nursnancy

Thanks for your response! But I have a medical problem that precludes me from working nights - Meniere's Syndrome exacerbates if I stay up all night and get my Circadian rhythms out of whack. Otherwise nights would be attractive.

I am an LPN living in Olive Branch, MS, which is adjacent to Memphis, TN, and have a current multi-state license in the compact states. I have about 10 years of LPN experience, about 8 of which was in long term care facilities (4-1/2 yrs) and on a Geriatric Psych Unit (3-1/2 yrs). The remainder was in a family practice clinic, which was not a good fit for me. I have no experience in Med Surg. We sometimes had some pretty acutely ill pts on the Geri-Psych floor, but for the most part, they had to be more psychiatrically acute (e.g., Alzheimers pts acting out) than medically acute to be on that unit. I would like to work for an agency for the flexibility to take time off when I want to, but I'm really worried about it. I realize that my best bet of work through an agency will be long term care, and that's okay - I like the pts in long term care, but I'm worried that the agency will send me to facilities & tell me that I will have 20 or 30 pts, and I'll get there and have 40 or 60. I would not be able to handle that kind of patient load since we do not have med techs in this area - the LPN has to do all the med administration and all the charting in nursing homes here. Has anyone had that experience, and what did you do?

Thanks, Dan! I've ordered the book that Bargainhound recommended, and I'll order "Cognitive Therapy..." as well.

Thanks for the replies! These are all very helpful!

I am an LPN working in a Geriatric Psych unit. While most of our pts have dementia in some form, we have recently been getting more pts with paranoid schizophrenia. These pts are "with it" enough to be very suspicious of everything they are given to eat or drink, and yesterday one pt began refusing to eat or drink anything at all. They refuse their meds, thinking we are trying to poison them. There are other problems compounding the situation, too. My unit is a "voluntary" unit, vs. an "involuntary commitment" unit. Therefore, it is illegal on our unit to hold someone down and give them an injection - say of an antipsychotic drug - (except in a situation where the pt has become violent and we have to give them a sedative to protect them and everyone else). Some psychiatrists rounding on the unit tell us to try to sneak meds to the pts in their food, etc. The problem with this is that some of these pts can tell that they've been drugged, which makes them justifiably more pararanoid! I feel pretty comfortable taking care of the dementia pts, but I feel a bit lost and inadequate as to how to deal with schizophrenia pts. Any advice or reading recommendations?

Wow! 97%? I didn't realize it was that common.

Have you had experiences with pts having a marked sudden improvement just before death? I have a friend whose mother went unresponsive (they were unable to wake her) for most of the day yesterday. She is in end stage Parkinson's and recently had a second CVA. That was the first time she has been unresponsive. They were finally able to wake her last night for very brief periods where she would say one or two words, then go back to sleep. My friend prepared herself for a death vigil. Before her mother became unresponsive and since her last stroke, she has been very weak, not able to speak loudly enough for anyone to hear her, and not "brightly" alert. Today, her mother has awakened and is bright-eyed, alert, and talking better than she has in months. My friend is wondering if this could be the phenomenon of getting much better just before death. Since I am a nurse she asked me that question. I told her I just don't know. I've been a nurse since 1998, and I've seen a few people improve a little just before death, but not that much. I would be interested in hearing your experiences on this.

Wow, JJ! You inspire me. I think home health nursing would be just the ticket, especially if my hearing gets worse. Good luck to you!

Thanks, llg! Good luck to you, too! :)

Thanks, llg. I am actually already starting to study for my RN. I have joined the College Network and am working on my BS in nursing (which will be through Indiana State University through distance learning). No matter what happens with my hearing, I don't feel like it will be a waste. No education is ever a waste in my opinion. My hearing specialist did tell me about the cross aide about a year and a half ago. At that time, I wasn't that interested because my left ear had compensated so well that I wasn't having that much trouble, and my insurance wouldn't pay for it. But now I will explore it again since my hearing seems to have gotten worse. I am also hopeful that if I do go completely deaf, I will be a candidate for cochlear implants. Thanks so much for your input. :)

Thanks, you guys, for your input. I will consider these things. :)

I am an LPN, working on a hospital Geriatric Psych floor. I like my job and want to continue being a nurse. Several years ago I was diagnosed with Meniere's Disease, and over the years I've become completely deaf in one ear. I work on the 3-11 shift, so the second part of the shift is pretty quiet, but recently I've been finding it harder and harder to hear during the first part of the shift when things are more hectic and there's a lot of background noise. Hearing aids won't help with my deaf ear. It's profoundly deaf. I've made an appointment with my ear doctor to have my hearing checked again. He has told me in the past that I had a 50-50 chance of the disease eventually affecting the other ear. I fear that is happening now. I've worked a few times on the graveyard shift to see if that's better since it's quieter, but my Circadian rhythms are thrown off so much by staying up all night that it exacerbates the Meniere's symptoms of dizziness, etc the next day. I would love to hear some of your ideas of nursing jobs that would not be so stressful. Also, I'm interested in knowing if there are any deaf nurses out there and what they do.

You are certainly not alone. You probably wouldn't have gotten many replies if you had asked, 'Do any nurses out there like nursing homes?' Most nurses hate them. The main reason is that they are so poorly staffed. Even the nice ones that try really hard to have a lot of activities and nice decor to make it a nice place to live, have staffing problems. Virtually all the other problems with nursing homes result from that one. I'm an LPN and I wanted to specialize in geriatrics, so I worked in nursing homes for the first 5 years of my career. I had 20 patients, which is not bad as nursing home patient loads go, but it just got to be too much, especially when I would have to do a lot of CNA work along with all my other duties because we were short. The one thing I did like about it was that I got to know and love my patients. Now I work the evening shift in a Geriatric Psych unit in a small hospital with an average patient load of around 7 or 8. I still get to work with elderly patients, but I can actually go home on time most nights and not be stressed to the max.

Thanks, mookiebear! I will check out the website.

I am an LPN wanting to do independent study for my RN. I'm thinking about doing Chancellor's. I'd like to look at their website, but can't find it. Anybody know the URL address? Also, if you buy the study guides from people on e-bay, how can you know if they are the latest editions? And if you can't be sure, how recent is recent enough? Thanks.

I've had two experiences, both when I worked in Texas. I worked as a CNA in one nursing home for a year before going to nursing school, and one of my patients was a man who was lonely and yelled out a lot for help, especially when he would see me walking by in the hallway. "Honey, help me! Help me, honey!" When I would go in to see what he wanted, he would look around the room trying to think of something just to keep me in there for awhile. One evening I spent my meal break visiting with him. The next day when I came to work, they said he had passed away in the night. For the next three nights I had the same experience each night. I came out of a room down the hall from his room, and heard him calling "Honey, help me! Help me, honey!," It wasn't just in my mind. I really heard it and it was so real that each time I started down the hall to his room for a few seconds before I realized that he was gone. After the third night, I didn't hear it anymore. The other experience was in a nursing home where I worked right after I got my LPN license. One night I and another nurse were sitting at the nurses station charting. I looked up and glanced down the darkened hall. I glimpsed an elderly lady in a red dress going into the last room on the left. I just barely got a glimpse of her as she was going into that room. I said, 'I wonder who that is!' The other nurse said, 'Who?,' looking up. I related what I had just seen, and she said, 'Oh,' she said nonchalantly, 'That's Mrs. Taylor.' 'Who?' I asked. 'She was a resident here for many years. She always wore a red dress. Every day she wore a red dress - wouldn't wear anything else. That was her room. She was really sweet. She died about a year ago, but we see her ghost now and then walking into the room.' I got up and went to the room and looked in. I didn't see a lady in a red dress. What I did see was the current patient in that bed, a diabetic, looking strange. I went to the patient and assessed her. I couldn't wake her up. I took her blood sugar and it was 30. I ran and got a syringe of Glucagon and she came around. I swear it's the truth.