celestial1

TBAnurse, I myself started out as a CNA am now a LPN and slowly working my way up to RN and who knows where from that point. Many times especially after going to LPN school with people with no medical experience that felt that changing someone or that CNAs were beneath them, I have said that I believe people should have to start at the bottom and work there way up. How else can you have respect for the CNA that does the dirty work? We have all seen nurses both LPN and RN that felt they were too good to change someone or do something as small as help someone change their gown. I work in LTC and on one particular evening shift we had 6 CNAs and 3 LPNs working, it was the middle of dinner and I had nothing to do so I went to pick up a tray to feed someone and one of the LPNs had the nerve to tell me that if I picked up a tray she would smack me because we had 6 aids. Should I have sat there like a lump or should I have done what I did and turned around picked up the tray and fed that person plus a few more helping the aids finish a little sooner and helping dietary get out of there sooner?

I have already put one post on here that a few people have given great responses to. If I could get someone that is or has been an EC student to read this and give me some feedback I would greatly appreciate it. I am currently a LPN, I have applied to EC and received my unofficial evaluation for the associates in applied science program. Here is what they say that I need.... written english 2 humanities life span development psych a&p micro sciences supportive of nursing free elective or additional arts and sciences INL 102 essentials of health safety " " chronicity " " repro health health differences 1,2, & 3 transition to registered professional nurse role FCCA and of course CPNE What I am trying to figure out is which can I CLEP? Of the ones that I can't am I correct in saying that I do not have to take the course just the exam and it is a good idea to take the practice exam also? And how far can I go before I have to enroll and start paying the enrollement fee? As far as the financial portion is concerned how does it work with scholarships or loans if I am taking the classes but not enrolled? I am looking for the fastest, smartest and least costly way to do this. Thanks a million in advance for any and all help.

Without taking the course how hard are the exams? What do you all recommend to study prior to taking the exam?

So about the EC exams for courses not available through CLEP are you saying that I can take the EC exams and not have to take the EC course? Or maybe I totally mesed that up?

I just realized that I didn't ask these questions also. I noticed on the EC website that some of the gen ed classes I need are not listed, really just the 3 sciences. Will they be offered at a later date? And also for the gen ed classes that I need can I get financial aid for those or are they categorized in the nursing program? Same with scholarships would they cover gen ed classes? Again thanks in advance.

I have been looking around the EC website for a while now(can be confusing to navigate). Can anyone tell me exactly what the gen ed requirement difference is between the associates in applied science and the associates in science is? Another question that I have seen on here and I am hoping that someone can reitereate for me. I can take my gen ed courses and start on the nursing courses and do not have to enroll until I get to the third nursing exam? Is this correct? I have already applied and received my unoffical review online and I am hoping that the one that comes in the mail is easier to navigate. I was kind of disapointed that I still need so many gen ed courses in order to start.They stated that is due to the fact the the LPN program I went through is more of a vocational/tech school. Anybody gone the route of CLEP, if so could you give me any info on the process. I am assuming that would be the least expensive way of getting those courses under my belt. I already have loans from LPN school and was hoping to avoid that route at all costs. Over the next few weeks I plan on looking into scholarships. Anyone else have lots of gen ed classes to take and about how long did it take you from start to finish and roughly what did it all cost? Thanks in advance to any help offered.

We have the same protocol minus what you all do on day 2. Problem is he won't drink the prune juice/milk of mag and usually wants to go straight for a fleets or a sse.

I wish that someone could get it through to his wife that if you don't eat a variety and if you refuse to move around that things are going to stop up.

I have a resident who refuses to get out of bed, refuses to eat anything other than magic cups and drink strawberry glucerna. He is on a mechanical diet with nectar thick liquids. Once in a while he will eat and drink things his family brings him in that are totally off limits to him d/t being diabetic and based on his MBS and ST. Here is the problem he is unable to have a BM this is a continuing problem. He gets 30 mls sorbitol nightly and just about every day his wife comes in and wants him to get a suppository or to get an enema. We have been round and round with her about this. So the other day I give him the enema and we sit him up on the BSC and he is just sitting there and nothing. After he has sat there 20 minutes and is now demanding to get back in bed I attempt to manually remove, all I can reach is two very small hard balls of fecal matter. There is more I just can't reach. So now he is back in bed and I am having a conversation with his wife, these never go well. She proceeds to tell me that the reason he can't have a BM is because of all the thickener that he consumes is causing his stool and his saliva to thicken up.:stone I pretty much had to get out of that room right then cause if I didn't I just may have had to :chuckle. So anyway what would any of you suggest that we do to help him along?

Seriously are there any decent LTC/SNF jobs out there? When I started out as a CNA at my facility 3 years ago it was great and I loved it. About 6 months before graduating from nursing school the place really hit the bottom. I am ready to run screaming for the hills somewhere. The DON that took over about 8 months ago is never in the facility, she is always on vacation. She has been on at least 5 major vacations that I can think of, yet she is telling us staff nurses that she may not be able to grant our vacation requests. After 8 months she still has no clue what her job entails. Then our new MDS coordinator is no better the only difference is that she is in the facility more often but only because she is gunning for the DON position. She actually signs her name and then puts MDS Coordinator/Assistant DON. We DO NOT and NEVER have had an assistant DON. The place only has 60 beds. For the last month I have been the only nurse scheduled to work from 6pm-10pm. Our schedules come out a month in advance. Tell me why I have to bring it to the DON's attention every Friday that there is no one but me after 6 and then she plays dumb while scrambling to find someone to come in and help me at the last minute. Last Friday I actually had to deal with residents and family members yelling at me because (keep in mind it was just me for 60 residents) I wasn't doing things like answering the phone quick enough or doing other minor things fast enough. On top of this I am expected to babysit the CNAs that are more worried about who is outside smoking, because they can't until that one comes in to watch their hall. This place has become like a high school with all the gossip and backstabbing and no one really coming to work to do a job and just go home. Our DON keeps hiring people for dayshift which is way over staffed while I am the only nurse for the evening shift. Has it never occured to her to say I am sorry but the only shift that I have available is evenings so if that is what you want then great we have a place for you? I really don't know how much more of this I can take. I live in fear of loosing my license that I worked hard for. I have no time in a shift to actually care for my residents. If I take the time to care then I am there hours past my shift ending. That is another major gripe why is it that dayshift is usually adequately staffed and the day nurses can't bother to take off orders? I spend quite a bit of time picking up their slack and then worry that I am forgetting to do things that are needing to be done on my shift. $0.75/hr extra is not worth the H/A. The other big one is that they don't bother to do their treatments and then look at me and say treatments didn't get done today. What do they expect me to do theirs and mine plus everything else I have to do? This place has made for an awful first time nurse experience, I am amazed daily at how bad of a place it has become in such a short time.

This subject has been on my mind for some time now probably because I started helping out on the midnight shift. We have 60 residents. Most of the time at night it is one LPN and two CNAs. However our CNAs are not required to be CPR certified. We have in reality no crash cart and I could not tell you when the last time our facility ran a code drill. I mentioned that to my mom and she said that it is probably because if they ran the drill then they would see that due to be short staffed no one would know what they should be doing.

It sounds just like the facility I work in. We were recently told that we would be taking admissions during all hours and on the weekends. Same as you no one wants to help with the process no matter when they come in and yeah I usually find out from the weirdest people like housekeeping or maintenance. Communication would be greatly appreciated.

I don't know, perhaps it is just me but this past weekend was awful. I work in a LTC facility where I am usually the LPN for two skilled halls that have a total of 32 residents. On a good shift I only have one hall. A little background on our current residents is that we have several with brain injuries. We have had a new DON since August and where our last DON screened our residents this one brings in any kind and doesn't offer us any kind of help. This whole weekend(Fri-Sun) I had all 32 of them all to myself. The other nurse had the NF end that has 28 residents. We had 3-4 CNA's working shift with us. Now let me start with the horror of Friday evening. I spent the first few hours running back and forth between the two halls(they are in the shape of an L) after residents with alarming Tabbs monitors, floor monitors, chair monitors and so on. I had one resident following me yelling at me about how the CNA had treated her. This resident gets 4.5oz Vodka nightly and every night after her drink she becomes belligerent or extremely sad. Another resident following me around demanding that she get her "asthma medicine" and her sleeping pill. Repeatedly explained to her that she had already had all the medicine she gets for the shift. She kept telling me that everyone else gives it to her when she asks for it. These are routine meds not PRN and she was in NAD. Several of the other residents that have dementia or brain injury were just wild and out of control this night. Then the icing on the cake was when about 2200 I went to check on one of my ladies to get her VS I found her unresponsive and diaphoretic. VS WNL but BS 21. This same little lady had been sent out the previous Friday for BS of 29. All staff had been told then that she must be fed her meals and HS snack. I found out from a CNA that just happened to come to tell me that asthma lady wanted her medicine that the CNA that had this particular lady did not bother to give out any of her HS snacks and that she was long gone. I also found out from another CNA later that the CNA feels that if the residents get Boost or Glucerna from the nurses at night that those are the HS snack:banghead: Anyway we started with OJ and sugar while my other nurse notified the MD who said to give her Glucagon but to hold off on sending her out because last time when she got to the hospital her BS was fine. Emergency box had not been refilled by pharmacy since the previous Friday when they had to use the Glucagon on her. They had been notified that day that we needed a new box. So we kept it going with the OJ and sugar and a few other things. I finally managed to get her up to 80. Now during all this I had several residents that were wanting PRN meds, the other LPN stayed in the room with me. I finally got frustrated and when the residents BS started to move up I told the other LPN that hey even though I was busy I would go ahead and pass out the PRN's. Oh and once again notify pharmacy that we needed a new box. I was assured that they would courrier one over in the AM. This same LPN who has minimal work after 2200 did not offer to help me with my chart checks, txs or any of the other things I have to do between 2200 -0200 which is when I go home, I come in at 1400. No that is not a normal shift in our facility our DON just isn't very bright. I managed to get it all done and got home shortly after 0300 to get some sleep and then be back in at 1400. So I get there Saturday to find out that Pharmacy still did not send a box:madface:. I called again and faxed a reminder. Thankfully this time the box ended up coming around 2100:yeah: Now this shift was a little better. I only had asthma lady following me demanding those same routine meds that she had already had and telling me that everyone else gives them when she wants them. And also a few of the brain injury and dementia pts going nuts. Luckily no catastrophes. Sunday night began to be like Friday night, I was threatened several times by one brain injury pt he tried to hit me a few times. He doesn't get any PRN meds to help when he is out of control and the few times that we have gotten something for him his wife complains when she actually comes in that it makes him to drowsy or it makes him to this or that. So he gets nothing and he is a threat to himself, other residents and staff. I also had more issues with Pharmacy on Sunday, we needed to start an IV on a MRSA pt but they didn't send the meds to us and when I called with questions they said the on call said that there was no one in to talk to and I would have to wait until the AM. I don't think so the AM was my day off. So I got an order from the MD to give the medication IM until the supplies came in. During this whole weekend with all the craziness I became very fed up, one of the other nurses has complained and told the DON that she refuses to work both halls alone and since then they have made sure that she doesn't have to. So I wrote a two page note letting the DON know that I feel the same way. It is just way to much for one LPN to have to pass their meds, do txs, answer call bells, the phone, toilet people, change people, monitor the CNA's, speak with visitors for 32 skilled pts alone. I ended up getting out of there about an hour after my shift had ended. Then when I woke up on my day off there was a message from the DON wanting to know if I could come in early and then she was babbling about oh wait you don't work today, never mind pretend that I didn't call. Did she mention the note that I left? OF course not. I am on shift tonight and as of now it is just me and one other nurses scheduled. She really needs to make sure that there is a 3rd nurse before I come in or I will be looking for another job. :bugeyes:Thanks for letting me get that off my chest

hey is anyone taking the excelsior route? i am a new lpn in virginia. i have started working on my pre-reqs to become a rn the traditional route. now i am second guessing that and thinking that excelsior might be the better option for me. if i could just get some feedback from anyone that is already enrolled that would be great. thanks so much in advance to everyone.

so here is a short and sweet one. i was still in school when this happened. my patient had just come to me in pacu and we were going down the myriad of questions. when we got to allergies it went like this. do you have any allergies? she says "pepper" and we asked and what happens when you eat it or get around it? this i swear was her response "it makes me sneeze". i thought i was going to fall in the floor. i really was worthless for the next few minutes while i gathered up every ounce of energy that i had to not laugh.