AtomicWoman

Thanks so much for this article. My biggest frustration as a primary care NP in treating ESRD patients is that once they are on dialysis, the nephrologists stop communicating with us. A note every 6 months, plus a copy of recent labs, would be very helpful, so that we know what is going on with the patient. They seem to forget that we have treated the patients for years while their kidney function was better than it is now. I recently saw a dialysis patient, who is doing well. But I found out he had had a lot of trouble with the vasculature in his access arm and had multiple procedures, consults, etc. Keeping our practice "in the loop" would have been appreciated and I would have called him to touch base. That said, I am extremely cautious in what I prescribe for these patients and if I have any question that I can't find the answer to, I call the nephro. Better safe than sorry.

I LOVE the Purdue OWL website, linked to in the first post: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/2/10/ I have recommended it to dozens of people. When I am writing a paper, I leave a window open with the OWL site on it. When I have a question, I scroll through OWL and 95% of the time, the answer is there, with a lovely example I can emulate. :)

My facility has disabled the "copy and paste" function on charting so that we cannot copy and paste the same note, even for the same patient. When I chart, I write something personal about each patient, even if everything was fine for the entire shift, no c/o pain, etc. Even just an observation that the patient had visitors shows you were paying attention. And, since I used to work nights, I know that even sleeping patients have to use the commode/bathroom, etc. at least once during the night.

Just an FYI, ask the school if they have been able to place all the graduating scholarship students in nursing positions at Lourdes in the last couple of years. I have *heard* that there were not positions for all the graduating scholarship students recently (given the crappy job market for new nurses here in S. Jersey/Philly), but I do not have first-hand knowledge. So ask questions. :)

No, but a nursing school classmate of mine did. He said he never worked so hard on a course in his life! Bear in mind that he had a full-time job, a wife and 2 little kids, too. But he got an "A".

Ocean County College, NJ, has A&P I and II totally online: http://www.ocean.edu/academics/programs_of_study/science/AP_Online.htm

I was just so *horrified* when I saw the photos of St. John's! It looked like Oklahoma City after the bombing. I cannot imagine what chaos it was there. We are with you, fellow nurses!

If you can go to GCC and you can do early morning classes in the fall, I have a GREAT Micro teacher to recommend. He is unbelievably good at making micro comprehensible and *interesting*. I still keep in touch with him. You can PM me if you need more info, as we are not allowed to post teachers' names here.

I would clarify the evening/weekend clinicals thing. When I went to nursing school, we had no choice in what days we had clinicals -- we were assigned. OLOL may do it differently, but don't depend on it until you know for sure. I'd hate to see you go there, thinking you could definitely get evening or weekend clinicals and end up assigned to day clinicals.

Staff nurses never oversee students. Your clinical instructor will oversee you. You might find a great nurse to shadow all day, and some of them are nice about showing you procedures, but they have their job to do, and that does not include supervising students.

I don't get this "surprise witness" thing. In a civil case, the defense has the right, before trial, to depose any witness for the plaintiff and vice-versa. How could they just march her into the courtroom to testify at trial?

I got mine from Nurses Service Organization: http://www.nso.com/ I bought it as a student and continued it once I was an RN. I can't remember the exact cost per year. It is cheap, though (less than $100 if I recall correctly).

You can apply, but facilities know that it takes about 2 months to get your endorsement from NJ. So they might not be too willing to seriously look at your application until you have that NJ license number in hand.

Because this is the New Jersey Nurses forum, my advice would be to go for the BSN. Here in the South Jersey/Philly area, it is getting harder and harder for ADNs to find jobs. Multiple health systems now only hire BSNs. My RN niece in North Jersey tells me it is the same, if not worse, in the northern end of the state. If we were talking about another state, I might be a bit more equivocal. Read the job ads on the hospital websites and see what they say before making your decision. Today's "BSN preferred" could well become "BSN required" in a couple of years, with the number of new BSNs being churned out every year and the job market still so crummy. My opinion only, of course.

When hospitals say they want experience, they mean experience working as a nurse. Being a CNA or a volunteer might help, but if the job description says "1 to 2 years experience required", they mean nursing experience. In my experience, hospitals don't give a hoot about a BA or an MA in another field. Your mileage may vary. As for applying before you pass the NCLEX, you might be one of the lucky few, but don't spend too much of your time and energy applying. Concentrate on passing the NCLEX. Where I am from, hospitals had no interest in talking to me or my classmates until we had passed the test and were licensed. Good luck!