geocachingRN

geocachingRN has 3 years experience and specializes in Community & Mental Health, Sp Ed nursing.

geocachingRN's Latest Activity

1. 

   Am I crazy, because this seems VERY WRONG...

   geocachingRN replied to Fannie'sMom's topic in General Students

   I cannot emphasize this enough. Listen to hearts, this setting is were you'll get some interesting variations. Same goes for lungs. Take BP's and if they are willing practice taking BP's on a leg. What about all those meds? What do they do, what are they for, what are their SE's. When a doc comes in to do their rounds, ask if you can follow them around. Review a patient's file and look at their blood work, do you see the correlation. Even if you can't do this, just by asking shows your interest in wanting to learn everything. Geri is an important sub specialty, so much so, specialty leadership programs are being developed. http://www.nursingsociety.org/LeadershipInstitute/GeriatricAcademy/Pages/GeriatricAcademy.aspx
2. 

   teacher's union

   geocachingRN replied to schoolnursejennie's topic in School

   Jennie: What happens when you are sick, who covers for you? If it's the office staff, then they should cover you while you take your breaks for 30 minutes. What did your predecessor and other nurses in your district or nearby districts do? I try and take my break when teachers are in the lunch room as it can be very helpful. For example, I had one child who showed up with impetigo and I sent him home. In the lunch room it was mentioned by the teacher, and another teacher said she had a child with a suspicious rash in her class. I asked her to send him to me and sure enough, it looked like impetigo as well. The connection turned out to be an off site after school program.
3. 

   UNLV is doubling fees for their nursing progrm only!

   geocachingRN posted a topic in First Year

   From their website: The Board of Regents of the State of Nevada approved a proposal in December 2010 for the School of Nursing at UNLV to implement differential tuition for nursing students in the professional nursing program beginning in January 2012. All students taking classes from NURS 300 or above will be levied the differential tuition (NURS 140 and 299 will not be included). Differential tuition means that a school charges a rate of tuition above that which the university charges, in this case, the differential will be twice that of UNLV regular tuition. Revenue from differential tuition will support enhancement of key student programs. Students will pay differential tuition only if they are in the professional nursing program at the undergraduate and graduate level. They will not pay differential tuition if they are prenursing students. By Board of Regents mandate, 15 % of the additional tuition revenue will go directly toward financial aid for School of Nursing students. (http://nursing.unlv.edu/)
4. 

   teacher's union

   geocachingRN replied to schoolnursejennie's topic in School

   I agree with Flare and to say, pick your battles. I am also on the teachers contract and should only work 6.5 hours/day. However, 90% of the district employees put in much more time than this. Teachers take work home almost every night and weekends, office staff work 7:30 - 5 or 6 each night. No one slacks in my district. Instead, I flex my time and come in later or take an afternoon off because I have other obligations, and a lot of volunteer work, besides I'm 80% time and I'm trying to make the point that I need to be full time.
5. 

   Anti-bullying exercise

   geocachingRN posted a topic in School

   Got this off a friends facebook page: A teacher in New York was teaching her class about bullying and gave them the following exercise to perform. She had the children take a piece of paper and told them to crumple it up, stomp on it and really mess it up, but do not rip it. Then she had them unfold the paper, smooth it out and look at how scarred and dirt...y it was. She then told them to tell it they're sorry. Now even though they said they were sorry and tried to fix the paper, she pointed out all the scars they left behind. And that those scars will never go away no matter how hard they tried to fix it. That is what happens when a child bullies another child, they may say they're sorry but the scars are there forever. The looks on the faces of the children in the classroom told her the message hit home. Thanks Alyssia Levitt Berkowitz for this story.
6. 

   Medicaid Billing

   geocachingRN replied to Keepstanding's topic in School

   For those who do not do MAA/LEA billing, does this mean you have no students on MediCal in your district receiving services?
7. 

   Trach Suctioning

   geocachingRN replied to luvapug's topic in School

   You're also there in case the trach falls out or gets blocked by food, education and safety. I know because this was my first job in a school district I was in grad school so I had the opportunity to do my homework, which included online lectures. I brought my computer and earphones. I also helped with school nurse reports and researched Ed code issues when they came up. It was a great position for a year, but after that, not so much. As to queasy, I've been told everyone, including nurses, has an issue with one bodily fluid and it sounds like lung gunk is yours. If you truly have a problem, I wouldn't recommend this as the opportunity to get over it. The 4 year old will pick up on that and may read it as you have a problem with him or her. The nurse they hired to replace me when I took on schools had similar issues and my former charge could tell. She made every excuse to not come to school and her attendance decreased by 30%
8. 

   It's official, I'm now a school nurse

   geocachingRN replied to crickyRN's topic in School

   Depends upon your contract. I'm on the same contract as teachers and am contracted to work 7 hour days but of course I work more than that.
9. 

   Advice for (hopeful) newbie?

   geocachingRN replied to KrystinaRN's topic in School

   Hi Krystina: Martha recommends doing a search on this form for interview questions. Did a nurse get hired for the position where you are at now? Good luck with your interview! Cheers, elizabeth
10. 

    The Great Recession's lost generation

    geocachingRN replied to TheCommuter's topic in Headlines

    Exactly! Nursing is one of the few degrees that came into being before standards for it were set. Currently, the US is one of the few, if not the only country that has multiple entry points for professional nurses. I know it's been said before but if one compares other hospital professionals, nurses are vastly undereducated. Dieticians, and all manner of therapists require at least a baccalaureate and many have a Master's as a starting point. Nursing isn't the same as 20 or even 10 years ago and given the vastness of the field of nursing, and the increasing responsibility and complexity of patients, shouldn't nursing be on educational par with these other professions?
11. 

    My district has gone from 14 nurses to 3.5 in 5 years

    geocachingRN replied to geocachingRN's topic in School

    Hi Martha: The answer to all of the above is yes, and my director does not care. Yes UAP's do not assess well and send kids home costing the district ADA money; yes, there isn't enough time to follow up on hearing and vision screenings and they are not getting done. My district does not exclude when IZ's are not done and though our compliance is good, Tdap will be a challenge. Our district feels that health aides (UAP's) are more useful than nurses as they help out with the depleted office staff. Nothing we do matters and I've given up. I'm worried about my license and I'm looking for another job. Thanks to all for your support.
12. 

    Last week

    geocachingRN replied to BunnyBunnyBSNRN's topic in School

    Indeed, good luck to you and don't be a stranger! Are you interested in working in an American School?
13. 

    My district has gone from 14 nurses to 3.5 in 5 years

    geocachingRN replied to geocachingRN's topic in School

    I've heard a rumor that a district somewhere had an issue with there liability insurance when their district wanted to do the same. Other than filing a labor dispute, I don't know what to do! Our teaching contract does not have ratios in it. The only thing we can go by is the huge job description. FYI- the 2 nurses that will no longer have a position next year have been offered 1:1 classroom positions which means the district "didn't lay any nurses off" and the ratios still look reasonable although only 3 nurses and .5 Sp ed will be handling school nursing work. If anyone has any ideas of what we can do, I 'd really like to know. Our boss is a bully and thinks he can replace us with part-time health aides in the schools.
14. 

    The Great Recession's lost generation

    geocachingRN replied to TheCommuter's topic in Headlines

    Where we are at, one of the local hospitals has decided that they will no longer take students for clinicals from the local ADN program after 35 years. I truly hope that decision comes back and bite them. It would be better for them to encourage students to get their BSN all together, I think.
15. 

    The Great Recession's lost generation

    geocachingRN replied to TheCommuter's topic in Headlines

    I went back to my alma mater and started an Alumni Association FOR JUST THIS REASON (First nursing alumni at a Community College in California). I wanted to provide a mechanism for mentoring, and keeping skills up and eventually CEU's. But also, it was something people could put on their resume while they were looking for a job. Being the charter president would make one stand out as a go getter. (I've got a job and don't need to be an officer). But I can't even get people to commit to doing this and I don't know why.
16. 

    My district has gone from 14 nurses to 3.5 in 5 years

    geocachingRN posted a topic in School

    and the job description hasn't changed in that time. Also, my boss told me today that he wants to have one nurse by 2015 for 16 elementary school, 9 secondary schools and 10 Alt ed/charter schools. Does anyone else have a similar structure?