CNA_Timmy

You may want to call a transport company next time. I am a EMT-B/CNA/Nursing Student, and I occasionally pick up shifts for a local ambulance transport company. We pretty much specialize in transporting LTC to hospitals/doctors appts/other places. The 911 guys are more of a call in an emergency situation, and they get a little huffy about doing anything that lacks getting to intubate someone (sorry 911 guys, but you know you do it for the adrenaline, not the transports, at least all the 911 guys I know). Anyway maybe that will eliminate some of your future problems.

It costs around 20-30K a year or a private school. Valparaiso University charges $29,020 a year for tuition and university fee's. Forget about living expenses, that's $116,080 for four years of classes alone. Add on books, and you are looking at $120k+. My brothers girlfriend went there for a degree in English, and ended up with 65k worth of debt (she was lucky to have a scholarship, and a great deal of grant money). Education is not cheap.

A hospital based diploma program in my area recently came to an agreement with a local college to share resources (as in the college can use the nursing program on top of their gen ed to grant BSN degrees). Students can enroll through the college and get the BSN or directly into the diploma program and get the diploma. But the diploma program is 3 years, so for an extra year they can get the BSN.

Well in the US PCT's and Phelebotomists (typically trained for several months in veinipuncture) draw the blood, and nurses place peripheral IV lines. As a matter of fact, I would sonner be stuck by a hornet than by most physicians I work with. As far as central lines, they are placed by the doctors, CRNA's, and we have one NP who is part of the IV team who does PICC lines.

I work as an aide 4 shifts a week... usually friday night and sunday morning... as in 16 hours... then saturday night then sunday morning. I do my homework everynight after class except the weekend I do it sunday night, and I always have flashcards in my scrub pockets to study when the call lights are... well you know the Q word we dont like to say. I find studying at work really helpful all the nurses are really interested in my education, so I am always getting their help. When an admit comes in I am always there for the assessment and when there is time the nurses will include me in their care planning and what not. So even though I do it for the rent and food, I also look at it as an excellent resource for my education. Although I will have to say I know others who work similar jobs with people who are not quite as helpful.

Old post.... but... ortho is full of surgery to fix broken legs, hips and spines so there is your surg. And guess what group of people are good at breaking their hips... the elderly... which means while they are there for their hip surgery you are going to be taking care of all their coexisting medical problems, diabetes, chf, copd so there is your med. Also since the floor is already staffed and equiped for post op pts you will be getting more than otho cases for sure. My ortho unit gets every surgery except CTS and Neuro

HAHA!! I know! I think we should make all the shifts change places for a few days so they can both see what they are missing. Although I have to say that was horrible about your low urine output pt! I hope that nurse was reprimanded, or at least I hope he/she felt some remorse!

Have you looked into a masters entry program. My aunt was a social worker for 15 years before she went back to school and got her MSN as her first nursing degree. She then went to a psychiatric NP program a few years later, although graduating with a MSN she still made the same money as the folks coming out of an ASN program (at least to start).

So I was just responding to a post, and it got me thinking. Has anyone else noticed that the nurses do not get to provide much in the way of nursing care anymore? Not that the nurses are opposed to positioning a patient or making them warm and comfy at night, but there is just no time for it. But between passing meds, assessing patients, charting and playing phone tag with the MDs, there does not seem to be any time to actually provide nursing care. I really am quite bummed at the prospect of becoming a nurse and missing out on the time I get to spend with my patients as a CNA. I really enjoy my time providing comfort and care to all my patients. I really am starting to wish I could be a CNA forever, but still make enough money as a CNA to be able and live outside ramen noodles and thermostat set at 65 degree land I am currently in. I love being able to be the one who the patient relies on for what they need. Nothing really beats the feeling of bringing a warm blanket to a little old lady or propping up pillows under the kid who was in a bad car accident. I think I am very tired right now and have been studying too hard (and when I do that I try to talk myself out of school). I need some reassurance that all this hard work and memorization is going to be worth it. Ok... my rant is over... back to my pharm book.

I always have to walk the line, seeing as how I work days and nights. I am always hearing each shift talk about the others. But seriously. Yes the day shift is busy, but there staffing is awsome (they have 4-5 patients per nurse, and several aides). The midnight is not quite as busy, so long as the ER is not full or some random doc hasn't gone into a 1201 admit streak, but each nurse has 7-8 patients and there is only one aide (granted this is just my hospital). It is all a case of the grass is greener on the other side.

Prarie state has a RN program, not sure about a bridge though. South Suburban I know does, www.southsuburbancollege.edu, and there is a newer program in Crown Point, IN through the university of St. Francis, www.sfc.edu/crownpoint, which is a part time program for working nurses.

I would say med/surg would be a good place to start. It is a good place to see many different kinds of things while shadowing. The floor I work on is a surgical ortho floor, with a lot of medical spill over... so you will see NGs, piccs, various types of ostomy (while maybe not your idea of fun, they are a sight to be seen), dressing changes, IV and foley starts, really just about everything all on one floor.

I take adderall, 10mg BID, and when I was hired, and even when I had a OTJ accident I was screened again. The first time I didn't even think about it and did not bring in my script. I was called a week later with a job offer. When I had my visit with employee health she just stated... your UA came back clean with therapeutic levels of amphetamine's, and just told me to bring in my bottle some she can copy the lable and put it in my file.

Where I work the nurses and CNAs actually go into the patients rooms (all private rooms where I work), and involve the paitent in report. The reason we are given for this is the patients can be more involved in their care. Usually the patients do not say anything... but whatever. We are required to do it... the nurse manager even checks out little hil-rom lojack badge reports to make sure we all went to each room to give report.

I have worked in my facilities acute rehab unit, which I think is similar. Ours is very structured, they have a strict routine everyday, and therapy all day long. I like being floated there, especially on the evening shift, when they are all relaxing after a long day of hard work. They stay from a few weeks to 3 months, so you get to know some of them pretty well. Most of them are older and recovering from an acute condition.