william5703

And just trying to clarify here...you are aware that when she gets accepted to some place like UNCW she would do two years as "pre-nursing" and then apply to nursing school after that, and then she would be a "nursing" major and taking the actual nursing classes, right?

It would be a good idea to look at the prerequisites for the nursing programs that she would like to go to. You can be a "pre-nursing major" without being accepted into nursing school. This way you can ensure that you have all of the requirements done (A&P, chem, psych classes, statistics, etc). And most people I know that get a double major with nursing do it with psychology or biology, because most of these classes overlap with requirements for nursing school. UNCW isn't that hard to get in to as long as you have a decent GPA and meet your requirements.

Ummm...I'm not sure if they have all of their new grad fellow positions posted yet online. Normally, under "Job Category" (I think) is "Nursing New Graduate" then you search for that and they usually have all of their new grad spots. For instance after you search the results would show--New Graduate Fellow Dec 2008 SICU or CCU or MICU etc. So yes, you apply for a specific unit and then the supervisor or HR rep will call to set up an interview if they are interested. I just looked and it doesn't look like they have the jobs posted yet. It depends on whether a unit is going to be able to take a new grad. Plus, all of the new grads from May haven't started yet, so probably later in the year they will be posted. If you want to find out specifically I would call or email HR. They are very easy to talk to. I'm currently in the fellowship program, and so far it's been great. PM me if you want to know more about the program, and I'll try to answer questions you have. And I haven't been in the Raleigh area too long yet, but so far it's been good. I'm living in Cary, and it's only about a 15-20 minute drive to WakeMed.

If you're interested in the Raleigh area WakeMed has fellowship programs for new grads in all of their ICUs. It's an awesome hospital and great place for a new grad to start off in a challenging critical care setting. WakeMed is great to their new grad fellows! Start applying early though, because the spots are limited and lots of people apply for them.

About 5-7 days from when you took the NCLEX to be listed on the NCBON website.

I don't know if anyone has dealt with scrubshopper.com before, but I ordered from them simply because their prices were competitive and they had an easy checkout (paypal, google, etc). However, I ordered some dickies scrubs, and my order total qualified for the "free fed ex ground shipping". Well, I ordered them last week (5/23/08), got a conformation email that my payment had been processed and haven't heard anything from them. Well I emailed this past Friday inquiring about my order and never got anything back (called a few times and had a busy line), emailed again today 6/3/08, and finally got a reply. No apology for the delay, the email simply stated that dickies scrubs take longer than others, and will ship probably next week. Next week will be two weeks after placing my order. Just wanted everyone to know that on the website there is nothing that says dickies scrubs will take this long, and the email was very unprofessional (they didn't use any periods just three sentences saying it would take longer...thanks) DO NOT ORDER SCRUBS FROM SCRUBSHOPPER.COM. Well at least dickies scrubs if you want them in a timely fashion. Please if anyone disagrees let me know and i will CONSIDER using them again. Anyone know where to get scrubs quickly, well at least faster than 2-3 weeks. If not I'll just support my local businesses and pay a little more. Thanks!

Thanks for the replies everyone! We've actually changed our project to focus on home HIV testing and the effects of reporting and no face-to-face counseling. But I appreciate the information regarding VRE/MRSA screening. As for the question about where I'm getting the information that some nurses aren't compliant in regard to standard precaution...it's simply from observation. Maybe I'm a glove freak, but I'm been taught the correct way to practice these precautions and nurses simply don't. Maybe it's a matter of the time it takes to put on gloves or wash hands, or simply they feel the rate of transmission of a disease is low. If you want real research simply search for it. In searching for peer reviewed journals this is one of the first that I have found: McCoy, K.D., Beekmann, S.E., Ferguson, K.J., Vaughn, T.E., Torner, J.C., Woolson, R.F., et al. (2001). Monitoring adherence to standard precautions. American Journal of Infection Control. 29(1), 24-31. Nurses simply don't follow the standard precautions outlined by the CDC (unless of course the infection control nurse is on the unit). If you have a different opinion I am open for it. Again, thanks for the replies!

Hi all, I am doing a sort of research project for school regarding HIV. We are trying to research the policy regarding reporting of HIV positive patients to healthcare providers. I live in NC and have read over the laws regarding HIV reporting, and it looks like just the primary physician has to report the positive test and name to the health department. The questions that I have are: Is it standard procedure to screen for VRE and MRSA in patients admitted to hospitals, or is simply for high risk patients, or patients that exhibit s/s of an infection? Also, is informed consent needed for screening of VRE and MRSA? Finally, is it up to the patient to inform nurses that they are HIV positive or can consent be obtained to have this information released and put in a medical record? The reason that I am asking all of this, is that it seems like so much confidentiality is placed around HIV testing and results, but if someone has VRE or MRSA isolation precautions are taken (signs put on doors, etc.) and it is broadcasted that these patients are infected with either VRE or MRSA. I know the transmission rates are much higher with VRE and MRSA and healthcare providers can become infected simply by contact, but we're trying to figure out what the difference is with HIV (simply the stigma of the disease?). Although we've all learned that simply using standard precautions can prevent HIV infection many nurses don't follow these precautions. Apart from the stigma of HIV, I don't really see what the difference is in having it in a medical record like VRE, MRSA, or something like Hepatitis. Thanks in advance!

Hi Napdogg, Wilmington is a great city, but I'm not that impressed with the hospitals. Both hospitals are owned by New Hanover Health Network, so there's not any competition. Just from what I've heard from nurses and seen through my clinical experiences, there's a lot of turnover with RNs. Apparently the pay is significantly less than what you would find elsewhere in NC. Believe me, I would love to stay here when I graduate (which is soon), but I just don't think I could afford the high cost of living with the low pay:o. That's just my two cents on it, since nobody else has said anything! Hope that helps a little bit!

The OPT is what our school (University of North Carolina Wilmington) uses in place of care plans. It stands for outcome-present state-test. I don't really see the difference in using an OPT instead of a care plan, except for the fact that they make you choose 9 NANDA diagnoses (which sometimes can be a stretch), and make a pretty little web to show how all of the diagnoses affect each other. You then pick your keystone issue by whichever diagnosis has the most arrows going from or coming to it. Other than making a web you have a client story, 5 present state indicators, 5 desired outcome states (NOC), and judgments on whether your patient achieved these outcomes. You then have the traditional NIC interventions and rationales which are supported by texts and research articles, and what you should do to test (i.e. vitals q4, CBC, etc). Basically it's supposed to make you critically think more than care plans, but it just becomes a way to make care plans even more horrendous and time consuming! So everybody that just has the traditional care plans should thank the nursing gods that their schools haven't heard of an OPT! Sorry that was a long explanation, and I hope no instructors check this and get excited about OPTs. Thanks again for your help! I'm almost done with my OPT now (about 8 hours and counting)!

Wow! Thanks daytonite for your quick and detailed response. The problem is our pediatric clinical is only 1 day a week 7a-7p, and the child's CBC came back normal, but the urine culture and LP results weren't back as of 7. They were treating her with Rocephin, which means that the md must have suspected some sort of bacterial infection. I was just struggling with the diagnosis, because in one of my books it made it seem like fever shouldn't be diagnosed as "hyperthermia", but that's all that I really have to go by in a one-day period. She was tachycardic, warm, and flushed, so I feel that since these were my only abnormal physical findings in one day, that hyperthermia will work for me. Have I mentioned how much I hate OPTs. I had to break down and call my mom (an ICU nurse) for help, since I've been working on this for a total of 7 hours now! Thanks Again!

I'm working on my OPT (new style of a care plan) for a 5 week old with a fever of unknown origin. She had a low grade fever with no other real observable problems. She does have a h/o UTIs, however, I can't pick a "at risk for" diagnosis for my main one. At first I thought I could use Imbalance Fluid Volume or something like that, but they reduced her infusion to KVO. So my question is...is it okay to use hyperthermia as a diagnosis for a fever of unknown origin even when it's a suspected infection? Or since the fever is an actual increase in the body's set point would that not be considered hyperthermia? I found one thread on this, but there was only one response, so I wanted to see what all you smart people would say. Thanks!