roni221

I agree with the commuter. Also networking is huge. What's the saying? It's not what you know it's who you know. Even if your best friend or mom can't help you, you never know when a friend might have a friend that works at a place that needs people. Don't give up. There's many of us out there with ya. We thought hospitals would be lining up and giving us bonuses. Hope something comes to you soon.

I've been feeling burnt out. this is a tough semester for us 2 of 4 in ADN. We do get to sit for our LPN so I'm trying to look forward to reaching the milestones along the way like I'm (almost) finished with 2nd semester and (hopefully) will have an LPN. Still have a year to go but I've been doing it for 3 and 1/2 years with prereqs. Working, going to school and taking care of a family. We just have to keep our eyes on the prize!!! Good luck everyone.

Have you tried Suzanne's plan?

Our program is based on points but an instructor can fail you for putting a pt. in physical jeopardy. This of course would be the instructors definition of "physical jeopardy". IMO this clause can be used for good reason or abused as an excuse to fail someone.

We are learning this right now so I'm sure there are other more experienced nurses and even students that can tell you exactly how to do this with extra little tips and stuff. What I wanted to say was to ask for extra help either from your clinical instructor or we have at our school teacher/nurse who's only job is to tutor student so if if you are struggling you can just schedule some time with her and she'll go over skills (or theory) with you. It's a huge asset to us. You should look into something like that. Maybe practicing under less pressure will help solidify the steps for you. It's great preparation to read the book and know your steps but actually practicing with the hardware (iv bags and tubing) will make it automatic. Can't wait to see what advice everyone has for you though, we might both find some good tips.

Thank you! I do this all the time. I do leave the pulse ox on the finger for awhile so I'm sure I get an accurate reading but I've never noticed much of a difference. I've never had any problems or anyone tell me to do it differently. A couple of weeks ago I had a family member mention something like that and lo and behold her mother satted just fine (like 97 or so) and proved the family member wrong. I would probably get annoyed if someone tried to tell me how to do my job when they didn't have experience doing it day in and day out. Especially if they started trying to talk about anatomy like you say you did. it just sounds condescending to me. I can understand about the BP thing, it should be done on the correct arm. Apparently it didn't make too much of a difference or the nurse would have came in and redid it. I've been a CNA for just over a year and am a 1st semester nursing student so i don't think I know it all, just from my experience it haven't seen it make any difference. If a person is satting low I may switch fingers hands or even have them take some deep breaths. I will be watching to see if there is ANY changes in pulse ox during cuff inflation the weekend for sure though. I just can understand the aide getting annoyed, depending on how you approached her. And you may think you said it nicely but she may have taken it differently. On the pulse ox thing I would have to agree you overreacted. to say you had to bite your cheek and try hard not to throw her out was a bit much. Now if she had not washed her hands or done something wrong after not listening that had hurt your gram then I could definitely see that reaction but a sat of 94 would change nothing.

Can you ask for a different patient? I don't think you hate home health, it's just this family isn't working for you. And I definitely don't think this means you won't like being a nurse. Along the way you may find something that tells you that you dont' want to be a nurse but this isn't it. Noone should have to be around smoking which is why slowly all public places are becoming nonsmoking. Working at a hospital you will see more stuff but it can be hard to get on days, at least where I work it is hard to get on days but you never know, you could look into hospitals that are close to you. I don't know alot about home care but I would hope that an agency can say that the home should be uhhhh "conducive to health" I mean you shouldn't have to put your health at risk even though everyone has the right to health care.

Amen! I am a CNA about to start nursing school and I do my BEST to answer my call lights quickly. But it's so frustrating when I get scolded for not coming fast enough when I was trying to help a patient off of the toilet and back into bed. Yes I'll just leave them so they can fall so I can get you some kleenex. On the other hand I hate for patients to have to wait for something urgent like getting to the toilet. Where I work answering call lights primarly falls to the CNAs. Everybody is supposed to help answer and the good nurses do when they can but it's mostly our responsibility. If the patient needs the nurse we usually have to go in there, they tell us and then we tell the nurse. A hospital(or any health care facility) is the last place that should be understaffed. Everybody loses. :trout:

Hold your head up and take pride in what you do. A CNA is an extremely important job. Unfortunately as others have said that doesn't mean you get great pay. And it's definitely not a glamorous job and you have to do some yucky things. But I always say that somebody has to do it and it might as well be someone who cares. Not to mention, somebody who is competent, as I'm sure you are. I'm starting nursing school in Jan. so I won't be a career CNA but I have loved the time I spent as a CNA and will spend at least another year a a half working as a CNA. I get that same reaction that you do when I tell people I'm a CNA but if they only how important our job is (I've met plenty of people who feel this way too) and how rewarding it is to take care of somebody when they can't take care of themselves. Good luck!:yelclap::yelclap::balloons: