creativemom

When did it become acceptable that "abuse" in nursing, is acceptable? You can do all of the above without the hard nose and still help precept a great RN. Really, I see it all the time where I work. I agree you shouldn't have to coddle folks, but you don't have to have a :devil:itch attitude either. Attitudes don't make the nurse, rather skill, hands-on experience, knowledge, critical thinking, etc does. What you foster is what you'll be breeding on the floor. I very much would dislike working with such hostile attitudes.

I'm in the day program M-Th and work nights T, F, Sa. During the week I forgo some sleep due to having to care for my child. You study in the car at stop lights, while waiting in line, after your child goes to bed and when eating. Life sucks when in RN school but just think, once you're done you'll have better salary, hours, and pay. Look to the end not today. Work weekends if you can. Hospitals pay better and may provide you with better hours. They understand school (most, not all) and see that it's in investment for most likely you'll end up working for them on their floor. Great way to get your foot in the door to an RN job. They have parent shifts, PRN, full time, part time, etc.

i think what is happening is that you're not understanding the "why's" of it all. i'm nursing student, stna, and teach bcls to medical staff at our hospital. in case you're curious... okay, on our med surg floor 92% is considered normal. we don't blink an eye at 92%. when they are less we put them on o2 of 2 l (after we do the below) and find the rn to come see the patient. first let's explain the "why's" of too much oxygen or unneeded treatment of nasal cannula as you decided to use (i'm going to really make this simple, your nursing school will go in-depth for this topic): is there any problem if i use too much oxygen? yes, too much oxygen can damage the cells inside your lungs. also, if you have too much oxygen, your brain may not send out signals for you to breathe. or you can develop hyperoxia or oxygen toxicity. for most people, when carbon dioxide starts to build up in your body, the brain signals to take a breath. the brain for a person with copd (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) gets used to a little extra carbon dioxide because the lungs have a hard time getting rid of it. if a person uses too much oxygen, the carbon dioxide levels may not trigger the brain so the brain may not signal to breathe as often or as deeply as needed. taking fewer or less deep breaths is called hypoventilation (hi-po-ven-ti-la-tion)." here's some things in your scope that you can do to help a 92% spo2 pt breathe better: sometimes people can't breathe due to being "heavy" so you either have to raise the head of the bed, or pull the patient up in bed because their belly's are pushing on their lungs. or they are bent wrong in the bed, hence having a hard time breathing, so get them situated correctly in bed. we also check to make sure their noses are not full, check their mouths so that it is clear. (once an elderly man had his dentures off but in his mouth thus could not breathe. another had so much dried mucus in it that it obstructed his breathings so i told the rn and we together cleared out his mouth so he could breathe.) sometimes the pt's are bent too much between head of bed over 40˚ and legs. stretch them out a bit by laying the head back to 30˚ and putting the leg part of the bed down a bit. sometimes the patient may not have been using their incentive spirometer, perhaps having them use that a few times aids in their breathing. but as a last resort we go to nasal cannula. (first you go get the rn. they are licensed. we are not. therefore they have the case history of the patient, report from the previous rn's that we don't always have or cannot always access via pt records or have the time to read. and by all means the rn is the one who will be in trouble for whatever happens to the pt on their time.) i know you mean well and have a passion for caring for the patient but so many things can go wrong if we don't consult the rn first. they have the knowledge that we don't have just yet... if the rn won't do anything (it's happened to even me, but i go to the charge and from there i go to another rn or supervisor or nom.) go the route if you really have to. but calling 911 in a hospital setting for a 92% spo2 will get both you and the rn into trouble. go the route... take time to learn all the "why's". ask questions... then you can provide better patient care. good luck!

Easy solution. Call the publisher or whomever you purchased the code and explain that you need to use it on a different computer. Even most companies of programs will allow you to do the same...

You have to do your own research on the book. Sometimes typing in the title (version #) and "electronic" or "pdf" or "download" or "e-book" tends to find you the electronic version. Other times I've gone directly to the publisher and called their customer support number to learn that they sell on their own website an e-version! Other times I've found them via amazon or via one of the many textbook rental companies. LOVE e-books! FYI per the iPad you can purchase a separate keyboard that is wireless that allows you to type. I would say that at my NS most of the kids use laptops. Notepads tend to work too slow with typing and is an eyestrain. I'm thinking of getting a Lenovo which is like an ipad + laptop in one. However I would not be able to use any of the ipad apps so that is a definite drawback. Too bad you can't rent either one for a few weeks each in order to figure out which works for your own lifestyle...

I'm just shocked here to hear the reasons why RN's just "give in" with drug seekers. I agree on the one hand that with long-term narcotic use that their bodies will develop a "tolerance" therefore their pain may require more medication to satisfy the body in order to feel less pain. But then my question is when do you stop? When do you try to get the patient to come off of these meds? I work on a colorectal floor. Because of narcotics they end up on our floor with resections due to "narcotic bowel" whereby the bowels won't move any more due to getting all those pain meds and had the RN's from other floors tried other therapies and/or to wean them from drug dependence they wouldn't end up on our floor with resections after resections due to the dead bowels. I dunno. It's a hard call. There are some patients that are in chronic pain that need to be in pain management therapies like we have at our hospital that uses a whole multiple of things to help manage their chronic pain. But then there are truly drug seekers and with our experience we can tell who they are. I'm not saying to not deal with their pain issues, all I'm saying is that you are not doing them a favor by giving them all they can get + some. You're then being a legal drug dealer. Treat the pain and try to push for them to get into rehab and pain management. Believe me, we do this and in the end they go from Jekyll and Hyde to Mr and Mrs THANK YOU :yeah:for getting me off of those pain meds. I feel better, I am living life now type of people. Otherwise they end up on our colorectal floor and that's sad...

I do it because it's part of basic nursing. I get STNA's or a CT to the room and double team the patient. If the patient can walk and is oriented I make them go to the bathroom some time during the day to wash up and then I follow through on them. What most forget here is that when you do bathing you get to really "see" the patient's skin. I can't tell you how many times I've found items behind a patient's back, had I not found it, there would have definitely been skin breakdown issues. It's also a great way to validate if an STNA has been actually Q2T a patient or was just charting it. It also gives me a way to assess how the patient is moving and I can help them with ideas on how to move without pulling incisions or hurting themselves (muscles, joints). Also I can see how incisions look and check for additional drainages (fistulas) that may have popped up since the operation... It's no wonder we have MRSA, Staph and at the minimum UTI's when people have the idea that bathing is not important. Skin is our first defense to bacteria and infections, it's our obligation to some how make sure it's taken care of!

It's typical procedure. Perhaps if you understood what happened to a dead body you'd realize that you're doing the dead body a disservice. If there is a death during an operation there will be a coroners report due. So having clothing on a body will hamper with the coroner's job thus making it take longer and/or when you have to move the body to take off the cut clothing it may move the interior parts thus hampering with investigations so I've been told by their offices. Another reason is that the body (if it goes to a funeral parlor) will have to be drained and a lot of work will be put into the body to preserve it for viewing. So the best thing you can do for a dead body is to wash the outer parts carefully, comb the hairs in place and clean the hands very well then cover with clean sheets above and below it.

It totally depends on the situation. If it's during the day we leave the doors open as MD's, PA's, RN's etc go in and out to provide care, consultation, etc all through the day. Then you have kitchen coming in for 3 meals. Transport coming in to take pt's to testing, etc. Visitors coming in and out. Well you get the idea. It's more of a hassle to keep doors closed during the day. At night it's a different story. We have a policy for keeping things quiet from 9:30 ish to about 6 am or a bit later. We start opening doors when the docs start doing rounds. If a pt wants the door open then we keep it open however most want it closed so they don't hear us taking at the nurses station and disrupting their sleep. Also the lights just outside the doors (even when we dim them at night) glare off the floor and if the doors are not closed it lights up the room a bit. My own reason to keep the doors closed is that I can hear if they open and then go peak to see who went in. We've had a few visitors come in that were intruders. Luckily each time I've called the police and they've been escorted out. Another reason I might keep a door open during the day is if I want to keep tabs on a pt at night. Perhaps they are a fall risk, or they may need a sitter but don't yet fall into the category requiring one. Or it might be a pt that is receiving blood and I want to monitor the pumps and pt. It all depends. You have to consider the time/date/pt situation, etc to decide.

Like any company, if you work there prior to becoming an RN they will consider you for the position if you apply. But then again if you are a poor worker I've seen SNA's being let go so an outside candidate can be hired. But what I have learned is that when you are in nursing school you really need to get some type of experience in order to be hired in a hospital setting. The more experience you have the better. Then you can apply for ER, med-surg floor, ICU, NICU, etc. However I will say that I've also seen RN's with zero experience get hired out of nursing school too. Sometimes luck plays into it. Sending in your resume when they are actively seeking new RN's to fill the floors.

Depends on the floor. In many buildings it is realistic to see a Nurse Manager and hand them your resume. I freelance on a lot of floors to get OT since my floor won't offer OT and all of the nurse managers make sure to take time out for anyone that visits them no matter what they are doing. Part of the CCF "Experience". Of course you still need to go the route of going online to file for the job at the CCF website (and I encourage you to do this if you haven't already) and just keep posting for jobs. It's a great place to work. I love coming in (even on the hardest days) and I hope you do too!

Not true. You can work full time and be a CRNA student. However it's not recommended due to lack of sleep = poor performance. On the other hand some places allow you to work 3 qty 12 hr shifts and that is considered full time and so then the rest of the week you are free to sleep, perform your studies/clinicals.

Not true. Cleveland Clinic is still hiring new grads. However they would prefer to hire "experienced" RN's verses new grads. One being that new grads cost a lot of money to train and many then move onto other floors due to not liking the fast pace of a Med/Surg or ICU dept. But they are hiring!

Keep looking at nursing programs. You may not be accepted into an accelerated program but perhaps a traditional 3 or 4 year BSN. One thing you can do is to take your pre-reqs and do very very well in those classes then show your transcript and meet with the advisor to tell your story in a short but very factual way. The same thing happened to me and I'm in the program and will graduate soon. Awful things happen in life and the bottom line is that there are nurses with the highest GPA's and are the worse nurses, then you have those that learned all there was in nursing school, had a low gpa due to "life" but are the best nurses on the planet! Some people also are poor test takers but boy do they know the material when you study with them! Or they are the best tutors! So keep trying. If this is what you want to be then keep persuing the dream. You can always go for an associates in nursing and then keep working towards your BSN. There's always a window open for good, hardworking people in the medical field!

Our doctors at a main hospital regularly request vitamin D tests. I am not sure of why. I know in my own health I was found to have very poor vitamin D after my own doc ordered a test. For three months I've had to take 50,000 units of D (1 tab per week). I will tell you that it made a difference in my life and now take prescriptive D.