Tuesday, October 17, 2006
kitty update and a brainstorm
Mr. Black Cat is doing much better. He's not back to 100%, but he seems much more like his old self. Just like any elderly patient, he's up to 4 different meds administered at 3 different times of day. And yes, I have to wipe his butt on occasion. Although at least this IBS flare-up has not been nearly as disgusting as the last one. I'm not expecting that he's going to live years longer or anything, but I do think he'll be with us for a few more months. Today he wanted to sit on my lap and sniff every single bite of my lunch before I put it into my mouth. This is a good sign.
Okay, as for the brainstorm - I didn't have one, I'm asking for your help with one! I have to present an article to my clinical group at post-conference on Friday. I'm totally fine with the article and the speaking part, but I'm supposed to use a "visual aid" and I'm drawing a blank. The topic of the article is prescribing a "range order" for painkillers and why it's important for nurses to advocate for range orders for their patients, and how to use these orders to keep patients as comfortable as possible. In case you are as clueless as me (I just learned this today!), a range order is a prescription, typically for pain medication, that allows the nurse to use her judgement about how much to administer based on the patient's status and the situation. For example, the doctor might write an order for morphine, 1-4 mg/hour by IV, as needed for pain. This would give the nurse the leeway to crank up the patient's dose to 4 mg/hour if the patient was in terrible pain, or to crank down the dose to 1 mg/hour if the patient was getting groggy and the pain was long gone.
So yeah, I don't need to recap the whole article for you - just tell me what you think I could do VISUALLY to help with this presentation! I don't have access to a computer or overhead, so it's gotta be something I can just hold up, pass around the table, or tape to the blackboard. The only idea I've had so far is to bring some kind of tiny candy, like smarties or jellybeans, and use them as "units" to demonstrate how I could dose 2 different patients with the same range order...?
Any ideas would be appreciated!
Okay, as for the brainstorm - I didn't have one, I'm asking for your help with one! I have to present an article to my clinical group at post-conference on Friday. I'm totally fine with the article and the speaking part, but I'm supposed to use a "visual aid" and I'm drawing a blank. The topic of the article is prescribing a "range order" for painkillers and why it's important for nurses to advocate for range orders for their patients, and how to use these orders to keep patients as comfortable as possible. In case you are as clueless as me (I just learned this today!), a range order is a prescription, typically for pain medication, that allows the nurse to use her judgement about how much to administer based on the patient's status and the situation. For example, the doctor might write an order for morphine, 1-4 mg/hour by IV, as needed for pain. This would give the nurse the leeway to crank up the patient's dose to 4 mg/hour if the patient was in terrible pain, or to crank down the dose to 1 mg/hour if the patient was getting groggy and the pain was long gone.
So yeah, I don't need to recap the whole article for you - just tell me what you think I could do VISUALLY to help with this presentation! I don't have access to a computer or overhead, so it's gotta be something I can just hold up, pass around the table, or tape to the blackboard. The only idea I've had so far is to bring some kind of tiny candy, like smarties or jellybeans, and use them as "units" to demonstrate how I could dose 2 different patients with the same range order...?
Any ideas would be appreciated!
Labels: Booshka, cats, nursing school
Comments:
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How about the doctor gives you a "range" (which is a pitcher of water)to give the patient. You then have 2 different sized glasses to represent the same patient. One glass says "Patient A - 8:00AM" and another says "Patient A - 10:00AM" Each are different sizes. You obliviously can access each glass to see how much the patient needs.
I guess the pitcher would need to be replaced each time - otherwise it would imply you only could work with a fixed amount... Ideas...
Andy
I guess the pitcher would need to be replaced each time - otherwise it would imply you only could work with a fixed amount... Ideas...
Andy
Not sure if you've already had to do this assignment or not but here is my idea.
A piece of that projectt paper, can't recall the name right now, lol, you know the cardboard stuff that kids have to send you to the store for at midnight all the time that comes in all different colors....anyway......
With a marker, split the board into two sections, left and right or top and bottom (I'd do T&B so you could show a shift flow of sorts) and make a chart in each of the 2 sections with the little pain scale faces so that the faces represent your pt's pain throughout different times during your shift.
The top patient could represent the pt. who has an exact order and you coulod show him (with the grimacing faces etc) as being in more pain throughout your shift because of having an exact order.
The other side, do the same thing but with this patient have the sliding scale order and show with the faces that this order is helping to keep your patients pain at manageable levels (or at least much better than the pt. above). Of course, you'd want to show with the first pt. what dose was given each time and the same for the second pt.
I hope I explained that okay, not sure if it came across right or not.
Well, it's a thought.
Good luck!
Let us know what you decide to do.
Dawn
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A piece of that projectt paper, can't recall the name right now, lol, you know the cardboard stuff that kids have to send you to the store for at midnight all the time that comes in all different colors....anyway......
With a marker, split the board into two sections, left and right or top and bottom (I'd do T&B so you could show a shift flow of sorts) and make a chart in each of the 2 sections with the little pain scale faces so that the faces represent your pt's pain throughout different times during your shift.
The top patient could represent the pt. who has an exact order and you coulod show him (with the grimacing faces etc) as being in more pain throughout your shift because of having an exact order.
The other side, do the same thing but with this patient have the sliding scale order and show with the faces that this order is helping to keep your patients pain at manageable levels (or at least much better than the pt. above). Of course, you'd want to show with the first pt. what dose was given each time and the same for the second pt.
I hope I explained that okay, not sure if it came across right or not.
Well, it's a thought.
Good luck!
Let us know what you decide to do.
Dawn
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