purl

We had a family bed, which to us meant infants usually sleeping with us, toddlers usually falling asleep in their own beds and coming to join us anytime during the night. And it stopped when they were ready for it to stop. Actually my husband and I recently were talking about how much we missed it. There is a great book called "Family Bed" that you should read. I think drug or alcohol use is definately a risk, and you shouldn't have infants with you then.

I am a nursing student, and working part time as a CNA on an oncology unit. The senior staff (nurses and CNA's) vary a lot in the advice they give for our own protection. The most conservative includes don't wash your uniforms with anything else at home, and don't sit on your own furniture when you get home (I don't know what I should do about the car seat) until you shower and change your clothes. When emptying urine we are only told to wear gloves, but are little bits of splash a problem? I am trying to be more careful about bagging dirty linens and towels that it not touch my uniform, but some touching seems inevitable. The most liberal advice is its only concern to do more than standard universal precautions if you plan on getting pregnant soon. I wear gloves when giving baths, but not when I just take vitals or put a hand on a patient. Is that ok? Also right after treatment I was told not to stand in front of the patient, but off to the side, but that seems silly, because how does the radiation know where you are standing, isn't it eminating in every direction? Are there resources anywhere that address the safety of the caregivers? All I have found is information on the safety of the patient. I am sorry if these sound like dumb questions. But the laundering advice threw me, to me once things are laundered they should be fine. Do I really need to launder my uniforms separately? Thanks in advance for your input.

I am 49, and will be done with nursing courses a month before I turn 50.

I got my CNA training in a hospital. During the training managers from different departments came and taught different units. It gave us a chance to see them, and them a chance to see us. Then at the end we indicated which units we were interested in, most people got what they wanted. There are very few openings though in L/D, nicu, or peds. The labor and delivery nurse was very up front about the CNA's, she said they would probably have less patient contacts than on some of the other units, do a lot of fetching and stocking, and it was not all rocking babies. Also she seemed less flexible about working around a CNA's school schedule (I am also going to nursing school). So I decided a different unit, with more generalized training and more patient contact was a better choice for me. There is also a float pool, that some CNAs chose, but I thought I would learn more working in a stable environment, though later I may switch to the float pool.

I have signed up for anatomy and physiology 1 and 2 this summer. I am really nervous about it, but it is the only way I can get my pre-reqs done in time for the application deadline, to the only school I can go to with my family obligation. I got a song cd from myanatomyacademy that is very good. And I have started pre-viewing the anatomy book, coloring an anatomy coloring book, and knitting a digestive system that is on the crafster site. Don't know what else I can do, but am open to suggestions.