Today a new-graduate nurse taught me how to give an intramuscular injection.
No, really….
After studiously watching one of our senior staff give an intramuscular (IM) injection, the new-grad informed us that, in fact, she was not taught to give injections into the upper-outer quadrant.
This is were I have been sticking my needles for many years now, [...]

Having problems keeping track of exactly which flask of fluids is hanging, and what time it is due?
Here is a one way of quickly displaying all that information. It only takes a moment, but more often than not, this sort of thing is not recorded on IV flasks.

Write onto a blank adhesive label and stick [...]

In a recent interview, Professor Peter Collignon, an infectious disease specialist at the Australian National University stated that between 300,000 and 600,000 Australians receive some form of hospital-acquired infection each year.
Professor Collignon estimates 5 to 10% ( and he feels that this is probably a conservative estimate) of people entering the hospital system will end [...]

A new-graduate nurse approaches you for some advice.
She is looking after a 4 month old over in the paediatric bays. She has been helping one of the junior doctors attempt to cannulate the baby…very unsuccessfully.
The doctor ‘had a couple of jabs’, and now the baby is crying inconsolably which is also making the parents very [...]

For those of us who like to sling our stethoscopes around our neck to give that impression of superior acumen, and ninja readiness, there is one drawback.
If you do not have a collar (ie you are wearing scrubs) the stethoscope tubing tends to perish quite quickly due to constant exposure to the sweat and natural [...]

I have experienced a needlestick injury on around 8 or so separate occasions over my career.
The last one was several years ago now (touch wood *tap tap*) making it easy to get a little blasé about the whole experience.
Anyway, we tend to give a lot less IM injections than we used to, we use very [...]

Modified from a presentation on Lean Thinking in Healthcare by Brian Dolan (pdf file: 6Mb)

[photo credit: tasslehoff burrfoot ]
We all know it so well, the weekend incoming wounded surge of donks, bonks, and plonks to the head following accidents, assaults and sporting injuries.
Typically a mild head injury consists of some sort of direct blow to the head or an acceleration / deceleration injury.
 There is often a transient loss [...]

Clean up those pesky hairs. Use a length of elastoplast to pick up the residue hairs after shaving/clipping for ECG, suturing, cannulation etc.
Bleeding tooth. If a patient presents with persistent bleeding post dental extraction (or knuckle extraction), get them to bite down on a moistened tea bag. The tannic acid in the tea will [...]

Recently, I have noticed a definite increase in medical staff (at least in our emergency department) carrying iPhones.
It seems the iPhone is fast becoming brand of choice for the
 discerning ED nurse. Having already discussed the pros and cons of nurses carrying their mobile phones whilst on duty, and finding my own iphone an increasingly [...]