wildcats

If I were a patient, I would not want unsolicited religious advice or discussions from my health care providers. If a patient wanted to talk to me about their religion, I would be more than happy to listen, but I wouldn't talk about my personal beliefs with the patient. Religion is a touchy subject and a very personal one and can be become a very heated and emotional discussion.

I don't see a problem with MAs drawing blood or doing an EKG (assuming they aren't responsible for interpreting the EKG) ... the CNAs in my local ER are trained as "techs" and do the same thing. What scares me is the phone triage and patient education. My dad is in his 70s, diabetic, HTN. I took him to a podiatrist that uses MAs and their protocol is to check BP and temp before cutting toenails. The MA took dad's BP and told him it was slightly elevated. I asked her what the BP was and she said 128/74! :trout: Thats not cause for concern on a young, healthy patient much less someone with HTN. It means dad's meds are working.

This is off topic, but PPD when referring to a TB test means Purified Protien Derivative.

I had lots of priority type questions, but everyone's test is different. One thing that one of my instructors said was to read the question, read the answers, and then read the question again before deciding on an answer. She said doing this would help get a better understanding of what is being asked.

I agree that a licensed nurse should pass meds. I, too, am glad that they are becoming more strict with the med aide education. Also, in addition to the pharm training, nurses have A&P, chemistry, etc. and also learn about meds in other nursing classes and clinicals which definitely makes it safer for licensed nurses to pass meds.

My state uses medication aides in ALF. The course used to be two 8 hour days. Starting July 1 they are becoming a little more strict. Here is part of the new training requirements. What do you all think? Here is the link to the page with a word document where you can view the entire thing: http://www.dhp.virginia.gov/nursing/ A student seeking enrollment in a medication aide training program shall have successfully completed the direct care staff training required by the Department of Social Services for employment in an assisted living facility or an approved nurse aide education program. B. Hours of instruction. An approved program shall consist of a minimum of 68 hours of student instruction and training to include: 1. At least 40 hours of classroom or didactic instruction over and above any facility orientation program or training in direct client care provided by the facility; 2. At least 20 hours of supervised skills practice in medication administration to residents of an assisted living facility, after which the training program shall evaluate the student’s minimal competency in the clinical skills of administering medications on a form provided by the board. The clinical evaluation shall be conducted one-on-one with a qualified instructor with experience in medications in long term care; and 3. An eight-hour module in facilitating client self-administration or assisting with the administration of insulin to include instruction and skills practice in the administration of insulin as specified in the board-approved curriculum. C. Content of the curriculum. An approved program shall use the curriculum developed and provided by the board which shall, at a minimum, include the following topics: 1. Preparing for safe administration of medications to clients in assisted living facilities; 2. Maintaining aseptic conditions; 3. Understanding of basic pharmacology; 4. Facilitating client self-administration or assisting with medication administration; 5. Following proper procedure for preparing, administering, and maintaining medications; and 6. Following appropriate procedures for documentation and reporting to the licensed healthcare professional on duty at the facility or to the client’s prescriber. D. In addition to the training curriculum, the program shall provide one or more four-hour modules that can be used by facilities as refresher courses or by medication aides to satisfy requirements for continuing education.

Thanks for the replies. They did say I would be working with just one doctor. Hopefully the doc is nice.

There are lots of jobs for LPNs in my area of Virginia. LTC is always hiring, and I see numerous ads for home health/agency, docs office, prisons, dialysis, state mental health facilities, and on rare occasions (in my area) even the hospitals. I believe there are hospitals in the Va. Beach area that use LPNs.

I posted before that I was going to start working in sleep center, but I declined that position because I got an offer from a large cardiac practice that offers really good benefits. Anyone have any tips on working that closely with the docs in an office? I feel kind of nervous because I am a new nurse and I don't want to mess up and have docs yelling at me lol. Thanks!

I went to one of the small, expensive technical schools. I walked in and filled out the paperwork, took a test, gave them 3 references, had a physical and 2 weeks later I was starting classes. If I had stayed in the day program, I would have finished in 15 months; but I went to the evening program because the pace was a little slower and I finished in almost 2 years. Two weeks after my last class I had my ATT and I scheduled my test for the following month so that I could study a little more and luckily I passed with my first try. The school I went to was the only LPN program in my area. Very easy to get into, but hard to stay in. Alot of people ended up being kicked out or just quit. Anyway, there are schools without waiting lists that are easy to enroll in ... I guess there are just very few of them. Also, as far as I know, there are no issues with my license and other states because of the school I went to. I have a multi-state privilege and my friend that was in school with me just had her license transferred to Georgia.

Oh, ok. I see now. My logical thinking must have flew out the window today. Thanks for clearing that up.

I'm confused now. I remember being taught in school to check PEG placement by pushing so many cc's of air (don't remember how many) and to place the stethoscope on a certain part of the abdomen to listen for the bubbling sound. I also remember doing this with a nurse in clinicals in a LTC. And it was definitely a PEG. So, were the students in my class taught wrong on this one? I know they also taught about aspirating and checking the color of gastric contents. But I don't remember much about it.

In my area: SNF/LTC- $15-20 ALF- $14-18 Corrections- $18-24 Hospital- One hospital uses LPNs, but only on certain floors and only 1 or 2 LPNs- $12 Doctor's Office- Pay seems to be a big secret for some reason, but I do know that one large cardiac practice starts at $15

I couldn't even begin to imagine what its like to deal with patient's family members in the ER ... I probably was annoying the triage nurse to no end lol. I think everyone probably has issues with certain types of patients ... I am a new LPN so I don't really know what I may have to put aside to provide care. I know I am way OT but I am in a small city with 2 hospitals and both ERs are always full. It's amazing. And one of the hospitals is a rather large university.

I'll be happy to let you know how they sleep when I find out. I do know that this place has those expensive special type mattresses ... they even have a TempurPedic memory foam mattress. :)