avatar78

Sounds like you need a different school. That hasn't been my experience. Our class president was a guy and he won 1 of only 2 special achievement awards awarded at the college this year.

Erie, PA. $18.36 starting days. Not too exciting, but my rent here is only $350 for a nice 2 br apt. :can't find shoulder shrug smilie:

I have RNotes-Nurse's Clinical Pocket Guide-by Ehren Myers. I debated between that and the MedSurg, decided on this one, can't remember why. It seems very complete. It is a definitely a little chunky, but the pages are waterproof. I wish the appendix was a little more complete, sometimes it is hard to find what you're looking for, but probably the more you use it the easier it is. I really like it, but it's the only one I've seen/used. I have to say my PDA is 10x better for quickly finding stuff, but also is 10x the price.

How do you usually assess if the gag reflex is present, say if the pt has returned to the floor post-procedure? Do you actually stick a tongue blade to the back of the throat?

Got the pin today. It is round and gold. It only cost us $5 so that's good. Personally I think it looks a little unprofessional when someone's id badge has a bunch of pins and stickers on it. I've never worn a pin in my life and don't plan to start now. But that's just one guy's opinion.

http://saddleback.edu/alfa/ One of the most helpful sites I've ever used. If I remember right, in their video they actually sink the NG in the volunteer. Brave lady!

That seems like it would be a bad idea to quit before you start. Could you study and take your NCLEX in the meantime?

The monocyte number you're looking for is the SI unit versus the % that is given. It's high both ways. Normal in my book is 0.02-0.08x10(to the 9th)/L.

I was looking through my Doenges nursing dx book, and there is a NANDA dx of Disturbed Energy Field as evidenced by objective things like waves, spikes, color changes, or holes in the pt energy flow. What the heck?! :icon_roll I wrote it in as a possible dx on my final care plan, my teacher was cracking up.

Thanks very much guys. I'm going to write it down and carry it with me always!

Most of my patients have more than one laxative/cathartic in their prn bowel regimen. Dulcolax, mom, fleets, sennokot, mag citrate, miralax and whatever others. What order might you use them in when they haven't been going? Could someone maybe put them in a list of try this first, then this, then the big guns (whatever that might be- fleets I assume)?

They probably have to fill out an incident report on the fall, and so they need to know what happened/how it could be prevented in the future. Not your fault specifically, just part of hospital policy.

I know they prep you for NCLEX, but other than that is there any point to them? Is the activity of studying and taking exams applicable to nursing on the floor? Do you use test taking strategies on the floor? I just feel frustrated and worried. I keep taking nursing exams (13 so far), and I keep looking at RNs in clinical, and I feel like the gap should be narrowing, and it's not.

Ok thank you, that helps. I haven't seen any patients so far on med-surg with ABGs, just the basic BMP. Is it more common in critical care?

I thought I had acid/base figured out until this semester. Here is a typical lab I see from a BMP. CO2(TOTAL) 22 LOW Expected Value 23-31 meq/L This is different from PaCO2? 35-45 is not the expected range? And this CO2 actually measures HC03 (from what I have found reading)? I'm very confused. :)

At work today I got to try and place 5 caths, which was unusual and pretty cool. I could only get 2 in correctly though. The 1 guy I did had an enlarged prostate, and I was putting in the coude cath tip down, which I'm reading now is exactly opposite of how it should be. But the women! They were average large women, not 300 pounds, but I was doing good to find the folds of the labia majora, much less visualize the meatus. Is there a trick to seeing down there? Just keep digging down and spreading open with my clean hand? Would it be better to sort of put the pinky edge of my hand in the labial fold and pivot it to open it up? I was taught to drag my palm up over the labia and spread it as I come up superiorly, but that's not working too hot. Another wrinkle is lots of hip fractures, so a lot of them have at least one leg they can't flop open real well.

this sounds like really good advice. what's the best way to figure out if it's a great er or not?

What are the extra courses in a BSN? More medical courses, or more management and business? Looking at my local university, one extra course is on ethics, but I can't tell what the other subjects are.

Witnesses base their beliefs on the Bible, not on what a group of people tell them to believe, and the thing is, the Bible is 2000 years old. It mentions not taking in blood, but knowledge of blood fractions and Cellsaver was pretty sketchy at that point. So while JWs don't accept major blood products, as you start getting down to the molecular level, people choose for themselves how to apply what the Bible says about blood, hence the variety of treatments opted for. Personally I'm guessing this point will probably be moot in 10-20 years. A lot more stuff will be synthetic, and non-blood treatments options will be pretty routine for everyone, not just JWs.

Yup, def. talk with financial aid. Seems like you could get a federal Stafford loan without much trouble.

Well, it sounds mercenary, but I'm doing it for job security and good pay. My dept. almost got eliminated last year, and I figured nursing would be a reliable field to get into. And I think it may be pretty exciting depending what area I'm in.

The best sleepmask I have found. http://www.hibermate.com/ I use it every day. I took off the earpads, it was a little weird to sleep on them. It blocks out the light very well.

Ah, I see. Thanks.

Right after I started thinking ADN someone turned me onto the show 'Scrubs', which I love. I have to ask, since it seems to be set in an ICU of a teaching hospital, is real life anything like the show? :)

It linked to some other good sites I'll bookmark for nursing info, but I didn't see anything about scholarships. I think I found 2 to apply for through fastweb, haven't heard anything yet. My financial aid office has 6 just for my college, but they're all for 2nd year nursing students. I guess I'll be maxing out the ol' student loan.