naide88

About 2 years ago, I was working part-time as a CNA and going to school full time in Nursing School. I got a D the first semester and they kicked me out of the school. It was the most traumatic experience of my life. I have changed a lot since then. I haven't taken any classes in anything because I am terrified. I wanted to be a nurse so badly, and I had such high expectations for myself. I did pretty well in all my pre reqs and everything. I thought I could handle going to Nursing School and working. But, like I said, it was very traumatic. Not really the Nursing School, but wanting something so badly and not being able to accomplish it. I have been depressed since I got kicked out that first semester. I keep trying to find something to fill that hole, but there is nothing. I feel like if I never graduate from nursing school, I can never be happy. It is such a passion, I can't make it go away. And I am terrified of going back and failing again. I am hoping someone here can atleast empathize with me. My friends and people I try to talk to - they don't understand. Maybe they haven't been as passionate about something as I am about this. No one in my life believes in me anymore. No one has faith in me. How can I go back?

yep this is why i quit nursing school and switched to a major that had some consistency and well...logic

I took the CNA program and it did not help me at all when I went to nursing school.

The only thing I can tell you is that you will get used to it. Just a few things to do... If the resident has a bm in a depends, close the depends, put it in a trash bag, tie up the trash bag...then put it out of the facility asap. If the resident has a bm in the toilet, flush the toilet before you stand the resident up or asap. You want to limit the time the gas is in the air...If the resident stands up and the bm is still in the toilet, the gas will go to the air.

Hi everyone. I worked this morning in a dementia unit at my facility with just one other coworker (we were short by 2 people). I was filling in because 2 other people did not show up...I usually work 3-11. This is just horrible what I saw when I came in. I saw one resident who was absolutely soaking wet, she had on depends and a pad on her bed, the urine went through the depends, through the pad, and even through the mattress so the mattress will need to be changed. Her pillows and her blanket was wet too! The smell of urine was so strong that I smelled it immediately when I opened her door. I found another resident, she was dressed in her clothes but she was wearing two depends and still she was wet, through the 2 depends, and through her pants onto her sheets. These are the only two residents I found like this today, but the thing is, I know the night shift was not short last night, because I worked 3-11 the night before and I saw who came in so...I'm thinking...WHAT IS GOING ON? Other times when I get called in to work in the morning I see skin tears on residents that are from them being changed too roughly... I don't know what else to do but report these incidents and document but things like this keep happening.

I want to be a nurse because it opens so many different doors to helping other people... Especially the counseling part. I had school Monday to thursday, 5 hours on Monday, about 4 hours on Thursday, 8 hour clinical on tuesday, and then 3 hours on Wednesday. I think I was taking 11 credits but it could have been more, they were all nursing classes since I took all other non-nursing classes before I got into the program..

I think that article really is insulting. But I guess it was just an article and not an actual study...it doesn't mean anything. When they go out and weigh people and get their BMI's and all that...then maybe they'll have some back up.

I don't understand the bag thing...don't they have trash cans in every room?

So I got accepted into a nursing program for Fall 2008, and I went throughout the whole first semester until the final, but then I found out that I had failed the first semester..and currently I am just working as a CNA, and I'm not even sure if I want to continue with nursing, try LPN, apply to other schools for RN, or start a different career as a social worker, medical lab tech, or maybe something in business. When I was in school, I was working 3 eight hour shifts each week on the weekend, and really I always felt that I had no time back then. I felt that I had no time to breathe, no time to eat or excercise, or sleep. And no time to study because when I looked at the list of studying I had to do...there was always more. I didn't know how to study, what to study. I ended up buying so many extra books... Also it seemed like almost all the other students had really supportive families, with my family, when I come home, we argue, they aren't supportive. I have never really been one of those people that are the best at anything, I don't even know if I am like other people in my class. They are very eloquent and smart, and very able to handle the stress that nursing comes. Also when I started school, I started having panic attacks and they haven't gone away since I stopped going in December. In fact they are getting worse. So anyway...what is your opinions on this? i feel like if I become a nurse, or try, I will have that feeling of "I HAVE NO TIME"...all the time even after I graduate. I think its just time for me to just sell my nursing books on ebay and move on, but really that is depressing too.

I have learned that...anything with wheels qualifies as a cart. I borrow the kitchen's cart when its time to pass snack or for the residents who eat meals in their rooms. And there are TONS of carts (or thingies with wheels) downstairs in the laundry room (we only have one laundry room which stores all the linen) which I can use for the linen and laundry. Since we don't have a linen cart or linen room upstairs, we usually take as much linen as we need and put it in a resident's closet. Yep, I do this with my drink too.As for trash though, I get a big trash bag and put all my little bags of trash in there. Its not allowed to put any trash on a "thingie with wheels"

Why is there 2 aides on one floor with 7 residents that need to be changed and I am on the floor by myself with 10 residents that need to be changed? I am in AL and not counting the once who don't need to be changed...

Oh...I just want to say: You are not the only resident that lives here. Do not scream down the all because you want "attention" or want to go downstairs after 20 minutes of being in your room when I asked you where you want to be. I can't eat your food for you..and don't really want to anyway! Please eat your food when it is meal time and do not try to "save it" for dinner time, or lunch time, or TOMMOROW. We will bring you more food at the next meal. So EAT your food! How can you NOT be hungry when I've never seen you eat??? You weigh more than me by about 100 lbs. I can't lift you! And you can stand up really well...so don't tell me you "can't". I can't do your laundry if it isn't your laundry day...We only have 2 washers and dryers...and about 5 loads of laundry on each shift..SORRY! To my fellow employees: I cant cant cant be in 5 places at once. Stop sitting around and eating and talking and leaving me to take care of your residents too! If there are 3 of you are outside a residents room TALKING, and then a wanderer goes into that room and gets into a fight, HOW did you not see the wanderer go into that room? Also....don't ACT like you don't know "what to do" and you need me to still tell you when to change residents! And don't say you've woken someone up if they are still in the bed, unchanged, sleeping! Don't just sit there "watching" the residents when the sleeping residents rooms are right next to the living room! You can do both at the same time! To some family members: I would love to stay and chat with you while you obsess over your parent(s) and their belongings and things, but I got WORK to do! Also...to some of my other employees: Thank you so much for those of you who DO help me out when I need your help! You guys (and gals) are GREAT to work with! I think that's all. I love threads like this, it really helps me out after a stressful day.

What does DON stand for?

Can anyone tell me what topics to cover mostly on my pre-entrance exam for LPN? "Pre-admission testing on verbal ability, mathematics, and science is required." This is only what it says about the topics, it does not go into depth about how much science I need to know, or math. What confuses me is that since anatomy and physiology,nutrition, and pharmacology are all covered in the program, would they be in the pre-admission test? For science, I am concentrating mostly on basic chemistry, biology, earth science, and physics. What topics should I study for the math portion? I will go over Army time, conversions, fractions, decimals, rounding, and percentages again. Do you think I should study anymore?

Well if you don't have to take anything my advise is to take all (or as many as you can) non-nursing classes before you get into the program (psy 201, 202, a humanities class like medical ethics, english 111, HLT 250 and hlt 141). These will probably increase your chances of getting into the program and will decrease your load once your in. Would also study a bit before getting into the program. Some topics I would study are drug dosage calculations and med math. Roman numerals, army time, decimals, conversions. Also study a bit of nutrition and fluids and electrolytes. I'm in my first semester of nursing at NVCC and we had a test on fluids and electrolytes and lab values, the class percentage was around 71% and its been said that its always the lowest percentage. So maybe studying a bit of that beforehand would be give you more of a headstart. Good luck!

I am allergic to both of these gloves...I have been getting horrible reddness on my hands anytime I put one of these on. And today i experienced some SOB like something was caught in my throat. I don't know what to do. How am i going to be a nurse if i can't wear the gloves??? What if I try on hypoallergenic and find out i am allergic to those too? People tell me it is just the cold weather. But is this going to happen every year? I am so discouraged and upset, I can hardly study because all I can think about is I am wasting my time because I won't be able to wear the gloves. Does anyone have any suggestions on what I can do or ways to make this reaction less severe?

Do you think we should try doing practice NCLEX questions before the tests or just read and read and read? What about taking notes from the book?

So I've been working as "resident aide" in assisted living for about 6 months and was wondering if I should start looking for jobs at hospitals in my area? I am a nursing student and think I would gain a lot of knowledge from a hospital instead of from the assisted living where I work now. I do love all the residents though and would miss them terribly if I quit. Does anyone have any input?

I got a 76 on the first test...I hope I did better on the second one though, i think i did but got no idea. But I got a U for one day of clinical for being a few mins late.....how does this affect my grades?

Is it just me or do some of the professors talk really really fast?

Erm - no one is going near my behind....We will probably do the rectal temps on dummies or something right?

I kept mine - simply because I wrote, highlighted, and put post-it notes all over the book like a crazy woman. I have used the A&P book a couple times already the first week into the program.

Most of the areas that I tested on were okay except one: argumentation. I got a 438/1000 in argumentation. I do not know why, or how, it did not give me an explanation after the test of how they came up with that score or what their definition of argumentation is and how it can be improved. But it is less than half and I guess I am very horrible at making a point or something?

Thanks everyone for your encouragement. I am taking the hesi critical thinking exam in a few hours (as it is my first day of nursing school) and I do not even know what to expect in this exam. It is good to be reminded that one test will not determine our abilities to be a nurse. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses in certain areas and critical thinking will surely improve during nursing school and thereafter. This one test is not a measure of how smart someone is.

The ROM order? i didn't need to know that for my test - but i hope you do well. Please don't worry about the little things and r-e-l-a-x. You'll be fine if you relax because you've studied, right?