Bouvet Legal Nurse Consulting, PLLC

01/16/2023

A smarter, healthier dog food: 100% human-grade food, pre-portioned and delivered to your door. Better for them & easier for you. Create your plan today!

11/15/2022

Anyone else ever have trouble with AV blocks? In reality, unless you work in the ED, cath lab or a cardiac unit you almost never see much more than a boring old 1st degree…🥱
But - if you have to take a yearly telemetry test you do have to be able to recognize all of them. And I’m a visual learner - so I found this picture helpful!
Also remember - a 2nd degree type II and 3rd degree (complete heart block) are NEVER “normal” and have a high probability of decompensating. Make sure the docs involved are notified. Have pacer pads on your patient, code cart close and anticipate a trip to the EP lab for a permenant pacemaker. And call me - your friendly rapid response nurse 😉
If you find this content interesting please follow me and let me know!

08/28/2022

I fully admit I’m a about all things cardio-pulmonary! Even at this point in my career I learn something new regularly about our hearts & lungs and I love it!
I think this a great visual and thought I’d share!
Hope everyone is having a great Sunday!

08/24/2022

Let’s discuss ✨prone positioning ✨
This may seem like a random thing to talk about - but we saw it a ton more during the height of the pandemic, and I thought it would be interesting to discuss why, when and how we use it in critical care nursing.
Prone has been a position that has been used sporadically for patients with ARDS (acute respiratory distress syndrome). In my career it tended to be doctor specific and often a “last ditch” intervention for our super sick patients that remained hypoxic (low oxygen) despite max ventilator support.
With ARDS, the lungs become “heavy” with fluid and the alveoli cannot interact with the oxygen rich capallaries. By placing the patient on their stomach, it relieves the stress on the lungs (and therefore the heart) and supports them, allowing for better oxygen exchange.
It’s not without its risks, and any nurse who has cared for these patients can tell you it’s a special kind of scary when you flip them! Worse is when they are in a special bed, called a roto-prone, that looks midevel and makes it next to impossible to see the patient.
As we learned more about how severe covid was affecting our patients, we started encouraging “awake prone”. We’d have non ventilated patients lay on their stomachs, turn themselves. We saw some pretty amazing improvements in oxygen levels for these patients. We also learned the earlier they were prone, the better. No more waiting for them to get so sick it became unsafe to flip them.
I’d love to hear your thoughts about this, experiences you may have had with it and patients you saw do well!
For , if you have a case involving a client that had ARDS and you need an expert to review your case - I’m your legal nurse!

08/23/2022

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:share:6967911660275564544?utm_source=linkedin_share&utm_medium=member_ios_link_share&utm_content=post

I admit I sometimes have trouble with finding balance in my life. Between growing my business, grad school and working full time I sometimes struggle to...