Reneeann25

Tyvin - how funny I had just happened to see that post. It sounds nearly identical to my situation, as if I had written it myself. I, too, started out in the rehab/express recovery unit. I graduated and passed my RN boards in July of 2010. I fell into the hype of the 'nursing shortage', only to see upon graduation and being thrusted into the job market, that the demand wasn't quite what I was lead to believe. Nursing graduates are being pumped out by the hundreds to thousands in our area - every semester. There are many jobs posted for RN's in acute hospitals, but they seem to be hiring those applicants with the most experience. I accepted this position at a SNF/LTC facility to keep from becoming a "stale RN grad", but now I'm wondering if I would have been better off unemployed before landing my dream job in a hospital. When I apply now, I still don't get return calls, or any leads. Someone told me that I may be seen as "damaged goods" now that I have spent the entirety of my new career in LTC. I don't necessarily qualify as a new grad anymore, but my experience thus far doesn't seem to be counting. When I voice my concerns with our facility to my LPN unit partners, they make remarks that I'm chasing "unicorns and rainbows" in thinking I could find anything better. Yet at the same time, I get razzed about being the RN in LTC working as a charge nurse. I haven't put myself out there in a while regarding applying elsewhere, I guess because it's so discouraging to apply, apply, apply and get my hopes up, only to never receive any calls or leads.

I am so incredibly frustrated with my job! I was told plenty while in school that nursing is NOT easy. I was told when we were learning proper procedures for skills, that you'd often hear nurses say "but that's not how we do it in the real world", but to never listen to them, and to always follow protocol. They crammed our heads with "prioritize, prioritize, prioritize!" but I didn't anticipate I would be forced to completely neglect certain nursing duties in order to prioritize and tackle the most important. I am responsible for 39 patients. At any given time, roughly 3-6 of those require Medicare A / Skilled nursing care, 3-6 of them are skilled nursing care but only have Medicaid coverage. Four of them are hospice - in varying stages of the dying process - requiring lots of care. At least half of them have mental health issues, also requiring a lot of my time. Four of them are peg tubes, with 2 different times each on my shift requiring peg flushes, meds and formula. Two colostomies, and 5 of them with skin issues requiring dressing changes/wound treatments. One woman requiring lymphedema wraps which take about 45 minutes to wrap every other day. I have to prep approximately 15 lab reports each day, schedule appointments, manage consultations, deal with angry family members, as well as family members with concerns each day. I have to spend an hour in the dining room at lunch time verifying that patients are being served the proper diet, and monitor the dining area to ensure there is no choking, and watch for signs of dysphagia. I have to monitor and record dietary and fluid intake daily. I have around 15 people I have to apply some sort of cream or ointment to, and monitor skin daily for signs of breakdown. I am responsible for calling our medical director each day to report changes in condition and report lab results to - then writing and pulling orders, which involves calling each patients family members to educate them on the orders. In addition, I am in charge of 2 bath aids, 4 CNA's, a CMT, and a restorative aid. It is my duty to ensure they are properly carrying our their duties. Two of those four CNA's are constantly rotating. We haven't had consistant staff or proper continuity of care in the year I have been a nurse and been employed there. Furthermore, I am on my 4th day of training our new hire nurse ie - my new relief on second shift. The first two days I trained her on my shift, and the last two days, I have worked a double shift so that I may train her on the shift she will be working. I can see she is no where near being left alone yet. While I was there this evening, I spoke with the doctor for her, wrote and pulled all the orders, did her charting, performed many of her assessments, answered call lights and passed pain meds, and she STILL struggled to complete her duties. This is, I think, the fifth nurse I have trained for this shift, and it's exhausting work to train, only to see that it's quite possible she won't work out. But is the problem really with her? or with the expectations and demand our higher ups are placing on us as charge nurses? She was frazzled, and I found several times that she was leaving the nurses cart outside of patient rooms - unlocked, MAR wide open, and the narcotic drawer keys right on top - all unattended. An example of what 15 minutes can look like at any given time is: I'm at the med cart outside of a patients room preparing meds to administer via peg tube - one patient wheels up to my cart requesting pain meds. I stop what I'm doing to get them out of the drawer - sign them out of the narc book, and sign them off on the PRN sheet. Before I'm finished, a CNA approaches me to let me know that patient in room 521 is lethargic, and difficult to arrouse. I put my half prepared peg tube meds in my cart so that I may go assess patient 521, and I pass 3 call lights blaring on the way. After assessing and leaving room 521, I realize I'm nearly out of compliance in administering the peg meds and rush back to finish. While I finish prepping them, I hear my name being paged for a call on lines 1 and 3 - one of them being the lab - surely calling to report a critical lab value that must be phoned to the Dr. The other is pharmacy calling wanting me to check the dosage on a newly ordered med, which I must look up. Another patient rolls up wanting pain meds. I now have only 15 minutes before lunch starts to check blood sugars and administer insulins. Sometime between now and then I need to fill out an SBAR communication form to alert the dr of patient 521's status change. Ahhhh!!! CNA's neglect carrying out nurses orders on answering lights in a timely manner, vital signs get turned in late, patients aren't being toileted and repositioned as frequently as they should. I get onto them when I know they are just slacking, but for the most part - they're feeling the same strain I am. It's hard for me to be angry with them, when I see they're working their butts off and just can't keep up with the demands d/t patient overload. They see me as the 'bad guy', but I know it's just the corporation. No one will listen to us that it's just too much. I think they're just waiting for something horrible to happen to see - or even then - will they see? And can I keep working in these conditions? Part of me feels like I continue on out of a sense of obligation. I love these people - I love their families - I love many of my co-workers, and they need me. I just wish the working conditions were better. I wish I had more time to use my knowledge to assess patients and communicate with them and their families. I wish I had more time to complete my duties in a thorough and careful manner. I wish I could shake the corporate big wigs and get them to see that quality care is being compromised so that their buck may be maximized. I wish I could be happy in my career choice and employment. Is this truly the reality of nursing? or am I just at an awful place?

I just took my test this AM @ 8:00. I got to around 150 questions. All of my classmates that I know of that passed, got cut off at 85 questions. When the screen showed "86", my palms started to sweat, my stomach turned, and my heart dropped. I got a ton of priority questions, about 20+ select all that apply questions, couple of easy drug calc's, and a mixture of straight forward questions and ridiculously hard questions. My gut says I failed, but the optimist in me is praying I passed. Being a weekend day, I'm not expecting to see my name on the BON site before I'd just find out via quick results @ 8AM on Monday. However, I did do the PVT, and got a pop-up. I keep seeing people here refer to it as the "good pop-up", although, I'm not sure if what I got constitutes as good. It said something like "We are unable to register you for this exam because you already have an existing open registration." I prepared myself for the exam by telling myself I wasn't going to let my feelings after the test ruin my entire weekend - but I'm so upset =( Good luck to everyone else also waiting, and congrats to those who just passed!!

Perhaps you could test for hemolytic activity. I believe Psedumonas Fluorescens produces hemolysins; however, I do not know whether it's alpha or beta. Also, did you do a Gram stain? I'm leaving in an hour to go take my microbiology final exam. I can't wait to get this class over with!!! Good luck.

I completed all of my pre-req's, and finally took my TEAS test last Monday. I just recieved my scores (passing!!) along wtih my acceptance letter yesterday!!! Wooohoooo!!!!!

I am in Kansas City, Missouri. I am new to the site, and posted my question before looking around the forums some more, and stumbled across the CNA forum. There are already a few questions similar to mine over there. The replies suggest calling nursing homes to find out which ones offer CNA training, but so far I have contacted every nursing home in a 10 mile radius of me, and not one so far offers CNA training. I did find one thing helpful though, and that is after my fundamentals of nursing class, I can take the challenge CNA state exam without taking a CNA course. That is nice to know for when I actually get to my nursing classes, but for now, I'm in need of some kind of health care related job with zero experience or certification.

Hi everyone! I am currently a pre-nursing student. I am taking A&P (my last pre-req before applying to enter nursing classes). I am also in desperate need of finding a part time day job that works around my school schedule, or hoping to find a graveyard shift full time job. My school has changed it's curriculum requirements to get into the nursing program due to so many student's applying and a shortage of instructors, and now pull students in according to rank calculated via point system, which includes experience in the health care field, GPA, and a few others. Aside from wanting to find a job in the health care field for the point system, I would like to get my feet wet in the industry first. It's a pretty scary thing to be investing so much education in a field that I'm not even sure will be for me. Another reason for wanting to find a full time job, is because our nursing handbook says health insurance is a requirement for clinicals, and I do not have any. So now my question.. when I'm searching around in the papers and such, most of the listings for CNA's require being already certified. I had heard that most nursing homes desperate for CNA's will hire you without being certified, and will put you through the courses later, but so far, the places I have contacted express their want for aides that are already certified. I can not afford the $800 my college requires to get certified.. are there any suggestions on how I can obtain a CNA cheap or free? Or are there other jobs in the health care field that would be beneficial to me that do not require being certified? Thanks for your time in advance!