justme1972

Ok..I have to be honest. You did say something wrong to the physician, and my jaw dropped when I read what you said. When you asked the patient which antibiotic was it...and the doctor said, "It's alright, I know what it is."....THEN you said, "Um, It's not alright...."....anything you had to say after that, I can tell you, she wasn't listening. Then it appeared that you said this in front of the patient...which I sure hope didn't happen, b/c if it did, it was very inappropriate. If you needed to know to charting, then you should have said, "I just need to know which drug it is so I can chart it." I think the outcome of the conversation would have been quite different. Daytonite is 100% correct. You want to work WITH doctors, not stay in a battle with them.

I'm not sure if you are married or single, but it's probably something to consider to move out of the area. I would also tweak your resume to show the year and leave off the month that you graduated. Go to every job fair that you can, browse the websites on monster, careerbuilder, every website that you can find that has nursing jobs. You also need to isolate what the problem is. Are you getting interviews and no job offers or no interviews? You may also want to consider your career counselor at your old school and tell them you need help...that is only, their whole job. I would also call your old nursing instructors...they usually know everyone who is anyone at the local hospitals....they could help you get around the nurse recruiter. Also, are you following up on resume's? Sending thank you notes? Just be creative and keep your chin up.

Every instructor has their 'thing' that they get stuck on...don't let this one set the tone for how things are in a hospital...schools are different. I personally wear my hair to where if I had to put in a foley or an IV, it don't have to touch it to get out of the way..if your hair is medium length, I don't really see how you can do that. At minimum, I have to clip the front section of my hair back. Ponytails are not necessary. The nails...this is where the instructions we were given were sort of oxymoronic...we were told we could wear "clear" nail polish, and from a bacterial standpoint....this is no different than a color. However, chipped nail polish never looks good, and unless you are going to keep a french, polish that doesn't match your makeup or in too-bright tones such as red, orange, or other strange colors, to me, is unprofessional. Just remember that it's a nursing job where you take care of sick people and that takes priority over fashion.

Try to understand that just like nurses have protocols, so do other professions in the hospital. Recruiters are required to make so-many contacts with potential hires, and they have to keep a record of their contacts, what they have done to "lure" the potential employee, what they have offered, all of this has to be documented. It's not desparation, it's part of their job. Recruitment for any employer is technically a sales job and many recruiters also have a sales or marketing background, which is what you want. You have to know how to overcome objections, gather information about what someone really wants, what would it take to help them make their decision...etc. The nurse recruiter at our major hospital system is an RN..but she has her MBA instead of an MSN, with an emphasis in....surprise, Marketing.

I have heard something similar that is supposed to take place in our state come January 1st. Even with "padding" on the floor, elderly clients who have osteoperosis will still break bones with the fall, no matter how much padding is placed there. If they can break bones from pathological fractures..then why would the padding help? It's one of those things that may take place, and then someone will wake up and realize that they didn't quite think it through.

Send me a PM...we had an entire class that was over an entire semester dealing with nursing Math. I'll send you the ISBN number. My textbook was excellent, broke everything down, and I bet you could probably pick up one for dirt cheap.

Or screaming..."I'm an addict"

The problem is, the Generation X'ers, like myself, have no memory of classmates actually dying of these things. However, our parents do. It's easy to dismiss them based on "personal philosophy" when you have never actually seen a child practically choke to death or die from these diseases from massive infection, they will probably sing a different tune. There is no doubt in my mind that some children do have adverse affects of these vaccinations...just like medications, someone has to be that 1% (theoretically speaking..not literally). Granted, if that 1% is your child, it's devastating. I couldn't imagine. There was a pediatrician on a talk show years ago that felt very strongly that the chicken pox vaccine cased his daughter's autism (b/c the behavior had turned so sharply after it was administered)...however, he said, "As a pediatrician, I cannot sit here and say that I am going to advice parents to not vaccinate, and if I had another child, I would."

Don't forget to look at the tuition. I found Frontier to be far more expensive to do their "bridge" classes vs getting a BSN and possibly going in BSN prepared...just no question as to how it compared expense-wise.

190% illegal. Pregnancy is considered a short-term disability and is protected as such. This not only includes employment situations but educational settings as well. They are required to make "reasonable accomodations" just like everyone else. No school, public or private, is exempt from that.

This varies college by college. BSN courses are more likely to transfer however, ADN courses rarely do.

This is a child that died of chicken pox...what is unusual was that this wasn't an infant, but a 12-year old. Article didn't say if the child was immunized or not, which to me, was a pretty important detail that was missed. http://www.local6.com/health/18271674/detail.html

On a personal level, I don't ask a doctor for a second opinon..I just get one. I also never get one from the group the first doctor was in, b/c another doctor will most likely not go against the medical opinion of another physician in that same group, so to me, that opinion would be worthless to seek. Just my

....and a great example of...everything is fine for home births, as long as everything goes textbook.

I would report it officially b/c sometimes parametics have just enough knowledge to be very dangerous. If the man is in and out of consciousness and can possibly have a head injury, then it's safe to say that he cannot give informed consent. If that were the case, then every patient who is in the ER who said, "No, stop, that hurts!", would just be left to their own devices. To me, parametics and ambulance services are not exempt from that. It was a very poor judgement call and there would be no question in my mind of filing a formal complaint.

Yup...always hits me about 3 weeks before the semester ends. Bad timing...real bad.

I think that this could become an amazing resource for those that either bombed the GRE's or are weak in Math....like me :) I plan on taking the GRE's to expand my choices, but it's nice to know where you can go if you don't get a good score.

Do Suzanne's plan before you enroll in Kaplan. I plan on doing both only because our school has included Kaplan into our tuition, but I was planning on taking my chances with Suzanne's plan, mainly because I have seen so many posts of where people are new and come onto the board that have failed for the 4th and 5th time...only to do Suzanne's plan and pass.

Wow...this is a GREAT question!! It also...would explain a lot.

Everyone feels like they failed the NCLEX when they walk out. Just about Everyone. Not once have I seen someone post, "Yeah, I nailed that sucker!" or "You know...it wasn't so bad!" So congratulations...you have joined the majority :)

I think there is another reason why 12-hour shift were implemented in hospitals....it alleviates quite a bit of the "she said, she said" factor. When 8-hour shifts were common...early shift blamed everything on the night shift, 2nd shift blamed the morning shift..night shift claimed that the 2nd shift didn't get enough done, day shift claims that they were too busy and night shift had "all night"....oh...we have heard it all! A shift is more likely to do their job...when they have to have a face-to-face report from the people that is going to be taking over...and these are roughly the same folks that handed you the shift to start with.

Care plans were left over from the days when you would spend a week or more in the hospital just for an appendectomy. They were originally designed for longer-term stays...so that is why we students find them difficult to do for patients who can be out the door in 5 days following a heart surgery. As much as I hate them, they do help. It forces me to prioritize the nursing Dx and to really focus on what am I going to do that is going to help the patient in relation to what they are in the hospital for.

Sue, the best of luck! I'm sure you will nail it!

I'll be honest..I don't think the color of your skin has anything to do with whether or not you become a doctor or a nurse. Where I live, we have a huge number of foreign doctors...so much so, that American doctors have a hard time because the perception here is that the foreign doctors are better. It doesn't matter what anyone says...if YOU BELIEVE your skin color is a barrier, then it will be. If you look at ANY minority professional, regardless of what race they were, they were able to accomplish anything that they set their mind to. If anything, when applying to nursing school or medical school, being a minority is an ADVANTAGE b/c the profession is trying to create a more culturally diverse workforce. I do think that part of the prejudice that you are concerned about has to do with the fact that you live in the NY/NJ area. I am also going to assume you are of Cuban descent based on your upcoming vacation. Every geographical area in the USA has the "group" that feels that they are the victims of racism. In NY, it's Jewish people, in the South, it's blacks, in the midwest, it's Native Americans, in the Southwest, it's Mexicans. You see what I mean? You believe what is common for your area. I live in the South...yes, there is a lot of racial tension regarding blacks/whites here ..and unfortunately, it's worse in some areas than others...but you won't find it with Jewish people or Hispanics. I even remember just last year learning a word that is insulting to Jewish people (which out of respect to our Jewish members, I obviously won't type here).. when I first heard the word, I actually burst out laughing...you know why? Because the word sounded not only stupid...I didn't have a clue as to what it meant...and I even had to ask...I was told, "Don't ever say that to a Jewish person b/c they find it really insulting"...I laughed even harder, I said, "Why would I? First, I don't even really know any Jewish people...I have no clue as to why some New Yorkers have such an issue with them...and even if I did...that word would be really hard to work into a conversation." It's all about where you live, what you were taught, and what you believe in. The PEOPLE THAT ARE TELLING YOU that you can't make it...are just jealous because they know YOU CAN.

I have a question for you...I suck at Math...I had to take a high-school level of Chemistry last year for the nursing program and I struggled the entire way through. This has significantly limited my options as far as BSN programs and graduate schools. I feel like I require so much one-on-one explanation when it comes to math problems.