bradleau

First was money for classes, books, and transportation. Time with my family. Of course I learned during the olden days. Have recently retired due to disability. You work holidays, long hours, weird hours, too. A lot of places work you 12 hr shifts. You do three of them. More tiring and it takes 4 more hours before you get to the OT pay. When it was 8 hr shifts, it was a lot easier to get the OT if wanted. But I enjoyed working no matter the aches,missing holidays, and the like. We moved a lot so it took longer to get my classes done and graduate. You will find that learning does not stop when you graduate. If you can work in the medical field it will help with your understanding what you learn. I have worked with medical students who did tech work in nursing homes. It helped them to learn and understand from a different prospective.

You would likely have a problem working the floor. It is busy, on your feet all the time. Your weight would eventually interfere with your ability to care for your patient. So many IV's, Vents, and the like really make it crowded in some rooms. Perhaps pscyh would be what you could do. I would attempt working as a tech on a floor, so you could to see how you can hold up. I should know because I , too, am overweight, though not your size. It wears on you over time. Good Luck. Look into admission requirements. You have to be able to meet those.

if in good condition I give them to my neighbor to use for quilt fabric. Mine wear out around the neck area binding. Rest in good shape. Or I send them off to good will. That is where my daughter buys hers for her "sitter/helper " jobs.

I give them to my neighbor who cuts out what she wants and makes quilts. She does a very good job with them. Otherwise I wear them around the house, etc. Very comfortable.

I have suffered from this for many years, well prior to a name being applied to it. Perhaps injury triggered this response. It is more than muscle. It is where the muscles and tendons attach. I also find pain with bedding and clothing touching it. ( a different issue). So perhaps early issues with trauma triggered this. Nothing really helps. I was put on various medications which befuddled me, and did not decrease the discomfort. Early issues of crushed muscles, paralysis, polio, concussion. Yet though these occurred earlier, my pain issues of fibro hit a year before puberty. I have worked years with pain, not sleeping well, extreme discomfort. I can remember exactly two days without pain. One of those days I had taken a large dose of steroid for a test,and many years later I just woke up without pain. Right now I feel like I have a really bad sunburn, and that my skin is being cut. I do not take anything for this. Massage helps, but only when I can tolerate someone touching me. So judge what you may, as this illness can drive one to act crazy. Please, if you want my empathy for your broken leg, or other issues, do not belittle what I have to live though.

My issue is with rotting flesh, and sometimes blood. I used vicks under my nose. It is hard to get a stink past that Vicks. One nurse double masked, with several dabs of Vicks on the inner mask. Since lighting a match to counter the smell, like some do at home after a potty BM, that is all I can suggest. Baby poop is not always milder smelling. Depends on what is wrong with the little one. Does your own poop bother you any? A lot of times it is the food and the medication the patient is on. You will get to where you can tolerate it if you put your mind to it. If you have to step out of the room to vomit, then do so. Face your demons.

I wonder about other issues of needle sticks. One nurse got stuck in the thumb after giving an IM shot to a patient that had stomach cancer. ( His brother had recently died from stomach cancer as well) The needle went deep into her thumb , when she attempted to dispose of it in the sharps container. Now 10 years later, she has stomach cancer. No cancer of any type in her family history. So I wonder if this CA was not transfered to her thru the dirty needle. Over the years since the needle stick, labs for Hep A,B,C and HIV have been negative. Just curious if this could happen.

I was dropped into ER after I had oriented to med/surg in a small hospital. Our ER had a house RN, and two LPN's plus a doctor. Talk about GI issues....I truly did not know what the heck was going on. My coworker had been there two weeks. My first patient that night was a young man who had severed his brachial artery. I placed a blood pressure cuff on that arm, pumped it up till the bleeding stopped. Talk about a blood loss! The doctor came in to take a look, and said he wanted the blood pressure cuff deflated for so many minutes, etc. As he was walking out of the room I said if you want that done, do it yourself. This really shocked the other nurse. And me too, as I do not speak up much at all. The doctor deflated the cuff, blood resumed spurting, and he could not get it inflated again fast enough. Did I plan to do any of this, no. It just was instinct. This young man did make it to the big city hospital 2 hrs away, and had a vascular surgeon do the repair. He did not lose his arm. Even though I enjoyed mentally working the ER, Just thinking about working made me sick. Headache, stomach, bowels. I would not exchange that experience for anything. When I moved out of state, I applied for an ER job. First question asked of me was "where was my certification". It was on the job training for sure. No guidence by anyone. This small hospital had trained all of their OR staff and the like. Just nurses and doctors had licenses. The last hospital I worked in had computers in every patient room, so you could chart the assessment while in there. Also meds were scanned and armbands scanned. I would say I got spoiled with all of the nice time savers we had. Some nurses still overcharted. We were to chart by exception. If what was covered in the nurse assessment form fit what you saw, you just clicked on it. Only abnormal stuff was charted extra. The electronic form gave guidence through all of this. I feel that you will do fine once you step back and chill a bit. It is all overwhelming. School does not give you the experience you need. I worked for agencys for a few years. That experience proved to me that I could be orginazed and get my job done. My reward for this was that the hospitals would ask for me to be put on assignment there. They knew my work. Good Luck

Go to a shoe store that will fit you with arch supports, and fit you with a properly fitting shoe. It works wonders for those nurses who are flat footed, as well as those who aren't. It is worth the extra cost. Usually you will get 3 or 4 pairs of arch supports that you change out every three months. Not the old fashioned plastic ones. Remember your feet will make or break you day.

I never liked 3-11 as I found it hard to wind down after work. Most of my nursing consisted on 11p to 7 a. I would go home and sleep, getting up around 4 pm. I have heard of a 3pm to 3 am / 3am to 3 pm shift at a hospital in Idaho. That floored me. I asked if this was just for ER . No, it was for the whole hospital. NO WAY could I adapt to that. But the two nurses said they loved it.

When I was first into nursing, I found bias in that I was married, therefore had a husband to bring home the bacon. Also there was the issue that he was in the military, and my time on the job was limited. Why should the fact that I had a husband keep me from having a job. They were hiring a new nurse that did not have another income provider. She got the extra overtime, days off, etc. with me having to take up her slack. By the way, she got terminated for narc stealing. Supposedly providing the drugs to her brother. Patients suffered in pain because of her.

How many Sundays I have worked. My only problem came to a head when the church I was attending started giving me difficulty about my Sundays on the job. I truly consider my work with patients on a Sunday as a way of worshiping God. I worked every other Sunday. By the way, I changed churches.

I worked in several hospitals, some nursing homes, and did home health and hospice. I did not know anything about nursing or the actual work load until I graduated from school and got my papers. The work load is huge. I went home with such physical pain I was in tears. Fibromyligia it turns out was plaguing me. 12 hr shifts are rough. Keeping the same wake and sleep schedule is a must. I ran across a hospital that had EVERYONE on a 3 AM to 3 PM and 3 PM to 3 AM schedule. I shudder to think of that work schedule. All of mine have been 11 PM to 7 AM or 7 PM to 7 AM schedule. Yes you will be tired. Working with people is hard. You no longer can be the person you really are. One innocent comment can get you fired. All it takes is a patient or family complaining. This happens in all kinds of work environments. I would NOT give up at this stage of your studies. Try jobs at different hospitals, clinics, home visits. I held jobs over the years that nearly gave me ulcers. HATED going to work. *This was an ER job. The job that I had taking care of minor health issues and injurys for a big company was the BEST.

I would make sure the machine is plugged in, that all connections are tight. This should be done at each change of shift. The machine is charged up/ both plugged in and unplugged ...and test fired. If you are concerned you can do this your self at any time. Even if assigned to someone else.

I have been called in twice over a 20 yr period regarding a lawsuit by patient or family. It is true that anyone who was on duty that time period were called in to talk with the facilitys lawyer. None of this was done by phone call other than to schedule a time for you to come in. How these cases were settled I do not know. I do know to only answer the question, do not add to it. The last case that I was called in and questioned was one in which all I did was co-sign electronically for the PCA medication. I was in the room at most 5 min. each time. To witness the loading of syringe and wasting of the removed one. As for myself I had been recovering from major surgery and complications of infection. I had not worked for 18 mo. But I remembered this patient. Anyway the lawyer filled me in on what had happened and told me what the sueing was about. Because my name was attached to this patients record, I was part of the investigation. ( Pt. died at home several months after discharge, spouse wanted money). Our documention is all on the computer and it does not look at all like what you put into the chart. You chart by exception, so if the patient met certain standards, all you did is put in a check mark. If not, then you wrote a more detailed note.