athflvr

Quote I'm currently 46, turning 47 in a week, plan on applying next year if anybody wants to email me the name of a school they know for sure accepts applicants over 45 years old, I'd appreciate i>>>>>>>>>. James, I don't know where you are but I graduated from Arapahoe CC in Littleton Colorado at 47, however, if you want the BSN a good nursing friend of mine graduated from CU in Denver at 50. I've not heard of anyone who has had any trouble in the Colorado area getting into school at an older age. My floor specializes in orienting new grads to hospital nursing. The clinicals teach them to how to pull out all that new knowledge they got in school and use it, especially in an emergency - you know that stuff you know but don't really KNOW yet when you get out of school. My point is that we have a lot of new grads that come through and probably at least half are looking at either side of 50 or at least over 40.

When I was in nursing school a few years back, they gave the average age of the class as 47 which was my age at the time. If anyone had told me in my 20's or 30's that I'd want to be a nurse when I grew up I'd have laughed my ass off.

ROFLOL!!!!!!!!!! Unfortunately, it always amazes me when a pt actually admits that the ibuprophen or toradol worked better than dilaudid!

I've seen that pt! No I can't take morphine I'm allergic, no I don't remember what reaction I had. No, fentanyl makes me sick to my stomach. I think the one that worked maybe started with a d........... Oh you must mean darvocet...

An ER nurse brought me a patient one morning who was a sweet, wonderful, delightful woman. Old as Moses and still smoked, drank a little, lived alone, took care of her grandkids and herself. Really she was wonderful and most of her family was too. Of course it was one of THOSE families that all had to hang out with Mom/Grandma the whole time she was there. They had been with her in the ER too. When it was time for her to come to the floor not one of them thought to pick up her bag of belongings and bring it with them. So when THE daughter arrived on the floor she took me aside and immediately started fussing about her mother's clothes. Those were new shoes - only two weeks old - and they kept them in the ER. THAT NURSE kept them. I told her I would go down to the ER and look around when I got a minute but was sure we'd find them Not to worry. In the next half hour she cornered everyone who would answer the call light or walked down the hall to accuse THAT ER nurse of stealing her mother's shoes, pants, dainty underthings and shirt. Now I know this nurse, he's young enough to be my son. Strictly interested in his health and fitness and is as nice and nice looking as he can be. I'm sure he really wanted this 90 year old woman's cigarette smelling clothes and those shoes- those crepe taupe shoes - that were only 2 weeks old. I brought the bag of clothes back to the floor, I went just to save my coworkers and the other visitors from her - I looked at the daughter with the most amazed look I could plaster on my face and said "Did you really think that nurse wanted your mother's clothes? REALLY?.....REALLY???" Some people

TWinkers, I'm guessing you don't laugh or think that it's cute when he's behaving that way. And I would assume you explain any medical conditions before someone attempts to treat your son - for his protection as well as the care provider.

IF I'm replacing it because it hit the 72 hours and needs to be replaced then I usually leave it in until the new one is in. However, if I'm replacing it because it's occluded or infiltrated I definitely take it out first. One thing about nursing school though - follow the instructor just because you need to to pass. It's been awhile but I still remember people being dropped because they "can't follow instructions". Thinking for yourself is a wonderful thing and will serve you well. On a good day, it's what nursing is about

OK I'm going to be really jaded and sarcastic, probably because it's 5am and I'm getting ready to go back for the last day in my string of shifts this week but .......... I'm guessing she didn't even think about it because she won't be buying the case of tampons - I will! :innerconf

You know, on looking back, I should never have posted after the weekend I had two weekends ago. In all honesty, more often than not, we nearly always have 5 patients. We've lost some good staff lately (nurses and CNAs) which puts a bit more strain on those who are left. However, one we lost was a bit of a troublemaker so - you give some you get some. I work in a hospital where the vast majority of the doctors respect the nurses, actually speak up on our behalf, and will ask your opinion (and mostly use it). And the doctors who don't respect the nurses are usually the same ones that don't respect their peers so it gives that "us against them" thing a whole different feel. You know how things go in cycles - That weekend was the culmination of several weeks that just got worse and worse. We had patients who required security on the floor periodically and a patient whose spouse seemed bent on making everyone's (from the CMO to housekeeping) life a living hell. And a person who took an enormous amount of narcs on a daily basis who was the rudest person ever to walk (or try). YOu can imagine his pain control issues. When you kept adding one after another and no one left.... It was not a good weekend. You know when you just feel everything is out of control! Thankfully things have gotten back a bit closer to normal. Our patients don't tend to be easy patients - those patients for the most part just aren't hospitalized anymore - but at least the whole place doesn't feel like you're barely holding it together. In looking around I realize that the place I work is no worse than most and a hell of a lot better than many.

Thanks for the info. I am finding our that there is so much more to learn than just what they teach in school... the policies, politics, cultures, ect... Thanks!!! ~BlueBug Ain't that the truth. When I was first hired into my job I was in nursing school and the nurse manager that hired me told me - if you can learn to work this floor you can learn to work anywhere. (She was the best manager. She started as a floor nurse then an ICU nurse and then an ER nurse before she was promoted. She always made sure we had sufficient equipment and help etc. So of course she got fired. She wasn't so good at wanting to walk that line for management.) I have to say though, that for all the problems we have, our floor has never had a huge problem with backstabbing or nastiness to each other. We tend to look out for ewach other as much as possible. Not that it never happens - you always have those types that come and go but luckily they've always seemed to go!

Emma, when I was doing day care in my home and knew it was time to move on, i started looking at some of the jobs around me - knew I didn't want to go back to accounting. I had thought maybe nursing or teaching. However, most of the people around me were teachers and I could see I didn't want to do that. One of the fathers was a nurse. In the time his kids were with me he had so many different jobs. He would get the new job, work there anywhere from a week to a year, then get mad at someone and quit or walk out (it wasn't unusual for him to walk out in the middle of a shift). He never went with out a job for more than 3 months and usually had a new job in a week or so. I thought "Wow, if Tom can be a nurse, I can sure be a nurse" Thankfully I still love it more than that! I'm so glad you moved on but that's where the nursing shortage will help you! Don't let it taint where you go from here.

I'm at a not for profit hospital and our ratios tend to be 5-1 on the med surg and neuro floors. Anymore it's not unsusal for the ratio to bump to 6-1. When I was a CNA we normally had 10 or 12 to 1. Now it's not unusual for our CNA's to have up to 17 before the matrix changes to add another CNA. I have a huge amount of sympathy for them because their job is backbreaking too (my floor tends to have a lot of total care patients) but it also makes my job harder - we don't have the back up and end up doing total care. And unfortunately I've noticed a climb in acuity. Many patients on our floor today would have been in step down a couple of years ago. The amount of care and attention they receive is too extensive to be able to care for them and 5 other patients safely. you just have to hope someone doesn't need anything! We've had many of our really good nurses already leave for other places (GI, surgery, plumbing! etc) and after the last week or two, many of the rest have begun making plans to leave. However, if KC is looking at 7-1..........

That's too funny! Why do people think that stuff is OK in the hospital. I work in a Catholic hospital - I'd love to tell them "You know I'm not catholic but this is a catholic hospital and I'm pretty sure that "Big Jesus" downstairs in the lobby is frowning on that - you're probably going to hell for sure for that one you idiot.

Yeah, when I was still very new I worked with a nurse who was pretty involved with trying to get people into the union. About once every year or two there's a push again, we get a nominal raise and people move on. Very disappointing. I usually work weekends so spent the weekend trying to find the info and contacts. It's become a mission now. Some companies (Kaiser) are union but not nursing on the whole here. I've told my parents the same thing! However, they're from KCMO which is still "right to work" I believe........ But when we have winter we just have snow - they have ICE.