running_nurse

My undergrad GPA was not spectacular. It wasn't awful, but in retrospect, I could have done better. I think anxiety about my grades kept me from going back for my MSN earlier. After 5 years of working as an RN, I did pretty decent on the GRE and applied to the MSN program at my alma mater. I was accepted, but in order to enter the program, they required that I take (and pass) the pathophysiology course prior to becoming a full-time student, which delayed me a year (and I deferred entry for another year). It really didn't bother me that I had to do that...in fact, it was great! Everyone else was so stressed with assessment and pathophysiology, etc, and I had already gotten one of the biggest classes out of the way.

I went on a medical mission in Guatemala last summer. The group was Refuge International. I was a PNP student at the time, and our school took NP students as well as SRNAs. Most of us worked in the outpatient clinic (saw about 100 patients a day) and the ACNP students assisted in the OR while the SRNAs worked with the CRNAs. We had two NPs with us to oversee our care in the clinic. While this was done through our school, the mission itself had nursing students, surgeons, college students, etc. There was only one NP student not from our school. It was a great learning experience and really helped me become proficient in gathering data and making assessments.

I had a few C's in undergrad. I actually didn't pass anatomy and ended up fulfilling the requirement at the community college. When I applied to NP school (the same school where I went to undergrad), they actually had me take the required pathophysiology course (and obtain a B or higher) prior to admitting me. An extra hoop to jump through, but nothing major. It was actually kind of nice, because while everyone was stressing the 1st semester over pathophys, I was all relaxed because I had already taken it I'm now a Peds NP.

Yup, what Shannon said too....I worked at Metro for 3 years, and it was awesome.

If you live on the West Side, I would skip Hillcrest altogether. You can get the same experience at Fairview or Lakewood. It's a pain to get to Hillcrest from the West Side, and the intersection of Mayfield/SOM Center is a logistical nightmare. Main campus is usually hiring in any/all of their adult ICUs. Keep in mind the main campus can be overwhelming. Parking is also ridiculous, but not impossible. Fairview and Lakewood are both great, but you can probably get more cardiac experience at Fairview in comparison to Lakewood. You can still get "sicker" patients at the smaller Clinic hospitals, without the insanity of main campus.

I work in Peds and we don't have many PD patients. HOWEVER. When we a PD patient in the hospital (usually a new PD patient), we come in and do the set up and take down. Not sure what system they are using, but the PD machine should measure the Is/Os for you. (Eastcoast24, there is a TON of PD fluid after a night, way too much to measure in a hat...the collection bag is HUGE). The biggest thing about PD is the risk for INFECTION, ie Peritonitis. Anything we do with our PD patients is sterile sterile sterile. So...when I go in to change a collection bag, I will clamp everything first. I wash my hands for about 5 minutes, sterile glove, mask myself and the patient. Scrub the cath site and the connection site for a few minutes. Connect the new collection bag and put together a new setup if needed. The old collection bag gets taken care of AFTER I have taken care of everything with the patient in the most sterile environment possible and make sure the system is CLOSED. Then, I take the old bag to the hopper room and flush it down the BIG sink. I would never ever lead a patient to a bathroom and drain their PD fluid. As finicky as dialysis patients are, I'm surprised this patient even let that happen. Not that cleanliness isn't important in all aspects of medicine, but PD does seem to have a higher risk of infection vs. HD. Only a small percentage of our patients do PD - the rest are HD for one reason or another - and the ones who have been denied PD are the ones who don't live in a clean and stable environment. My boss will make a home visit and determine if PD is suitable or not.

Oh yes. One of my closest friends is a HS english teacher. She had Facebook for maybe a week and deleted it entirely. Even with privacy settings she hated that her students would find her and send her a friend request. I'm a clinical instructor and I would definitely not want my students to be my "friend." Not that my FB has anything bad on it....but my private life is....private!

Hi Everyone. I just wanted to get other people's views on something. I graduated from nursing school 5 years ago and like almost everyone (including my mother now...) I have a Facebook page. It is kept on full privacy settings, etc. Now...the hospital where I am currently working (and teaching) of course has some very long term patients (I work in Pediatrics). I have noticed that some of the nursing and support staff have become "friends" with patients (and even their parents) on Facebook. This just struck me as really odd. What are *your* thoughts? For me, personally, I like to know my patients in the hospital. If I bump into them outside, fine, but I don't want to be connected to them 24/7 and them having access to all of my personal information and photos. For me, it's a social networking site. I may socialize and make friends with coworkers @ work, but it's still work. So....nurses and patients being "friends" on social networking sites? Does it cross the line or is it a gray area? Was it unavoidable with the abundance of people on those sites now? Thanks for letting me pick your brain:specs:

I had one particular day from #&!@ in which a "veteran" nurse chewed me out. In front of my coworkers AND the patients. I had walked into a mess, both of my patients needed CT scans, I needed to accompany them (ventric), and to top it off I got thrown up on. I ended up taking my lunch about 2 hours late, fine, whatever, I don't care. Staffing coordinator decided to give me a break and said they were putting an "easy" patient in my spot. Great. Well, I come back from lunch/dinner, whatever, and this nurse admitted the "easy" patient and just decided she should keep it since she had to admit them anyway. But what was coming into my spot? An unstable SICU patient. Arrrrgh.:angryfire Having an ICU background, this didn't bother me. But if I saw a coworker having a craptastic day, I wouldn't have pulled that with them. People saw my stress, and I generally just talked about how getting thrown up on is awesome This nurse thought I was complaining about her and the SICU patient. Um NO. I was not. Seriously, it was mainly about the puke and the numerous road trips to CT, etc. So she yells at me saying if I have a problem with her I shouldn't be complaining about her behind her back. ?????? Huh? I wasn't saying anything about you. Relax! However, it was exactly what I didn't need that day. All I ever heard from the higher ups about the situation was "Oh, we heard what so and so did to you. Sorry about that. It's just how she can be sometimes." Uh, excuse me? I can't imagine behaving like that to a coworker in any situation, but ESPECIALLY in front of the patients. She never bothered to apologized and seemed to believe her behavior was ok. I guess management didn't feel like dealing with her either. :icon_roll That incident was kind of the tip of the iceberg and one of the main reasons I left that unit.

Nice work to those of you starting out...keep it up:up:

See my username? I run anywhere from 25-45 miles a week...currently in training for the Chicago Marathon. I loooove running. Most coworkers just think I'm crazy.

I worked in the PICU @ Metro Health Medical Center in Cleveland right out of school. I also know someone who worked in PICU @ The Cleveland Clinic right out of school as well.

Nurses don't sleep at night. Required to stay awake on the night shift. Docs get call rooms and sleep when they can. Just a helpful piece of info.

I have suffered with canker sores since my childhood, generally a handful of times/year. I recently started a new job in March, and by April my mouth was FULL of cankers - and they all clustered together to make one BIG canker. Generally, my cankers go away within in a week. I was close to 3 weeks with those....it looked like I had gotten punched in the jaw I was so swollen...and my lymph nodes...VERY swollen. In fact, I even had a fever of 39.3 - yikes! What was it? STRESS. I took some days off...I stopped running (how could I run!?), and I just RESTED. All the time. When I finally felt better (but still had the sores), I did some research on some pain relief measurements. Some helpful tips to my fellow stressed nurses with massive pain: ~Toothpaste without SLS (sodium lauryl sulfate). This is an irritant. Look at some of the Sensodyne brands or Tom's of Maine. ~SmartMouth mouthwash. Pricy, but worth it. ~Lysine & Acidophilus supplements. ~CANKER COVER (found these at the drugstore). MAGICAL. And get that much needed rest:yawn: I feel your pain!

um..........NO