How to Prevent Varicose Veins as a Nurse & Nursing Student

Varicose veins run in my family, so when I started nursing school I knew I was entering a high risk occupation that would give me varicose veins if I did not try to prevent them. I prevent varicose veins and tiredness in my legs by wearing compression stockings. They are the greatest thing ever invented!

As a nurse and nursing student you are on your feet many, many hours. I can remember sometimes being on my feet 8 hours straight without sitting down (busy day and didn't get lunch until 3:00), and if I didn't have on my compression stockings I probably wouldn't have been able to make it through the rest of my shift.

However, before I bought my compression stockings I remember wondering what the difference was between TED hose and compression stockings. I would hear other nurses say they were wearing TED hoses. But I have found out that people mistakenly  call compression stockings TED hoses. BUT there is a big difference between the two.

Here is the difference between the two:




So as a nurse you will want to buy compression stockings for nurses that have a compression rating 15-20 mmHG.

Sarah

Easy Way to Interpret ABG (Blood Gases) using the Tic Tac Toe Method

I don't know about you but interpreting ABGs (blood gases) was so hard for me. I was always getting the lab values confused and would say to myself "now is this a base or acid level....and is this metabolic or respiratory".

Arterial Blood Gas Interpretation using the TIC Tac Toe Method

In nursing school you have so much stuff to remember and if you are able to find an easy way to help yourself remember something it helps out so much. One of my professors in my fundamentals class showed us how to interpret ABGs using the Tic Tac Toe method.

It is one of the most easiest ways I have found to solve arterial blood gas problems. It made solving ABG NCLEX and nursing exam question easy and quick. So I want to share with you how to easily solve ABGs interpret using the tic tac toe method.

Sarah

Tips for Helping You Find a Vein before Drawing Blood or Starting IVs

Being successful at IVs takes a lot of practice, skill, and some tricks (which you will learn over time). When I graduated from nursing school, I was HORRIBLE at starting IVs (99% of new nurse graduates are unless they worked as a LPN or EMS before being a RN).

As I said in my last post about IVs, my confidence was gone after the first couple of months of being a nurse and I would 9 times out of 10 try to get someone else to start them for me. I didn't want to put the patient through unnecessary pain and aggravation.

I would say to myself "well I will learn how to start them eventually". Well eventually I did and I have to say I am pretty good at them now.

One of my problems with starting IVs was finding a vein. In order to be successful at IVs you must know where to look for a vein. In the human arm there are certain areas where most people have veins and they are very easy to find and hit with the IV needle if you know where to look.

Below is a video I made demonstrating how to find veins and how to avoid those pesky "rolling" veins. The person I am using in this video is the best case scenarios and has great veins so he made the perfect candidate to educate students about veins.



Sarah

What is the Difference Between IV Needle Gauges? | 18, 20, & 22 Gauge IV Needles

While I was a nursing student in clinicals, I would always hear nurses telling other nurses in report "the patient has a 22 in the RAC". I remember asking my preceptor "I know this may be a REALLY dumb question but what does 22 mean?". I knew the reporting nurse must have been talking about an IV because she said RAC but I had no clue why she was saying it was a 22.

My preceptor sort of chuckled and said that 22 gauge meant it was the size of the IV catheter the patient had. Before that incident, it hadn't really dawned on me that there were different types of IV catheters out there and as a nurse it is important to know which IV gauge you can administer blood through and so on.

So to help you nursing students or new nurses out there learn about the different IV gauges and what they look like I have created a video. Also, click the link for more information about different IV gauge needles.




Sarah

Should You Get a Nursing Lab Jacket for Clinicals or to Work as a Nurse?

Nursing lab jackets have their benefits as a student nurse and nurse. Many nursing schools require students to wear lab coats over their scrubs in the clinical setting that has the school's logo on it, while wearing a lab jacket as a nurse is usually optional.

I love to wear my lab jacket for many reasons. One important reason I wear a lab coat is to protect my scrubs and arms from contamination. I work around radioactive materials and daily I come into contact with radioactive isotopes. If I am radiated with this material my lab jacket helps provide me a little bit of a barrier.

In this video I discuss some tips you should watch out for when buying your lab coat.



-Sarah

Tips for Buying Your First Pair of Nursing Scrubs

It is always so exciting buying your first pair of nursing scrubs! It makes you feel "official". I know as a student nurse and especially a new nurse I was so excited to buy my first pair of nursing scrubs.

However, before buying your first pair of scrubs you will want to follow the tips in the video below. I always hate returning items that don't fit or are the wrong color due to hospital policy. So here is a quick video to help guide you in buying nursing scrubs.




-Sarah

Is Nursing School Hard? | How Hard is Nursing School?

Before I started nursing school, I remember be so stressed out that I was not "smart" enough for nursing school. I had heard from many people that nursing school was the hardest thing they had ever done. I actually remember thinking that may be nursing school wasn't for me.

However, I am glad I pushed those negative feeling aside because I made it through nursing school. Here is my honest opinion, if I can make it through nursing school ANYONE can. Passing nursing school is not about how smart you are but it's about if you are willing to put in the time to succeed. 

To better answer this question "Is Nursing School Hard?", I thought it would be better for me to tell you myself in this video:

I hope this video helped alleviate some of your fears. If you have any questions about nursing school, please come over to the forum on my website RegisteredNurseRN.com and myself and others would love to help you out!

Sarah

Nursing Care Plans | Free Nursing Care Plans for Nursing Students

I remember doing nursing care plans in nursing school. I always dreaded doing them because they required so much time and research. When I started nursing clinicals, I would have to go the day before my clinical day and select a patient to do a nursing care plan on.

Our instructor recommended we pick a patient who would be there the next day and not discharged. I would go to the hospital after lecture the day before clinicals (usually around 4pm) and collect my information on the patient. Then I would go home and complete my care plan. It usually took me anywhere from 4-6 hours to complete.

At first, I thought nursing care plans were the worst thing in the world but then after I completed about 2-3 I started to get the hang of them. And now I actually like doing them (crazy I know). I like doing them so much I created a library of free nursing care plans for nursing students to use as a guide to help them in creating their own nursing care plans.

Here is access to these free nursing care plans. I have care plans for everything from congestive heart failure, to pneumonia, to hypertension (in other words a wide variety of care plans).

Here I explain what a nursing care plan is and what the difference between nursing care plans are in school and on the job are:




Sarah :-)

Great Resource for Free Nursing Resume Templates

Applying for a job is hard work, especially when the job market is competitive. In the area I live our nursing job market is very competitive. There are a total of 5 nursing schools in my area that graduates thousands of nursing students every May and December, and there are only two large hospitals in my area that employ nurses.

So every year around that time the job market gets really competitive and high demand specialties such as OB-GYN, Pediatrics, and ICU are hard jobs to secure. I remember speaking with a hiring nurse manager one time and she told me two things that are important during the hiring process are the resume and interview.

It is really important to have a great looking resume when applying for a nursing job. I compare the resume as an "advertisement" that says "Hey look at me....I'm what you're looking for...give me an interview and you won't be disappointed". Your resume is vitally important in helping you secure an interview.

So if you are in the job market and need some resume templates, here are some free nursing resume templates you can use.

Quick Tips When Creating Your Resume

Keep it short. Rule of thumb is that your resume should be one page (especially if you are just starting out in the job force) BUT you can have it up to two pages if you have been in the profession for a while

Don't lie or embellish. I know it may sound good on paper but when the interview comes and you're asked about it the hiring manager will know if you are lying or not. So keep it honest.

Make it eye-catching! If you are submitting resumes by mail or physical copies be sure to print it on nice resume paper that will catch the hiring manager's eye and make her/him want to look at it. 

Sarah :-)

Tips on How to Remove Gloves Correctly as a Nursing Student & Nurse

As a nursing student or nurse you will contaminate your gloves with some nasty, potentially lethal germs. So learning how to properly remove them is so vitally important. I know that as a nurse myself I have encountered many different situations where proper glove removal was so important.

For instance, one day I had a patient who had HIV and Hepatitis C along with the flesh eating bacteria called necrotizing fasciitis. This poor patient was so sick and felt miserable but was the sweetest person in the world, which is amazing considering what they were going through.

I had to draw blood from the patient's central line and got blood on my gloves. So my gloves were contaminated with blood that had HIV and Hepatitis C in it. So I had to carefully remove my gloves using the technique I show in the video below.

As a nurse or nursing student you should always remove your gloves using the technique below even if it seems like your gloves are clean. It is just a good habit to be in. The technique below will prevent accidental contamination on your skin, scrubs, or to others.

Video on How to Remove Gloves Correctly & Safely

For more tips on how to remove your gloves properly please see this very useful article.
Sarah :-)

Watch Me Demonstrate How to Put on Sterile Gloves