merrick

I think it would definitely help, but have you looked at the pathways to sit for the exam? It's a rather long process especially if you're not a nurse yet. My guess is that you would finish nursing school before you had enough hours to become certified, unless you are already some sort of health professional.

I work in psych so I deal with this type of patient a lot. Bear in mind that she has a mental illness as well as a painful debilitating physical one. That combination is not usually going to make for an easy, pleasant patient. My advice would be to not take anything personally and try not to engage in power struggles. Do what you can within your ability and that's all you can do. Try to remain calm and not feed into the negativity. Remain matter of fact and let her know what her choices are and that that is all you can do.

Have you tried PostPartum? That way you'd still get to teach parents, but wouldn't have as much stress. PP nursing is pretty low key, most of the time. Of course, you do get the occasional hemmorage and what not.

Have you looked into the process of becoming a certified lactation consultant? There are several pathways but the shortest and easiest is if you are already a nurse. You will probably have your nursing degree in less time than it will take to get certified as an IBCLC. You could look into being a breastfeeding peer counselor for the WIC program, if you have personal breastfeeding experience, that is. OR being a tech on an OB/PP floor.

I originally liked D for both, but I can see where B was correct. I would like it better if it was worded as checking patency instead of blood return though. But your rationale for B is a little off. Doctors will many times order a broad spectrum antibiotic for patients while awaiting the results of a culture. They will then look at the culture and change to a different antibiotic if needed. The culture would definitely need to be collected before starteing the abx as they could skew the results of the culture.

heh, I do 7 12s in a row. But I'm on nights in psych so it's usually pretty low key. Although we do have our wild nights. No way I could do it on med surg though.

It's possible you're not seeing the whole picture. Maybe they do visit, just not as often as he'd like. Or perhaps he just doesn't remember. My husband went to see his grandfather and he started crying and saying he hadn't seen him in years. My husband had been to see him just the month before (we don't live in the same city). Older people with dementia often seem completely with it when telling old stories. Their long term memories are usually still intact. It's the short term memories that are the problem.

I think you are right. I would not hold bp meds for a normal blood pressure. As you said, the meds are what are keeping it normal. Just go with your preceptor for now. You will be on your own soon and can do things your way.

I'm going into my 3rd semester of the nursing program. Yes, it is hard. Yes, it will take a lot of time away from your family. Going to nursing school with kids has been the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. I am stressed to the max and my house is a wreck. I hope that it will all be worth it when I graduate. I'm optimistic that it will be.

My school only looked at nursing pre reqs and it is a BSN program, although not accelerated.

Finished A &P I and Ethics in June with As! Yippee. Right now I'm working on A & P II.

My class started yesterday. We have already covered 2 of the 6 chapters in the class and our first test is next Wed. It's looks like it'll be a lot of work, but very manageable for me. The labs are fun at least because our instructor is nuts! She is hilarious. 7 am is so early though, and today was just a review of chemistry, which I didn't need. It was a real struggle not to fall asleep. One of my friends did fall asleep. I wish I had just stayed home and slept in a bit.

Jacksonville State in Jacksonville, Alabama. Should hear within a couple of weeks.

I have a 4 year old and a 1 year old. I am going full time this summer and forever after. My school does not allow a part time option in the nursing program. So far I've been managing ok. We'll see how things go.

I'm right there with you guys. I start Monday at the ungodly hour of 7 am. I have class until 9:30am Monday through Thursday and lab from 9:45 am-11:45am Monday through Wednesday. I don't know how I'm going to do it as I am sooo not a morning person, but I guess I'll struggle through it.

Coming into this late, but I'm here too! I'm just about finished with my Statistics class for May semester. Will be starting A &P I and Ethics in a week and a half. Then for July it'll be A &P II assuming I get into upper division nursing for fall. Otherwise, I'm taking the semester off!

Yes, definitely check with your school to know for sure. At my school we could take regular Micro or Health Micro. Most of the nursing students including me took Health Micro.

Sounds like normal cervical fluid to me. You should check out the book Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler. It is very informative about things like that.

I had this once. It was horrible. I got it after taking an antibiotic for a case of mastitis. I was never hospitalized or anything though. I basically sufferred through for a couple of weeks (no insurance at the time) until I finally just had to do something since I couldn't even work for having to run to the bathroom all the time! Stupid doc called and let me know what I had, but said he wouldn't prescribe anything since I was breastfeeding. What a jerk. Like he can't even look up what meds are safe. I had to call my ob and tell him what I had so his nurse could call me in some Flagyl. Fortunately that did the trick and I haven't had any problems since. Rough stuff though.

Do NOT store your cigarettes/crack pipes/lighter/whatever in your lady parts. But it's such a convenient pouch!

We have 4 week classes here. Great for the easy, boring classes (statistics anyone?). Not so sure about the A &Ps I'm taking in June and July.

I second the idea of acadamic amnesty. It's called academic forgiveness here. Many programs don't honor it though. Luckily, mine does. I had a bad first semester of college. Also before retaking your pre reqs, you need to check with an advisor at your school. I say that b/c at my school, they only count pre req grades toward admission. Here, if you were to fail say, English Lit 201 and then retake it with an A, both grades would still be there, just averaged together giving you a C. On the other hand if you took English LIt 202 instead of retaking 201 only the grade in 202 would count. If there is another equivilant or higher class option that fits that pre req requirement, they only count the highest grade. Just something to check into.

Thanks everyone for your advice and input. At my school, they don't pick candidates until the end of May. You don't have to have all of your pre reqs finished at that time though. You just have to have them finished by the time you start your nursing classes. My advisor is very confident that I'll get in for Fall, as I have an excellent GPA and that's all they go by here. So basically my grades in A &P and Ethics won't matter much as I'll already have been accepted, I just have to have a C. I am worried about not having enough time for my kids and other responsibilities. I hear you guys on the burn out too. I am going to try though. Hopefully I'll know soon enough if it's too much. I know I'll be working my butt off though! Luckily, my mother in law will be staying with us during the week so that will help greatly. And I'll probably be able to hire someone to clean my house for me at least for June and July. I have already told dh that he's going to have to pick up the slack. He graduates this month with his master's, so he should have a bit more time to help out than in the past. If I'm not worried about the housework and things like that hopefully I can get in some quality time with my kids between class and studying. Luckily both my kids are still nursing and we co sleep, so that should help a bit with the transition.

Sounds like a hard but rewarding career. Thanks for the insight.

Initially I had reservtions about taking the Ethics and AP together in the Summer semester, but my advisor recommend I go ahead and finish up my pre reqs. I guess I'll give it a go and see how things work out. I can always drop and wait until Spring to start Nursing classes. I may look into hiring someone to come and clean my house for me, at least during june though. I know that if it was just me, I could handle the coursework. I'm just worried about having enough time for my kids. Then again, it's only for a month. Also, since we get our letters at the beginning of June, the only grades that count for admission are the ones through May Semester, so really I only have to pull a C in those last three classes. Of course I want to do better than that though if I can.