valpn

I want to thank you all for your kind, encouraging responses. You have all reminded me to look at the bright side of what I did for my patient in her last days. And that it is ok to cry.....'guess I should have worried if I didnt. The day that I become "numb" to the grief of losing a patient is the day that I would find another line of work......that will never happen because I believe caring is what it's all about. That's why we're all nurses in the first place. I knew that venting on here would end up making me feel better :) I'm so glad I found this site....Thanks again to everyone

Hi all !! I guess I just felt the need to post this so that I could vent. I am working in a long term care facility and just had, yet another, patient die tonight. I have only worked there for 4 months and this was the 5th one. This one...I was very close to. Not that I dont become attached to them all...if you have a heart, you cant seem to help it. But I was especially close to this lady and her death was very unexpected....we believe she threw a clot. She went downhill very fast, to the point that I had to send her out to the hospital. Her son came by a few hours later to tell us that she had passed. I tried so hard to keep my composure......but failed miserabely.....and lost it right there. I felt like it wasnt proffesional of me to cry and was kinda' mad at myself for doing so.....some of the other "seasoned" long term care nurses always say that you get to the point where you're just "numb" and you dont cry. Well, even though I wish I could have kept my s*** together and not cried.....I sure dont want to lose my compassion enough to become "numb" either. Anyway...now that I have rambled on and on......thanks for the opportunity to vent.

I am a LPN wanting to go back to school to get my RN degree. I am fairly new to the Nashville TN area and would appreciate any input on what schools in the area offer the LPN to RN program and any thoughts and/or experiences anyone has about them. Thanks :)