mcneillmama3 BSN, RN

Hi: I've been a paperwork nurse for several years now. I am taking a job in August, teaching a CNA II course. Before I start teaching, I want to make double sure I'm still performing sterile procedures correctly and I'm interested in purchasing a nu...

I've been a nurse for 15 years in all kinds of settings-long term care, acute care, home health, geriatric case management. I recently went back to teaching CNA-1 classes and I'm confused about how the books are teaching certain skills such as bathi...

I'm in NC and the entire process is just ludicrous. It does nothing to help ease the nursing shortage either! I had to complete EMT hands on skills testing at a state testing site back in the late 1990s and it was nothing compared to this new CNA t...

That's what I told my students. They are the ones that will be standing in front of the examiner. The CNA text is inconsistent as well. Three skills state gloves "if indicated", then when it comes to washing somebody's hands and face, it tells them...

I agree with GDiFiore. Gloves don't prevent the spread of infections, handwashing does. I told my CNAs, if you walk into a patient's room and it is wreaking with feces or urine, that's an indication that you should glove up as soon as you walk in t...

I found the answer to my question and I was right after 15 years of nursing. This is from the WHO website, the watchdog for infectious outbreaks, so I trust this information. If you'll look at page 3, there is a very useful pyramid that delineates ...

I worked in long term care insurance case management and care planning. I have applied at several big name insurers like United Health, Aetna, and Blue Cross Blue Shield and AARP, for geriatric case management and disease management, but to no avail...

I took the ANCC Case management exam back in Dec 2011 and passed it on the first try. The ANCC study guide was very helpful. However, even with certification and 8 years experience in Geriatric Case management, I still have not been able to find a ...

I'm confused too. I've got a CNA-1 manual out and it states to wear gloves if measuring an oral temp with a glass thermometer, but to use gloves if likely to come in to contact with secretion when using the digital thermometer. Why would you need t...

When I went to ADN school we had a very big to do- separate nursing graduation ceremony and pinning= very moving. When I entered an RN to BSN program at the University, the pinning ceremony was elective. Probably most people didn't go because with ...

Yes the only dumb question is the question not asked that kills a patient. There is a right way and wrong way to speak to a coworker or nursing students and that nurse's behavior was uncalled for and unprofessional. My motto is praise in public and...

You can also expand on the SOAP format by making it a SOAPIER note. subjective, objective, assessment, plan, intervention, evaluation, reeval if needed. And DAR-data, action, response keeps you organized. I've always preferred soapier notes.

We used to make puzzles or anagrams (?) out of the words. For Example Lomotil: Loose stools, observe bowel function, monitor electrolytes, oral drug, toilet, intestinal distress, little analgesic activity Ativan: anxiety, terminate gradually, IV/IM...

I would recommend you get a good care planning book, such as Doenges or Mosby's and a book I used a lot was Saunders Pocket Reference for Nurses ( 0-7216-4459-7). I also use quite frequently on my job Mosbys PDQ for RN (978-0-323-05189-7) and a great...

We nurses get paid more because we paid more, e.g. took out more students loans and gave up 4 years of our lives to get that BSN. It wasn't a cheap education. Who would graduate a BSN program, $20000+ in debt and expect to be paid what we were bein...

It's not just nursing-I heard the dental hygiene programs at community colleges were really hurting. They have started accepting less students and even those students are not being placed in jobs. When the economy starts floundering like now, the f...

When I worked in a hospital, I always said that I was willing to take a pay cut for the hospital to hire more nurses, so we would be overstaffed as opposed to barely getting by or worked half to death. I was watching a piece on 60 Minutes (you can r...

I always worked in SNF. Nursing home is a specialty. Every venue you work in will have its own ropes you have to learn. None of it is easy.

Hospital nursing is a stepping stone. Don't get depressed. Network first of all. Be busy making friends with your coworkers, so that when you do get ready to make a move to another field of nursing, you will have a good reference base. Tell yours...

If the weather is cold to cool, try a skirt and a pull over sweater over a blouse or sweater by itself with a jacket. The skirt and jacket do not have to be the same color or pattern either. Definitely don't show up with fake fingernails or bold nai...

I noticed your post. I have always worked in geriatrics-assisted living, SNF and flu clinics. Currently I work as an independent contractor in long term care planning and care coordination. Just a lot of paper work and more headache than I am maki...

I too was taken aback by the comment "I wouldn't hire you....." We need to be building each other up as nurses, not tearing each other down. It's a difficult field to work in as it is. I don't know why a SNF wouldn't hire either one of us, with or...

That's it=thanks!

I too am wanting whatever affordable exposure I can get with MDS. I found a link for a free MDS 2.0 interactive website, but had a severe computer crash, had to wipe everything off my hard drive an dstart over, so now I cannot find the link. If any...

Not in nursing school-we were not forced to take the HepB series or the flu vaccine. You signed a delination form understanding the risks to yourself for not taking the HEBB vaccine. It had nothing to do with the risk to the patient. The flu vacci...