Trauma_Queen

I've got a couple.. First, we had an add-on double below the knee amputation come in. When I pulled off the sheets to position the guy, he had maggots coming out of the wounds on both legs. Story was a "friend" of his found him sleeping on the floor of his house earlier in the week and wrapped the guy up in a tarp because apparently his electricity was out and he thought he would be cold. Friend came back two days later and the patient was still sleeping in the same place and not very responsive, so he decided to call for help. The surgeon on-call was so disgusted that she wouldn't come into the OR until I had prepped both legs and all maggots were covered with Ioban drapes. Second would be I was circulating an IM nail on a 16 year old trauma patient. Surgeon ate some dinner quickly before procedure. In the middle of the procedure he starts sweating profusely and asks me to remove his xray lead. As I am doing this, I notice a horrible smell and notice he is having a bit of diarrhea as I'm removing the lead. He bolts out of the OR in the middle of the procedure and leaves for about 10 minutes. Comes back and scrubs back in saying he thinks he has food poisoning. He hurries up, does a poor job and finishes the case. As we're waking the patient up, the surgeon feels sick again and starts vomiting loudly in the trash cans inside the OR. Nastiness!

I took mine in December and passed. I took the AORN course online, which covered a lot of useful topics such as sterilization. My facility doesn't pay any extra money to have CNOR, but they did pay for $500 of cost, which almost covered all my testing fee and AORN course fee.

1. how many questions did you take on nclex? 96 questions and passed 2. what study materials did you use? did you take a test review course? i didn't take a review course, but i studied with saunders third edition 3. did your son offer any testing (eri, ati, hesi)? we had to take hesi every semester.. 4. how long did you wait for results of the test, or are you still waiting? i got the results exactly 48 hours after taking it. 5. what were your thoughts coming out of the test (total disbelief, certainty you had failed, confident you had passed)? when i came out of it, i think i was just in shock that it was over. felt like this huge buildup to this test and i kinda thought "that was it?!?"..i didn't really have a feeling that i failed, but that could have been the adrenaline..it was after that i started thinking i possibly failed it. 6. was this your first attempt at nclex? yes..first and the last time!

Well, I took NCLEX-RN on Monday and just found out about 30 minutes ago that I passed!! I had 96 questions and I spent the last two days going back and forth..thinking I failed... This is an incredible day! Thank you to everyone who posts on here..It really helped knowing that everyone that has taken NCLEX was experiencing the same emotions that I have been! I can't believe I'm really going to be an RN now!:monkeydance:

Graduating in May and just accepted an offer for the O.R...I'm so excited!

Just wanted to give an update... I went for the interview on Thursday and was invited back for the second round of interviews! I'm so excited. Everything about the interview was amazing. The manager was very impressed with the questions I was asking and the nurses on the unit were very nice! Now let's hope everything goes well in the second round and I get an offer!

Hey everyone! I just needed some input on this. I applied at a hospital for a GN position in the ER. I got a call back for an interview this week and set my interview up for this coming Thursday. But when I just happened to look at the hospital's website for job postings, I noticed that the position that I'm interviewing for was taken down. All other GN positions are still there, but the ER one is not. Does this mean that they have already filled the position and are just going to interview me because it was already set up?? I'm so confused now Any advice??

Ahh...someone who is going through the same feelings that I am right now. I have interviewed at 3 different hospitals and still no job. I know it's still the end of March, but I'm starting to feel this "rush" that I have to lock down a job right now. I'm trying to keep my head up and not get discouraged right now, but it is really hard not to. The only thing I can tell you is what others that care about me are telling me...If they didn't offer you a job, then it's not the place for you, there's something better for you. Trust me, I had my heart set on working for one facility and now I've had to look past that. Med/surg isn't a bad place to start. I used to think the same way, that there was no way you could make me work med/surg, but now I'm learning that it's a great place to start for the time being. You'll get your organizational and prioritizing skills down and you'll have experience under your belt. I noticed that you're in Dallas (which I am as well). I've actually started applying to places outside of the Dallas area and have even applied in Austin. I don't know if that's an option for you to relocate, but it's an idea. Just remember you're not alone in this..I know exactly how you are feeling!

Yeah..this happened to me the other day. I was filling out a form for our instructors so that they can write our letters of recommendation and I had a handout describing the pediatric unit I interviewed for the previous week that had the nurse manager's name on it..and a classmate sitting next to me (who I never talk to) grabbed the handout from my hand and just started grilling me about the unit and the interview and why I specifically applied to that hospital... It really irritated me!

Okay..first off, this is going to be a little off topic, but I have to disagree with recording conversations discreetly. As far as I know, it is against the law to record a conversation without telling someone that you are recording a conversation. This is even applied to us in school when we want to record an instructor's or guest lecturer's material. Our instructors always remind us to ask permission before recording. So I would never advise someone to record anything for the sake of proof. Now back on topic...I am also a returning student in my program. I felt that a particular instructor prevented me from passing. I could tell in the way she graded my papers, the way she looked at me, just all of her actions towards me were negative. Come to find out, a classmate who happened to be a "former" friend, told this instructor some negative things about myself and my personal life..Her image of me changed because of this classmate's "opinion" of me... So when she told me over the summer (after failing) that she was going to do everything in her power to make sure I was successful the second time around, I had a HUGE chip on my shoulder and didn't believe this to be true. Now in most cases I would agree with everyone that says "grin and bear it" because I am a very nonconfrontational person. But there has to come a point when you need to confront the negative behavior in order to be successful. In my situation, I ended up confronting this particular instructor (which most people wouldn't do because you NEVER step up to her, she can make your life miserable!) I explained to her that I could tell she had a negative attitude towards me and in my mind I would not be able to be successful after re-entering because of her negative image of who I am...It was the scariest thing I've ever had to do. To my surprise, my instructor took the blame for the situation of being unethical by listening to another student's opinion. After our discussion, I now know that she WILL do anything to make sure I pass this time. She tells me I'm going to make an excellent nurse and she has even more respect for me because I stepped up to her and confronted her when she was in the wrong. She knows how gutsy it was for me to confront her when most others would and now we get along perfectly... So there's just another opinion of trying to resolve your situation. Try confronting this instructor first. If you're not happy with the outcome, go to the Dean..If you're still not satisfied, go above the Dean. There are always protocols to follow. If it wasn't explained to you that you need to buy an extra package of supplies, then she has no right to not sign off on your things. These same exact situations happen to us "returning students", sometimes we're not told to buy certain things because we already have them...We always go to our instructors as a group because they forget sometimes that returning students aren't required to complete certain activities. They always look into it and things are always solved in a positive manner. Just remember that you are a person and everyone deserves to be treated with decency and respect. Sometimes we lose sight of this because we don't want to cause friction...But that does not give an instructor the right to walk all over you and treat you disrespectfully.

Okay..see if this makes anyone feel any better... I went through a major depressive state during Christmas Break in 2005. I had just finished my 3rd semester (I'm in an ADN program) and was ready to start my last semester. Everything just kinda hit me all at once..My mother was diagnosed with MS and my grandmother was diagnosed with bone cancer..I was working 40 hours a week in addition to going to school and i was just overwhelmed and fed up with everything. So much so, that I contemplated hurting myself. So onto the thing that might make you feel better...I was having a conversation with one of my instructors about what happened over Christmas..And she said to me "If you go through nursing school right, then you will experience some type of depression at least once in the program." Hearing that made me feel that everything was going to be okay..She didn't judge me, she was able to identify because we all go through it. Trust me, I still get the overwhelming feelings of self-doubt (especially since I failed my last semester and am repeating)...I think the doubt is even worse this time around because when you fail, you realize what all you are capable of losing...But then I have days when my faith in my knowledge is restored and I feel like i'm smart and capable enough to make an awesome nurse. Just think of it this way...Nursing isn't an easy profession..If it was, then everyone in the world would be doing it!

I haven't heard much about Collin County's program. Where in the DFW area do you live? If it's not too long of a drive, I would recommend you look at Trinity Valley's program in Kaufman. I'm currently a student there and their program really does have an outstanding reputation for turning out awesome grads. I chose it over any of Dallas County's programs and you can really tell out in the community how valued TVCC grads are. Just another one for you to think about.