eak16

Yayyy!!!!!! I'm waiting for that on-air apology though

I felt the same way... nursing school just sucks sometimes. Yes, sometimes it is inconvenient for the patient to have two assessments. But that is the reality of training- nurses have been training just like you are for a hundred years, and if there were no patients willing to have students learn from them then eventually the supply of nurses would dry up. I often felt like i was doing more harm than good- especially in psych clinical- (when i had to ask eleven pages of questions to a person with a very painful past) Just one of hte many reasons why nursing school is uniquely draining and difficult. But trust me it gets MUCH better.

Hi- my parents got me a digital camera for nursing school graduation- a Nikon coolpix 3200- and it has been just great. I am NOT a techie at all, but figured it out no problem. It takes great pictures and is tiny and lightweight. They run about $200. I am acually returning the favor to my parents and buying them the same model camera for Christmas!

wow- change of shift meds! that had never occurred to me! Meds at my hosptial are NEVER schduled for change of shift for the exact reasons discussed above. And furthermore, if the nurse has a good reason why the med should be rescheduled (like the fosamax at 6 am when the pt is sleeping well) we can pretty much reschedule things within reason with no problems from pharmacy or management. Furthermore, I made a benign mistake that made me feel like an idiot last week- I discharge a pt without an order! Had talked to the doc and the pt about the discharge, thought I was doing quite well thank you, and then about two hours after the pt. left, realized I had never acutally seen an order! The chart was already in medical records, i had to fish it out, cal the doc, (who, thank God, was equally embarassed that he had forgotten to write it). He HAD meant to discharge the pt. that morning, but I still felt dumb. Med-surg is rough.We have to be a lot tougher than we look!

Sounds like a great idea if it is used appropriately. Our discharge pharmacy is extremely slow- on weekends it can take three hours to get discharge meds, and often this leaves an otherwise ok pt. sitting around to a while just waiting for meds.

I have run into lots of CRNA's at UW and Harborveiw

More often than not I have found that it is unavoidable things that keep people from dontaing blood who really want to. A blood transfusion saved my fathers life, so I couldn't wait until i was old enough to donate; The I got malaria (long story)- whoops, couldn't donate for three years One donation after that i got cancer now cant donate until 2008. Would have much rather gotten a tattoo :-)

University of Washington School of Nursing (ranked #1 in the nation, woohoo!) has the MEPN program, where people with a non-nursing degree already can take classes for three years and leave with a RN and advance practice degree. You get to choose the advance practice specialty, and they have a very good CNM program. The program is very new though (this is first year) and prohibitively expensive if you dont have good financial aid. Congratulations on choosing nursing!

Hi- relax, ok, i was being very sarcastic. I totally agree with you, in fact, thats the point i was trying to make.

another point, with respect to Allele's post, is that call lights are NOT ALWAYS a priority and dont need to be. If I am in the room of a high acuity patient who is gasping for air and whose Sat is 80%, do you think I am going to rush out to answer the call light of a patient who is alert and oriented x4, ambulatory, and has a history of calling to ask for extra sugar for their tea? Could this be the one in a million "true emergency" call for the tea person- yes it could. Am i sometimes willing to take that risk? yep. One of the great things nurses are trained to do is prioritize. Sometimes pt's call lights take a long itme to be answered becuase they nurse (correctly) prioritized their time to another patient. this is something that should be appreciated for the critical thinking judgement that it is, not harangued.

how about one CNA solely dedicated to call lights? I have noticed that sometimes when I am in a room doing a twenty minute dressing change or something, I assume that the CNA's will be covering my call lights, only to discover that they were doing a similar long task in a patients room... If there was one CNA who only answered call lights and performed simple tasks (getting water, blankets, simple bedpans, etc.), and then called other CNA's or RN's (everyone would have to have phones) for more lengthy tasks, then there would nearly always be someone available to answer lights in a timely fashion, and it would free up the other CNA's to do AM care, transfers, etc.

protonix heparin SQ docusate lisinopril oxycodone aspirin 81 mg oral Kcl calcium gluconate mag-ox (can you tell our residents REALLY like to replace electrolytes?) lactulose levothyroxine levaquin vanco and of course- your fav and mine- insulin

gimme 12's! I would much rather have the same paitents for 12 hours than have to come back the next day, have different patients, and basically start from scratch. I feel like once i kind of get in a flow with a patient, I just want to keep going. The extra days off doesn't hurt either

It can really vary depending both on the individual state's laws on the scope of practice of RN's, LPN's and CNA's, as well as the style of nursing at individual hospitals. Where I work, there are no LPN's, only RN's and a few CNA's. While the RN's here only have 3-4 patients on a high-acuity med-surg floor, there may be only one or two CNA's for 30 paitents, so VERY often we end up answering most call lights, putting patients on bedpans, etc. If you want to read a LOT more about this, search the threads for "team nursing" and "primary nursing"

During a stint in Africa there were a few things that really helped me: cleaning wipes- any and all kinds- individually wrapped for toting around, packs of baby wipes for cleaning flavor packets- you can usually find tomatoes anywhere- a pack of salsa seasoning makes them special magazines little hygeine things- CHAP STICK! nail clippers, these tend to get lost every few months :-) a mix CD of whats on the radio here now a little stain removing pen, or Shout wipes. handheld games- loved Bop-it, and could share it with locals (no language needed) a mini-tape recorder, reporter type, to save the sounds and language remember bottles can and will explode on planes so double seal- found this out the hard way when my economy packs of Purell hand sanitizer baptized all my clothes :chuckle