Thanks for sharing all of these experiences openly and honestly for others to learn from. Many people find it difficult to identify areas in which they need to improve, nevermind share those mistakes for the benefit of others. That is one important characteristic of a quality leader! Keep up the great work, Liz. Your channel is invaluable to up and coming nurses/NPs!
You’re unusually humble & charismatic, it’s so refreshing & inspiring to see.. ty for sharing and don’t ever let the occupational hazards change your sweet and inviting personality! I really hope to be as amazing and knowledgeable as you one day.. still just working on my nursing degree.
Whoa thank you for being honest!! Exposing the reality of nursing is what we need more of. I’m srsly tired of all the aesthetic nursing routines that are always perfect.
@@NurseLiz I am sure you are amazing. The nurse that just left the unit should have taken her pager. It's not rocket science. But you did a good job by being there for the patient. I'm sure even though mistakes were made( we all make mistakes) you saved his life. You are so heroic. You will make a great nurse
I swear everything happens at night 😩 this is why I tell ppl to be techs at hospitals. It helps a lot before going to nursing school, you’ll learn a lot especially when they happen because I’m the one who would usually would find them since I’m always with them. For me it helped me not panic in emergencies. It also taught me my intuition is Everything! If something tells you to get up it’s for a reason don’t ignore it. Also get to know them especially if they are on the unit for awhile. You know when they’re having high and lows. Usually techs have all the patients on the floor unless you share it. So it helps us know what they’re there for as well.
Hi Liz! I thought I'd share my first code blue experience in a hospital. I'm currently in my third and final year of uni, and this happened my first year. It was around 7 am and my tutor/nurse told me to check the vitals of our patients (yes, they let us do things on our own here in Italy). I knew something war wrong as soon as I entered the third room: he was lying on the bed, completely still; I tried to call him ad shake him but he wouldn't answear, so I check for his pulse. I immediately called the nurses and doctors and we started CPR but, unfortunately, it didn't work. Both the night shift nurse and his roommate said that one hour before that he was doing great. The thing that hit me the most was that the night before he was walking up and down the corridor, he saw me as I was getting ready to go home and said to me "goodnight nurse, see you tomorrow!".
I don't know how I got here haha. I was studying for my TEAS and I ended up watching all your videos! I am so happy I found your Channel! I hope I work with nurses like Nurse Liz~ Subscribed. Now back to studying.
Even though I'm not in the medical field I find all this so helpful. I have elderly grandparents and by listening to you I understand how healthcare works especially when they're in the hospital. Thanks!
Thank you for sharing your experience! I am in nursing school and I recently had a patient who had a rapid response called. I had been in my patients room prior but I did not recognize early signs that this patient needed help. Luckily a more experienced nurse did and called the response. I was able to watch the response team and observe them stabilize my patient. I felt SO bad that I didn't recognize that my patient needed help. Watching your video made me feel a lot better. In hindsight, I can see the signs I missed. It was a really good learning experience. Even though your video was a code blue, your feelings were really relatable. Again, thank you so much for sharing your experience!!
It is so so hard to see those signs when you are new and everything is overwhelming. Unforunately sometimes you have to miss it first, to really become aware. Sounds like you learned a lot from that situation!
@@NurseLiz I had my first code blue and my pt didn't make it. I can't get the thought out of my head that I could have done something differently. I know it was out of my hands but I'm a baby nurse and can't help but think I could have done more for it to work out.
Thank you!! My first code, I was out to lunch and heard the overhead page, realized it was my patient and ran......had my brain in my hand but could not find it by the time I made it to the room. I could only remember that he was on seizure precautions. I was a baby nurse, first week on my own. By the time I got to the room there were a gazillion people in there! He did well, transferred to HLC and I went to see him in ICU after my shift and he said, I love you, using his hands to sign that statement. Thx for this! It helps to know that others feel what we feel~
I was just in my first ERT over the weekend and I thought about this video coming out. I checked the lady’s pulse ox because she stopped speaking to me, called the people, did an EKG and answered all of the MDs questions. If the last video wasn’t fresh on my mind perhaps I would have stood around asking the patient “what’s wrong?”
Wooow thank you for sharing this, I was totally thinking I'd go in like a heroe not knowing how to handle anything but compressions. So thank you because you just painted the real picture of what to expect in this video and your other video. You have calmed my nerves cuz now my expectations are real and not what I was imagining.
Thank you for sharing! I'm a mental health associate on my hospital's inpatient mental health unit and I have been apart of several rapid responses. The first few I felt completely useless and fumbled with the vitals cart and then didn't push the start button aft staring at the screen for what felt like a minute. Ever since I've become more cool calm and collected during rapids and am able to do and not over think my actions. You can read about different scenarios all the time but the best way for it to sink in is by witnessing them firsthand.
Thank you for sharing! I think your ability to reflect and share what you did wrong is so important, not only for you to learn from but others as well! I would love to hear the story of your first experience having your own patient pass away.
Hi Liz! I've been an outpatient nurse over 5 years and now I am finally going inpatient. I have zero inpatient experience, feeling just like a new nurse here, and I came across this video of yours while I am sitting here pondering how I'll handle my first code. I have asked multiple nurse friends and I have to say, your advice is the most helpful! I cannot thank you enough!
Thank you for sharing! I'm a unit secretary and I had to call the code for the rapid response team to arrive. I obviously didn't have the ability to see how it goes during orientation because our patients rarely code but I am glad that I was able to tackle those responsibilities so the nursing staff could focus on the task of resuscitation.
Thanks for sharing all of your learning opportunities. They’re super helpful! I’m grateful I work with 1-2 MDs at all times but ya know, still useful information 😁
So incredibly helpful! Thank you! Another storytime that would be helpful to me are recognizing early signs of deteriorating patient condition. Thanks!
Thank you so much for this video! Highly informative. Story time suggestion: a video about a conflict you had with a co-worker and how you resolved it. As a new grad nurse, I always retrospectively think about how I would do something/say something differently if I didn't have the "new grad shyness". Thank you!
Binge watching your videos, and the task oriented thing hit home for me. Background RN 4 years. I am a CCRN and work codes as well as ICU and precept new critical care nurses. I have noticed a pattern in new grads of the last year who are very task oriented. I mean they have a checklist and that's what guides their shift. Everything feels like charting, I guess what I am getting at is critical care is very minute by minute whole picture. Your assessment and ability to critically think is how patients survive ICU. My question is how I help guide them towards the comfort of seeing the patient. Like really assessing, evaluating adjusting etc. I understand new nurse, have precepted at this point 32 amazing nurses. Often I find guiding them through the assessment and asking them you are the nurse what does that pressure mean to you, why would their heart sound like that, you can't hear bowel sounds what should you think of next... really reinforces all the learning from school into real life. I am on my 6th RN since December that are brand new, and I am struggling to find a way to help bridge them. I have kept each one on orientation an extra 4 weeks because it felt necessary to them and myself to have that extra time to promote safety. I have never experienced this pattern training until this past December. Guess long story short reaching out to see what else I can do. Would love ideas, my coworkers simply say if you can't guide them idk what to do then, it's a defeated attitude and I don't want that nor my new RNs to feel they are impostors or unsafe. Competence and confidence will come but at bear minimum on your own you should feel safe. Thank you! Hope to gather some ideas
Thanks so much for these stories! It helps me feel so much less overwhelmed because I know being overwhelmed is my new normal as a future nurse 😀I'd be interested-if it wouldn't make you feel too badly-to know how you handled the loss of your first patient. If it's too upsetting, obviously don't share! But I know most of us will have to go through that and there's nothing in any textbooks about the death of patient outside of how to prep the body and belongings for the family, which is not even remotely the hardest part.
The same situation literally happened to me last week. Pulse ox tanked into the 40's and the patient's nurse was nowhere to be found. So scary! Thank you for sharing!
Thank you for sharing! I loved this storytime. As a new nurse, this will definitely ensure that I get better reports when relieving other nurses. So scary
Thanks so much for this video Great advice!! I am a new medical assistant in a outpatient cardiology office. Would love to hear any tips for MAs. What you expect and any helpful tips. I am working for a nurse practitioner and want to make sure I’m doing all I can to assist. We also start the note for the provider, at times I feel like like I am taking to long in the room. 😩😄😅
You’ll get quicker! Being new is hard. But you have a great attitude and willingness to learn! I would ask her every now and then if there’s anything you could do or do differently that would be helpful to better serve patients. That attitude will take you far!
have you ever had a code as the primary nurse of a patient. I literally just had this happen, it did not end well it was very bloody and I'm honestly crying not stop. I don't know what to do.
LOL. This is the first video I've ever watched from you and you are sooo funny! I just accepted a job as a new telemetry nurse (never done CPR on a real person either) and I'm nervous but I'm so thankful I found this channel! I love hearing people's bad stories and see them get through it because I feel like I can get through it too! Thanks so much for being vulnerable! I know I couldn't do it! PS: as far as "story time" suggestions, anything like these would be great! Any real-life moments that anyone would go through and how you handled it and tips on how to do better next time!!
Just had my 1st code. I've been involved, but this was my 1st patient in almost 10 years. Brought him back but I don't wanna go back to work next 3 nights 😫
I really enjoyed hearing your perspective on this, especially about what you would do if you could go back in time and redo it. Could you maybe share some experiences about being squeamish in nursing school and how to get used to it? I’m nervous about dealing with vomit as a nursing student/nurse (and don’t want to be a sympathetic vomiter)! Thank you for sharing!
My first code on med surg was a transfer from ICU who was stable but had a OROgastric tube and was receiving tfs. He hadn't been there more than 5-10 minutes....whole time im there with him, and he goes into respiratory distress.....big time and fast declining.....turning blue lips and desating. I wasn't told in report that the NGT was entering through his mouth and not nare, which makes me so uncomfortable and when i saw it, i noted it in my head that we're gonna have to move that, or something. So i called a code and he was intubated and whisked back to the ICU. I still to this day rack my brain with what happened, but my gut says the tube ended up misplaced when he was transferred. ALWAYS trust your gut in nursing. ALWAYS.
Question from a non-medical professional: If he had a DNR order, would you have known as a nurse on the unit? (ie, do all nurses have to know who on the unit has DNR status just in case you are covering?). Also, as a family member of someone with DNR status, what happens in that case? Do you just have to stand by and try to provide comfort?
Everyone on the unit should be aware if there are DNR/DNI patients. It's something that is usually discussed at huddle at the beginning of the shift, and there is typically additional signage placed near the patient monitor.
Last night was my 6th day on the unit and I had my first rapid. I had JUST left the room and he was fine. I am pulling other meds and the tech comes in and tells me he is nauseated and asked for a bucket. I said okay take him an emesis bag and I will see what he has for nausea. She comes running back in stating that he is foaming at the mouth. He had vomited and aspirated and was not okay. Luckily my preceptor was already on her way down there and someone else called a rapid, but I literally stood in the corner just frozen. I did not know what do to. Like 10 people came running in and I felt so ill-prepared. *sigh* Next time I will know more what to expect.
You may have done this video already, but can you do your first experience with a patient dying and how you get through that? I was shadowing a nurse on our first day on the unit and one of her patients passed away right at shift change as she was coming on. He was hospice/DNR/AND so there wasn't a code involved but she (and I) had to go be the 'second' nurse to listen for breath sounds or a heartbeat. (In my state/county if someone is on hospice and dies then two nurses can confirm the death.)
Oh gosh. What a first day. I have this one talking about coping with patient death. I’ll add that to a story time as well ❤️ ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-4LPywjOMEUU.html
Hey liz i have a question for you. It has nothing to do with this video (sorry 😬) but do you have any advice on applying for jobs for a state you’re moving to? I’m moving to TN in july but i’d like to start applying for jobs in march. I know you moved to north carolina so i figured you’d probably be a good person to ask 🙂
I just applied to jobs in the place I wanted to live, and put "awaiting licensure in x state" to let them know I was planning on moving there and was waiting for my license to go through. Then when my license did go through I put that on my resume so they knew I was serious about that location. You could also omit your address from the resume if you found that people are overlooking you because of the distance.
Nurse Liz okay thank you! I am going to apply for the TN license tomorrow but idk how long it takes. Either way i will omit my address. And i watched your nursing resume video and it was soooo helpful. Especially in regards to only putting bullets for skills that may be beneficial for nursing. I’ll be working on mine tomorrow :)
you said the patient's nurse went to lunch and didn't return until 25 minutes later? so there is no announcement over the intercom for the code blue and the room at your hospital???
whaaat! no! They announce it every time?? That is wild to me lol. Isn't it going off constantly? We had lights that would light up pointing in the direction of the code for people who needed to respond, but otherwise it just went out to the pagers who were on the response teams and the unit of the event.
@@NurseLiz Yes they announce every code and rapid response at my hospital and no it's not going off constantly. Codes are not frequent at my hospital and rarely happen outside the icu. Also an alert is sent to everyone's phone on the unit for code blues so there is no reason why someone shouldn't kno that a code is happening. I can't imagine going to lunch not knowing that my patient is coding.....
Too lazy to scroll the comments lol. But, I would be interested in a peds code story time and what your first peds code experience was like in contrast..
That sounds terrifying 😬😆 First code would be hard enough but then on a pt that was not yours and you didn't know anything about! I'll have to remember not to be that person in the future, because it so would be me lol. "Uh yeah sure I can do that." *left with a bunch of patients I know nothing about right as everything goes wrong*
Thank you so much for your story! I am really thankful for the tips as the most I’ve done in a code is clear the room out so far. Would you do one about your first code blue for pediatrics or something if the sort? I would love to see how that one was different than your first ever code.
