ashnem
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All Content by ashnem
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So I was completely set on the Littman Master Cardiology until I saw the STC. I would love to hear any opinions especially if you have used both. I will be starting my first job on a cardiac unit so I do believe that it is worth the investment to go with a higher end scope rather than upgrade later. While the Master Cardiology is by far the favorite of most folks here, the STC seems more ergonomic and possibly b/c it is less popular it may be more identifiable? I know that the master cardiology has a peds adapter and some people say that they don't care for it, any opinions? I also noticed that the MC is rated a "10" while the STC is rated "9". I am not sure what quantifiable data was used to evaluate the acoustic quality and if there is a noticable difference. The MC has a 7 year warranty vs. 6 for the STC. Price difference is negligable ($2). Thanks in advance for any thoughts to help guide my selection!
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My thought and experiences with drug testing in general: I just graduated in December. Our school did not do drug testing prior to admission and I don't know if there was a policy in place that allowed them to do so for just cause. One of the clinical sites that our school used did require testing. We did not know until the first day of peds when the instructor said, "Raise your hand if you are going to X Hospital for clinical. Okay you need to do a drug test." (On our own dime, of course.) So there was no time to "modify" your behavior, if need be. I find drug testing to be an intrusive violation, on principle alone. If I have given no just cause, don't make me prove my innocence. I really don't think that drug tests prove much. They just prove that either you can or can't modify your behavior for a specified amount of time (length of time depending on the drug and how it is metabolized and excreted). For those that test positive for Rx drugs, as long as they have documentation that they have a legal Rx than it's OK. Yet, most folks that are addicted to Rx painkillers began as legitimately prescribed patients (r/t chronic illness or injury) and they became addicted over time b/c their pain wasn't adequately managed or they didn't have the resources or time to use adjunctive therapy (PT, massage therapy, chiro...) leading to them obtaining illegally or Dr shopping. So they could have a legal prescription AND still be a drug abuser! Consider the length of time certain drugs are present in urine: cocaine 12hours, meth 1-4d, codiene 2-3d, morphine 2-4d, heroin 3-4 and marijauna one month+! So yesderday you could have been snorting some coke and a few days ago shooting up heroin and you would probably come up negative. But LAST MONTH on a trip to Europe you could have smoked a joint and test positive. I am not advocating/condoning drug use at all but that doesn't make any sense when you consider that most research has proved that marijuana use poses little risk, is not addictive and has lots of medical uses. Due to the legth of time that it takes to be excreted (b/c stored in fat cells) it is the most common drug to come up in testing, yet (according to most) it is the most innocuous! I shudder to think of all of the drugs that were pumped into my daughter's body when she had cancer (not inc chemo) just to manage side effects- zofran, megace, reglan, phenergan, morphine, methadone, fentanyl... I have often thought if she ever relasped, if just making a batch of "special brownies" would be safer and possibly more effective. I also had a clinical experience that reinforced my beliefs and made me sick. The hospital had mandatory drug testing on all pregnant women prior to delivery. This woman was a mess anyway- she had been raped and was agonizing over whether to keep the baby or not. The woman had not even seen her 2 day old baby yet and was emotionally unstable. THIS is when her drug results came in- she had tested positive to amphetamines and the social worker was on her way to see her and child protective services had been called. I did not believe the charge and kept questioning the woman, it just didn't make sense! Turned out that she had taken Claritin-D. I alerted the social worker and she investigated and came back and said that the dates didn't match when she said that she had taken the meds (should have cleared by then). UMMM, first how much research has been done specifically on pregnant women and drug clearance? I talked to the woman more and found out the she had brought with her on admission a 48h urine collection. That was how they had obtained the sample! This woman was tormented for NOTHING. She was treated like an unfit mother and a drug addict with no reasonable cause. This should not ever have to happen to anyone. My $0.02.
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Oh no, not another select all that apply! Thought I was done w/ that after my evil NCLEX!
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FYI, in all of my calling around yesterday I did reach a human being in DC. I was surprised! The main number didn't work so I just started picking people to call and eventually got through! If any of this is info that you already know, just ignore. If we go through them (DC BON) to do fingerprint/background check we have to make an appointment (don't know how soon it would be). I got conflicting info from the site and the person I was talking to regarding walk-in fingerprinting, so not sure. You also have the option to go to a local PD to have it done. My local doesn't do it but the state barracks do them at certain times of the week. There are directions on the site (DC BON) for doing it a your local PD (certain form # to use, what to write in reason box, include FBI scan...). If you choose that option, you just bring to DC BON your receipt as proof. Sorry if that was info you already knew, it was new to me! Still not on NURSYS and it is shut down 'til 7A Mon so I am hoping Tuesday I can slam it all out. I really have to say, I am a resourceful person and I am no idiot but this processes is pretty crazy! There needs to really be a page on DC/MD BON sites that goes through this process step by step w/ applicable links, approx timeframes for each step, what needs to be done before proceeding, status updates (IT working on a problem or whatever)... That would have saved theses agencies dozens of calls from us alone!:spbox: I truly am grateful to you guys. You have been a wealth of information and have helped me immensely with this process!
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Thank you for opening my mind and sharing your perspective. I am a new grad and as I struggled to find work, my back up plan was, "I could always go to LTC". A view that was shared by many of my classmates, too. Thank you for knocking me off my pedestal! And continuing to care for "my" patients when they are discharged!
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Tried calling MBON so many times today to find out about posting to NURSYS. Either: a) no answer. b) left messages. c) got transferred around to the same people I already tried to call myself. d) told it was an unusually high call volume and to try my call at another time. e) put on hold forever and then told to call back on Monday! We pay a lot of money to this BON and it is inexcusable to not have our calls taken/ returned/ questions answered in a timely manner! Have either of you found out any more about NURSYS? Seriously they could save a whole lot of time, effort and frustration if they had a FAQ section that answers general guidelines. I didn't even know about NURSYS until you all were posting about it. To clarify, MD posts to NURSYS and we are paying the fee to allow DC to access it, but we can't pay until we actually appear on NURSYS?! Thanks! You guys have been so very helpful! :redpinkhe
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I PASSED! CANNOT BELIEVE IT!
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my advice: i tested yesterday, cried in the parking lot for an hour. (haven't gotten results yet) my test was highly unusual so i won't freak you out with the details. (if you really want to know, you can search my other posts). at this point, unless you have really precise weaknesses that you are aware of, just stop studying b/c you'll just go too fast, bounce around and not really get any depth out of it to make it worth it. make sure you know your labs! also, know precautions. my test, as well as many of my friends were very infection-precaution heavy. spend time doing questions. i never studied (like read) but i did questions and as i went back over them, i read every rationale for every question right/wrong/whatever. as i did that i looked up stuff in the book (saunders) to supplement and reinforce. i jotted notes on different pieces of paper (meds, labs, procedures, peds, maternity, disease...) i skipped lines so that i could add to any entries if i learned more on another question. i only wrote what i didn't know. some days i would spend hours on only 50 questions but i really learned, i think much more than many of my friends that were slamming out 150-200 kaplan questions/day. i think better to really learn less areas than to generally know alot but still don't know enough to answer a question. my biggest piece of advice: no matter what, you will exit the testing center feeling like a failure. it's ok. cry, call and text all of your friends and your momma and whoever else, but unless they have just taken the nclex themselves, they won't understand what you are going through at that moment. my only comfort came from my friends that also cried and felt like they had definetly failed, but had passed (one in 75 and one in over 200). just know this and let it go. get a good night's sleep and write in all caps at the top of your eraseboard: i know this!
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Congrats! I seriously would like to start a PTSD support group for those of us that survived this hell! I need to process! I came home and drank! And cried! And ate ice cream!
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Yes the SATA were hard! I only felt confident about 2 of them (infection precautions). Don't know what I am allowed to say but most were pharm. At least 2-3 drugs that I had never even heard of! On a typical question you have a 25% chance of getting it right even if you guess. Most, if not all of the time, I have a 50% of getting it right b/c I get it narrowed down to 2 choices. With SATA, the possible combinations are (seemingly) infinite therefore it is really hard to get it right. Even with drugs that I knew, I don't know EVERYTHING about it, therefore it is hard to know if one of the selections apply and I just don't that particular fact, or if it is just not true. For background, my HESI conversion score was 99.9% and my percentile was 98.9%! The highest score ever in my program! Yet I felt like the biggest, stupidest idiot ever after the NCLEX. I truly do not believe that I had the opportunity to "demonstrate minimum competency" with the exam that I had. None of my studying prepared me for what I got. I will admit that I only started studying one week out for the exam. I did no reading, did the required Qtrainers on Kaplan, the alt format test (only 27 problems with a mix of all alt. format types- not just SATA) and maybe 150 Q of the QBank. So I really only did little more than the minimum to prepare. Getting a high HESI score made me a slacker. :zzzzz
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Took it yesterday. Out of 75 questions, I got 33 SATA! 0 Math, 1 audio and 1chart. I feel like I didn't get the opportunity to prove myself with the exam I got. I freaked out. I couldn't even concentrate, I kept having to read the same question over and over to get it to click in my brain because I was SOOOO anxious! My studying, Kaplan, none of it prepared me for my NCLEX! Cried in my car for an hour before I was even able to drive.
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If I read what I am about to write, I would be sure that this person must be exaggerating! I got 75 questions on the NCLEX today and 33 were SELECT ALL THAT APPLY! Has anyone ever heard of that? I got no math, one audio and one chart. And 33 SATA- I was traumatized. I sat in my car and cried :crying2:for an hour before I could even drive home. I did Kaplan, scored in the 99th percentile on HESI but I am sure failed the NCLEX! Kaplan did not prepare me for this. They had ONE section on alternate format with only 27 questions and they were a mix of SATA, hotspot, fill in the blank... I am freaking out!!!!
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Are you testing in MD? If so please let me know how long it takes for MD to post lic. #. When the recruiter offered me the job last night she seemed concerned. I really don't want to loose this opportunity! My offer letter said DC lic to them by Tues before start date. I moved my test date up from the 12th to the 9th. Still seems kind of short to have DC lic by the 15th! AAAHHHHHH!
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I really hope you guys hear something soon! I was fanatic about checking my email all day on Thurs and when I got a call w/ a 202 area code my heart was racing. I can't imagine another whole day (or weekend) waiting in torture! I really wish you the best of luck and hope that we will all be together on the 22nd!
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Just got a call and accepted a position on 4NE (medical cardiology)! The HR person seemed concerned that I wasn't sitting for the NCLEX until the 12th. She said that MD sometimes takes a while to post lic numbers and that might hold me up. I just moved my test date up to the 9th to have more time to get a DC lic. Scared/excited/overwhelmed!
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I had my interview today for the Residency program and got to interview with my third choice-cardiac. It was pretty intense but I felt like I did well. Alot of clinical senario questions. There was a last minute change of venue from the True auditorium to the HR office. It was crowded and HOT! About 30 people there. We interviewed first with HR and then the Cardiac nurse mngr came over to interview me as well. I never got to tour the unit, like many of you described in previous posts. I don't think anyone did. I would love to hear about the cardiac unit (4NE?) if anyone out there got to see it and what your impressions were. Also, does anyone know what the ratio of interviewees to actual hires is? Thanks, I look forward to (hopefully) meeting you all soon!
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I don't know why I got picked. I am 33 with very little work history (stay at home mom since 21) and my only medical related work experience was at a vet 10+ years ago and I graduated from an ADN program. It is my first and only interview out of 55+ applications though! I am not sure what their filtering process is regarding inviting people to interview. I will tell you that I totally trumped myself up on my application (everything completely true). It is the one time in life that you have to express how awesome you are even if you are normally humble /shy. I made sure they knew that: I was my senior nursing class president, won first place in a nursing poster contest, was chair of the pinning ceremony, treasurer of the nursing club, scored in the 99th percentile on the exit HESI, had a 3.81 gpa, Phi Theta Kappa and blah blah blah. I also had a personal experience that inspired me to become a nurse that I expressed in my cover letter. I really hopes this works out because we are a single income family and my husband's job of 13 years is in serious trouble! More than anything, I need the health insurance b/c we have a daughter who is a cancer survivor and needs ongoing monitoring and scans. I do wish the best of luck to all. In the DC area, as new grads, we certainly need it! :redbeathe