 Hi guys, hi guys, hi guys, hi guys. Welcome back to my channel. So today I am going to be filming a Q&A. I asked you guys on Instagram to send me your questions, and I got a bunch of questions, so I'm going to try and get through as many as I can. Um, questions are on my phone, so that's why you'll see me looking down, but I'm just gonna jump right in and get started. I haven't done one of these in forever, so. Um, Rachel K525 asked, How do I handle work-related anxiety? Which is a great question. I feel like everyone experiences anxiety on different levels. Um, some people it really interferes with their job, some people it doesn't. For me, anxiety, I don't wanna say helps my job, but it kind of makes me like a little more on edge and like ready to like jump in and do whatever I need to do. I think the best way, at least for me, to handle anxiety is to conquer it. So if there's something that's giving me anxiety, I like to just take that challenge and face it head-on. So if it's talking to a doctor or maybe a certain procedure or skill, I will seek out opportunities to actually get those things done so that way I can feel a little more confident in myself. Reuben underscore KUK asked, Can I talk about respiratory therapists and how they help in the ICU? What's their role? Is it a good profession? So respiratory therapists are RTs and nurses work very close together, especially in the ICU. Um, in my ICU, and this is probably very similar for most ICUs, the RTs job, it has to do with basically airway and breathing. So if a patient's on a ventilator, they are managing the ventilator and the settings and doing like ABGs, things like that. If they're on BIPOP, they're doing that. If the patient's not tolerating a certain setting or not tolerating a certain oxygen therapy, then the RT will kind of interject and talk to the physician and do that. So basically, as a nurse, like you should understand what an RT is doing, but at my hospital, RTs are really great about kind of just managing all of that. You're basically focusing on like, hey, so you're basically focusing on like every other body system and their like airway and lungs and breathing, but you still need to know what they're doing. So I think RTs are a great profession. They're super helpful. You want to be best friends with your RT because in a pinch, they are going to be there to help and save you and save your patient potentially. Melchong? I don't know how to say any of these names. Ask, what's the best stethoscope for a new nursing student? Honestly, I like Whitman stethoscopes, but you can really get any stethoscope as long as it's not a super, super cheap one, like a disposable stethoscope, like the ones at the hospital. But really, any stethoscope will do. As long as you can hear heart-to-loan sounds, it'll be good. Okay, I'm going to stop saying people's names because I can't pronounce them. She asked, any plans on babies while being a nurse? And duh, so I don't know when, I don't know where, how, or what, or how many, but eventually, yes, Josie and I want to have kids. So go follow our vlog channel, which is linked down below because that, when the timing's right, we will announce on there. Nurse Brittany Fit, I can read that name. Ask, do I still plan on getting my NP? I am not sure. That is definitely a high possibility, but again, I don't know. The next question is, I'm about to go into nursing, critical care, ICU class, clinicals. Have I heard, and I've heard that learning EKGs and cardiac systems is difficult? Do I have any tips? My tips for learning EKGs is practice, practice, practice, practice, practice. It's one of those things that you just have to keep repetitively doing it over and over and measuring all of your different intervals, like your PR interval, your QRS, and really understand what qualifies as what rhythm and what things differentiate what rhythms. And once, it's like riding a bike and all of a sudden it just clicks and you'll get it. The next question is, how many pair of big plastic frame glasses do I have? I have three pairs of glasses. I have two in this style, so this color and a matte black, and then I have one that's a little different. But I get them on iBuyDirect. I get a lot of people that ask me this question, so that's why I'm including it in this video, and I'll link it down below if you're interested. I think if I refer friend, you get like $10 off and then I get $10 off. I'm not sure. I have to double check, but if you're interested, they're super cheap. You can get them prescription. You can get them non-prescription, and it's just convenient because I don't like going to the store. The next question says, what do I think of starting on an oncology med-search floor as a new grad nurse, and what are my thoughts on oncology med-search floor? I think oncology and med-search is great. I think med-search is a wonderful starting place for new nurses because you get really good time management, good organizational skills. Not saying you won't have critical patients, because sometimes patients can turn critical, but for the most part you're going to get very general basic stuff, and it's easier to kind of just get your good foundation and skills down. And I know a lot of nurses that started an oncology med-search and love it. It's also a very emotionally draining job. I know a couple of my friends are there, and they love their job, but it's very emotional. Patients pass away a lot. You see a lot of sad things, but it's definitely a good place to start as far as med-search and learning your therapeutic communication, and also learning cancer stuff, which I am not really great at, to be honest. And so you get a good foundation as far as oncology goes. So the next person asked a couple of questions, so I'm just going to go through. The first thing is nurse organization tips. My philosophy or advice is to whatever works for you, stick with it and just get really consistent and good and faster at it. So if you have a report sheet that you like, stick with that. If you have a style of how you like to organize your shift, do you like to assess one patient and then chart? Do you like to assess all your patients and then chart on them? So whatever method works for you, stick with it. The next question that she asked is, she wants to become an ICU nurse. What specific thing should I brush up on? So I recommend brushing up on ventilator settings, ABGs, and what it means like if your levels go up or down and what makes like your CO2 level go up or down or your O2 level go up or down. I recommend looking up all the common drips in the ICU and not necessarily what you titrate them by because every protocol is going to be slightly different. But learning actually how these medicines work and how they work in conjunction with one another. And then also the last thing is EKGs, being really good at knowing EKGs. And everything else will just come with time. Don't stress too much because once you get to the ICU, you're going to like really, oh, and hemodynamics. Hemodynamics is a big thing. Understanding hemodynamics and when they're high, when they're low, what makes them high, what makes them low, and what drips you can put a patient on to fix some of their hemodynamics. The next thing is, is there a book or resource I recommend for these things? I don't have anything specific. But the NRSNG Academy or just NRSNG in general is really great. They have lots of little free resources on ABGs and their link is actually down below in all my videos. So you can go check it out. But they have lots of great resources, like I said, ABGs, EKGs, all those things. She also asked what inspired me to go to the ICU. I honestly just really loved my ICU rotation and so I knew that ICU would be probably a good fit for me. I'm very Type A. I'm very, I don't want to say I'm very smart, but I'm very motivated to learn and I like learning. And so when you're in the ICU, you need to be able to wrap quickly and you need to know your stuff. So that's, I guess, it just fit my personality and it was interesting to me. So that's why I went to ICU. I also had a really great clinical rotation in ICU. So that was another thing that inspired me. And the last question is how to deal with stress and feeling inadequate as a new nurse. This is a very common feeling, I think, that a lot of new nurses, even experienced nurses, can feel sometimes just feeling stressed, feeling inadequate. And honestly, you just have to take every shift, every day at a time and know that it's going to get better. And if it's not getting better, then try to figure out what you can do about it. Talk to your manager. Maybe you even need to switch positions if it's really that bad and stressful and overwhelming for you. There were several nurses that started in the ICU and after about six months, they're like, nope, it's not for me. My anxiety is too high, I'm too nervous, I'm too stressed and too overwhelmed and they had to go to something different and they did great at whatever they went into next. So just having a good support system, whether it's your coworkers, your spouse, your mom, your dad, your brothers, your friends and having a good outlet for your stress when you get out of work. So I like hiking, I like cooking, I like sleeping, I like relaxing, I like watching TV, I like hanging out with my pups who are right here. Come here, come say hi. I got her. She's like, I was laying on the ground, I was laying on the ground, just let me be. She's so cute. We should just leave her here for the rest of the video because I just love her. Here, I'll put you down on my lap. Anyway, so those are all the questions that I was asked. I hope you guys enjoyed my answers and I will do more of these types of videos in the future. So give this video a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel. Or a paws up or two paws up. And I'll see you guys in my next video. Bye.