karenG

hiya I guess the questions depend on what course you are doing. are you planning on doing the 3yr masters route? if so, the questions are going to be about finding out if you understand what the course entails/ how is a NP different to other roles? they are going to want to know you are aware of how hard the course is.. that sounds daft but its a really tough course! they spend the first 18 mths destroying you and the next building you back up. thats what we were told! it changes how you look at things and how you work. the divorce rate following the NP course is very high! also consider the amount of time it takes and how much time you will need each week to do the course work. we were told 20hrs a week study. its hard to do it and have a social life (actually you dont) and run a family. where are you applying to?

when I trained (back in the dark ages) we wore a national uniform.. students wore white dresses with different coloured belts to denote the year of training, staff nurses wore pale blue and the sisters wore navy blue. and you were not allowed to wear uniform out of the hospital unless you lived in the nurse home, in which case you had a big cape to wear over the top. all uniforms were washed by the hospital.. we used to go to the basement once a week to collect our clean uniforms.. so much easier then!

thats interesting; I wonder if there is a regional variation then? Because in the 2 Primary Care Trusts that I have worked in, its been the case that secondary care nurses are not allowed to prescribe from the BNF and must use a hospital formulary. problem with working in primary care for 30yrs is that you lose touch with what goes on in the big bad hospital world...

oh and to open a can of worms..... one of the biggest problems we have is the perception that the NHS is there to provide health care to whole world for nothing! In primary care, we see patients who are from all over- sometimes our surgery feels like united nations! there are 110 languages spoken the area i work in and a large number of patients are from countries with very poor health care. so they are health tourists...... and its costing the NHS a lot of money. there was some stuff in the papers recently about Hammersmith hospital maternity department- they put up a very incorrect poster of the world, detailing where their patients come from and only something like 5% were actually British. so this is a big issue for us. we dont like asking people for money, particuarly when it comes to paying for health care as we have been brought up to believe that care is free at the point of delivery. however, I suspect the NHS will go bankrupt trying to heal the world! I think we need at some point to have cards which can be checked to tell us the entitlement of people to health care; we have a large number of students from various parts of the world who have overstayed their student visas and no longer have entitlement to anything... so tell me how we police this? soap box.. I see the NHS struggling to do everything it can to deliver high quality care and failing miserably at times because we are painting ourselves into a corner; we cant afford the NHS we would like without some radical changes. I dont have the answer and I wish I did!

I'm an advanced nurse practitioner working in primary care; so prescribing. I am an independant prescriber and for me, in primary care it means I prescribe within my areas of competency. so I can prescribe anything except controlled drugs such as morphine. I have a prescribing 'bible' called the BNF (British National Formulary) and I use that a lot! as a nurse in general practice the rules are different.. hospital nurses seem to have use a hospital decided formulary which they have to stick by; I dont. If I can justify prescribing something, then i do so. Karen

I've been in nursing 30yrs now.. and I cant stand the sight of blood.. I'm very squeamish. most nurses have an area they prefer not to work in; for me that orthopaedics.. anything to do with bones and I'm out cold!! but having said that, I love ophthalmology.. and most nurses hate that field!! I also cant watch operations on TV or go to any films that are rated above a PG!! But.. put me in a situation where I need to be professional and care for someone.. well I can do that. Its amazing how much you can do for a patient when you need to. good luck Karen

am I the only one being driven totally demented by swine flu???? I work in a busy general practice (we have 13000 patients registered) and so far this week I have taken over 100 phone calls from people who think they are going to die from swine flu, including one mother who told me that if her child dies, it will be my fault and she will sue me!! I am fed up with the goverment telling people that GP's are preparing to immunise people.. are we?? thats the first we have heard. I am now reading the telegraph online each morning to find out what I am supposed to be doing!! I have no idea how we are going to immunise all the practice. 13000 patients recieving 2 vaccinations a month apart plus all the normal work load plus the normal flu vaccine... we have 3 practice nurses and me to do the imms.. the docs are too busy seeing patients to help.. or we could just refuse to do anything other than give imms for a few weeks..............! I would like some information from them up high... not have to read it in the papers!! how stupid do i look when the patients know more than me???? and.. has anyone tried phoning the swine flu info number.......its a recorded message, listing the symptoms and saying if you have 2 or more of the symptoms to contact your GP! we are also getting told off by the primary care trust because people are going to a&e with their symptoms... thats our fault apparently for not giving the right advise!! em.. the patients choose to to a&e, they dont come anywhere near us!! and to top it all, I now have a sore throat, thumping headache, cough and cold and feel rotten.. hmm could be swine flu... ok I am really fed up at the moment!!!!! am I the only one feeling fed up??

I think clinical supervision has been around for many years; we just called it something different. As I stated earlier, I remember going to the pub after a terrible shift and having a few beers while talking about the shift and how I could have done things better.. and certainly thats how I view clinical support (much better term, IMHO. supervision sounds so awful!). I've been a supervisor for 10yrs now, and have both a group of nurses and individual nurses who come for support. The groups are easy to run, I act as a referee most of the time while everyone chips in and talks around all sorts of issues. for me, the best thing about this is that is supported by our employers, they allow nurses protected time to do this. so little problems dont become big ones, and we hopefully avoid any major ones! its a good thing in general but I can see that it could be used to check up on nurses; I dont have to report back to anyone about what was discussed, only say who attended and how long the session was. so, when it works, it works well.

Im a clinical supervisor and its not seen the way Herring RN describes it! well at least not where I work. basically, its a safe enviroment in which to discuss clinical issues, and look ways of solving them. back in the old days, we'd go down the pub, drink a few beers and pour out the stress of the day! clinical supervision or support as we prefer to call it, is a formal way of doing this. everything discussed in clinical support is confidential. it can be individual or group. while a nurses manager is aware they come for clinical support to me, I am under no obligation to tell anyone what is discussed. It is a way of helping nurses deal with the situations they find themselves in. how many times have you done something and been scared to tell anyone?? this provides a safe enviroment to discuss anything work related. at least thats how we see it in primary care.. it is a very positive thing... at least you dont end up with a hangover as we used to in the bad old days! I've been a clinical supervisor for 10 yrs now.. its been around for awhile! Karen

well; I would have bought that T-shirt!! I think sometimes we need to learn to laugh at ourselves.. we can be very serious.... but then I am a fencer and have a t-shirt which says 'it takes more than 56 inches to impress me' with a picture of a fencer under the writing. its a fencing joke... an epee is 56 inches long. guess it offends some people but fencers love it!! (and i bought it in the states on my last visit)

dont think they do that any more.. and never saw it done myself, but then we seem to different stuff for different things!! I wear contact lens. one for distance and one for reading (because i am vain and wont wear bifocal glasses!) My eyes have no problems with the different images.. and i can read ok.

its actually more common to have glare with cataracts- due to the opacity in the lens refracting the light. Glare is a big problem as you get older so its probably a combination of things.. ! I am very short sighted (most of us who have ever worked in eyes have a sight problem!) and have problems with glare- due to my sight defect. Its getting worse as I get older and I have thought about anti glare glasses that you can get here. not sure if you can get them there but that might help. Karen

its spelt ophthalmologist! cataract surgery is bread and butter stuff; you should be able to see quite quickly, depends if they put a lens in(they normally do here). so about 6 wks normally before you get your sight back to normal.... almost! work shouldnt be a problem after the intial post-op period. good luck Karen

hi bit boring but will be worth it!! try listening to the radio or talking books! wont be long before you get your sight back to normal. Karen

thats interesting. over here, primary care refers to patients seen outside of a hospital setting. I work in primary care, we are seen as the first port of call for any patient so its primary care! patients cared for in hospitals are in secondary care. Interesting how we use the same language but the terminology is different!

i am proud to be an np and to see patients as a nurse.. and yes.. i do dressings, take out stitches and do the nurse stuff, as well as the np stuff.. i work as a nurse, i am working to the best of my ability to deliver the best care i can. i am a maxi nurse... not a mini doctor!! we all care for our patients, some of us do in different ways. please dont think the bedside nurse has the monopoly on caring.

I'd have to disagree with that. Unless the NP is actually employed by the PCT (and I can only think of one that I know of) what an NP wears in a GP practice is dependant on what the GP's say! I've worked in one practice where black jeans and a polo shirt were acceptable. My current practice require me to wear a suit.. so suit trousers, shirt and jacket. Karen

I think you will find the answer to all your questions in various places on this board.. most of them have been discussed to death! and despite what we say, and all the complaining we all do about the hours, the patients, the sore feet.. none of us would do anything else!! go into nursing expecting it to be totally different to anything you have done before... and you should be fine.. good luck

its a bit different over here.. NP's have had a hard time getting permission to actually request stuff like xrays.. so we are careful to have a good clinical reason for asking for it.. also patients dont pay for heath care.. its free at point of contact.. and maybe that makes it easier to tell someone they cant have an MRI scan because they've had a headache for a day! I would agree that we also practice defensively.. we cover our backs every time. over here, a lot of nurses dont think much of NP's, we are seen as wannbe docs.. it makes life a bit hard at times. I dont want to be a doctor.. just be the best nurse I can be!

in 30 years as a nurse, I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times thats happened. Patients on the whole dont care if you are gay/straight/black/white/orange/green etc.. they DO care that you can do your job professionally. I'm wiccan.. so far no-one has threatened to burn me at the stake.. the patients I care for are only interested in my professional skills and my ablility to get them better and back to work. anyway.. I was always taught to leave personal stuff at the door when you go to work.. patients have enough problems of their own without a nurse adding his or her own problems to the mix!

my apologies!! Just done what I hate people doing and used jargon! gyea.. short for gyneacological ward SCBU.. special care baby unit over here, if you want to look after children or babies, you can either qualify as a nurse (RN, registered nurse) and then undertake futher training to become a childrens nurse, thats on another part of our register, or you can qualify as a childrens nurse, but cant nurse adults. There are add on courses to work in areas such as special baby care or paedatric intensive care units, but those are not generally on the register. All nurses here are registerd with the NMC (nursing and midwifery council) and anyone can check your qualifications as long as they know your name.. you just log onto the website and ask! does that make sense now? sorry...

do you want answers from just the States? or would you like some from the UK? Karen

my apologies if you feel i have hijacked your thread.. i would point out that i may have been a nurse for 30yrs.. but i dont work in the states and we dont have the same job titles as in the states. we have only a few qualifications.. here nurses are registered nurses, with a few speciallities such as midwife or health vistor. i'm a nurse practitioner- and its not a recognised qualification here yet despite being at masters level. we dont have crna's here........ we might have something similiar but thats not a title we use, will have to check what title we use but would be a clinical specialist role, so they will be a registered nurse specialist. i hate jargon.. it leads to mistakes.. for example iud. this can mean inter-uterine death or inter-urterine device.. so it can lead to miscommunication. i frequently feel i speak a different language to people in the states! so my apologies for asking for clarification about a term i didnt understand. maybe i should start a thread on all the abbrevations i dont understand! and you just edited your post.. taking out the bit saying i had hijacked your thread!!! i'll leave mine to stand as it is.. and will continue to ask for clarification when i dont understand stuff..

ok I swear you lot do this to see how long it takes me to work out the Jargon...........what is a CRNA?? I think it might mean a certified registered nurses aid?? if so.. what the heck is that?? wont tell you the 'non professional' interpretations I have come up with!!:icon_roll dont think I'd do very well working in the states.. I'd be the nurse standing there with a stunned look on her face trying to work out what you just said.. and why do you call a ward a floor?? for me, a floor is the whole level.. as in first floor, second floor etc! a ward is a collection of beds that you work on..

its not that bad!! ok maybe it is.. I didnt enjoy being a midwife.. though its different over here to the states... I have a friend called Moses (drop dead georgeous) who got fed up with being chased by patients (he was working on a gyae ward) and changed to become a childrens nurse! hes now a charge nurse in SCBU.. which he loves because the babies dont answer back or ask for his phone number!!! (keep telling him hes now getting to old to be chased as we are both heading for our zimmer frames!!)