist anticipating his first "buddy run" on the pump:One month ago, having just completed the course: "Ooo, ooo! I hope we have some ECMO again soon before I forget...
View ArticleCyanotic heart defects: cool mnemonic
To remember the five common types of congenital heart disease that present with early cyanosis, simply count to five.One: truncus arteriosusThere is no separation between the aorta and pulmonary...
View ArticleHappy week, ER nurses!
This is just a quick note to acknowledge one amazing group of people. This week is specially set aside to recognize the nurses of the emergency department - and deservedly so!I'm always amazed when ER...
View ArticleGratitude
I've been away for a couple of weeks on a trip where I met nurses from all corners of the globe. When I set off for another country a full day away from the US, I knew this would not be an ordinary...
View ArticleNICU Handshakes: Gracious or Grubby?
After a baby is admitted to our neonatal intensive care unit, nurses have several goals in our initial talks with the infant's visitors. Two big ones always come to mind for me right away: to instill a...
View ArticleWhat They Mean
Good to be back after a long break! I rarely steal post ideas this blatantly, but this is a variation on the theme posted by At Your Cervix a couple of weeks ago. Here are some things that we say to...
View ArticleHow Cardiac Conduction is Like a Toilet
Frequently, we encounter babies in the NICU with sudden wonkiness on the cardiac monitor. At first glance, many of these "funny looking beats" appear to be PVC's, but much more commonly they represent...
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