Nursing or Medical Coding

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I have been on All Nurses since 2011 and I have gone back and forth between going for my LPN or Medical Coding. I had a conflict because I am 50 years old and I took care of my mother for 10 years and she passed away in 2010.

I took a Nursing Aide training course through the Red Cross to see how I did with interacting with patients. I did great academically and with conversing with the patients but when it came to the plastic gloves I did horribly. The Red Cross was very strict with changing your gloves after doing the different steps of a procedure. With one task you can be changing your gloves up to 5 or 6 times. After the 2nd time of changing gloves my hands were so sweating that it was very hard for me to put on new fresh gloves and they said that powder was not permitted because some patients are allergic to powder. The instructors, who were RNs, said because of my difficulty with the gloves I wouldn't be a good LPN. I should be able to put on and off the gloves very fast and because of my difficulty I would put patient's lives in danger.

Are there any LPN jobs that doesn't require so much glove changing?

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If you are going to be a nurse of any kind you are going to be in contact with patients and will have to glove. I am assuming that it took you like 30 seconds to change your gloves rather than say 10 seconds. I don't think the RNs you talked to were correct about that you "would put your patient's lives in danger". I am a first year nursing student but I am a former Paramedic and Navy Corpsman and I can not think of a single life and death situation in which;

1. A change of gloves would be called for or

2. The speed of said glove change would decide the fate of said patient

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It gets easier. Everyone starts off having trouble getting into gloves. Eventually you can get the smallest of gloves on with the sweatiest of hands.

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The instructors, who were RNs, said because of my difficulty with the gloves I wouldn't be a good LPN. I should be able to put on and off the gloves very fast and because of my difficulty I would put patient's lives in danger

Wow.

First, if the inability to initially complete tasks quickly is no reason to avoid nursing. No one was born changing gloves, starting IVs, dropping NG tubes, or inserting catheters. It's a skill set that is developed as you go.

Second, I can't think of one reason that you would endanger the lives of patients because you can't change gloves fast enough. Unless you're taking a week to get out of a pair of gloves or you're running through a nurse's nightmare from coding patient to coding patient, you will not put peoples' lives in danger because this skill isn't coming naturally to you. Sheesh, those instructors should be nominated for Academy Awards!

If you want to go into nursing, go for it! If you're interested in something else, then head in that direction. But don't let a bunch of crazy, melodramatic naysayers turn you around.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

Just an FYI, we (healthcare industry) are on the brink of an enormous change in medical coding.... from ICD-9 to ICD-10. This is the most dramatic change we have ever experienced in the US. Coders have been participating in the re-training process for a few months now to prepare to work in the new environment. So, this may be a very good time to enter this field. With changes of the magnitude, some of the workforce may leave (retire or unable to learn the new system) and organizations are likely to increase coding staff due to the normal impact of changes like this.

If you decide to continue with nursing, don't worry so much about the glove thing. I'll bet that your training (skills) lab was using cheaper gloves than those actually used for patient care. We don't use "plastic" gloves. You may have much better luck with the real latex variety.

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Specializes in Forensic Psych.

I've heard a lot of ridiculous reasons for why people should or shouldn't go into nursing, but I think that one ranks up there with the craziest.

I had sweaty palms. Always have and I hate it! But no one has ever timed my glove changes - it wasn't even a skill that was observed and checked off. The instructors are concerned that I'm wearing and changing them when I should be. Not that it takes me an extra 10-15 seconds.

You'll get faster with practice. Even if you're slower than the person next to you, you won't be as slow as you are now.

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