Heatherheartsou

I love ePocrates and Micromedex for iPhone.

Own a vineyard, start a dog rescue, and train dolphins.

I believe your practice is only as unsafe as you allow it to be. Keep in mind, your priority is to advocate for the patient. If you feel something is unsafe, then speak up. Take the job. It will improve your confidence as a nurse. Also, look at location. Sometimes an area can make the hospital look unsatisfactory when really the hospital may be in a high crime area.

Many of our nurses start IV's in EJ's. However, I do not personally start EJ's. If it is that difficult to get access, I prefer central lines and PICCs.

Our ER currently only offers the Td vaccine. I am hopeful we will carry the Tdap soon.

I think it is important for ER nurses to enjoy a fast-paced environment, be teamworkers, and to be critical thinkers. Those would be good qualities to think about while interviewing.

In the emergency department I work in, if the pt has a fever.... NO blanket. They usually precede to get angry about it. However, I educate them about increasing their body temperature.

University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center does not require GRE. nursing.ouhsc.edu

Hey there. i am in OU's family nurse practitioner program. I am in the full-time program, and this summer is my first semester. I'm not sure what you would like to know about OU's program, but I will go ahead and give you some general info. They interviewed somewhere around 113 applicants this past year, and accepted 33 (or something like that). This includes part-time and full-time students, as well as all specialties. The full-time family np program is pretty busy. OU is not known for their organization, but this is where I did my undergrad, so I am pretty used to it. You can do part-time, and it takes 3 years instead of two. If you live in Oklahoma, and do not want to move, then OU is a great school to get your advanced practice degree. However there are other schools that have distance programs. I was looking at Vanderbilt as well. Let me know what other questions or concerns you have.

I feel your pain. I am in the same situation. I love my preceptor as a person, however, sometimes I feel as though she is very hard on me. I learn a lot, but I feel as though I am always uncomfortable because she makes me feel as though I don't know anything. For example, lets say we are giving my patient Fortaz. She will ask me what it is. I tell her it is an antibiotic.... then she will ask the other names.... what KIND of antibiotic is it (ie. bacteriocidal or bacteriostatic), pretty much all the side effects, and the half life. I'm sorry but I cannot possibly know EVERYTHING about EVERY drug. I agree, I should know what the drug is used for, and side effects. But really.... can anyone remember all that for every drug. It is like that with disease processes too. However, like I said before, I am learning great deal because of it. And she also likes the saying, "Look it up." We will be better nurses for getting through this process. I would rather work ER than anywhere, so in the end, it is worth it.

Hi everyone! I was in the first year they did the OU-OCCC collaborative program. So you can imagine, that was probably the toughest year. Just so you know, once we transferred to the Health Sciences Center, things did feel better. I graduated in May and just go into graduate school. So, it is possible to go to grad school right after nursing school, and going to OCCC will not hinder you. You CAN, I repeat CAN sit for your LPN boards, but there is no need to because you can be hired as a nurse extern or a tech after your first 1-2 semesters. I will tell you that being in the collaborative program does make you feel as though you are separate from the other students for the first year, however you bond with the other students in your class. And once you transfer to the OU campus, you will feel as though you have been there the whole time. It is not just OCCC that makes the students wait a whole year to retake a class..... that is OU in general. That is one of my biggest problems with the nursing program in general. The best advise I have is to talk to students at the OU campus when you get a chance. They may have study materials passed down from previous students.... and it does help. You will get through it, and you will do great. Best of luck!!!!

Our nursing program prides themselves on being "self study". They say it is better this way because it helps you prepare better, and you know where and how to get answers later. A nursing instructor told me last week when students write on their evals that they had to teach themselves... she is very pleased and this is what she wants to hear. I see their point, but I would like something that I can't get out of my textbook to entice me to actually go to class.

I just had to do a maggot removal yesterday. The patient was a homeless gentleman with bilat lower ext. cellulitus. He came in by EMSA for leg pain... but wow. He had maggots all over his legs and feet. He was also suffering from some psych issues (obviously) and he had lice. Anyway, we rolled him on the gurney to the decontamination shower to hose the suckers off because no one wanted to touch him until he had been bathed. The whole time he denied having maggots. He thought we were lying to him. But he also thought he was God... so.... We wore hazmat suits, face shields, taped our gloves down, etc. He is someone I will never forget, unfortunately.