jra2127

Nope. They offered it to someone with outpatient experience. Thank for your help

Thanks for the suggestions. That's the same problem I was having with the wording. I was kidding dumb-struck by the informality of the whole interview soi don't want the end with an overly aggressive or too formal of a thank you.

I will be graduating in May with my ADN. I have been an LPN on an acute care telemetry floor at a small hospital for 8 years. Today, I had an interview at the same hospital in outpatient care. I don't know how it went, but the manager was not kidding when she said it would be casual. Her and another nurse on the floor took me into a room where someone had been preparing Nurses' day gifts, so things had to be moved off the chairs to sit down. I had studied interview questions, but it was nothing like that. They ask what I knew about their unit and filled in what I did not know. She explained that there was no one my age on the unit (I am 35), they have a very low turn around, hardly ever have open position and everyone has been there over 12 years. I did hand her my resume and references at the end. She looked it over and commented about my nursing school 4.0 gpa. I told her that I owe my gpa to the experience that I have as a LPN. There was not anything that stood out bad, it was just very vague and informal. I did not feel interview grilled at all. It felt like a conversation. So now I want to write a thank you. I am going to email her because she emailed me several times before the interview. During the interview she explained that it is a busy floor with a wide spectrum of patient and that my be difficult for a new grad. I want to address this because I don't feel that I did during the interview. How is this for a rough draft: Thank you for meeting with me today. I appreciated the time you took to tell me about your unit and your needs for a nurse. I can understand your hesitancy to look at a new RN for your unit, but I hope you will find my LPN experience as useful. I think that you will find my experience has taught me organization and time management skill. I look forward to talking with again and please feel free to call or email me with any questions you may have. Suggestions, please?

Graduated in 2005. Worked in a nursing home for about a year then moved to med/tele. I wanted to spend time with my babies so I slowly worked on my prerequisite. I will be done with my RN spring 2013, but they did not have a bridge program. I don't regret the time I spent as an LPN, because of it the RN program has been a easy for me. I haven't had to put the time into it like other students to get A's.

I didn't word that right...I have never met a LPN in the quad cities that makes $30/hr. but I have never worked in Chicago.

I am work in Moline IL. I started in 2005 as a new grad and made $13/hr in LTC. I have since changed jobs and have work in acute care and make a whole whopping $16.99. I might make slightly more in LTC now but I have a dream job for an LPN. I have never met a LPN in person that makes $30/hr.

No problem. They were fun questions.

1) Are pts allowed to leave the ward as they please if independent & stable? Like go down for smokes of cafeteria? Does Dr need to write permission for this? Yes you would need an order. My hospital is smoke free so they would have to leave the campus therefore, if they really need to smoke they must leave AMA. 2) Scenario: >500mg/100ml Metrondiazole (Flagyl) over 20 mins given at 2100 >400mg/200ml Ciprofloxacin over 60 mins given at 2100 - Would I give the Flagyl first because it is the faster med? I checked the IV manual for compatibility b/w the two meds and it said “compatible admixed” does this mean that it would be okay to attach the Cipro to primary line right after the Met has finished? What if the two meds were not compatible? Would I need to flush the line from the very top port where the first med had been connected? Are these PB? Doesn't really matter which runs first. I am not sure what your asking about flushing the line from the top but you would get each drug it's own secondary tubing. If they are incompatiable I would let the saline run for a bit before hanging the next. 3) Pt brings own meds in that the doctor has ordered. Does pharm need to see & label them? At my hosp. pt can use home meds. You need a doctors order and the pharm needs to check the med they brought in. 4) How does bowel elimination protocol work? 5 levels, when you know what level is appropriate. They say to start at the lowest level (fruit lax) and work your way up as needed. But if the patient hasn’t had a BM in 6 days I don’t think that fruit lax is gonna cut it? You have to use your judgement on this. If its been 6 days you probably don't want to go right for the enema, but something more then prune juice is probably going to be needed. 5) How do you know if the central line is non-tunnelled or tunnelled? I think it has something to do with whether or not the line has a cuff under the skin which would make it tunnelled? 6) Do only open-ended central lines have clamps on the port lines? When the ports have positive-pressure devices on the ends do you close clamps before removing syringe or after? I heard that the clamps can somehow cause the positive-pressure devices to fail? I don't work with centrals but pos pressure would be closing the clamp while your were still pushing your flush. 7) Iv abx in hospital – how long on average do abx doses last? Do all abx change to PO route at the end of the course or do some just d/v on IV route? Depends on the situation. Sometimes it is the same as oral. Sometimes If they have had 4 days IV zithromax then they will be sent home with 3 days of oral. sometimes they are sent home with none. 8) Do you need to waste meds like Heparin (vials) or just narcotics? My hosp recently changed the policy that no meds are wasted down the drain. 9) If Pt is NPO, does pt receive no meds? Certain meds? All meds with only sips of water? Depends. This you have to ask the doctor 10) What the heck is Med Pass(?)? Passing meds 11) Do all patients have a specified care plan?...I’ve only seen a few of these in kardexes. No. Not like you see in school 12) Charting: do you write the time that the assessment was actually done or time of actual documentation. What will hold up in court? time it was done. always chart as you go. 13) Is written consent the doctor’s order to go ahead with treatment? Where do I find this, I can't find it anywhere in the patient's chart! If you mean something like a surgical consent that is in the orders. if it is just a general constant the everyone signs when they are admitted, check near the face sheet with the patients address and ins info is. 14) Pt going for bone scan#2, techs want pt to have a cath in so that the bladder will be completely empty. No dr’s order for this, does nurse just do it and ask for a cover order later? You need an order. I'd ask the doctor before doing that. Can't the patient just urinate before? putting a foley or straigh cath seems a bit extreme. 15) When changing an IV solution due to new orders for IVF change, do you prime brand new tubing along with the new solution or can I just spike the new solution with the existing line if the IV fluids are compatible? You could use the same tubing if compatible 16) When an order says give 1L NS bolus pre-dose of med. How fast does “bolus” run at? 500mL/hr is the fast pumps will be set for or you could clarify the order and ask if they want it left wide open 17) What can you say to patient’s when they make comments like “I’m not in very good shape am I?” or “I’m at the end of my tether”, “the lord is going to take me”... (I get all clammy and don't know what to say! I know that silence is okay sometimes but sometimes it's more appropriate to have some sort of response for the poor patient) Yeah, thats a hard one 18) For intake should I record intermittent medications as well? Or is this only for patients when specific intake is needed? Do I record intake for every patient with an IV infusion running? it's just easiest if you do an I&O on everyone, but yes for sure with an IV running.

I have come to terms with the starting from the beginning...who could find use in taking med surf over again. I am not looking forward to stepping back into clinicals. We will be having 6-8 weeks of clinical lab before stepping into a clinical site.

Yup, all 4 semesters. But I did all my prereq's with them and other schools in the area want different ones and I am tired of dealing with transfering. Oh well. The hardest part is that I work on a med/tele floor that has students and they do start at day 1. For my LPN a CNA license was required, but not at this school. These poor students are walking on to a heavy floor and have never turned a patient. Grrrr.

I will be starting an ADN program this fall after 6 years as an LPN, but I have had the worst luck with it. For the fall the school decided to rethink their bridge program so as of now there isn't one, that means I get to start at day one. On top of that they are also switching to all brand new versions of the texts...boo! I know from my LPN (which was not a separate program, it was the first year of the adn program) that all the books are not necessary. Also I have a bunch that are from 2003 and they are good enough. So that leaves me with only a few books to buy (dosage calc, med/surg, fundamentals). A new drug guide might be nice, but I don't think it is necessary since I don't run into meds missing very often. But do I need a new nursing diagnoisis book? I do have one from 2003 and any advice on whether or not that will be good enough would be appreciated!

I have been taking classes to go into Blackhawk College, moline IL, ADN program as an LPN. I am an LPN that has been working in acute care for the past 5 years and, not to toot my own horn, but I have gained a lot of knowledge working there. Of course now I am all done with my pre-requistes and the cancel their bridge program. So I would have to start with first semester nursing students. They say they may bring it back, but they had to many LPNs that would not even get their license turn around and get into the bridge program and falling behind. I have to say that I am offended that 6 years of working as an LPN is worth nothing when returning to school. Grrr. Do I wait another year and see if they reinstate it? Or start at the first semester learning to take blood pressures and give baths--yes, baths because they do not require a CNA course as a pre-requiste GRRRR

I agree that some schools could do extra to better prepare their students. When I went to nursing school, a CNA license was a prerequist at all of the schools in the area. I thought that was the norm. I have since moved to a different area and have found out that it isn't . I think that it is a disadvantage to new nurses for a few reasons. Working as a CNA while in nursing school gave me a huge advantage. As a CNA at a large hospital I learned many things before nursing school. I learned the general workings of a hospital. I experienced the fast, stressful pace that is expected of nurses. I also experienced many procedures that I had never got the chance to witness in my clinicals. I think that it is a great advantage to have more health care experiences than a brand new nurse that has never worked in healthcare before graduating. I think that nursing is learned on the floor. I feel bad for nurses that decide after only a couple of years that it is not for them. I know that many students that I took my CNA with decided then that nursing was not for them. Let's face it, you don't get a chance to see much during clinicals...I know that I only gave 1 insulin injection and never put in a foley and who only gets one patient. I know that it is probably difficult for instructors but why not teach alittle more time managment skills and give students 2 patients in clinicals. Now I work in a small hospital on a med/tele floor that gets students a couple times a week and I feel for the students. I try my hardest to include them in they care that needs to be given to the patient that we share. I also feel for them because we aren't the nicest, I think that they are too often scared to ask the floor nurses questions.

A position for an endo LPN has opened at a sister hospital that I work for. I am interested in appling but what are the typical tasks for an LPN? It calls for Telemetry skills and ACLS and endo experience prefered but not necessary. I currently work in Med/Tele and have both tele and ACLS and also IV skills but no experience other then acute care floor nursing. I do love the challenge, full patient load and the high level of responsiblities that I have at my current position, but of course I am tempted by the no nights, weekends or holidays. I would like not to be a "glorified CNA." What could be expected? Thanks.

I have not had any problems at all in finding a job as in LPN and it was something that I was concerned about when I graduated. My husband tells me all the time that it must be terrible having so many jobs to choose from. But I would not pay $12,000 for a LPN, I have only gone to Community college and it came no where near to that close. Take notice though: Now that I have started to go back for my RN many schools will not let you bridge immediately. More and more schools are requiring a certain number of work experience hours before apply for a bridge program.