junebride

I have to say how much I adore you all for these often hilarious replies. What has actually become more clear to me is how unsupported we are by management and administration. We're a means to an end. Without us, the hospital does not exist. It really is that simple.

So after dealing with an extremely demanding, non-compliant patient on our telemetry unit for a combined couple of weeks now, I am curious: How far does a patient have to go in abusing staff to be removed from the unit? This patient has managed to verbally and emotionally abuse every member of the staff, and demands a huge amount of our time, usually to the detriment of other more needy patients. (this patient is completely ambulatory and is not a fall risk, and does not receive psych treatment) They have threatened to report almost every caregiver assigned to her and leaves every single staff member at their breaking point by the end of the shift, including tears. So what does it take? Attempted murder? Rape? I'd be interested in hearing any stories you all might want to share of any actual patients being removed from a unit for bad behavior.

I am so glad that I moved to Waukesha County. Everything that you have all said about MATC (Milwaukee) covers everything that I hated and all that is seriously wrong with that school. Absolutely no accountability with administration or staff. My actual teachers were great, no complaints. I had a fine time completing all of my prerequisites, and you can end up with some pretty amazing teachers--my Microbio prof was the head of the Microbiology and Research department at UWM who just wanted to teach a class during the summer. Nice! I was so surprised when I began my journey at WCTC....I didn't know what to do with a staff that actually had answers, advisors who advised, and people generally seemed to care that I existed and wanted to go to their school.

I completed all of my pre-clinical prerequisites at Milwaukee Area Technical College, and since moving to Waukesha County decided to pursue my clinical process at WCTC. I am seriously already glad that I did. At MATC, the entire administrative staff is a complete mess, and they're rude, rude, rude. Parking stinks and is expensive, it's in a not-so-great neighborhood, and you spend a great deal of time being surrounded by many other students who are loud, disruptive, and really don't care. (I am speaking about general student population, not clinical nursing students) I have been treated so well by every single member of WCTC's staff, from registration secretaries to the program advisor. It is quite obvious that the students who are enrolled there are serious about their education, and every age group is well-represented. It is a well-laid out, beautiful campus, and I couldn't recommend it more.

I TOTALLY agree with the previous poster about Marcus uniforms. They have probably the best and largest selection you'll find. I also wear the cherokee brand pants; I'm 5'9" but have REALLY long legs and most pants length-wise and inseam are a total disaster. If you live in the Southeastern WI area, take a trip to their store. It is not in the greatest neighborhood, but totally worth a look. Scrub pieces run about $7-$11, versus spending about $25 at Life Uniform.

I appreciate all the responses from my male counterparts. What I really wanted from the original posting was honest feedback about this, and I got it. I saw that many of you were not very happy about being generalized, and many more felt like one of the biggest obstacles was not being taken seriously because of being male. Thanks for all the responses, angry or not.

I can say I have nothing but love for the older male nurses (I mean over 30) that I work with. That said, the younger ones have got to be the most apathetic, jerky people I have ever had to deal with. They specifically work at night because they don't want to really deal with patients when they're actually awake. They specifically wear the light blue "MD-looking" scrubs so that they will be treated like doctors, and many times are--because they're men, and they've purposely dressed this way. The more mature men on my floor don't care what color scrubs they wear, and seem very helpful and kind and caring. Time and time again I witness a patient who is reluctant to ask anything "petty" of these guys (like fetching a glass of water or a snack, etc) but will think nothing of calling some random female nurse to come do it. It' a disservice to any male nurse that really cares about his practice and isn't just "slumming it" because he couldn't get into med school. Nursing is not "slumming it" and if you have to pick a night shift to do your job because the thought of dealing with people when they're conscious is so irritating, rethink what you're doing and go into research.

I'm agreeing --all of the LVN's and RN's that I met were completely wonderful and friendly, and seemed to be glad that I was there. I was made fully aware that they were not my supervisors, and they never acted like they were. I've also heard rumors before about lazy RN's, but all I ever saw these gals do was work hard and be there to help out.

Thank you, coolpeach. I do not have an aversion to body fluids at all, in fact in previous jobs my coworkers would make fun of me for being "the boil whisperer". ( I actually love really gross skin stuff-fascinating) My favorite part of the whole job was getting to interact with my residents, but like coolpeach said, I didn't get to talk to them much. I really was just a mess cleaner-upper. Although it is an important job and someone must do it, I think it was to everyone's advantage that I was honest enough with myself and the facility to admit that it was not for me. I'm not upset at you Tcube; you don't know me. I find myself wrinkling my nose at my fellow students when I hear "Ugh, I could totally never work in a nursing home.", because I figure that they have some glamorous idea of nursing, and LTC does not exactly fit that picture. I would be turned off by a person if I thought that they didn't like a job because it was "too hard" or "too dirty" or they "just don't like old people". I promise, that's not me. I don't ever want to become a person that believes they have the bar set at what are the right and wrong reasons for becoming a healthcare professional. But I do believe that if the inspiration is in your heart and mind, not your bank account, then you're most likely on the right track.

I quit a job in a LTC with no notice because it was AWFUL. I got a very threatening call from the Nurse Manager telling me that my CNA license could be put under state review and possibly revoked because I left and simply quit by calling Human Resources with no notice. I know quitting that way is never okay (I was still training) but this seems a little excessive and I think she was trying to bully and scare me. I've looked all over online at statutes and such and have found nothing to back up her threats. thoughts??

I trained in LTC this week, and I hate it. Absolutely hate it. The reason I got into this field (I'm an RN student) is to care for and help people, but I spend every bit of my time rushing like crazy to clean, feed, and toilet people the entire time. I don't even have time to talk to the residents, which is a shame because I like them all very much. I get the feeling that I'm not there to learn anything or to even care very much about the residents themselves, because my coworkers spend NO time talking to them about anything because they're just too busy. Frankly my coworkers spend all their time talking to each other. I have another job that will start in a couple of weeks in cardiac at a hospital, and I am hoping that that this will work out much better. I've been told that I will learn and see a lot more. I really hope this is true, because now I feel really stupid about the whole thing.

I am in my last semester of prereqs for the ADN program at MATC. I will comment on some things mentioned before: Parking is awful and expensive. The school is planning on bringing the UPASS system back, which means you can take the bus all the time for about $45 a semester. that's a serious deal compared to parking fees and such. Administration at MATC is terrible. They're disorganized, don't answer questions well, and different things about the program are changed almost every semester. If you have specific questions you will be sent on a wild goose chase to tons of different people, none of whom will want to or know how to answer your questions. My adviser is nice, but completely useless. I have asked him time and time again questions regarding my prerequisites, entry into the program and such, and he consistently wants to push me off onto someone else. I have now been told that if you get less than a B in any of your required sciences, you will be required to take them again in order to gain entry to the program. They have too many people dropping out of clinicals because "We didn't know there was so much reading", or they're just plain flunking out. The waiting list is kind of a hierarchy, with top picks being highest grades and so on. No one in the history of the world could possibly obtain their ADN from MATC in two years. They require 35 combined credits of prerequisites prior to admission to the program. This means that if you went full time, it is possible in 1 fall, 1 spring, and 2 summers to complete the required coursework prior to admission. It has taken me 2 years. That said, every MATC ADN graduate I have spoken with was very pleased with their experience at the school.

Thank you all so much for your thoughtful replies. I can tell this is a hot button issue, and I am glad to see so many people that keep it in the perspective of taking everyone on an individual basis rather than a stock stereotype.

My best friend has been an LPN for about 6 years now, and she currently works in psych. Her program was of the intense, year-long variety, prerequisites and all. I have listened to her on and on tell me that RN's don't do anything, don't know anything, don't have as much patient contact, and don't have the pharmacological experience. I am a semester away from starting my RN clinicals; I'm currently a CNA as required by my school. I have taken 8 credits of A&P, 4 credit Microbio, 4 credit Organic Chemistry, 4 credit Biochemistry, 6 credits of English, 3 credits of Sociology, 8 credits of Algebra and 12 nursing prerequisites. I have four full semesters of RN clinicals that must be completed. I asked "I'm a CNA now, and after two semesters of clinicals will be eligible to be a LPN while I complete my RN degree, then on to grad school for my APNP.....and you're still not going to respect what I do and think you know more than I do?" She replied that she would with great confidence. You guys, this is a really nice girl and she says all her coworkers feel the same way. I don't get it. If LVN's know so darn much more and RN's are idiots, why am I spending all this time and money and study effort? Do all LVN's feel this way??