kythe

I am currently in an Alternative to Discipline program for a petty crime. After I am finished with the Board's monitoring program and have a multi-state license again, can I move to another state unencumbered? Or if I apply for a license in another state, will they look at my background and want to start over with monitoring for the same issue?

I worked in long-term care for over 10 years before getting a job in a family practice office. It turned out to be a very good move. I used to be athletic when I was younger, and felt natural at a job which required physical activity. Over the years I slowed down, began to fatigue easily, and started walking with a distinct limp. A few months ago I was diagnosed with osteoarthritis in my left hip which will lead to a hip replacement. I can no longer stand for long periods of time and have significantly less core body strength, but this does not affect my current job. I work in an office where my primary duties are "desk" work, like returning calls to patients, discussing results, medication refills, and referrals and prior auths. It isn't completely inactive. Nurses assist with some office procedures and sometimes triage walk-ins or emergencies. When Medical Assistants are busy or if there is a call off, I room patients. But a doctor's office job is physically less stressful than floor nursing, and the hours are better too.

Hello, I've been an LPN for 13 years. Most of my experience is various forms of long-term and sub-acute care. My adult daughter lives in another state and I have considered moving to be closer to her. I still live in my hometown, and have never moved any real distance. The idea scares me because of the unknowns. How do you get a job and set up housing from a distance? I recently put out a resume online and by coincidence, was contacted by a recruiter for a travel agency. I've never seriously considered it before. So this may be a dumb question because I know this isn't the purpose of travel nursing, but I'm in unfamiliar territory here. Is it possible to take an assignment with the intention of permanently staying in that place? I know the job and housing are temporary, but it would be a way to get my foot in the door of another community.

I'm an LPN and burned out of long-term care after several years. I kept working only because I need to support my family and that is my job skill. LTC also pays well for LPN's, but in terms of personal satisfaction money can be a poor motivator. But recently I started with a home health agency, and very suddenly I remembered again why I've always wanted to be a nurse. I like spending tuime with people and being able to get to know them. Now I'm not just passing pills or rushing through treatments. I'm helping *people* (not just "patients") maintain the highest standard of living they can while still living in their own homes. This is personally rewarding. :)

Probably 8 years ago, I spent time at a Planned Parenthood as a Medical Assistant through a temp agency. I loved it. At the time, MA's did the back office work - rooming and vitals, fingersticks for rh and hemoglobin testing, prep for pap smears, etc. LPN's worked in the post-abortion recovery room. But since I became an LPN, they seem to have stopped hiring LPNs and gone exclusively to MA's. Many offices do this for financial reasons, but it is disappointing. I applied for a job anyway, hoping to get in with my past experience at PP as well as past experience as an MA. But now I'm overqualified. Everything about the hiring process is done online now, so its hard to talk to a real person and I kept getting redirected.This is my personal experience - its still worth applying in your area if that's what you want to do. This is what you may face, though.

Ok, I tried to clean out my pm's - something I think I haven't done since joining the site years ago. Maybe I should stop second-guessing myself based on what random people on the internet say. I should probably hang out here more, I would get a better education.

I once heard a cell phone ring with a certain tone, and found myself following the sound to another room to see who's pulse ox alarm was going off!

Hello everyone! I've been an LPN in LTC for 6 years now and though I've been trained as a doula, I have never worked in L&D. So I have a question for all of you more experienced people. :) I was recently in an online discussion with some people over the issue of clearing a newborn's airway. Someone asked why doctors hold babies by the ankles and spank them. Most people replied that it is the best way to drain fluid from the lungs and clear their airway. I wrote what I *thought* was a rationale I remembered from nursing school, but I was completely torn apart over it. I thought this hasn't been a common practice since the 1950's and 1960's because dangling babies causes whiplash and spinal problems since they need to be supported. Also, spanking their bottom doesn't stimulate the lungs - it only surprises the baby. The lungs aren't empty sacs that fill with air, or water to be drained by simply being tipped over. The alveoli look more like broccoli branches, and the best way to clear them is through vigorous rubbing on the chest and back, and oral suctioning. And this is all I've seen at the hospital births I attended during nursing school. But it seems the practice of holding a baby upside down and spanking it is still common. What are your experiences?

I went to nursing school with one thing in mind, and that was to become a Certified Nurse-Midwife. I haven't made it past LPN though, and I'm actually considering a different route to midwifery. Working in long-term care for the last 5 years isn't where I wanted to end up, and its taken its toll on me.

Not as a nurse, but as a Medical Assistant working in a doctor's office, I had a couple of celebrity encounters. One was a well known author, but he was a jerk. He would come in self-advertising his books, and he tended to assume everyone kissed the ground he walked on. In reality, no one looked forward to his visits due to his arrogance. Another was a local celebrity who actually seemed a little surprised that I recognized him. He was very humble and down-to-earth. I actually felt bad after I told him I knew who he was (I was a big fan) since he seemed a bit embarrassed.

I'm not sure what you mean by "direct-entry CNM". I've always considered direct entry and CNM to be the two different routes to midwifery. Direct entry means a program that teaches midwifery without requiring nursing school first. CNM is obviously the nursing path. Even though I'm an LPN, I've considered going into a direct entry path because I want to attend home births. I'm not interested in working in a hospital. I don't know what CNM programs require in terms of previous experience. Direct entry midwifery requirements depend a lot on the legality in your state. In my state, DEM applicants are required to observe a number of births before starting on the next step of training, the active participation phase. Some people meet this requirement by shadowing a midwife in her practice. Another way is to become a doula and attend births as a labor support companion. Doula training is very useful for learning the non-medical side of labor support. Working as a doula gives you the opportunity to witness a lot of different styles of labor and pain management, births attended by various doctors and midwives, and you would have first hand experience with common interventions and complications of labor. I went through a doula training program and hope to work as a doula, but I haven't been able to adapt my schedule yet to being on-call 24/7.

Sorry, I didn't mean to offend anyone. I've met people who really believe this, and from several of the comments in this thread it seemed that way here too. Maybe I am taking things too seriously. I'm not trying to scare you off from posting though. I'm sorry if I had that effect.

Sorry, you don't have "hard evidence" of these things. This is still opinion. You can't measure "mean, crazy, and stupid people", though someone could do a study on drunks and drug addicts. But no real study has ever supported the idea that the moon affects people's behavior. I'm too much into astronomy to let this kind of thing pass. It bothers me when educated people believe stuff like this. But speaking of legends, some say its the new moon or "dark of the moon", not the full moon, that causes people's behavior to be unpredictable. It's all in which stories you choose to believe.

I think the full moon issue is just a figure of speech. On busy days I hear people say, "It must be a full moon" without even looking to see that we are nowhere near that time of the month. People just assume because of their preconceived notions.

I recently fainted while on a nature walk with a group, and a nearby med student checked my pulse and asked me basic questions to assess my orientation before letting me stand up again. Someone else gave me a couple of water bottles, one to drink and one to cool off my face and neck. Someone else drove me home in case I was still dizzy and lightheaded. But beyond basic interventions like that, I don't see what else would be appropriate in a non-life threatening situation. If you really believe the person needs more than just some friendly assistance, you probably should be calling them an ambulance. Maybe the person who "looks sick" is struggling with a chronic illness but knows how to handle their symptoms. Or maybe they are having an acute illness but they've already been to the doctor and don't need interference from strangers. You never know what a person's background is, but it also isn't necessarily just anyone's business.