panamama

maybe a stupid question but...why do some docs wear scrubs and others street clothes w/ just a lab coat? other than the obvious (surgeons vs. say, a ped who is seeing routine appts all day).

this thread is hilarious. :rotfl: i sure hope i'm never asked to do this when i get there (nursing)!

well, i hope that more nurses (and other medical personnel) will follow the lead of so many that have replied to this thread. just spent the last 24 hours in a hospital for something totally unrealted for a friend and... how incredibly frustrating!!! :angryfire not only did almost NO ONE introduce themselves, but there were so many people in and out of the room (ER, semi-private) they could've been anyone. i did finally notice a pattern...that the nurses, CNAs and such seemed to all wear pretty colorful patterned scrubs and the docs wore varying shades of blue ones. BUT...the orderlies and techs (radiologists, etc) ALSO wore varying shades of blue! at one point i noticed that the guy who came into the room to emty the trash and straighten up had the same type of scrubs on as the guy who was reading the x-ray results. the other thing that concerned me about this facility was that there seemed to be very little security. you could walk in and out of almost anywhere w/o being questioned or stopped, and there we a lot of unmanned stations. is this normal? this was NOT a "city" or "general" hospital. anyway, i guess it just really concerned me to see that out of say, 9 medical personnel from start to finish of this ordeal, only 2 introduced themselves. most were very nice and i guess maybe they just forgot...but it seems so important and basic, IMO.

well....i'm glad to know it wasn't just me being overly observant or whatever since i am interested in nursing now. i just thought it was really weird that they didn't introduce themselves. i mean, i of course already know my doc, but not one of the others. he has 2 offices and i always go to the other one, not the one where the surgery took place...so i didn't know anyone on this staff. but, as i said, they were still all very nice and attentive. the only thing that really bothered me was that the anesthesist (sp?) never said much about starting. he just said, AFTER giving me the local, "oh, good, you're not squeamish about needles!" then he put the tubes up my nose and i was out like a light. i've never had that happen before. usually they say "you're going to feel a little prick." or "you'll feel cold running up your arm" or to count backwards or something! oh well...at least it's over.

i just had minor surgery and it was the first time i've spent any substantial time in a medical setting since beginning to explore nursing as a career. of course, i was much more observant now that i may be making my way to the field myself! i noticed some things and wondered your take on it, as nurses... the anesthesist (sp?) took me from the waiting area to the op room and asked me all the history questions and took my BP...but never introduced himself. i don't have any idea if he was a doc or nurse (not that it matters)...or even what his name was. in fact, no one introduced themselves and there were 5 people in the room, counting my doc. i found myself wondering who was what? nurse, LPN, CNA, MA, PA, other? they were all very nice and attentive...it was just curious that no one told me their names or roles or anything. i thought back to the first surgery i ever had and remembered very clearly that not only did each person tell me who and what they were, but they made it a point to tell me what exactly they would be doing as their part of the procedure. of course, i was i think 20 or 21, alone, scared to death (it was an unexpected urgent surgery), and it definitely showed...so maybe they were just trying to make me feel at ease(?). so nurses...how do you introduce yourself to patients if at all, and does it matter?

chioma, i don't know about HU nurse, but i have not attended any HBCU's. i do however, have many many friends who did. out of say, 20 friends who attended clark ATL, spellman, tuskegee, bowie, morgan, morehouse, shaw, howard, fisk, tougaloo, UDC, grambling & oakwood...they all have had similar awful experiences w/ administration disorganization and unresponsiveness (or rude behaviour when responding)....with the exeption of spellman and morehouse only. disappointing, but true.

most of these salaries are what concern me. i am a pre-nursing student (hoping to start pre-reqs in the fall) and a single parent. i've done the corporate/office job thing for about 14 years and am burned out...but i make almost $40/hour. i have a nice home that is currently valued @ $400k (i bought for $200k some years ago...gotta love that appreciation!). i really want to pursue nursing, but i must admit i am afraid there will be a big adjustment first to my going back to school and even after graduating, still making less for quite a while. has anyone else experienced this and was it still "worth it"? i think/hope it will be...

thank you HUnurse...i'll have to figure out how to PM and send you one. (i haven't posted on this site very much nor learned many of the many features!) mia & HU, i have unfortunately heard many horror stories about howard...even from friends who attended (non-nursing) undergrad years ago. like HU said, same with many HBCU's. so disappointing. i may still apply though. we'll see. i have time...still have to do my pre-reqs!!!

i too am a single mom interested in travel nursing. however, i am just a pre-nursing student (hoping to start pre-reqs in the fall), so i don't have experience to offer you. what i can offer, are some things i've thought about since i am in the same situation and have the same interest. i see that homeschooling has been suggested. i would not ever consider this for my child b/c i know i don't have the patience for it. the same reason i'd never consider teaching as a career. so, when thinking about travel nursing i thought about perhaps signing up with an agency and only taking local assignments during the school year then maybe traveling in the summer. or...maybe only taking local assignments the first couple years and then traveling once the kid is in college (my child is a little older than yours). if you have family and/or close friends spread out then maybe only travel where you'll have a local support sytem...but i do have to agree that frequent travel and school changes would probably not be very good for the child. i don't suppose it'd be that different from being an 'army brat' or similar, but why put your child through that if you don't have to? best of luck in your nursing journey.

hi all. i live in MD and work in DC and am looking to take my pre-reqs in either locale...but can't seem to find any that are offered accelerated. i know i saw a thread on here where someone mentioned taking an accelerated pre-req (i think microbio or organic chem?) in the area....but i can't remember the title. anyway, if anyone knows of a school in DC or MD that offers accelerated courses i'd greatly appreciate it. i've decided i am going to go for a 2nd degree BSN and want to get there sooner than later!

i'm considering HU's 2nd degree program but also hear the are awful (administration) and getting through is near impossible via telephone. if it is just this hurdle to get in but once in they are great then i might be able to take it but if it's like that even when you're a student, i'll never go. HUnurse or others care to share experiences @ HU?

yeah, i spent some time last night mapping out the sequence courses and what/where i could fit the others that don't have pre-reqs (i.e. nutrition, psychology, etc) and it came out to a year and a half minimum just because i have to take chem before bio and bio before A&P I, then of course A&P II. i'd figured something like what you posted, malia...just had it summer to summer instead of spring to spring. i would really love to do these in accelerated courses like multicollinarity mentioned, but don't see them offered in that format at the schools i've looked at (baltimore & DC areas). when i went back to school the last time - to complete my bachelors - i took almost all accelerated courses and it worked great b/c i was working FT too. being able to focus on only 2 classes at a time for 6-week periods, but still being able to knock out 6 or more classes in a semester rocked!

maybe it depends on the school but almost all that i've looked at require chemistry (organic) and i did not see that on your list. if you do not have to take chem then great but just thought i'd mention it as i have a similar thread going and it was suggested to me that taking chem before A&P would be a good path and make it easier. good luck.

thank you andy. what is the NLN exam? at the CC closest to me i saw that chem is required before bio/microbio, and bio is required before A&P, so what you said about taking chem first makes sense. you made me laugh saying "...the more you can focus on the hard sciences the better you will do." all sciences seem hard to me. i never really did like science coming up in school. when i first started looking into nursing the list of courses terrified me! but i think i can do it. and i remembered that when i did take a bio course in college the first time around (just to fill a science requirement)...i loved it! it was 'the human body - anatomy and disease' or something like that. the book was humongous and the tests were incredibly difficult but i got an A and had so much fun learning in that class. how often do you say that about some elective you're taking just to get out of the way?

so...i researched all the universities in my area and was pleased to find several have the "second degree BSN" or "accelerated BSN" programs since i already have a bachelor's. this excited b/c they all seemed to be 2-year or less programs. then i start jotting down all the pre-reqs and i'm thinking...these are gonna take like another 2 years b/c they seem to follow one-another in sequence and cannot be taken concurrently for the most part. it seems i have to take: A&P I A&P II chem 101 chem - organic bio 101 microbio human growth & development nutrition psych and possibly abnormal psych (?) bummer...but i will have to suck it up if i really want to do this. how long did it take you to complete your pre-reqs and is there anything you'd recommend NOT taking concurrently b/c it would be too much, or ABSOLUTELY taking concurrently b/c they compliment eachother?