Hi everyone! I am a new nurse, for about a month now. I am working at a dialysis center and so far it's great. I'm glad I found this website. It's good to know that there are nurses out there who love it; I have been to another website where all I hear is the negative about dialysis, and how much they hate it. I plan to stay in it for a long time, and look forward to hearing and learning more from veteran nurses.
Elysse
I have been a dialysis nurse for about 7 years now, it has been very interesting. I love it, it was my calling. But I have done other things on the side, and recently started working in the ED in my quest to learn more.
I know dialysis well and I'm very good at it, I have done both acute and chronic. What I want you and all new nurses to know is that having a med/surg, tele background makes you better able to handle crisis that can arise during dialysis giving you a general knowledge of patient care.
Get to know how to put an IV, assess your pt, put a foley, interpret deadly cardiac rhythms, know what a D-dimer is, is your pt is having angina or if it is the "Big One" first before going into dialysis otherwise you are only a "dialysis tech."
And, trust me your tech will know that you are a high paid tech.