MarkE86

I'm not working as an RN yet, but in my job as an MA I catch med errors all the time. The most common one in our office is confusion between potassium citrate and potassium chloride. I've had other MAs send Rxs for KCl instead of K-citrate. Also, during the current retail shortage of K-citrate 10mEq tablets, I've had several pharmacies fax the MD asking if it was OK to switch the patient to KCl. You'd think the pharmacies would know better....

I lost 60lbs last year, but just finishing my final semester of nursing school and just been too busy to get to the gym. I know, excuses, excuses...but once I finish I'm gonna get back to it. I really want to find a sport or activity to get involved in so it's not just monotony in the gym. Problem is I don't have anyone to go with (need motivation here), plus everything's so damn expensive. I'd REALLY like to learn Brazilian Jiu Jitsu but I can't afford the classes right now. Maybe once I get that first RN job...

I have an awful time finding scrubs that fit. I am 5'7" and went from 230lbs to 170lbs in 6 months last year. I'm still a bit overweight for my height but I went from a 40"w to a 34"w, so I thought that would make scrubs easier to find...not so. When I was heavier I wore IguanaMed MedFlex II scrubs - had to get XL pants and XXL tops. The pants were too long but everything fit pretty decently. When I started losing weight I couldn't wear my Iguanas anymore, but didn't want to spend the money for nice scrubs again until I was at my goal weight (still want to lose another 20 lbs after I finish school). Right now I'm wearing the cheap RxGear scrubs from Work'n'Gear. The S tops fit pretty well, but I have trouble with the pants - the M are comfortable but way too long and baggy; the S are the right length and waist size but are way too tight in the crotch (which makes sitting or bending over a bit awkward in front of patients...lol). Once I'm done with school and things settle down I'm gonna work on losing those last 20 lbs - then I can justify buying the more expensive scrubs in the right size.

The law surrounding practice as a Medical Assistant is pretty fuzzy, I think. In most offices the MAs simply do whatever the MD tells them to - the understanding being that the MD is ultimately responsible for anything his/her MAs do. I don't know the law but I do believe that technically the MD should be on the premises and supervising during injections. I'm not sure how the law might delineate between giving immunizations and administering actual medications. I've been an MA for about a year now and our MDs do have us give medication injections.

No judgement here. We've all had rough times. You can check with the state board of nursing to see exactly what the requirements are. We were just given all the information in preparation for pinning next month, but I don't have it handy right now. I think all the information is in the documents on this web page: http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=eohhs2terminal&L=6&L0=Home&L1=Provider&L2=Certification,+Licensure,+and+Registration&L3=Occupational+and+Professional&L4=Nursing&L5=Licensing&sid=Eeohhs2&b=terminalcontent&f=dph_quality_boards_nursing_p_good_moral_licensure&csid=Eeohhs2 Hope this helps! MJE

My pinning is coming up on January 6th (!!!).....so glad to be done with school! But there is this little issue of the pinning uniform. We were told that the men are to wear a white dress shirt and white dress pants with a green tie (green and gold are our school colors). Our program director was very specific that the pants have to be "real" white, and not just very light khakis. I have checked several stores and cannot for the life of me find white dress pants anywhere. I looked at pictures from our school's pinning last year and a lot of the guys ended up wearing white scrub pants with a dress shirt and tie, which looks pretty ridiculous to me. I was considering getting a pair of Dickies work pants, which come in white, but would they look OK with a shirt and tie? Any other suggestions? I want to look nice but don't have a lot of money to spend. I wish they'd just let us wear khakis, but I know all white is very traditional.

I have a Littmann Lightweight II SE and it works just fine for me. I use it most often for lung sounds and I can get a pretty good idea of what's going on - it picks up wheezes, ronchi, etc. It works for blood pressure and basic heart sounds too. I did borrow a classmate's Classic II SE once and noticed things seemed just a touch louder through it - I think the main difference is the Classic is steel, while the Lightweight is heavy plastic. But I wouldn't worry about it - the Lightweight should be absolutely fine to get you through school, and I'm willing to bet it's a lot better than a $5 scope.

I'm a nursing student with an extremely hairy chest and I wear a t-shirt under my scrubs out of habit/self-consciousness. I do think that it's accepted, common professional behavior to be well-groomed at work and since I don't really have the time between my full-time job and school in the evenings to "manscape", as I hear they call it now, it's easier for me to wear a t-shirt. Now when I say my chest is extremely hairy, I really mean it. Obviously everyone's body is different, and for most men I don't think their chest hair is anywhere near as unruly as mine, so they may not have to trim it in order to meet a basic appearance of being "well-groomed." I think there's a happy medium, as it were - to have one's chest hair curling an inch or two beyond the confines of one's scrub top (as mine would) probably is not professional. But I don't think that there should be a standard set in the workplace declaring any display of chest hair at all to be outside of appropriate professional appearance. It's something that is simply a part of being a man and having a man's body - and wearing an undershirt with a scrub top may not be comfortable for a lot of men. It's not entirely unlike women having breasts - obviously you couldn't ever ban women from wearing clothing that showed that they have breasts (or mandate that they wear extremely tight bras), but women should (and do, for the most part) adhere to unspoken professional standards as to how much of said breasts should be visible at any given time. Am I thinking way too hard about this?

I guess the short answer is because it's on the NCLEX....

I have a bachelor's in psych, so when we started covering the nursing theory stuff I pretty much went into PTSD.....not this again, I thought! But hey, it's required for school. You learn what you need to for the tests (and here's a free tip: the right thing to say almost always starts with "It must be difficult to..." and ends with "would you like to talk more about this?"), and then when you are out there you just do what it is you do. Patients like or dislike you for the care they get, not because you talk like a nursing textbook.

KPA is right - depsite all the psychbabble about how women "mature" earlier than men (whatever the hell that means), I have found that pretty much across the board women in their 20s have a huge tendency towards selfishness. Even the best of them. I watched it in my three sisters, I see it in my coworkers and classmates and pretty much everywhere you look in today's society. It's excruciating to watch in healthcare because I'm there because I want to take care of patients, and my coworkers (I work in a primary care office during the day) couldn't care less about the patients. They just like walking around in scrubs carrying a stethoscope and thinking they're God's gift to the world because they can take blood pressures and decide whether or not patients get to see their doctors (except for Erin, if you're reading this...you rock). Errm, all ranting aside, there's nothing wrong with giving her the opportunity to pursue something if she wants it. Be upfront with her though, because you shouldn't have to give up what you want either. If it's meant to be, things will work out. If she really cares about you, she'll work with you to come up with a plan where you both get what you want out of life and can still be together. She needs to know that you are serious about this and that you're thinking marriage someday....I made that mistake....dated a girl for two years before dropping the "m" word...she turned green and dumped me on the spot.

I just started playing AD&D with a couple friends of mine - I'm a huge fan of video game RPGs but had never played a table RPG before. Currently I'm a Lv. 2 hobbit thief, which fits me perfectly - I'm short (5'7"), rounder than I'd like to be, could talk the hind leg off a mule and have hairy feet. I wish nursing could be that simple. Patient c/o pain at an 8 out of 10 on the pain scale? Easy, roll two d4...2 and 4? Congrats, your pain level is now 2! Thankfully we didn't have to go through too much of that Lifetime channel, Better Homes and Gardens, Hallmark card "getting to know you" bull that a lot of schools seem to put students through. I am the only guy in my class and it does get a little awkward at times though...like when our lab instructor brought in a rubber model lady parts to practice inserting Foleys on...in my head I wanted to say "oh, isn't that the Jenna Jameson model?" We had two girls join our class for second semester who transferred in from other schools, and the first night of class the instructor asked us all to introduce ourselves to them...I just said "hello, I'm the guy." No further introduction needed.

Hey I know I'm late replying to this but congrats you guys!!! So glad you got in.

I got into Quincy College because I got pretty much the highest score they had ever seen on the Accuplacer admission test. I also had a BA in psych with all my prereqs completed at grades of C or higher. To me it doesn't do us guys any favors when people get the impression that we have some kind of "affirmative action" advantage when applying to these programs. I am the only guy in my class of 14 (unfortunately the "other guy" had to withdraw after the first couple weeks due to time constraints) and I absolutely wouldn't want my female classmates thinking that I had any special consideration to make it into the program. I also wouldn't want my coworkers to think that I'd gotten any special hiring considerations. As men in nursing we already have plenty of stereotypes and pre-conceived notions to face and I'd rather not have that one added to the pile.

I'm a first year male RN student, and I'm 23. To me it's great to see older guys in the class - there are enough stereotypes and preconceived notions about men in nursing as it is, and having men from all different backgrounds and walks of life enforces for people that men have particular strengths and characteristics that make them great nurses, just like women.