ECH Tips (Payton Wong)

• Make use of your resource nurse. Have them do vitals for you! Check your other pt. if you're having difficulty with the one you're attending. Use them to print out/photocopy your lab reports.
  
• If you need to page the peer resource nurse, include both your floor and room number as the last two digits, then the resource can head directly to that room. So, dial the pager number, wait for the tone, and push (for example) 533#. That would mean the student on the 5th floor, room 33 needs assistance. The # key is needed to end the page.
  
• Pre-conference—It last 25 minutes. The people that went for observation in the morning will give a short report on what they saw, learned... the instructor doesn't want you to do paper work during their report, you're supposed to be listening and paying attention. So, be kind to your mates and keep the reports brief!
  
• Speaking about keeping your reports brief. During post conference, you'll pretty much always stay until 2230 so talk all you want about your day! The instructor will find something to discuss until 2230.
  
• Remember to 'sign' the computer page that you assisted with your patient. Your resource nurse will remind you, hopefully. This may or may not apply with ECHO, the new computer system.
  
• The BP/vitals machine can transmit the data to the server via wireless network. Good luck getting it to work. The CNA's can show you how, but I just wrote them down and manually inputted them into the system.
  
• From the lobby, use the stairs to go to the ground floor for pre-conference. It's much faster.
  
• Most of my patients were more complex than most of my Q2 patients. However, you’ll feel more confident, competent, and relaxed with much less anxiety and fear.
  
• If you are the floating student nurse, i.e. the “peer resource nurse”
  
  
  
  • You will have a pager. You will have a list of students and their room numbers so they'll know exactly who is looking for them. If you get a page, for example, that reads “533”, then there is a student who needs help in room 33 on the fifth floor. Use you list to determine who that student is.
    
  • There’s no official form but most of us created our own simple sheet. Your sheet should include all your classmates, and their room numbers. Other than that, it's pretty open. I wrote what time (only the time) that meds or procedures were due, and diagnosis. I had check offs that those things were done in addition to 1600 and 2000 vitals. You need to make sure your mates logon to the computer and "sign" that they participated in the care for their patients. I did focused assessments when I could.
    
  
  

Tips that apply to ECH 5-East only Payton Wong)

• I'm not sure about the other floors, but I always had time on 5E during shift change to continue and finish my prep work. We're supposed to be on our unit by 1500 for report. If you're on 5E, don't panic about not getting your prep done during pre-conference, you'll have more time upstairs.
  
• Reports during shift change are minimal. Find the handwritten sheet on the break table that has the nursing assignments to locate your nurse and CNA. 5E nurses "report" on the left table (as you walk in the door), 5W nurses report on the right. Maybe I'm a little slow, but I didn't catch on to that right away.
  
• The CNA's, are mostly helpful and I got along well with all of them. The nurses are mostly helpful too, but not unanimously.
  
• Lots of PRN pain meds (mostly Vicodin) and IVPB antibiotics. Primary bag as well as tubing changes are common. I did quite a few saline lock flushes too. If your primary bag is going to be changed during your shift, be sure the next bag was ordered by the day shift and is in the med room. Otherwise, order it early, rather than later.
  
• Seems like 5E had a fair number of 2100 meds. We cannot give meds after 2100 (per the instructor) so plan accordingly. The instructor will be very busy after 2000 when the clinical assistant leaves for the evening.
  
• I also seemed to have a wide variety of wound drains. ...Some familiar, some brand new.
  
• The med room is pretty small and gets crowded easily. I tried to do my first two checks elsewhere.