Rapid Response RN

Nurses are trained to put their patients first, and that oftentimes results in forgoing their own needs. Skipping out on fundamental needs like sleeping and eating healthy meals lead nurses to feel emotionally and physically exhausted, eventually leading to burnout and loss of love for the job. Nurses spend so much time advocating for patients but forget that it’s equally as important to advocate...

Welcome to part two of our series on benzodiazepines where we will be discussing the other side of benzodiazepines: the challenges of withdrawal. As healthcare providers, you are taught that benzodiazepines are in fact safe, but our host Sarah Lorenzini wants to offer a different perspective. Do we really need to be administering benzodiazepines as freely as we are taught in school? Of course for...

In part one of the two part series on benzodiazepines, our host Sarah Lorenzini presents us with a case study about how she treated a benzodiazepine overdose during her time working as an ER Nurse. She walks us through the state her patient was in when she arrived at the hospital and the steps she took when assessing the patient and how to treat her, as well as her thought process along the way. B...

One facet of nursing that we don’t learn much about in nursing school is organ donation. It’s such a rewarding experience to help give a person back their life, as you’ll hear from our host and today’s guest. In this episode, Sarah is speaking with Nurse Sean, organ procurement nurse and host of the “Nurse Dose Podcast.” He goes over the process of organ donation from start to finish, including pr...

“Leadership is not a title. Leadership is influence.” Our host Sarah Lorenzini wants to highlight a question that nurses are regularly asking her to answer on the Rapid Response Podcast: how can we be better leaders during resuscitation where a fast coordinated effort is necessary? Knowing your place as a leader, knowing how to delegate and communicate, as well as having the ability to channel you...

Last week, Sarah shared the story of a patient who was finally diagnosed with infective endocarditis after presenting with several symptoms, including fever, tachypnea, chest pain, hypotension and more. In this episode, she’ll further explain how the patient was diagnosed and the pathophysiology of this type of infection. Sarah goes over how septic emboli form, and the clinical manifestations that...

In part one of this two part series, our host Sarah Lorenzini shares a story about a patient she was called to see who was under the care of nurse Clayton, a trusted colleague and previous Rapid Response Podcast guest, after he saw a drop in the patient’s blood pressure and had a gut feeling something wasn’t right. Sarah walks us through her assessment and how the team came to the conclusion that...

Our nursing professors cautioned us about the risk of not using proper technique when removing central lines, their warnings sometimes seeming dramatic and unlikely. That’s why this previously released interview with Nurse Marissa is such an important story, because sometimes those rare cases DO happen! In this episode, Marissa tells the story of a patient that was admitted for her mental status,...

When we speak about narcotic overdoses, the first thing we think about is the administration of Narcan or Naloxone. However, our host Sarah Lorenzini shares how that shouldn’t always be the first thing we reach for. Sarah wants to share why Narcan is her absolute last resort, and why she tries to avoid administering it at all cost. Narcan, or Naloxone, is used to counteract the effects of opioids...

Nurses are trained to treat and save lives, but hospice nurses focus on a different set of skills. As host Sarah says in this episode as she speaks with Hadley Vlahos, RN, “fixing isn’t the only great thing we can do as nurses.” In this episode and her new book, The In-Between, Hadley shares what it’s like to care for patients that are dying and what she’s learned from their end of life wisdom. Sh...

The American Association of Critical Care Nurses hosts an annual conference called NTI.  Sarah and her team were able to attend NTI 2023 and they’re all recapping their experiences at the 4-day event in the episode! Sarah is joined by her team, Walker, Elisabeth, and Ashley, as well as special guest, ICU Nurse Sarah. They recorded each night to share the key takeaways from each day of the con...

Arterial Blood Gas interpretation is tricky if you aren’t regularly looking at them, and a lot of the information out there makes it really confusing. In today’s episode, you will hear a palatable explanation on what you need to know when looking at ABGs, how the kidneys and lungs work together to maintain pH balance, and examples that will help you wrap your head around all of it. If you have bee...

Concluding this two-part series on acute respiratory distress syndrome, Sarah and Christian Guzman APRN focus on the treatment options of ARDS and how you can make a difference in the outcome of ARDS patients. They cover the pros and cons of deep sedation, early paralysis, inhaled vasodilators, steroids and more.  You’ll also learn about the rationale for prone position therapy and ECMO. Topi...

Sarah is welcoming back Christian Guzman APRN on the show for a two-part series on acute respiratory distress syndrome, otherwise known as ARDS. Don’t know how to properly diagnose ARDS, or treat it without further damaging the lungs? This episode will answer your questions! Christian shares the case of a patient who presented with abnormal symptoms for his age, and how they reached an ARDS diagno...

It’s a huge shift in mindset and level of responsibility to go from introducing yourself as “Hi! I’m the nursing student” to “Hi! I will be your Nurse today”.  This episode is not just for Nurses who are making that transition from student to “The Nurse” but also for anyone who will be precepting and mentoring new Nurses.  Sarah welcomes Stephanee Beggs to the show for an important discu...

Aspiration Pneumonia can come from a variety of sources and sometimes it is difficult to put your finger on when you didn't see your patient aspirate. As the lungs begin to react to the foreign substance, the symptoms start accumulating and it becomes undeniable that aspiration has occurred. Rapid Response RN always emphasizes the importance of advocating for our patients because patient advocacy...

Delirium is acute brain failure.  It’s not just an unavoidable consequence of being hospitalized, it is a condition that can be prevented and treated! That’s why Rapid Response RN has teamed up with some of our favorite nursing podcasts for a pod crawl devoted to delirium. In this episode, Kati Kleber, MSN RN and host of the FreshRN® Podcast, joins our discussion on treating patients with del...

Would you know how to identify a blood transfusion reaction? This is one of those nightmare cases because we just expect that when we give blood transfusion, the patient will get better… but what about when they get worse? Host Sarah Lorenzini has dealt with situations where a blood transfusion reaction took place, but it is so rare. So she wants to share evidence-based research to shed some light...

We are so excited to be joined by Nurse Alice Benjamin, cardiac clinical nurse specialist, family nurse practitioner, Chief Nursing Officer of Nurse.org, host of the Ask Nurse Alice podcast, and media health expert known as “America’s favorite nurse.” Highlighting the power of nurses’ intuition, Nurse Alice shares an interesting story of a patient found unresponsive and how her initial assessments...

Today we are diving deeper into hyperkalemia cardiac arrest as we present you with part two of last week’s episode where we talked about our hyperkalemia case study Ms. Wanda. If you haven’t already, we highly recommend you check out episode 46! Ever heard of the hyperkalemia cocktail? This cocktail, when administered in the correct order and the correct way, can help temporarily shoot the potassi...

This isn’t your average hyperkalemia story! Today, host Sarah Lorenzini is sharing the story of Ms. Wanda, a frequent visitor to the ER who came in one day complaining of weakness — and then went into cardiac arrest as she was being examined. In this episode, Sarah walks us through her surprising visit and how she reached the diagnosis of hyperkalemia. You’ll learn the signs of hyperkalemia, how t...

In this episode, host Sarah Lorenzini is answering a frequently asked question: How do I prepare for a career as a rapid response nurse? Listeners have been coming to her DMs wanting to know, so Sarah’s breaking down the role of a rapid response nurse and what the day-to-day grind might look like. She goes over the skills and work styles that compliment this role, and who should avoid it. Sarah al...

“As nurses, we care for a lot of patients with anxiety, right? We have to fight not to get jaded and write off our patient's symptoms. It would've been easy for this nurse to just administer some Xanax or Ativan and gone on with her shift. It's not like the patient's vitals were super high or super low, but this nurse tapped into two things: her intuition and critical thinking skills.” You may rec...

Imagine a patient with a SPO2 in the 80’s, not in distress, and acting normal. Their echocardiogram shows an atrial septal defect and a pulmonary artery pressure of 95!!! What can we do for this patient?  What could cause such a high PA pressure? Today’s guest Nick McGowan MSN, RN, CCRN, had this experience and is sharing his patient’s story with Sarah. Nick revisits how this case evolved, fr...

In today’s episode, our host Sarah Lorenzini will be discussing a very important topic that all nurses need to know about, acute kidney injury, which is a common occurrence in hospital settings. As a rapid response nurse Sarah has seen acute kidney injuries often, but the treatment isn’t always cut and dry.  Sarah tells us a story about a patient she was called to see in a rapid response situ...