RN2B2005

My grandmother graduated from nursing school in 1939, at age 17. At that time, hospital nurses had to purchase their own surgical instrument packs; the physicians would then select the nurses he wanted in surgery based on both their skill and their instrument array. Sixty-four years later, my grandmother still has all of those instruments that she bought on her nurse's salary. Even surgical towels and bandages were purchased by the nurses themselves; my grandmother embroidered her initials onto the bandage ends so that when they came off a patient, she'd get them back. Each bandage was washed, boiled, ironed and rolled by the nurse who owned it. When my grandmother retired in 1979 as head OR nurse at a major Southern hospital, she was making a whopping $8.39 an hour.

D.O's aren't chiropractors, they're Doctors of Osteopathy, which is a whole different ballgame. Unlike chiropractors, D.O's go through the same 4-year programme as M.D.'s, and most go through a residency, just like M.D.'s. Their scope of practise is, in most cases, identical to that of an M.D. The difference is primarily in the training--D.O.'s receive a more holistic education and training in stuff like spinal manipulation. Chriropractors receive a "doctorate" from a two or four-year programme; there are even programs that award an undergraduate and a "doctorate" simultaneously. They don't do residencies, or have prescriptive authority, and aren't supposed to do invasive procedures, although some do. Some chiropractors claim that "adjustments" can cure anything from infertility to ear infections. Call me cynical, but I wouldn't waste a thin dime on a chiropractor; I'd go to a massage therapist.

I'm bound to be flamed for this, but my personal opinion is that the entire chiropractic profession is a scam. In radiology, we call x-rays done at chiropractors' offices "radiation therapy", due to the low quality and tendency of chiropractors to do what they call full-body x-rays. Since these exams are very rarely if ever diagnostic quality (meaning that they can't provide any useful information because the technique was so poor), the only justification for these x-rays is financial--the chiropractor could bill insurance for them. I've seen patients with permanent neurological damage from "manipulations", and I've seen patients who were told by their chiropractors that chiropractic could cure headaches that turned out to be originating from subdural hematomas. I believe that chiropractors are a drain on precious healthcare resources and that they should not be licenced as healthcare providers. Flame away.:chair:

My first pelvic was at a Planned Parenthood, when I was 16 (and still a virgin). They were great. Inexpensive, and before I even went into the exam room, they had a counsellor speak to me about how a vag exam worked, how to lie in the stirrups, etc. Some things--like bending your knees--are counterintuitive, and it helped to have things explained before I was naked. The NP who examined me was fabulous, kind and, more importantly, very fast. Jennifer

I had a pre-existing low back injury that really flared up in my second trimester. It worsened because instead of treating it as I usually do, with Robaxin and ibuprofen, I left it untreated because I was worried about taking ibuprofen while preggers. Poor choice, in hindsight. When it got to where I couldn't sit down or walk, I went to see an orthopedic pain specialist, a guy who specialized in non-surgical or minimally invasive procedures. He prescribed physical therapy and a TENS unit in addition to Vicoprofen and Robaxin, to get the spasms under control. It worked--I only had to take the drugs for three days, and only needed four PT visits total (I continued doing the exercises at home). The TENS unit was paid for by my insurance company after much wrangling, and worked fabulously well. I continued to use it off and on throughout my pregnancy and still have it. So, I guess my advice is, don't ignore it. It will get worse. See an orthopedic specialist in addition to your OB, and ask for a prescription for PT.

I used to volunteer with DD kids (6-14 range) and always found the Down's children to be the most pleasant. It is like Peter said, though; Down's can manifest in so many ways and in such differing degrees of severity that no two Down's children are alike. There is a couple living in our apartment complex, the wife is definitely Down's and the husband is either mild Down's or has some other developmental issue. They both work at the hospital in Environmental Services, and they have a beautiful, very normal toddler daughter.

I thought that the problem with exposure to diseases while pregnant was primarily the mother's lowered immune state, and that injury to the foetus was only a secondary concern?

I have some skillbooks from the Nursing Photobook series, published in the early 1980's. Most of the nurses have caps on, but this one nurse has a cap that I swear is defying all known laws of physics. Her hair is in a short bouffant/shag style, and the peaked mob-type cap is pinned to the very edge of the back of her head. As far as I can tell, the cap is hairsprayed into place; the nurse is shown doing various activities from various angles and heck if the cap touches any solid part of her head. Very impressive, if you ask me. On a more practical note, my grandmother reports that Aqua-Net and white bobby pins (both in vast quantities) are the way to go. Kay's Caps probably has some other tricks, too--they're on the Web, if you want to check them out. :roll

Man, anyone who thinks the nursing shortage--or the unwillingness of hospitals to pay for RN/LPN staff--should read this thread. After having my son (lady partsl delivery, no meds, IV fluids, lots o' tearing) at 2020, I hadn't peed at 0200 d/t fainting every time I tried to stand up to stagger to the bathroom--and being a noncompliant patient, I had tried to walk myself to the potty, ended up with a forehead laceration from THAT brilliant idea. Still, the sweet overworked CNA kept asking me if I wanted to pee. I really couldn't feel ANYTHING...just a big ball of pain south of the navel, but I did want to go clean myself up. Finally a nurse shows up, glares at me, tells me that either I pee in a bed pan or she is going to cath me and--she actually says this--it's going to hurt if she caths me. Fabulous. Long story short, she places a Foley. 1200 cc! Still a ball of pain below the navel, but not quite as bad as before. The kicker was that the nurse didn't document the Foley placement, so I ended up having a very bizarre argument with another nurse the next morning, telling her I had a cath in place and she--without looking--insisting that I didn't have one. Dood! It may be hamburger down there, but I know if there's a garden hose hooked up to the tap or not!

My mother had a spectacular anaphylactic reaction to Taxol in an outpatient setting. She'd had all of the pre-med regimen and had previously had uneventful treatments. Fortunately, she was receiving the tx at a well-respected and well-staffed clinic attached to a major hospital, and she did fine...but the complications, and ensuing problems, were enough to make me think twice about ever administering chemo without LOTS of training. I've read about American patients buying Taxol in Mexico for home use and it gives me the willies. I also worked in an outpatient multispecialty clinic where two oncologists administered chemo, using IV therapy nurses for monitoring...something I didn't think was a problem at the time, but that I wouldn't be comfortable with now.

We had the middle name picked out prior to delivery, but not the first name; the middle name was a family tradition. We had a whole list of possible first names, but the name we ended up with--Samuel--wasn't on the list, and we didn't settle on it until a few hours after he was born. I'm a little superstitious about the whole pregnancy thing, and didn't want to speak my son's name out loud until he was born healthy and safe. Stupid, but that's the way I was. Plus, the second he hatched, he just looked like a Samuel.

Your self-restraint at skipping Wal-Mart is amazing, RNLou. Someplace in week five of my "couch arrest", I decided that since I felt OK, I could just go into work for a few hours to do some paperwork. This can be attributed to either PIH-impaired thinking, or boredom edging on madness, or both. My husband was at his work, and my work is literally across the street from our apartment, so I'd be home and back in jammies before he even knew I'd been anywhere. Unfortunately for me and my 'master plan', I was walking into the hospital and who should pass me but my (very surprised) OB/Gyn!! Suffice to say, I got a lecture, my husband got a phone call, and even my supervisor was called to tell her that if I showed up at work, to send me home. :imbar

From a radiology order form: "CXR r/o Aplat's pneumonia" Should have read: "CXR AP/LAT r/o pneumonia"....we only figured this out after trying to look up "Aplat's pneumonia" in several radiology texts and reference manuals.

My understanding is that you can't refuse to perform your job duties--which means, if the scope of your job responsibility includes AB care, and you refuse to perform that care, then you can legally be terminated. This is not a moral issue--this is job performance issue. If you were a secretary, and refused to type out a letter because you thought it was morally wrong to type, you would be fired--not for your moral stance, but for refusing to do your job. So if you want to work OB/Gyn, choose a Catholic hospital or some other facility that does not provide abortion services. Personally, I consider myself pro-life; I don't believe abortions should be performed after 7 weeks gestation. This is why I support 'medical' abortions--they must be performed before 49 days (7 weeks) gestation; I am in favour of emergency 'morning-after' contraception for the same reason. Nonetheless, when I am working at the radiology clinic, prepping patients for ultrasound exam to determine foetal age (so the patient can go to an abortion clinic), I treat them exactly the same as any other patient. They've made their decision, and if I were to go around proselytizing patients, I wouldn't be employed for long. When I graduate nursing school, I'll go into a specialty where I'm not required to care for AB patients.

I showed this post to my husband, who is a high school assistant principal, and has his B.A. in English, M.Ed. in Education, and M.Sc. in Educational Leadership. He's seen LOTS of teachers burn out in a hurry, so he didn't agree with the idea of going directly into education from nursing. The problem with so-called "need" or "leave-replacement" certification, which is where you go directly into the classroom without receiving your teaching certificate, is that you are pretty much thrown to the wolves. States that permit this sort of certification usually do so b/c of a shortage of teachers in the science and math fields. The burnout rate is extraordinarily high among CERTIFIED first-year teachers, and those teachers have had the training and know what to expect. Our marriage almost didn't survive Tom's first year of teaching; for every hour you spend in school, you spend at least another at home, creating lesson plans, grading papers, and doing other administrative tasks. Tom recommends that you check out your local university for fast-track certification options. In Tom's case, he did a two-year M.Ed. programme, where he earned both his Master's and his teaching certification. The certification gives you both mobility (most states have reciprocal licencing) and the education in the minutiae of teaching--lesson plans, classroom management, etc. One of the teachers at his high school is a former attorney, and another is a former critical-care RN, and both of those teachers completed their certification with their Master's in education and have done very well. On the topic of private schools, you should know that in most cases the pay is lower and the parents more demanding--this is why they accept non-certified teachers. In addition, in most states, experience in a private school classroom does NOT count as classroom hours toward a teaching certificate. Tom interviewed at several private schools prior to his first year of teaching, and was not impressed. Good luck. Jen