Penguin67

I know some people (5 or 6) who all went to nursing school together and all got jobs at a hospital that was 45-60 minutes from their homes. They all went in together on a local apartment together. They slept there between shifts if they were working back to back shifts, and napped there sometimes before driving home if needed. They had a 3 BR place, with 6 twin beds, and sharing expenses on that was quite minimal and safe. They did this for a little over a year. After that, some opted to move there permanently and two found jobs closer to home, but it was a good way to start out.

Loved 8 hours shifts! Just when you feel like leaving, it is time to get ready for shift change and patient handoff to the oncoming shift. And if you ever needed an RN to stay over for 2-3 hours to help when short staffed, they are fresh enough to be able to do that, while you almost can't worry about helping the next shift when you work 12 hours. I also found that folks who might have been feeling a little under the weather (headache, cramps) would tough out an 8 hour shift, but call out for a 12 hour shift. Yes, you do work 5 times a week, but it is in small enough doses not to be as overwhelming as a 12 hour shift. You can still schedule appointments in the early morning (if you work 3-11) and in the late afternoon (if you work 7-3), and 11-7 shift can pick their sleep time around their activities. The evidence-based research findings also support 8 hour shifts as being safer, because the majority of errors are made in the last 4 hours of a 12 hour shift. But, to each his own on shift preference. It's nice that some hospitals give choices.

I just tried to read about the residency program on the link posted earlier, and the link is no longer working. Hmmmmm......

It should meet the scheduling needs of the working RN and be flexible. Online only works if your students are computer literate, and is not for everyone. Hybrid (online and some live classes) works quite well because there is a "connection" and students don't feel so left out in cyberspace. You have to recognize that RN-BSN students are "different" than prelicensure students, but will earn the same degree as the prelicensure student, but take a different path to get there. Not always an easy concept for non-RN-BSN faculty to swallow, as many want the RN-BSN student to do everything the same as the prelicensure student and there are many things that they don't need to do similarly.

The title of this article is wrong from the start "Nurses Are Not Doctors", because, in fact many ARE, having earned a doctorate in nursing, the title "DOCTOR" comes along with that. For example: Phd and DNP degree holders are called "Dr.". However, these folks are NOT asking to be called "physician", which is where the confusion may be. NPs practice withing a scope of practice for their area. If there is a complication, then they have to refer to a specialist. It boils down to practicing within the specified guidelines of a particular state, many of which are similar, but there are also many differences across state lines. The Institute of Medicine's report, The Future of Nursing, has a recommendation to expand the role of the nurse practitioner to include the fullest practice in the scope of practice. This article did nothing to promote that collaboration.I am hoping that someone writes a strong rebuttal piece back, representing the nursing profession, particularly NPs, as the professionals that they are.

Can you clarify the acronym? Could be Children's of Pittsburgh or Philadelphia.

Ok, I have read the above discussion, but still the question looms in my head..."If you have X number of sick days, why can't those sick days be used, as long as the call off is done as per policy? Why are we making nurses feel terrible about using their sick days that they have earned?" I feel like we are killing ourselves with this issue, insisting that nurses work when we don't feel good, regardless of the illness or condition. If you feel crappy, it's hard to work. This is one issue in nursing that has been around forever that I wish we could find a solution for. It would have to begin with better staffing by management, to be able to absorb call-ins. (OK, rant over, thanks for listening.)

I would encourage you to speak with your course coordinator and/or clinical instructor about this situation. As a former clinical instructor, that information is helpful to know because if possible, I could structure clinical assignments and experiences with that information in mind. In OB, there are several areas that you can be assigned to: L/D, antepartum, postpartum and newborn nursery. Once you experience each area, perhaps you will find one care that you are most comfortable in, and your instructor can place you there for the rest of your clinical shifts. I have done that, particularly with male students who were uncomfortable with the whole L/D experience. I asked them to attend once birth to have a reference point for test questions and to meet course objectives, then they went to post partum or the nursery for the rest of the clinical time, and some girls who wanted to be midwives were assigned to more L/D experiences, so it worked out for everyone. For your pediatric experience, you may want to talk with those instructors as well and find out what kinds of units you will do clinicals on. Is it a traditional peds floor in an adult hospital where you will see a variety of ages and diagnoses, or is it a specialty floor in a children's hospital? See if you can be placed on a unit where there may be less of things that may upset you and more of things that you can jump into without hesitation. Is there an adult specialty area that you like? Ask if you can go to a unit that has some of those patients on it, so you at least have something minor to look forward to. And, I think some other posters have alluded to this as well...try to go in to this experience with an open mind. I know that you ahve a wounded heart and an open mind is terribly difficult right now, but acknowledge your feelings with your instructors and move forward with an open mind to learn what you need to learn from these experiences so that you can build your knowledge base so that you are ready for NCLEX, as it will have OB and peds content on it and you need to be ready for those areas. I have had several students who told me at the beginning of a peds rotation that they were not at all thrilled about it and felt like they were going to hate it, and I just asked them to allow the clinical experience to happen and for them to be full participants. I was surprised that several of these very students made their career choice to be in pediatrics. One was gung ho on geriatrics and made the switch right after taking the course. Neither of us saw that one coming, but she did it by having an open mind and diving into clinicals. She even won the award for Outstanding Pediatric Student for her class. So, take it day be day, be open minded and learn what you can from the experiences. If that area is not your choice upon graduation, you can put peds and ob out of your mind after NCLEX is over and done. Take care, I wish you the very best!

NLN does not accredit doctoral programs.

Just a quick FYI..."third world" is not considered to be PC. Instead use "developing country" as a term. Good luck with the Peace Cprps!

I think it has always been a series of three shots. That immunization came out when I was in nursing school, in 1988 or 1989, and they made us begin the series in order to stay in school. I worked as a nurse assistant for a hospital, so employee health covered it. I still have the card, and I had to get three of those shots. If I remember correctly, when I traveled overseas and had to get the Hepatitis A series, those were two shots, separated by six months. Maybe that is what you are referring to perhaps? To figure out if you are protected, ask a helathcare provider to draw bloos for a hepatitis B titer and see if your levels are high enough to offer protection.

My two experiences with walk in clinics were at Walgreens Take Care Clinic. First one was on a Sunday. us and was playing with our cat and was bitten by a playful one. Being cautious, we went to the Take Care clinic, as there was a huge wait at our MD. Got Keflex ex and had a great NP. The next experience was mine, had a terrible cold for several days that no cold medicine was touching...NyQuil, DayQuil, paeudoephidrine, etc... The Np basically told me she was not going to prescribe an abx and gave me a mini lecture about super bugs and overuse of abx and charged me a copay and pretty much told me it was viral and suck it up. I knew I was I'll and not getting better, so I drove to my MD office and waited two hours to be seen. The MD examined me, got the same cheer complaint and symptoms from me, and diagnosed me with a sinus infection. Gave me a script for Zpack and steroids, and I was feeling better in a day. As much as I want to support NPs, I don't think I can go back to the Take Care clinic and will wait patiently at my PCPs office in the future. Just my two cents here.

So agree with you, especially that last line!

I'm sorry, but if the family member knew the difference then why did they ask in the first place? Were they baiting to see what the response would be? And in reality, this person did not say they were a nurse No, she was not "baiting" them. She heard a title that she did nto know and asked what it was. She does, however, know what a nurse is.

A family member was recently seen in an ER. One of her care providers introduced himself as a "med tech" and the family member asked "What does that mean?" and the response was " it is the same thing as a nurse". My family member went on to watch everything this person did while she was there, and saw vital signs, linen changes, positioning changes, paperwork, and things in the scope of a nurse assistant. This family member happened to know the difference, and we talked about this when she came home from the ER. Is there a way to handle this, as I know this post is not the first one to discuss unlicensed assistive personnel representing themselves as nurses. The family member asked a nurse about it, and she just smiled and said that there was a difference and they did really need the help of med techs. (Which is nice, but doesn't solve the issue of representing oneself as a nurse when in fact they are not.) Should she mention this in the patient comment survey that she will most likely receive or not? Thoughts?

OK, I have read the issue and all of the responses. I am left asking, "Why would you ever put a unit of blood into a tube system?" Everywhere that I ever worked, blood was never to be tubed, as it could potentially break and contaminate the entire tube system. I understand that your tube system is new, and perhaps this should ba policy where you work. Just my two cents here.

NCLEX is overseen by the National Council of State Boards fo Nursing (aka NCNSB). They write the questions and give Pearson the power to administer it. It is a National organization, of which state boards are members. We cannot do away with state boards, as the monitor who can practice in their state, and they ensure that schools are state board accredited and that applicants are actually graduates of the accredited program. The differences in the scopes of practice among the states also necessitates having a state board in each state. Hope this helps! Here is the website for National Council www.ncsbn.org

Yes, it happened to me and about every nurse on the unit. It was a patient who was dying from cancer, and the parents literally found something wrong with every nurse that was assigned to them. The list of who was requrested not to take care of them got longer each day. I thought maybe I could be the one who made a difference, but I, too, was fired. Fortunately, they finally contacted hospice and went home. It was tough, as we all felt like we could have added something special to their care, but were told to stay away. I didn't take that personally at all, as I was glad to not have to deal with them since we couldn't make them happy at all.

Memorial Medical Center, in Savannah, GA. Has a great peds floor, PICU, NICU and Heme onc program.

BSN, MSN and doctorate.

I had to sign a statement at work indicating one of two things...either that I was not a smokeror that I was a smoker. smokers are now charged $50.00 more per month for health insurance premiums. If you are found to be smoker and you lied on your statement, you willmbe required to pay the extra premium amounts to date and are subject to a state fine. I have lost many friends and family to cancer, caused by smoking, and I think the policy is fine and have no problem at all with it. it is a drug and it's use causes folks to have many more associated health problems, causing higher premiums for those who don't smoke. Unfair? Not at all. With all of the direct correlation of smoking and cancer and other major health problems, I do not see any reason why anyone would continue to smoke. That said, I do realize that smoking is an addiction, and is hard to quit and those who are quitting need much support from family and friends.

Those surveys are done by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing in order to determine what entry level new graduate nurses are doing. That data is used, in part, to help decide upon appropriate level and content of questions for the NCLEX, which is revised every three years, partly in response to data generated by those surveys. I filled one out, not as a new grad, but as a practicing nurse, and was asked what the new grad would be doing in my area. I think that your employer and state Board of Nursing might be interested in knowing that some of the survey data was generated from their institution or their state. I never knew of anyone who completed one of those surveys, but after I filled one out, I realized the importance of it. Take it seriously, as it helps your profession out more than you know.

Thanks for the replies. I have considered the issue of not leaving it laying around, due to the possibility of theft. We've been using I-touch devices and cell phones, but those can be easily stored in pockets. I have recently seen PT and OT using I-pads to assist those who need help communicating, as they can use the touch screen to press words and point to objects. Their I-pads have frames around them to protect them and also a screen cover that can be wiped off between patients for infection control purposes. I-pads are creeping into the clinical settings, so we can either be early adopters or sit back and wait to see how others use them. I am more inclined to be an early adopter of this technology. As we do many hours in Sim Lab, we can use I-pads there without the issue of theft being prevalent. What I am most interested in here is what apps we can use to augment clincial experiences and recommend to students, be it in the actual clinical setting, Sim Lab, or at home doing clinical paperwork. And, for the instructors who grade clinical paperwork, what apps are most user friendly for stylus-type grading?

I just got an I-Pad and am wanting to use it on the unit and am interested in hearing from nurses who use different apps on the unit and if you would recommend them or not. I teach and my program requires the Nursing Central Bundle for all of our students, so I have that app and am familiar with it. I also have Epocrates, Micromedex, PubMedTap, several apps that give me access to online journals for my specialty, Littmann Soundbuilder and GE Clinical Images. Does anyone use the I-pad for taking report and making notes throughout the shift and if so, what app do you use for that? Does anyone use it for commenting on Microsoft Word documents (ie grading for me), as I think it would be much easire to grade a careplan using a stylus with the I-pad instead of using bubble comments in Microsoft Word as I am currently doing. I have downloaded Notetaker HD and I-annotate apps, and am interested if there are others to consider. Any ideas would be appreciated! Much thanks in advance.