Elle.p.enn

I too had 75 questions, lots of priority, tons of pharm. I had no idea on about 75% of this test, and just went with my "educated guess". I've taken the lpn test as well, and wasn't worried about that one at all after I walked out. I Knew I had passed the LPN test. As for the RN, I've been telling myself I probably passed, and there's no way I passed.

Did you make it?

Insert a Foley in a top-heavy 400-pound woman: ON ICE!

If the blood was red, and it had backed up into the cassette, wouldn't that be a new arterial line?

When is your graduation date? May 18, 2007 Any special plans after graduation? I'm celebrating with my family for a few days, then possibly going to Vegas for a weekend. When will you be taking the NCLEX? Probably June Will you be taking an NCLEX review, if so what one? Yes, my hospital offers a review course for free :) Do you have a job lined up? I'm going to work at the same place I'm now working at as a tech: Cardiac ICU Everything does come to an end, even nursing school!

I'm in a LPN to BSN program and am at the end of my preceptorship. I worked 16 to 24 hours throughout, mostly 8 hour shifts, on top of the 3 twelves with my preceptor. I'm a little frazzled now, to say the least, but it went pretty well. The hard part for me was completing the assignments, we had a huge concept map, and various other papers.

I can tell from this statement that, unfortunately, you have ended up with a less-than-satisfactory preceptor. It's part of the preceptor's job to provide you with feedback. I'm in a preceptorship now as well, and my preceptor is fantastic. She gives me feedback constantly, lets me know exactly what my shortcomings are, is consistent, and empowering. It benefits the preceptor to prepare you as well as she can, you can help her out if you work there later! Maybe you can confront her throughout the day, say "How do you think I'm doing so far today?" or "My goals are to give an accurate and complete report, how do you think I'm doing on this goal?" Keep it professional and in line with your clinical objectives.

Thanks for the advice! :balloons: :)

I love this thread! :balloons: Especially the asking questions, and not taking things personally part. Any advice on how to talk to doctors? I'm really having a hard time with this, I'm scared of them! :uhoh21: Thanks for the advice!

Scares me a little too, but I think this post attracts people who have negative views/opinions about the current nursing environment. We should start a post that says: "Why are nurses staying?" or "That won't happen to me" I may be wrong, and I'll find out when I graduate: I still think everything is what you make it. If the place you're working at doesn't respect you or your needs, quit. Keep looking for a place that does. Maybe if enough people do this, word will get around about the terrible place that doesn't let the nurses eat or go to the bathroom. Eventually, that place will have such a hard time staffing that it gets shut down, or maybe, just maybe, they'll start looking for reasons why all the nurses left.

I'm in the same position as you, I'm doing a preceptorship on a med-surg floor with 4 patients. I do the aide's job at times, too, but usually the aides help if you ask them nicely/help them out too. There is also always an RN saying I neglected to perform some care or charting. I think this is because a. they want us to be a better nurse when we graduate or b. they don't want to be shown up by a student/and want to appear to be in control. I've also seen other RN's not do the things they tell me I'm not doing. I no longer have respect for these nurses, so I just shrug it off.

I did the same thing in a similar situation, pneumococcal vaccine, thin, elderly lady, IM needle, 1 inch, 23 guage. I felt a sickening "thud", like chewing aluminum foil, and the poor woman jumped. She said "That one hurt more than the other one", I had just given her a flu vaccine in her other arm. I just said "I'm sorry", and she said that was okay. Once you give a lot of IM injections, you can kind of estimate where the patient's muscle may be, and adjust appropriately. But, it's pretty hard to only go in so far when you have to inject the needle in like a dart so it doesn't hurt as much. I worked in a flu clinic as an LPN, and wow, I learned a lot that day.

Hi everyone, I'm doing my preceptorship for RN on a medical-surgical floor. I've learned so much it's amazing, I have a great preceptor. But, so many things I've seen the other nurses do are so far from what I've been taught. The first thing my preceptor taught me is not to believe what the other nurses are charting in their assessments. I thought this was to get me to think for myself and really look at the patient, but I found out that a lot of these assessments are NOT ACCURATE in the least. Not even minor things that can change from day to day, but major, hard-to-miss things that I'm shocked an RN would miss. THis may seem nit-picking, but: 1. A patient had his IV d/c'd once he was placed on hospice, but some nurses were charting that it was still in days after it was taken out. 2. Another patient had a foley d/c'd, but according to some nurses, had it for days after it was taken out. I received report from a nurse who told me it was in two days after it was d/c'd. Now, I know it's not a life-threatening situation, but aren't these assessments legal documents? Some more things I've found: 1. A confused patient was often wandering to other units, his nurse wrote "I belong to ****" on a big piece of tape and taped it to the front of his gown. This was last Thursday. Yesterday, this patient was still wearing the same gown, with the same piece of tape announcing to the world that he was mentally incompentent and being treated like a piece of property. I wanted to do something, but I'm a student, and am not received well when I have a new idea or want to change something. 2. From what I've seen, patients don't get turned q2 hours, bathed every day, ambulated, or other basic nursing care. The nurse/patient ratio is 1:6. The tech/patient ratio is 1:13-18+. The patients are often complex, and need a lot of care, but it seems like the level of care is very poor. Does this shock anyone, or is this pretty much status quo for a med-surg unit?

Thanks to everyone for the extremely thoughtful and helpful advice :) My gut instinct is to wait for now, if it gets worse, I'll send her a nonconfrontational email. Thanks again

Hi everyone, I have a clinical instructor during my preceptorship that is something else. I said one of my learning objectives during clinical was proper medication administration, and she said if I was working on that, then maybe "we could recycle you through the program" . She has also said derogatory comments about me in front of the rest of the clinical group, as well as other students, mainly about our intelligence. :imbar She makes threats with our grades (she's the sole decider of whether or not we pass this clinical), and is generally rude and nasty. I have never had a problem with a clinical instructor before, usually I give them the benefit of the doubt, but this one raises several flags, and makes me feel uneasy. Should I say something to her or someone else about this? I understand she wants us to be tough, but this is going a little far. What would you do?

I had an appointment with a rep from there last year. 1. You "self-study" with modules that they give you, then go to a testing center to take a test, you have to set this testing center up yourself. 2. It takes 3 years for an LPN to BSN. 3. You have to find a nurse to precept you for the clinicals. I decided not to go with this, b/c a local university was cheaper, and easier to deal with, not to mention a shorter length of time.

Hi all, I'm graduating next May (RN) and I still have no idea what kind of nursing I want to do. I don't like peds, I like geriatrics, but I also like ICU: cardio and neuro. I've never tried outpatient, or ER. Did anyone have a strong feeling when they graduated, as to what they wanted to do? Should I work Med-surg for a year, will that give me any direction? Thanks in advance!

Hi, I did the same thing, graduated from LPN school last August '05, then started LPN to RN school a few weeks later. For me, RN school is easier than LPN, I knew the basics of nursing, so the info they gave me was added on to that. I would finish these courses, then look for another program.

Hi everyone, I just found my first "real" LPN job, it's in an urgent care setting. There are three doctors: a cardiologist, a pulmonologist, and an orthopedist. There are no RN's. I get one week of training, and the job description doesn't really explain what my role is in patient care. What the doc's really seem concerned about is if I can start IV's. Are there any LPN's who work in a similar setting? If so, what is your nursing role? Thanks in advance!

I'm doing this now, graduate in May '07. I think it has helped a little, the RN courses seem to flow easier, now that I've got the LPN under my belt. I think you'll find the RN to be more informative, after you know the nursing basics, you can free your mind to concentrate on specifics.