southernchickrn

this happened to me on july 4th. the patient was admitted around 4pm, with hardly any orders for iv fluids or anything. doc comes around at 7:30pm and writes a page of orders for an insulin drip, picc line placement, iv fluids etc. of course since it was a holiday, specials radiology doc would have to be called in by the doc himself, since the iv team couldn't put in the picc line because the patient didn't have a vein they could use and specials would have to put in the picc. called the doc, he said just to wait till the morning. so, got iv fluids started, insulin drip started and things went ok for the rest of the night. then doc calls at 6am adn wants a heparin drip started as well! lady only had two iv's; one for ns and the other for the insulin drip. oh did i also mention, that i had to draw eight tubes of blood for her 4am draw and an abg? tried the abg myself, no go. was hoping i could get the abg and blood tubes in one stick. nope! respiratory therapist was able to get just barely enough, and another nurse had to stick her for the blood tubes. i didn't dare try her ns iv because it looked too fragile to play around with. the lady was already a hard stick! it was the most frustrating morning that i've had so far. oh and the heparin drip? the doc said to stop her ns and run the heparin through that. aughhhhhh! the thing that aggravated about me as much as the %^&$# lab draws was the fact that this particular doc likes things done right away, but he can wait 3 hours before giving us any orders for this lady. walk in love, walk in service and you will walk in honor.

i agree with rn/writer said. the earplugs came in very handy. my neighbor across the street has this annoying habit of cutting his grass, hedging the lawn or doing some other noisy yard work sometimes when i am sleeping. i don't expect him to know my work schedule, but it makes you wonder if he's doing it on purpose especially when he's sitting on his front porch when i come in at 8am! i worked night shift as a pca when i was in nursing school, then switched to days during my new grad orientation. working 7a-7p turned out to not be my thing. i usually have to wind down at least 1-1 1/2 hours before going to bed. that was hard to do working day shifts. i would get home at 8p, try to get in bed by 10 and then get up at 5:30 am . i seem to be more tired during day shift. one thing about working 7p-7a is i can come home, eat a little breakfast, take my bath and get in bed by 11am and up by 430. plus, you get the whole bed to yourself!:) ( nice if you have a husband who likes to hog the bed!). actually, after working three nights in a row my husband likes to tease me by saying "who are you? i haven't seen you in forever!" good luck in adjusting to 3rd shift! welcome to the night owl shift! walk in love, walk in service and you will walk in honor.

i know what you mean about the "crossing eyes" bit. there's an older nurse that i work with on night shift that must be trying to desperatly trying to hold on to her youth. when she wears her scrubs she not only wears the top but the matching pants and scrub jacket. ok if the scrubs are one color, or very subtle but one time she wore scrubs that had a very busy pattern. it was all i could do talk to her without literally crossing my eyes! it almost made me dizzy ! literally! walk in love, walk in service and you will walk in honor

i work at university hospital in augusta, ga. they have a great new grad program. in fact, you can be hired right into icu if you want. i was already working there during nursing school as a pca. during my last semester of school, i transferred to the icu for my externship. the new grad program consists of three weeks of classses covering everything possible including a basic dysrythmia class. also, you are assigned a mentor and a preceptor. your mentor is usually someone outside of your unit. they are with you for a year and are kind of like your big sister/brother for any advice, shoulder to cry on, etc. after your classes, you also get to take a critical care course for 6 weeks sponsored by the local chapter of the association of critical care nurses. your actual orientation lasts up to 12 weeks, a little longer if you need it. i have about 2 weeks left before the apron strings are cut, but i feel like i'm ready since i have such a great support group in the icu. the pay is 14.00 an hour while you are a nurse intern. once you get your license, your base pay is 18.50. there are also new grad programs at medical college of georgia, doctor's hospital, st. joseph's hospital all in augusta, and at aiken regional medical center across the savannah river in aiken, sc. good luck! walk in love, walk in service and you will walk in honor.

thanks guys for all the advice. i graduate in 9 days, and have already been offered a job in a micu. i knew that this was where i wanted to be. my first two semesters in school i worked as a unit clerk in a micu and loved it, but no pca (patient care aide ) positions opened up so i went to another hospital that was hiring pca ii/student nurses this past march. the hospital i'm working at now is one that i've always wanted to work in anyway, it's just the timing was right. plus they have me for at least one year after i get my license, since i took thier $5000 nursing scholarship for nursing students. i started working as a pca ii on a cardiac/renal floor. not too bad. did two months of my externship there and realized that it was just not where i wanted to be after graduation. i would rather have two patients that i can really focus on instead of 5-6 and running all over the floor. the patients are not assigned in consecutive order. i transferred my externship to a micu last month, was interviewed and offered a job the day before thanksgiving. of course, it's working nights, but that's fine becuase i like nights anyway. you know how you can enter a room and feel a good vibe? that's how it was on this floor. i can't wait to work my externship for this month after finals and of course, graduation. i was even offered the chance to work as a pca once my externship hours are up for this month. i can only work 32 hours a month for my externship. adn graduate as of december 16th 2004. 9 more days to go! walk in love, walk in service, and you will walk in honor.

oops! my mistake! i forgot that they did have a fax number, i just don't like sending credit card info over the fax. i never did see a phone number though. good detective work! _______________________ walk in love, walk in service and you will walk in honor.

I had problems with allheart as well. The only reason that I used them was because when I joines the National Student Nurses Association, I got a $10 gift certificate. There was an Incredibly Easy book that I ordered from them. My emails went unanswered until I threatened to get it taken off my credit card. THEN they responded and said it was on backorder. Went ahead and got the charges taken off, emailed them and then 2 days later it comes in by FedEX. Funny thing though, the return labels were torn off. Got it returned and then they still tried to get me to pay for it, even after returning it. It was finally resolved and taken off my credit card, but never again will I order from them. Yes they have great prices, but not at the expense of the headache I had with them. Also, always beware of companies that don't list a fax number or telephone number on their website and the only way to communicate is email. I learned my lesson. Good luck to the rest of you that have ordered from them. Walk in love, walk in service and you will walk in honor.

university of south carolina-aiken! go pacers! adn program graduating december 16,2004! i'm the third from last class to graduate from the adn program as our adn program ends in december 2005. anybody else that has graduated or going to graduate from usca? i would love to hear from you! ____________________________ walk in love, walk in service and you will walk in honor.

I struggled with the same thing while in my third semester. My solution? I got a job working as a patient care aide/student nurse at a local hospital to help me. I now handle 12-18 patients and give bed baths, change beds, empty foleys, take vitals, set up a room for a new admission, weight patients and do EKGs. The hardest part is when you have 4-5 patients on hourly vitals ( fortunately we have auto BP machines for that, but they only hold two hours worth of BPs. ) I have a little notepad that I write each patient's info on each page. Then at the front of the notepad I tape a page with who's getting EKGs, foleys, those lucky enough to get BPs at 2am and who needs to be bathed or prepped for procedures. After getting report from the day shift and the nurse, I sit down to organize (extremly loosely ) my night. You can also take a sheet of paper and divide it into the amount of squares as you have pts. That way you have everything at your fingertips. Ask nurses how they organize their thoughts before they see pts. You would be amazed at how creative they can be. Good luck! __________________ Walk in love, walk in service and you will walk in honor.

I know how you feel. It's like you put your whole body and soul into studying for this test and then you feel like such an idiot! It took my brain two semesters to get rewired to absorb all this stuff. I did all B's my first semester then got a C in med surg 1 in the second semester. This past semester I got a B in Med Surg 2. Here's some helpful advice: If your textbooks come with a CD ROM and/or study guides USE THEM! Some of my teachers take questions word for word from the study guides. Also buy the CD ROM and/or book Medical Surgical Nursing Made Incredibly Easy. The other Made Incredibly Easy books and CDs are great as well. They have these on almost every nursing subject. Another CD-ROM that helped was Springhouse's NCLEX Review 3000. The study group is another great idea. Also get with the teacher, to see if she can help you see where you need to focus your studying for the next test. REMEMBER: C=RN :wink2: _________________________ Walk in love, walk in service and you walk in honor.

Why do I want to become a nurse? Several reasons: 1)Science was always one of my favorite subjects which was why I got a biology degree. Was always asked if I was going to teach or do nursing. My mom has been a preschool teacher for 25+ years and I just couldn't see myself doing it. As for nursing, hospitals always fascinated me as a kid and I loved going to the doctor's office because I thought they were so cool, but I didn't think that I could handle the "ick" factor ( you know, the body fluids, lots of blood etc.) 2)Couldn't find a job with my degree where I live, so I tried being a teacher's aide for a year after college. At the same time I also worked for a temp agency for three years as a clerical temp. Only good to come out of those three years was I met my husband while working as a temp at his place of employment. I decided that teaching was NOT for me. I got real frustrated with the school system and just couldn't take it anymore. I did think about going back to school after graduating to get a nursing degree, but I just couldn't ask my parents to help me get through 2-4 more years of school after they helped me get my biology degree, so I just put it on the back burner and did a lot of reading about nursing to make sure I really wanted to do it. 3) 6 months after getting married, I got my first real job with benefits working as a unit secretary at an outpatient dialysis clinic. Was able to get over my "ick" factor while working there. Spent three years at the clinic and while I was there I got the "calling" to be a nurse. I felt I was mature enough to handle it and I discovered that I LOVED working on the treatment floor with the patients ( I took vitals, thier weight and helped them get settled in the chair before they were hooked up to the machine). I left there after three years due to crappy management and a boss that backstabbed me one too many times. Shortly before I left I started taking refresher courses to get myself back into the swing of going to school with an eye on applying to nursing school. 4) I then went on to work for a sports medicine clinic as an administrative secretary for the docs in the practice. I talked to patients on the phone about appointments but I really missed the direct patient contact I had at the dialysis clinic. I then realized that I really wanted to be a nurse. While I was there I was accepted into nursing school. I left the clinic after being there for two years because I needed a weekend job while I was in nursing school. Then I went on to work as an ICU unit clerk for a year, got tired of waiting for a patient care aide position to open up and just started working at another hospital as a PCA, which is where I will be working at upon graduation. To sum it up, I was a secretary for 8 years, did not see myself doing that for the rest of my life, wanted to do SOMETHING with my biology degree, wanted the job security of knowing I can do almost ANYTHING with this job, go anywhere I want to go and basically set my own hours and be in a job where I am always learning and will not reach that "glass ceiling" that a lot of secretaries reach after doing if for so long. And yes, the money is not that bad either. _____________________________ Walk in love, walk in service and you will walk in honor.

Hey! Anybody out there from the North Augusta/Aiken area? I attend USC Aiken and will be graduating in Dec 04. Last year it was announced that our ADN program was being phased out and will end in December 2005. That's also when the accreditation for the ADN program runs out. The last class of ADN students started this past January. Now we only have a BSN completion, and generic BSN. Aiken Tech is picking up the ADN program starting in August. They used to only have an LPN program. We have one other ADN program and that's across the Savannah River at Augusta State University. The Medical College of Georgia only has a BS and MS program. As far as I know USCA doesn't have a waiting list for students to get into the nursing program. I work at University Hospital in Augusta, GA as a Patient Care Aide II/Student Nurse on the Cardiac/Renal flloor. That's probably where I will work after graduating, since I'm familiar with the layout and know pretty much everybody. The only hard change will be going from PCA II to RN ( in terms of paperwork and stuff)!I would love to hear anybody that's from this area, especially if you attend or have graduated from USCA! _____________________________ Walk in love, walk in service and you will walk in honor.

RNNotes is a handy little pocket guide that you can put in your pocket. it has wipe free forms that you can write on and then wipe off with an alcohol pad. It has things such as assessment tools, antidotes, lab values, schedule planners, injection sites, EKG interpertations, starting IVs adn a lot more! They are put out by F.A. Davis adn they have also come out with a Med Notes that has about 200 of your most commonly used drugs ( like a little drug book in your pocket ) adn one for Med Surg as well. VERY HANDY! Walk in love, walk in service and you will walk in honor.

If you don't want to do much lifting, working in the psych ward (adult and/or pediatric) may be for you. Just in psych you have to watch what you say. In most units regardless though, you have to do some sort of lifting. If you have a bad back or something, always ask for help. Most nurses don't mind helping the aides turning patients. You're there to help them and vice versa. Also nursing pins are usually pins that nursing schools give to their graduates at a special pinning ceremony. My school in South Carolina has a special pin designed for the Associate's degree program and the Bachelor's program. They are given out at a pinning ceremony on the same day as graduation ( which is in the evening). Some schools have stopped having nursing pins, but it's a nice little tradition to have. I don't know if schools that have CNA programs give them out. Hope that this helps. Walk in love, walk in service and you will walk in honor.

Echo Heron's books are GREAT! she wrote a follow up to intensive care called Condition Critical. Another book by her is Tending Lives: Nurses on the Front. This has various stories from nurses all over the U.S including some from the Oklahoma City bombing. A few others include: MOsby's Tour guide to nursing school, majoring in nursing by Janet Katz and Life Support by Suzanne Gordon. Some of these are great resources about the realities of nursing school and others give you career advice after graduating. Another great one for real life stories is Chicken soup for the Nurse's Soul. Hope that these help. They sure did for me. Good luck in school. It's tough but oh so worth it in the end. Also, if you can get a part time job working in the hospital or a nursing home as a patient care aid that will help concrete a lot of the stuff you learn in school and help you feel more confident in your clinical skills. Plus the little bit of money you earn will help with school costs. Most places love to hire student nurses and are willing to work around your school schedule. Oops! I forgot one more book: HOw to survive and maybe even love nursing school. Very good book!