javertech

I have been a nurse for about 8 months now and have only had one event report on me that caused a delay in the patient's procedure. I was under the weather but chose to go to work. I did not start IV fluids on a pt. going for a heart cath. I did everything else but that. My supervisor was very nice about the incident. This is how you learn is by making mistakes. I sure can tell you I will be more attentive next time when a pt. is going for surgery. There is not a practicing nurse that does not make some mistakes. I think you should just learn from it and brush it off your shoulders. Don't let other nurses make you think you are the only one making mistakes

I have been an LPN for about 8 months now. I work at a hospital. If you are a new grad where I work you cannot give IV Medications until you have had your license for 6 months and take an IV therapy course through my facility. I am waiting to take the IV therapy course. When one of my patients needs an IV push medication I have to ask one of the other nurses to do it. I understand that they have their own work to do but I absolutely cannot give it. Some of the nurses want me to scan the medication under my badge which I also refuse to do and them give the medication. I may as well give it myself if I have to scan it under my name. I would be held liable in a court if something happened to that patient due to the medication being given. I chart in the patient's nurse's notes that the medication was given by another nurse and the reason in was needed to be given (pain or nausea, etc.) It is my license on the line not theirs. Any ways it is like pulling teeth to get someone to give my patients their IV meds. One of my nurses was sitting at the desk reading on her nook and was not in any rush to give my patient their pain medication when I ask her to. This was very upsetting. I wanted to talk to my boss about this but my husband told me not to because it was cause a lot of hardship on me if I do. I don't know exactly what to do or how to handle it.

I completely understand how you feel. I was in school taking prerequisites for the RN program at a local community college at the time my spouse of 26 years left me for another women. We had two children together the youngest who was still at home at the time. I ended up getting accepted into the LPN program at a tech school before getting accepted to RN school. I have ended up divorced, trying to sell our house we lived in for a long time, and moved into an apartment. I work prn at a hospital and spend all my free time studying and in class or clinicals. I have to drive about 1 hour and half each day driving to and from school or clinicals. I have to try to find time to spend with my kids because their father walked out of their lives as well and remarried a few months after our divorce. I have a new relationship and am afraid that he won't understand how stressful nursing school is either and I won't be able to handle the stress of someone not understanding how important finishing school is to me. Just don't give up the ship. I take it hour by hour not day by day. I have learned to be flexible in order to finish school cause sometimes life throws you curve balls and you have to throw them right back. Our clinicals were cancelled this week due to state surveyors being at the facility. So our instructors had to come up with a game plan for our clinical hours this week. We ended up doing clinical skills practice and case studies in time management, prioritizing patient care, and documentation. So that being said just keep on top of the game and never slack up because before you know it you will be finished and have that degree you have worked so hard for. I am going on to get my BSN once I finish LPN program and I am over 40 years old. Going back to school over 40 can be challenging in itself not to mention adjusting to being single after 26 years of marriage. So keep your head up and remember what your goals are. :)

I took this class online and it is hard either way. I did like being able to take the course online. The only thing I did not like about taking the course online is the way the course was set up online by whoever designed it. We were having to take two to three tests in a seven day period. If the tests would have been spaced out a little better it would have been easier. The course I took was not set up with the mindset that people who were taking the course most likely worked full time. NOT every student who was taking the course was just out of high school. As a matter of fact most of us who took the course online were mostly a little older and had full time jobs. It takes good organizational skills to be able to take this course online. I am taking A and P 2 in the spring semester 2009.

I Am Presently Working In An Intensive Care Unit As A Unit Secretary/monitor Tech/certified Nursing Assistant. I Am Proficient In Starting Iv's, Drawing Blood And Doing Ekg's Because I Used To Be An Emergency Room Tech. I Am Going To School To Get My Rn And Want To Work In Icu After Graduation Because That Is Where I Am Working Now And Am Familiar With The Unit, What Goes On In The Unit, And Not Afraid Of All The Critical Patients We Care For. I Help My Nurses Do Patient Care In Addition To My Unit Sec. And Telemetry Aspect Of My Job. Will My Hospital Allow Me To Work In Icu Without Working On Med/surg As A New Rn Once I Pass My State Boards. Most New Nurses Start Out On Med/surg For A While Before Moving Into Specialized Units.

I know how you feel. Being a nursing assistant, unit secretary, and a monitor tech, I do feel like a servant sometimes. The nursing profession is stressful unless you have an administrative job and that has its own set of stressors. I am now asking myself just why do I want to go to nursing school? Someone knock some sense back into me.

It is an exciting job. Sometimes too much so. I do get some respect from some of the doctors and nurses. The doctors and nurses I work with are comfortable when I am there because they know they they can depend on me to do what I am supposed to do. When I am out of work due to sickness or whatever, I get told a lot how much they miss me. I just get burnt out sometimes because of the demands placed on me. I have to prioritize. Some things just have to wait until I can get around to doing them.

I don't think the job title of a nurse should be changed. Call me old fashioned but I am very traditional and we go to school to be nurses not direct care providers. It does not matter whether you are male or female you are still a nurse. The term direct care provider is too vague. I am a PCT III/Unit secretary right now and going to nursing school. I would not want my job title to be changed if I was a nurse. Direct care provider could mean anything. PCTs are direct care providers. We spend more of our time sometimes than the nurses do providing direct care. We are taught some nursing history when we are going to school to become a nurse. The concept of a nurse is still understood as someone who tends to those who are ill under a doctor's care even in our society today. Changing the job title is not a good idea.

I work in an intensive care unit as a monitor tech, unit secretary, and C.N.A. Unless you are certified as a nursing assistant you will not be able to interact much with patients. I spend most of my time taking care of my secretarial duties and I can do patient care. I just don't have time for it like I want to. I do help the nurses when I can. If you want to be able to interact more with patients I suggest you get your C.N.A. certification. I am going to nursing school to become an R.N. I hate my job as a unit secretary because I don't like being stuck behind a desk all the time doing paper work and being on the computer. I would much rather be doing patient care. I kind of got stuck in this job because I thought I would like a change in what I was doing. Unit secretaries are few and far between especially ones who are cross trained to do more than just unit secretary. So don't be like me and get stuck in a job you hate without knowing that you will not be able to do much patient interaction.

I understand how you feel. I am working full time at a hospital. I am already a C.N.A. My job duties are unit secretary, monitor technician, and C.N.A. in an intensive care unit. I am responsible mostly for the secretarial work. I keep the charts organized and put in lab and orders for tests. I order supplies for my unit. I answer the phone, assists the nurses with patient care, watch the telemetry monitors and run strips on each patient once per shift. I serve on the code team as recorder periodically which means I record what happens during a code blue. I do things for the doctors such as locate charts for them, put up their patient census, obtain records to go in patient charts, etc. I am going back to school to get my associate's degree in nursing to become an R.N. I have a husband and two children. One of my children is still living at home but going to technical school and working two jobs. I also have a 17 year old daughter who thinks she is going on 30. :angryfire I know how hard it is to go to school and work. Sometimes I find it hard to concentrate on my studies when people just won't leave me alone. Sometimes I have to go to the library or somewhere where it is quiet to study.Sometimes I try to study at work whenever I can get a chance. Just don't give up. You can do this.Try to stay positive. Maybe we could be supportive of each other since we are both trying to accomplish the same thing. I am not going for my BSN just yet but I plan on it in the future. I am 42 years old and this is harder than I thought it was going to be. My husband is not supporting me on going back to school and I am doing it anyway. As a matter of fact he fought me on it and I won the argument. He will appreciate the fact that when I am done I will be able to make more money. Just keep your chin up and think about what your life will be like when you are finished with school. :balloons:Judy

I have been a C.N.A. since 1989. I work at a hospital as a monitor techician, unit secretary, and PCT III. I am competent to do EKG's, draw blood, start IVs, in addition to being a C.N.A. I was trained on the job by the hospital I work for. All the classes were I have taken were through the hospital. I did not get an official certificate but I do have my competencies were I completed the required competencies to be able to be considered a PCT III. The only thing you would be paying for would be certification. I got the same training for free through the facility were I work.

I am not a 30 something but a 40 something. I am 42 years old, married mother of two (ages 18 and 23) and have decided to go back to get my R.N. I currently work as a C.N.A./Unit Secretary/Monitor Technician/Phlebotomist/EKG Technician in Intensive Care so this is exactly a total career change. It took me this long to get up the courage to go back to school. My husband is discouraging me because he says I am too old to go back to school. I am doing it any ways. There are a lot more 30 + nursing students than you think. Not all nursing students are fresh out of high school. Actually you will probably be more serious about you studies than a student fresh out of high school. A lot of students drop out of nursing school because it is so hard. It takes a mature person to get into to nursing because it is such a serious and responsible job. Maybe we should get a 30 + support group going for nursing students over 30.

I am a married mother of two who has decided to go back to nursing school. I have attended one year of college in 1987 and actually was admitted to the nursing program then but had a car accident and had to withdraw. Since my car accident I obtained my C.N.A. Certification. I presently work in an Intensive Care Unit as a Unit Secretary/Monitor Technician/Phlebotomist/C.N.A. The hospital I work at has trained me to do EKG's and I went through the IV Therapy Class because I am trained as an Emergency Room Technician. I decided to go back for my R.N. because I am already doing a lot of the things that the R.N.'s do I just don't get paid for it. My husband is not supportive of me going back to school because he says I am too old and he is discouraging me. What he does not understand is that this is something I have wanted to do for 20 years and I have not been able to go because I had a family to take care of. My children are 18 and 23. One is in college and the other one is preparing for college. Is there anyone out there who has every been in a situation like mine? It would be nice to get encouraged to better myself. I also had this same problem with him when I was going to school before. He fought me on it because he knows it will take time away from me spending time with him.