Lemur

Hello! I have a question for school nurses in PA - is it possible to become certified with the NBCSN and not enroll in classes for certification at a college?? Like, I just want to take the test and not get half a master's degree. Is that kosher? FWIW I work at a private school and certification is not required, but I kind of want to do it anyway. And I do not want to pay more than whatever it costs to take the test!

So since this is a boarding school the kids aren't going to have a doctor's note that I wouldn't already know about (because another nurse or I would've taken them to the doctor probably) - so I guess what I'm really looking for is the verbage to send out to the kids that will get my point across nicely. My point being I'm not going to excuse you unless you're dying!

Hello - I am a new school nurse and I'm at a small boarding school. My shift is 3-8 pm and I get a steady parade of kids starting at 3 looking to get out of their sports practice or games. Usually it's headache, cramps etc - which I will not excuse for, but I am curious what you would put in an email to send out to the student body for examples of what you DO excuse for. Anyone have a policy at their school you could show me? Thanks in advance!

I agree with darkangel: every RN should work as an aide at some point. I have been an aide for 1.5 yrs and it's been a great experience. I work with the RNs and the other aides as one big team and we all get along really well, as we all respect each other. If an RN ever said something remotely similar to what Romie said, I would have been in shock. We just do not treat people that way. I start my new job as an RN on Wednesday, and I intend to go in knowing how busy aides are, and how much they want to be treated like human beings. L.

Raritan Valley Community College, Helene Fuld, Capital Health, just a few.

I took NCLEX on July 6, found out I passed July 8, and JUST yesterday (July 23) got a letter in the mail saying my license is on its way. They only update the site once a month, which is ridiculously slow - my friends from school got licensed in PA and their license info was posted on the PA BON site the morning after they took the NCLEX - less than 24 hrs after! The license number was up before Pearson VUE even made it available for them! L.

Hello, I sent my application for licensure by examination last week - anyone know how long until I receive my authority to test? And do you know if I will need to do the fingerprinting before I can sit for NCLEX? Everyone in my graduation class is getting licensed in PA, and they already know their test dates (not to mention they only had to pay $35!)...so frustrated. L.

Thank you all for your responses! At my hospital we use a dynamap and the pulseox takes the pulse. We also use a temporal thermometer which takes 1 second. I usually try to count respirations while the BP cuff is inflating, but inevitably the pt asks a question and I lose track. Ugh. I know I will get a rhythm eventually, but it feels like it's taking a while! L.

Hey guys - Not sure if I am posting in the right place, but I am a nurse intern (read: nurse aide, but I am in nursing school so I get this title and I just do NOT have my routine down for getting vital signs. I usually have to do ~12 patients as soon as I start my shift and often that takes me 1.5 - 2 hours. I think I talk too much, and I also ask the patients if I can get them anything while I am there which opens up a whole can o' worms. So...how do you do it? In what order? And WHEN do you count respirations? I can not seem to get that one down without the patient saying "why are you staring at me?". Thanks for your help - L.

Thank you - I guess I am freaking myself out with all the anaphylactic shock talk that comes up when you google latex allergy. It's just my luck, really :wink2:

I am a nursing student, and we only have clinical once a week so it's taken me a while to put this together - every clinical day I come home with very dry peeling hands. I had always blamed it on the handwash we use at the hospitals (the foamy one), but now I am scared it's really a latex allergy. We use latex-free gloves at our college lab, and I never get dry hands from just washing them a lot. It's only on clinical day. Please tell me someone else gets dry peely hands from the foamy handwash stuff - I really really don't want a latex allergy, just when I've found what I truly want to do with my life And if I do have a latex allergy, how do I know? What do I do? L.

Thanks Daytonite! I'm actually totally fine with the actual teaching care plan part, it's just the fact that I will be handing it in without lab values that I am worried about. My patient's med dx was asthma exacerbation and he is hypertensive, so it's pretty easy. I'm just wondering what others would do in my situ! L.

And tell me what you would do! We are in a 5 week med surg mini-rotation. We have clinical once a week. For two of the five weeks, we go on "filed trips" (once to PACU and once to a GI procedure unit). The first week I had my GIPU field trip, and tomorrow I have my PACU field trip. So I have only been on the floor once so far. We have a teaching care plan due on 5/2, which apparently is next Friday! Who knew?! I digress: the only patient I can really do this care plan on the the one I had last week, since the next patient I will get will be on 5/1 and I REALLY do not think I can do a care plan with APA format and med cards, etc. in one night. Right? Here's the catch: I didn't figure out how to find the lab values in the computer for my patient last week. SO I don't have them. Do I turn in my care plan sans lab values? Do I say anything to my [EXTREMELY TERRIFYING] instructor before I turn it in? Seriously, guys, this is keeping me up at night - what would you do?? TIA, L.

I have ADD, and have found nursing to be a perfect fit. The other job that I have excelled at is waitressing, and the similarities between the ER and a busy restaurant on a Saturday night are not lost on me. Talk to your therapist. L.

Oh, I know I am going to bawl! Not a worry. I expect streams of mascara down my white uniform. I teared up just when this year's grads were explaining to us what would happen! So actually, I'm not really looking for more sentimental ideas - I am sappy enough. I need ideas on other stuff - what did you all do after? Our pinning is in our college's gym so there's tons of room and hundreds of friends and family members come. And I'm thinking we could have punch and cookies out or something. Did anyone have a dinner? We will have about 100 grads so I don't know how that would work. Who gave a speech? Was it good? Thanks again for the help - L.

We do have the instructor of our choice do the pinning, so that's already in place. I am going to look into having a photographer there for pictures of getting pinned, I don't think that is done. Good ideas, guys - keep 'em coming! L.

And total goosebumps here, too! What a cool story. L.

Hello all, As president of my school's nursing club, I get to help organize the pinning ceremony. I will go to this year's ceremony next month to see what it's all about, but I'm wondering if any of you have some ideas for me to talk about our next meeting. How was your ceremony? Anything you loved? Anything you hated? I gather that pretty much everyone has a photo slide show playing in the beginning, accompanied by music that has to be meaningful in some way, but what else? Thanks for your help, Lemur

Maybe I am thinking about this too literally, but I am pretty sure a "goal" is what you designate as what you hope will happen, and an "outcome" is what actually does happen. "Outcomes" are assessed during the evaluation stage of the nursing process, and "goals" are determined during the planning phase. If an "outcome" shows that the "goal" was met, then "Positive Change" (Gault's Caring Concepts) has occurred. Please correct me if I am wrong! L.