MeganMLPN

I, personally, feel it's a nurses responsibility to assess any appliance q shift, whether it be an IV, AV shunt/fistula, port, etc., regardless of whether or not you yourself are going to administer meds/flush/dialyze with said appliance. In the case of a dialysis patient, a port should be monitored q shift for s/s of infection. You should monitor for cleanliness to the area, and of course, in the world of LTC there's always the possibility of displacement so you should monitor q shift for proper placement. AV fistula's should be monitored q shift for the bruit/thrill. Our facility requires documentation q shift for dialysis patients, and even if it wasn't our policy I would still monitor the appliance q shift.

I have to say that as the Risk Manager at our facility, I'd be calling you at home to come back and complete an incident report :) When it doubt, fill one out. It may CYA in the long run, even when you don't feel anything will result from the incident.

Good evening all, I was wondering if anyone can point me in the direction of any scholarships available for LPN's enrolled in bridge program's to become RN's. I can find hundreds for LPN to BSN but I'm currently enrolled in an ADN program. Any advice or pointers would be appreciated, thanks!!

I just called the BON to be sure, they said it is only within your scope of practice if you were either A. Taught in Nursing School or B. Taught by a Licensed Practitioner and that your facility must then have a specific protocol stating that only trained licensed professional's may perform this task. I asked if G-Tubes would follow the same protocol and she said yes. So that's good to know! She said the Nurse Practice Act doesn't go into specifics so at the point at which you are asked to do something you were never taught in school, you are not able to perform that task. She was very helpful, I'm glad I called them to be sure!

We can't change G-tubes in the state of Florida. It's not within our scope of practice. Maybe if you get some type of certification, but we are definitely required to have our G-tube residents go to outpatient for G-Tube changes. That's what makes us believe that we can't change S/P's, because we know we can't do G-tubes. Good thought, though!

Hi all, I have been searching for scope of practice for Florida LPN's online but come up with nothing. My facility has asked we LPN's to begin changing S/P cath's for 2 of our residents, however we all collectively agree this is outside our scope of practice. None of us have ever been taught this procedure, nor do we have an M.D. order stating they can be changed for LPN's. One of the ADON's believes RN's can change them, which is great, but we'd like to know specific's on S/P's and our scope of practice, as the facility is really pushing the LPN's to change them. Anyone have any idea if this is within our scope of practice? Any info. you can offer would be appreciated!!! Thanks!!

see, this is what happens when people don't the whole thread. you are more then welcome to go back through the previous posts to see how tcn is allowing me to obtain my bsn but i'm not going to waste time explaining it again. and as for the cost, it's just over $8000 to get your rn associates degree at our local community college, why would i get my associates when i can spend less $$ and time to get into isu and get my bsn? that doesn't make any sense. so while the rn's at our local comm. college are finishing their pre-req's for acceptance into the a.s. program, and then while they wait one year after that for their actual start date, i'll be half way through my bsn. and once i get acceptance to isu i'll pay the amount for obtaining my bsn and we'll be all set. so, less $$ to complete pre-req's and get into isu, therefore less $$ to get my associates (which is a waste because i'm getting my bsn) and get my bsn. make sense?

actually, tcn was over $1000 cheaper then doing the courses through our local community college, and i was able to go straight for my bsn rather than waste time getting an associates. sorry you didn't do the same!

And it doesn't even matter any more, because the original poster already chose Excelsior. So it's all good, they chose the school they felt right for them, and good like to diamond!

Apparently there are a whole lot of people out there that don't do their own research and rely on others for information, taking that information whether it be correct or not. What I am doing is merely defending my choice as you all seem to so vehemently disagree with it. (and so far no one has been able to say anything besides "well I was told..." Someone SAYING something to you is much different than someone providing you with FACTS. What I am suggesting here is to whoever chooses to explore Excelsior or TCN is to get the FACTS, then they won't have to weed through various comments about peoples "horrible" experiences, or their friends "horrible" experiences. Had those people gotten the FACTS in the first place instead of posing questions on a forum where people often mislead others, then they could have made the right choice. It's one thing to share experiences, I have no problem with that. But it's an entirely different thing to try to convince people what they're doing is wrong because they "heard" one thing or another from someone besides them self, or didn't take the time to find out the actual truth for themselves. So, lets state some FACTS: Fact: TCN (The College Network) is a company which furnishes students with course/study guides which prepare them to take either a CLEP, DANTE or in some cases an Excelsior test exemption. Fact: TCN and Excelsior are not one in the same, nor are they partners, nor must you attend BOTH. Fact: You may use TCN's pre-req. program to obtain the necessary pre-req's for acceptance into a 4 year university, such as Indiana State, without ever attending Excelsior, to attain your BSN. Per the Academic Planner for Indiana State University LPN/LVN to BSN Program "11 courses must be successfully completed prior to enrolling into the ISU College of Nursing, Health and Human Services. Credit for courses may be obtained through a combination of transfer credit previously awarded from accredited college/universities, and/or successful completion of equivalency examinations. You will prepare for these quivalency examinations during Phase 1 by using The College Network's Comprehensive Learning Modules." I never said you shouldn't post, but if you do, don't post about a friend or a friend of a friends bad experience where they made a decision based on mis-information and later found out they didn't want to do whatever avenue they chose. (I'm not specifying your comments, I'm speaking in general terms) It's not TCN (nor Excelsiors) fault for that matter, that people have bad experiences, it's because those people didn't gather the factual research necessary to make an informed decision. That's all I'm saying. Feel free to post away, I'm just cautioning others to take a step back when reading from peoples "horrible experiences" and research things for themselves. Having advice from others is fine and typically welcomed by others, but lets not base things of hearsay.

Hello, I used a few websites to help with mine: http://www.resume-resource.com/exmed2.html http://www.resume-help.org/registered_nurse_resume_example.htm And my personal favorite: http://www.creatingprints.com/student-nurse.html You can look through several resumes on creatingprints.com, I just went through the samples and used them as a format more or less, and incorporated my own profile into my resume. I just graduated in February and our last week of school we had an assignment to create a resume that the head of the program would review. Mine turned out well with the help of the websites Good luck to you!!

Hmm, my TCN adviser actually told me the opposite... And I mean, if you don't check into things for yourself then yeah, you're gonna get suckered in because you're not taking matters into your own hands and doing your own research. I mean, a quick search of google brought up the link for Excelsior (https://www.excelsior.edu/) in 0.08 seconds. And for that matter, here's the homepage for TCN, and look at that, Excelsior's not listed on the Education Partners box... very weird for an organization claiming the only way to attend Excelsior is through them... If you don't have 0.08 seconds to spare and would rather waste months or years "hating on" TCN for "being dishonest" then carry on, please! It's not my life you're wasting! But don't try to discourage others from something they're interested in because you didn't take the time to do the research on things and get a clue yourself. I do mean to be slightly sarcastic, but not hateful in case you're wondering. I just think it's ridiculous how so many people on the website discourage others from continuing on their education. So something didn't work for you, so what, but as we can see clearly from this thread, to each is their own perception. So basically, do the leg work yourself, research things before you sign contracts and what not, and don't let others get you down if you think something's right for you. Just because someone else says it's not the right way doesn't make it true for all.

Wow, you clearly have no idea what you're talking about... sad. You can't take people's advice from here. My actual Nursing school told us to NEVER enroll with Excelsior!! So none of us did. To each his own, somethings work for some people while other things work for others. Whatever an individual deems best for themselves is nothing for other people to get hateful about... just because they got burned because they didn't get accepted is no one's fault but their own. Or whatever the case may be. TCN provides you with the coursework so you don't have to attend actual college courses, in person, on a time frame that doesn't meet your schedule needs. No, they don't award you a degree, but they set you up with admissions to colleges and YOU DO NOT have to go to Excelsior. There are two or three courses that are Excelsior coursework, that's it. You're not actually attending Excelsior nor will you ever have to. You can get your pre-req's from TCN and they'll help you apply to ISU, who then takes over and helps finish the admissions process. If you haven't actually gone through this process how can you advise others? All people are looking for here is guidance from those who have actually experienced the process. There's no need for hatefulness!!

i felt the same when i read that. i worked harder in lpn school then the rn students who were clinical on the same floors as us, and nurses on the floor were quicker to ask us to do thing's then the rn students. so i don't distinguish when people ask me because to me, we're all nurses. i just smile and say "i'm a nurse. i just graduated from nursing school in february" and almost no one has asked me to specify lpn to rn. if you're too caught up on making sure others know you're registered and not "just an lpn", then maybe you're becoming an "rn" for the wrong reasons... if not, sorry, but it just comes out like you're above us and well, frankly, you're not. we all should have the same goal and be in nursing for the same reasons, to help people. and by people i also mean each other. without lpn's rn's couldn't get have of their work done... so just remember that next time you feel you need to belittle a fellow nurse. (and just for the record, i'm now in "registered nursing school")

I am currently enrolled for ISU's first few courses using TCN. I have been in contact with an ISU guidance counselor whose just basically keeping me on track. I found though this week that USF (I live in South Florida) accepts the pre-req's from TCN, so I will probably just be attending USF intsead.