cardioversion

The funniest thing in nursing life that i have witnessed to date. So my patient (ex.Carly) was in atrial flutter. We had him on a dilitiazem drip (to keep his HR down). We recently took him off of his amiodarone drip (an anti-arrythmic; used to help stabilize a patient when they are in a new onset arrythmia), however, he remained in atrial flutter. One method of treating atrial flutter is cardioversion. Which in essence is electric shock therapy. SO i premedicate this guy with 25 mcg of fentanyl. NO VERSED i must add. And he is sitting there quietly. The doctor tells him in a muffled voice, "...ready..." No response from the patient. The doctor turns up the millivolts to 50 joules. He pushes the shock button and... I kid you not. This 300+ pound man jumped at least 6 inches of the bed and shouts. "OWWW!! shit mayn... why you gotta play me like that!!"

it was so quiet in the room.. then the 6 of us that were in the room all turn bright red and just start chuckling. Even the utmost serious attending physician had his own little chuckle-fest.

The other 2 doctors left the room laughing while the other 2 nurses and i did our best to hold it in. I just got on one knee and started laughing my ass off to tears. Poor guy.

Who says, "Why you gotta play me like that..." these days... seriously.

HAHAHAH!! that guy is the man.

on a serious note. Any medication that is ordered for a procedure that is greater than the amount of the medicine that is already ordered or is a new order, constitutes itself as conscious sedation and NEEDS TO BE DOCUMENTED EVERY 5 MINUTES.

i got burned by that one... learning isn't always fun.


Eat A Dick Gerard > My Dog Has FLeas.