ricaryx

O.M.G. That is NOT right. Welcome to the world of LTC. If the DON doesn't do something about those issues, and you feel that it shouldn't go on any longer, talk to your administrator. If you catch an abuse? Then there's the Ombudsman. You're not there to make friends, if you feel that your team is not functioning towards the residents' best interest then do something to change that. You're on the RIGHT track. I want to let you know. The "irresponsible" nurses who don't do their jobs will get what is coming to them. Remember, it is THEIR license that's on the line. You just need to do what is expected of you to do. Unchanged patient dressing for days is unethical and illegal. If it's a doctor's order (which for sure it is) to change dressing q day then they're definitely going against it. Inform your supervisors. Always think about who will get the short end of the stick here, the poor Residents. We're patient advocates. Don't let what you learned in nursing school crumble due to a bad nursing environment. Maintain your integrity as a professional nurse! Goodluck!

I'm writing a paper for my BSN class and I'm out of ideas. I need topics to write about regarding online nursing. Can you name different issues in online nursing that will be perfect to address in an academic paper? I'm really desperate here. I need help. Thank you so much!

Omg lorazepam, I am going to orientation next thursday too!! Maybe I'll see you lol I can't believe you're taking the same courses I do, lucky. I don't feel so alone here!

Okay! I'm officially starting this fall as well, BSN 302 and 306 (it's a testing section). Lorazepam, if you don't mind how is BSN 302? Any feedback? This is my first online class experience, I would've registered for more classes but I kind of want to "test out the water first." I'm kind of nervous and excited at the same time haha. ANYONE taking this online program as well?

I graduated last year and has only practiced nursing in a Private-pay Convalescent home for 4 months, on-call, landed a new job at another SNF that has Medicare patients. Boy, it was so different than the private pay LTC, and very strict. I'm not sure if you can call this orientation, but I had a month long orientation on the floor and I was by myself. Day shift. If I didn't have the experience from my previous job, I would've sunk. Hard. The only thing my supervisor did for me, was find my faults, give me advice, then report those faults to the DON. Again, I can honestly say I need more exposure, being on-call at a slow convalescent home isn't really enough to call myself "experienced." I've been stung for doing a bg check on a resident everytime I give them insulin. Because there was no order to do a bg check, "i'm going against doctor's orders". They said I was doing it to make myself feel better in giving insulin, the residents don't need an unnecessary poke. As long as the resident doesn't look hypoglycemic, just stick him the insulin. Is this supposed to be common knowledge? I don't want subjective assessments, I want objective. I only wanted to be safe, I'm already pressed for time in my med pass why would I waste time doing bg check? They were SO disappointed when I held a resident's insulin for having a BG of 70 (resident was asymptomatic), and failing to notify the doctor. That time I felt stupid. I've been stung for my very slow med pass. I only have 23 patients, but it takes me from 0800 to 1100 to finish all of them. They weren't happy about that. My supervisor pointed out my mistakes, and reported that to the DON. I go through my MAR more than once when I pull out meds. It was a habit, and I admit it's a time waster. However, the main thing about me being slow was that, I double/quadruple check. I'd rather be late than make a med error esp. with these residents that I don't know. They didn't like that too, they want me to finish within two hours because if I don't, the meds after all that becomes a MED ERROR. Especially those pills that need to be given in 1300. They want me to work accurately and efficiently in a timely manner. I get that, but with me in a new environment, I need more time. I have 26 patients in my previous job and I get the med pass done from 0800-1000. Here, I can't seem to get that done because of all the interruptions and the busy, and i mean, busy environment. Not to mention the residents' whims. So I did just that, 2 weeks later, I've improved my time. I focused on those two things they mentioned. They moved me onto a NEW station and left me there alone to fend for myself. I got overwhelmed because of the time. I wanted to finish my med pass within two hours, and I'm absolutely sure I wouldn't meet that. I went to my supervisor and asked for help. What she just did was observe me as I do my med pass, of course, that made me even more tense. She went up to me and looked at my MAR, found out that I wasn't able to properly sign all of them so she wasn't sure if I skip a med or not. From that point, I know I didn't purposely skip a med but the possibility of overlooking one of them is there. Because I failed to sign. She said I'm still back from my habit of going over the MAR several times, despite how she told me not to do that anymore. It's a time waster and what's worse, this time I'm "skipping" meds. She reported that to the DON again. I felt really frustrated from making basic errors, and I felt incompetent. I know that wasn't me at my best. From then on, I got chewed out, they told me that that wasn't the only time I skipped a med. There were times in the MAR that I haven't signed. One of them was a Digoxin. It was funny, that was the only thing that I remember clearly that I gave to that resident. Because it WAS Digoxin. It's not colace or whatever. But they wouldn't/couldn't believe me because I failed to sign. Cuz "if you didn't sign it, you didn't do it." Right? I realized that the quality of my med pass has went down the drain ever since they told me to work on my time more. I can only blame myself for being so inflexible and giving in to their pressure. That was my last evaluation. They said I failed to meet their expectations and they need to let me go before anything happens to my license and to their residents. For one moment there, I wanted to say hold on a minute I can prove myself (because their demand didn't look impossible if they gave me enough time to improve) but with that kind of pressure on me and the lack of support I get? I think they're right. I'm going to make a mistake and with the state always eyeing them, I'd rather not risk it. So there, I was relieved of my post. They said "I'll thank them in the future." In fairness, they think I have potential and they're willing to put in a good word for me if I ever make them as my reference for my next job application. That's the only good part about all this, and the fact that my learning curve went up a notch. I just wanted to vent all that out. From my understanding, I was terminated because I wasn't good enough. I just wished I have had a proper orientation from them, I want a preceptor, not a critic that only points out my fault and doesn't work WITH me to overcome it. To be honest, I don't want to work at a LTC anymore with my current level of experience. Right now, I feel incompetent and I'm not sure if I still love Nursing as much as I did after I passed NCLEX with flying colors. It's just....sigh.

Okay, I really need a fellow nurses' input on this. I graduated less than a year ago and landed a job at an assisted living firm. We had a new admission the other day who had an order for Senokot 2 tablets. The resident was "somewhat" deteriorating cognitively so the daughter (authorized representative) requested to change the order from Senna 2 tab to 1 tab because the dose is too much for her mom. Whenever there's a new admit, we have to fax the doctor of the current medication orders and permit to admit resident to the facility. So to save me the grief of faxing the doctor twice for the Senokot, I changed the admission orders of 2 tab Senokot to 1 tablet and faxed that to the doctor *to see* if the doctor will sign it. The doctor signed it. I'm supposed to have gotten the order I want. Or am I? Then the next day, my co-worker freaked out that I shouldn't have done that. She said that I have to fax the doctor separately to change the order for Senokot and get the doctor's signature first before I can have the right to change the admission orders---and get the doctor's signature again. This is after the doctor saw the admission medication orders that I faxed and signed it. I get what my co-worker wanted me to do, and I purposely did not do it, but what's the worst thing that can happen if I skipped a step and ultimately still got the doctor's signature in the end? It seems to have become a big deal to her and I'm just sitting here wondering was it really? I need advice. I asked my DON and she said it should be fine because the doctor signed it, but is there a consensus about this issue that I was in the wrong?

lol you're exactly the same as me. I called the syndrome Post-Examination Depression, but well, you coined the term waay better than I did. I walked out of the test center feeling okay and got more paranoid and miserable on the way home. I told the peeps here my life story and they said I did good. And I did. I'm going to say you did good too.

From the NCLEX review I attended at school, we kinda got some trivias about NCLEX. It changes every three years, meaning it gets harder with more stuffs integrated into it to stick with the current healthcare trends. If you were to take NCLEX next year, it'll be a different test again since I think we're on the third year. We're lucky. Also, there're approximately 9000+ questions in NCLEX bank (if you fail, the questions you previously got will be blocked from you the next time you take it) and whatever questions you get depends on how you answer. Our instructors told us to not trust what anyone says about what's on the test because it's definitely going to be different for everyone. It'll just confuse you. Like if one say, 'omg I got a lot of drug questions NCLEX is pharmacology!!', don't buy into that. You don't have to focus on a huge deal of time on meds because chances are it will be different for you. You just have to focus reviewing on your general basic content. Try to review as much content as you can so that you'll be prepared with what NCLEX asks you. Remember, NCLEX is a safety test designed for new grads to meet the minimum requirements expected of a nurse. Minimum. NCLEX doesn't expect us to know everything. You just have to prove to them that you're safe and that you can catch a disaster if it stares at you at the face. lol Well....those are the tips I brought to NCLEX with me. It helps a lot to know what NCLEX thinks of you in answering questions. And yep, I passed with 75 questions. In my case, I can say the real NCLEX is really not what I've expected. I meant that in a very good way. ^^ Good luck test takers!

I was skeptical of Hurst at first and I really wanted to do Kaplan since everyone was talking about it, but I ended up going to Hurst because of peer pressure haha (and also because it was cheaper than Kaplan) In the end, I'm glad I did Hurst. Anyway, aside from content review, Marlene Hurst also gave a lot of tips regarding test taking strategies. Sure, it's not as scientific-like as Kaplan, but she had a LOT of delicious pointers there regarding the NCLEX exam. I even remember being in the middle of NCLEX and almost hearing Marlene's voice everytime I analyze each options lol I strongly recommend Hurst Review. It's an excellent basic content review, entertaining to boot. If you know your core content like the back of your hand, you'll be prepared with whatever NCLEX throws at you. I can honestly say I passed NCLEX because of Hurst review. @NewAggieGrad09 Oh wow...Only $50 for Hurst? Lucky.

to see is to believe huh? i must admit this pv "trick" maintaned my sanity right after the exam. each time i read one or two people, especially if they're from ca, testifying that the pv trick isn't that accurate, my resolve weakens lol (good for them though!) that is why i'm compelled to add to the 90720752th testifier in this thread so that whoever is reading this will have more confidence and hopefully feel more sane after taking nclex. took mine on july 20th, 75 questions, from california, blocked from the cc page = passed july 22 per ca bon!!:dncgcpd: i'm so happy. thanks for all the support in this this thread too! i almost got crazy back there hahah goodluck to all you others!!

I took my test yesterday 7/20. I did the Pearsonvue trick 4 hours after I got home, my appointment status is "Delivery Successful" and it didn't let me. I did it over and over and it still didn't let me. Now it's the next day and I'm so scared to do the Pearsonvue trick again. My exam status is still on "Delivery Successful" but I'm scared to do the trick again. I'm so afraid to get the cc page hahaha Did it ever change for anyone in here? Like were you not able to sign in the first day and was able to sign in the next? I'm so paranoid.

According to Hurst, SATAs are lower level questions, the multiple choice questions are the ones we want to get, but judging from this thread it doesn't seem that way. I wonder which is it really ^^ I just had NCLEX yesterday too. Stopped at 75. I had severals SATAs too and one when you put a step in order. Still don't know if I passed or not.

OMG. Your comments truly made me happy. *hugs ya'll* That made me feel better. I really do think Hurst review is RIGHT ON. Even if I fail, I know I'm not blaming it on Marlene. It's just all me. Her stuff works. It sticks in your head because it makes you laugh lol. And yes, think positive.:)

Maybe I just wasn't paying attention when they told us this, sorry but I'm still asking anyways:D Where do we check our names if we officially get our license, I mean where at the BRN site? And about this pearsonvue trick I tried it, and didn't let me register but I wonder if that CAN change. I'm still a bit skeptic, didn't want to give my self any kinds of false reassurance. ^^

This may just be one big of a blab, but I had to vent. So I took NCLEX today in Cali, July 20, 2009 at 12:15 pm but was able to take it 30 minutes earlier. I took Hurst Review, I focused on core content because Marlene Hurst said that the number one nursing diagnosis of why people fail NCLEX isn't Anxiety it's Knowledge Deficit. I thought that made sense so I went along with core content. I went to the testing center feeling significantly familiar with the content but I never really felt prepared for the test. Like I still didn't feel like my status is worthy enough to take on NCLEX, I saw myself as a slacker who's about to take on a National Licensing Exam. But there was no turning back and I wanted to get it over with. I tried to relax as much as I can but still ended up as a pile of absent-minded mess when they were giving me instructions for the test. I was forgetting my stuffs here and there. I had to go back to my locker THREE times before the NCLEX lady let me in. It was THAT embarassing. They were really strict in the testing center, and one of the testing ladies asked me if I would like a tissue before I start. =/ I was thinking what are the tissues for?? I declined. It was only after checking this forum that I realized what the tissues are for. That NCLEX lady totally saw me as a potential faucet. How mean. =_= Well about the test, I've been lurking in this forum and have been reading about how you're supposed to "feel" like you fail after the test. That's what I heard too because that meant that you're in the higher level questions. I didn't feel like that at all. I exited the testing center feeling like I've just taken a practice test from NCLEX 4000. I'm familiar with every question that popped up. You know, I never had that "ZOMGNCLEXISOUTOFMYLEAGUE!!" feeling. It's just like one of the test I took in nursing school. If you're the nurse, what will you see in this picture? THAT IS WHY. I'm going crazy now. The more I sit in the car on the way home (good thing I wasn't driving), the more paranoid I got. Maybe I got that one wrong, maybe I was just breezing through the test without seeing the problem, maybe 3 hours to answer all 75 aren't long enough, I wish they've given me more than 75 questions. What if the pilot questions were the ones that I got all right?? All those crazy thoughts. Now I wholeheartedly think that I failed. It can't be that simple. My test stopped at 75. I tried the "Pearsonvue trick" and re-registered. It didn't let me. Atleast for now, it didn't. It might change tomorrow. I wonder if someone here couldn't re-register the first day and ended up being able to register the next day or the day after and pass. It just really wouldn't surprise me if I fail. I've been praying to God and been telling myself, NCLEX is a safety test designed for grad nurses before they let us loose on the public. If I didn't pass, that just means I'm NOT safe. Yet. I will scare the public if they see me at their bedside. That's all it is. Plus, it's not the end of the world. God led me this far with flying colors, I'll leave it to Him.:redpinkhe I know that atleast. I just had to vent here because it's eating me up. I'm glad there's a site like this for fellow nurses (grad nurses) knowing exactly what you've been through. They think it's amusing that we are having this Post-Examination depression. It's TOTALLY not fun. The wait for official results is excruciatingly torture. Torture is even the softest description I can describe it with. I wish the computer will just confront us directly if we pass or not right then and there. Think of all the cortisols that are going to get secreted from all this stress. I think they're just squeezing out as much money as they can from us with Quick Results :chuckle If you've made it up to here, thanks for listening.