Kitnurse

Los Angeles is the best place if you want into any part of "the Industry" and if you look on Craigslist.com under medical you will find ads for set medics all the time. These are mostly EMTs but there is at least one agency out there that hires all sorts of medical staff strictly for location shoots and sets. I don't know much about the rest of the country, but I imagine that if you have any type of entertainment center there will be a need for, if nothing else, dealing with the fall out of crowd control, from which you can find out who is the company usually called for celebrity or industry jobs. Good luck.

One way the physician I work for weeds out the potential "high" seekers is to change them from a short to a long acting opioid, going to Methadone from Percacet for example. I have seen several patients immediately object to this even though the Methadone is stronger, longer lasting and cheaper than brand Percocet. The long acting formulation and 33 hour half life of Methadone gives excellent pain control, but no "rush". As for being impaired by narcotics, people who genuinely need high doses of long acting pain meds generally don't get high anyway, it's all absorbed by the pain. 360mg of Methadone a day would seem to be enough to fell a horse, yet we have a patient on that amount who works, raises a family, and still has pain in the 3-5/10 range. The difference is her pain is controlled and she is able to live a semi normal life, whereas without it she would be totally bedridden and in constant agony. Judging each patient as an individual takes time, a commodity most medical professionals have little of, but wouldn't taking that time enable better and more accurate assesment of true sufferers as well as catching the drug seekers who also are in need medical and psychological help?

I deal with chronic pain patients every day. Yes, some of them can be royal PITAs, but the majority of our patients deal, day in and day out, with pain that would bring most of us to our knees, and they are usually as pleasant and friendly as any other patient. What we need to recognise is that there is a distinct difference between addiction and dependance. Addiction is a pathology, where the person repeatedly returns to the same agent, despite clear negative results. For example; getting high on whatever, finding yourself puking your toenails in a ditch and blacking out, only to wake up and knock over a 7-11 on your way back to your dealer to get more drugs and do it all again. Dependance is a physiological reaction of the body to a chemical agent such as insulin, beta blockers or opioids(narcotic is a legal not a medical term). The body becomes chemically dependant on that agent to provide something the body itself cannot provide, ie: controlled blood sugar, controlled blood pressure, controlled pain. The current focus regarding narcotics is aimed at discovering, thwarting and punishing the criminal element, (perhaps 10% of the whole, )both the physicians who are knowingly and illegally prescribing opioids and to those using and abusing them. This is an excellent goal, and should be vigorously pursued, by law enforcement. Sadly, this admirable goal in recent years has been twisted and warped so much that many physicians are afraid or reluctant to prescribe pain meds to the vast majority of honest, legitimate patients who struggle not only with thier ongoing debilitating painful pathologies, but the ignorance, judgement and abuse of the very people who are supposed to be helping them. I'm not saying that we should be pushovers for everyone we come across professionally or personally who says they have chronic pain, but let's at least give everyone an even assesment before we condemn them.

I was a laser hair removal nurse in beverly Hills back in 2001 before they decided to disqualify LVNs from doing it. I trained my 2 RN replacements and its not that difficult, the toughest part is determining the patients skin tone correctly. As for its permanance, well I learned on myself, legs underarms and full pubic; 5 years later I have about 3 hairs total on both legs and my underarms and pubic are so thin I only shave once a week or so. I'd love to go back to it when I get my RN, I loved it.

Is there a program available anywhere in Central OH that would allow me to take just the xray certification? I am an LPN and will have my IV cert in Dec, but I work in a pain practice and I would be much more useful to my practice if I could take a more active role assisting the doctor in positioning the flouroscope in the procedure room. I know the MA programs now have xray education but the program I went through, naturally, didnt have this. Any info on this would be much appreciated.

As a tattooed pagan person living in the midwest I tend to keep both my ink and my religion out of my professional life for the simple reason that I prefer to focus on my patients and thier care rather than discuss/argue/possibly distress them with something about me. My job isnt about me,its about Them. My Life is about me and I have lots of life outside my profession to express my spirituality and art. Its not "fair" that the standards of professionalism dont include tatts or non-judeo/christian/islamic religions but thats the way it is. I do what I can to dispell myths about both when asked and leave it private otherwise. I have plans for many more tattoos in the future, most of which will express my spiritual choices, but they will be coverable by scrubs and that's just fine with me. I also wear a pentacle but it stays under my top. On the occasions it does show I make the joke that I'm Jewish, just working on that 6th point. You'd be amazed at the number of people who nod wisely and accept the explaination! PS I too also plan on going to RN school, and if the powers-that-be dont ask if I have any, they'll never know.

I work in a pain management clinic with a multiple fellowship trained(pain mgmt and emergency) surgeon who uses that same analogy with our patients. We see daily patients in hysterics because some damn fool(pardon) with no concept of chronic pain told them they were a junkie because they took an opioid. Unfortunately, the State Medical board here seems to share that common prejudice and has been conducting a systematic witch hunt against pain docs. They have been scrutinizing the practices patient records, checking every prescription for the slightest inaccuracy or variation from established protocols, and revoking physicians licenses at the drop of a hat. They have family practice doctors too terrorized to prescribe necessary opioids to legitimate pain patients for fear the eye of the Board will fall on them as well. The re-education needs to come from the top, starting with the very physicians who, if they dont understand pain management, damn well better find out the FACTS, before punishing ethical fellowship trained physicians who Do understand PM, with thier midaevil ignorance and egos. In the medical and legal worlds' drive to punish the few criminals who do abuse, they are putting the many innocent who desperately need relief in even more unecessary pain. What ever happened to "Harm None"? /rant.

Another voice for compassion, here. We have no idea whats behind the situations we see in our clinics and hospital ERs, and on the streets. I'm no angel and prior to my nursing career I had my share of years that are now a blur due to meth, pot, alcohol and other things.(I am now certified by an addictionologist to be psychologically sound) I saw people crash, burn and die from it all, and others, many of them nurses, who sailed through, functioning with society as addicts for whom the bad effects never showed up. Each of us is individual, and there is no way of knowing how anything,from drugs to simple stress, will effect us untill it happens. We nurses have a bad habit of making judgements about people in our care because we only see the disasterous end results, not the step by step process of less than ideal decisions that lead to it. I find my background in addiction and the grey area beyond/beneath "normal society" where functional addicts live, gives me a sense of perspective and compassion for my patients. While I do not condone addictive behavior, I do understand it, and the reasoning, such as it is, behind the actions. To a certain degree my past also gives me a much better tuned "bullshit-o-meter" when presented with a line of delusion/rationalization by an addict. It helps keep my compassion from getting gooey and unprofessional.

I was blessed to study under a dying breed, an old school RN who trained on site in a teaching hospital(in dorms and not allowed to marry, or even date, a medical convent). The first semester I was terrified of her, we all were, but by god we LEARNED. By the time we got to our clinicals all we had to do was name the procedure and Mrs D's voice would roll tape in our heads, reminding us of the difference between theory and reality, and she was there in person quietly encouraging us from the side, so subtly that most of the time the patient never even realized we were being corrected. We were one of several schools at a given hospital as it was a rural area. We wore white shirt, pants and shoes, a blue Walmart type smock, our hair up and under a traditional nurses cap. We were the only nurses in the whole hospital (maybe the state)who wore them, but when the time came for an RN to ask for a student, we were easy to find, and they knew we were prepared. To this day I hear her voice in my head if I get confused and I keep my text books close. Especially so, as now, in a new job. I've been reviewing like crazy the systems I've been working with and scouring the net for pertinet info or new advances. The letters after our names may limit our practice but it certainly doesnt have to limit our knowledge of current advances in our specialty. There's no telling when the day will come when a patient will need what we know, whether or not there is an LV or an R before the N, it is our responsibility to ourselves and to our patients to be the best we can be. There's nothing in the school curriculum that says you cant find the information theyre skimping on elsewhere. If there is anyone at the school you trust ask them to verify what you find, of course, but get that information any way you can. Your future patients may live or die in that information gap. /lecture. Best of luck.

I'm actually an LVN transplant from Los Angeles, living in Columbus. We moved here to help with a family emergency last year. I just started a new job last week in pain mgmt and I'm loving it! What a great field In LA, I worked in bariatrics, dual diagnosis psych, cosmetic laser treatments and an ADHC.

I just started working at a pain clinic, and with the exception of giving out narcotic samples, initial patient assesments and some of the more complicated and intricate OR assisting, I do everything my RN does. I assist the dr in the OR for minimally invasive spinal and joint procedures, I run the C-arm, set up sterile trays, document meds used and transfer pts to recovery. I'm also very aware of my legal limitations as an LPN, and for my own license and that of my boss I am hyper cautious if I think I might be overstepping. I've never believed in not asking if Im not sure, and my RN is very supportive. Its a challenging and interesting speciality and I'm proud to be a part of our team.

I've been an LPN since '97 in 4 different states. The only issue I have with RN's isnt professional its political. I've been seeing (as have most of us I imagine) a lot of the shifting tides between RN and LPN regarding scope of practice. It doesnt seem fair to me that RNs *seem* to be pushing LPNs out of the more technical and well paying specialities and towards Geriatric/ SNF and Home Health. Now both of the above are great fields, very rewarding if that is the type of nursing you want to do. They are also stressful, physically demanding and un appreciated in a large part and far from "high profile" in scope. LPNs are often trained to be more hands on, which to my way of thinking is an excellent combination with the more theoretical aspects RNs deal with. I think its a pity that the politicos seem to want to make what should be a rounded clinical partnership into some sort of competitive glory snatching on the order of kids playing in a sand box. "OK, I want the shiney thing, and the pretty thing, and the expensive thing, but here, you can have the dirty ones, the smelly ones and the ones I dont want." I may be slightly bitter here as I was legislated out of a job I loved,that paid great, and had wonderful patients due to a change in CA law regarding the role of LVNs working with cosmetic lasers. To add insult to injury, after being told I was incompetant to perform the duties I'd been doing for 6 months, I ended up training the 2 RNs they hired to replace me. They were great, as are 99% of RNs I know. I just have issues with what my nursing instructor refered to as "high heeled nurses" Just my 2 cents.

Hi, I am currently living in OH, working as an LPN. I'm originally from LA but moved here last year to assist with a family medical crisis(now over) I plan on moving back home to Ca within the next 2 years or so and wanted to get my ASN while I'm here so as to have a greater field of opportunity on returning. I have read that CA BON does not accept Excelsior degrees in any form by court case so they're out. What I need to know is; Are there ANY online/distance learning programs that CA BON will accept? I know that Columbus state and OSU both have RN programs but there is a 2 year waiting list for both, not to mention I have a family and cant afford to be full time. EC sounded so perfect for me as I have all but 2 of my prereqs completed. I'd appreciate any links or sites that could show me where to look. thanks

I'll be starting a new position at a Pain Management clinic tomorrow. It is an office with just one doctor, not a large facility. They want me to get my IV certification but I had no idea where to get it. Thanks to above posters I have a few more places to look.

I've been an LVN/PN since 97 and am preparing to go back for my RN. From my experience in CA and now in OH there are jobs for LPNs but only in a very few fields such as geriatrics and home health. Jobs in clinics are few, far between and hotly competited for. It almost seems as though we are being Pushed into those fields RNs no longer want. I put myself through LPN school working nights in a nursing home and I never want to go back, but if I dont get my RN that may be all that's left. I think its great if thats what you want, but it shouldnt be ALL thats available.