Flightline

Congratulations on entering the nursing field. So, will you be a Certified Nurse Aid? The largest hospital in my area only hires PCT. They don't hire CNAs. They train them like a CNA, but they don't get their CNA card.

I have no doubt given some of the asinine questions our instructors came up with when I was in nursing school that this is indeed how the question was written, and the correct response is probably other than "can't be calculated."

My mission is not to convert you to Christ. My mission, if I have one, is to show people how to love nursing and be happy doing it. Like Tweety said below, and I agree, I don't think the owner would like a lot of religious debate in the forum. Yeah, probably. My experience has been that the debates go nowhere. Atheists protest; Christians jump out of their skins to be "tolerant":barf02: even though, probably, the least tolerant human being to ever live was Jesus Christ. I mean, he was like: "Believe I'm God or you'll burn in hell." He never actually debated the existence of God with anyone. It is an addictive debat though. :argue::argue::cheers:

I agree, a person either loves it or should leave it. But how does one come to love it?

But that's what atheism is: it's willfull ignorance. It has to be. Any armchair philospher will come to the conclusion that there is at least some kind of God of the universe. Then, anyone with a New Testament will come to the conclusion that what we call Jesus Christ must be the greatest possible revelation of God. I realize that as an atheist you must constantly reassure yourself that you are right. That's because you are wrong. If you were right, you'd be comfortable in your philosophical skin, but as it is, you like to say you're an atheist, and then live like God is watching you all the time. I realize you all think you have this great moral code absent of any belief in God, but you don't. No moral code exists without authority. Basically, if there is no God, there is no good. And I'll tell you this: nursing doesn't make any sense whatesoever if atheism is true. Nursing is by its very nature, anti-evolutionary (Well, in the spiritual sense it is the greates evolutionary dynamic in the universe, but that's another topic.). Now, please, before I get banned from this forum for not being an atheist supporter, please give me a warning, dear moderators, and I'll shut up. Gladly.

OK, so it seems the TOS are quite clear on that. Sorry for my faux pax, or forepaw, or whatever. My link is in my personal information area, and I suppose that's where it belongs. Nevertheless, I'm a professional nurse, and I don't think I should get into the debate on atheism/theism in a nursing forum. As a nurse, I'm tolerant of all kinds of foolishness. As a philosopher, I debate it.

Sorry, but look at what you just wrote. Where did the "minutes" ever come into play? There's no time parameter in the question. The question asks how many mg/h, it doesn't say how many hours or parts of an hour, so it can't be calculated. You are correct that there would be 400mg in 2.67ml.

I didn't know that. But don't you think "reporting" me is kind of childish? How else am I supposed to let people know? I guess I could just say I have a blog, and then people will go to my info and find my link if they want to. If the Mods tell me to remove it, I will. Thanks for telling on me. Thanks for being the snich you are. I'm not sure how the world would get along without people to "report" other people. Well, try to get your mind around it.

I'm sorry, but since we are all bearing our souls here, so to speak, I think atheists are simply ignorant--willfully ignorant, but so long as they do the job, their ignorance is of no consequence. I will say this, however, if they were correct, nursing would go from the greatest possible profession to the most horrible profession. Nursing would become wrong. Rather than belabor a religious point here, which is bound to get me in trouble, I'll adress this in my new blog. It'll be the first post I've ever posted in there and I'll leave it open to replies. But I'm warning you now, don't come knocking if you can't take the heat or the mixed metaphors!

There is no working of this problem. It doesn't matter whether or not you add 4ml to 50 or how many mg/ml you end up with. The question, which you say is stated correctly, asks you to calculate mg/h but does not give a time parameter over which the quantity is to be given. Therefore, there is no correct answer to the problem. Having said that, just for fun, we can talk about the reconstituting issue (which is irrelevant to this question). It can read a couple of ways, but as it is, with just a comma between the terms and an -ed on the end of "reconsititute" (600mg/4cc, reconstituted with 50 ml), it is telling you that in front of you is a 50 ml quantity that has a concentration of 600mg in every 4cc, thus there are 7,500mg in the quantity. If you had a time parameter it would be a simple calculation. 7500/50 = 150 mg/ml. If the MD wants the 50 ml given over 5 hours. That would be 10 ml/h or 1500mg/h.

Yeah, or the help hypocrite: "Can I help you with anything," they are always asking, but if you actually say, yes, they get an attitude. They just want to be seen as helpful, they don't want to actually be helpful.

I hear your vent, but I have to say 36/48 is not a possible blood pressure.

This is interesting. Can you elaborate? I had an incident once where I was in the right, but the only one who was a wittness to it didn't want to get involved. It is true though that those negative people drain energy and make a bad day worse. Always happy to entertain! People who tell me to smile make me want to wear a T-shirt that says "Rampage Happens!":angryfire LOL! Good point.

I suck as a preceptor. I tend to work at a fast pace, and having a fondness for math, I tend to see everything as either factored or not factored, that is, either efficiently done or not efficiently done, either the right way or the wrong way. I'm pretty OCD, and I am a fanatic, as most of you know, about the "glory" of nursing. I had a preceptee last night. Fortunately, she was really smart, showed me something on the new IV pumps I didn't know, and agreed with me when I said tangled tubing and wires are about the worst possible evil in this world. I have no dout, however that after three days of me, she'd come in shooting. I think the best preceptee would be Minime!

OK, I'm not saying this is you. But what you said here at the end is one of the things, I must say that grates on the last nerve ending the lidocaine couldn't get to: The Defender! This is the person that no matter who you marvel at (i.e., the dayshift nurse that for twelve hours was giving the wrong dose of amiodarone because he couldn't set the pump right, and it was getting in the way of his social time anyway, which is the same social time he used during the lecture in nursing school on dosage calculation), no matter what the atrocity, they always defend them. And then you realize they defend whomever you criticize until you realize that in doing so, they are really criticizing you! It's like whoever is your enemy is their friend. :madface:I hate the way so-and-so is always late. :nurse:Oh, she's usually really good about getting here early. :madface:I hate it when no one restocks the room. :nurse:Oh, the techs are pretty busy around here. :madface:"I hate third world dictators who send out troops into villages to torture and hack people to death." :nurse:"Well, it's probably not that easy to run one of those countries. He must have had some smarts if he became a dictator." :angryfire:barf02:

The perpetual victim, for sure! I know a nurse who constantly comes in for others and then complains about the amount she has to work. Amazing.

I hate the latecomers. When you walk in fifteen minutes early, they're all ready to give you report, but when the end of your shift comes, they've already called in to say they're "running a little late." Then they finally get there and dilly-dally before they take report. That's about enough to make me go balistic.

Recently, there was a discussion in this forum about know-it-all nurses, and it got me thinking about all the other kinds of toxic personalities we encounter in the healthcare setting. What is the worst toxic healthcare personality you have ever encountered? :angryfire:bugeyes:

I think the thing that gets me the most is a lack of energy in the clinical setting (as if they are just killing time until it's over). So, be energetic to learn and to help out in whatever way you are qualified, even if that is only in turning a patient, or bathing them, whatever. Never be caught just leaning against a wall with your classmates socializing while all the nurses around you are buzzing. Of course, if you love nursing, if you want to be a nurse, if you are excited about it--then just be yourself!:)

True: there are many respectable jobs out there. I still maintain that nursing is the greatest possible profession that creates the greatest possible people. But in no way do I judge you: I have often thought that if a person didn't love being a nurse, the job would be utterly intolerable. If you can't be a nurse, then by all means be a great librarian. I don't judge you at all. In fact, quite the opposite: when a person realizes it's over, then they have a responsibility to exit. Those who stay for just the money make very bad nurses. I truly wish you the best of luck on whatever road you travel from here.:icon_hug: Yes. Thank you. That's Ludwig. Unfortunately, he went on to be a permanent part of the mind of God last September. Just yesterday, we got his headstone from the funeral home. Of course a couple of weeks after his demise, since his physical place was open in our home, we went to the humane society and saved another dog. My wife, who is an artist (painter in the style of realism), is doing his portrait based on that photo. She has nearly completed it. It will hang in our home bordered by candles like the portraits of our other dogs who have gone on to wait for us. So, thank you for your complement.

Hear, hear! I used to look foward to the day when I would have five years experience. Now I have five years experience and the thing that has really changed is how much I respect someone with 20 years experience. Where I work, the know-it-alls all think they are destined for NP or CRNA school. Most of them are utterly terrible nurses, but that's because they are self-assured that they are more than "just a nurse." Hopefully, one day, they will all go off to NP school and CRNA school and leave nursing to the lesser mortals.

I believe it is possible to love nursing. I'm not sure it's possible to be happy in nursing. But you know, I look around and no one is actually happy. I think life may be too chaotic to allow for a continued feeling of happiness. And you do realize what you've just described by asking to feel happy, no stress, no depression, no anxiety, and no pain? Death. My point is that you will miss being a nurse. You will miss operating at such a high level of functioning. You think you're depressed now? Give up your license and high-stress nursing job, become a librarian in a quite little town, and there won't be enough antidepressant medication in the world for you. I guarantee it. We agree that two days a week is an option. Two days a week isn't a lot of money, but it's more than a library assistant makes and you don't need a Masters of Library Science (Can you imagine what the lectures in those classes would be like?). Two days a week and you'll be looking forward to work.

Try to get financing so you only work when school is not in session (summer, between semesters, etc.). And don't go back to that dungeon. It's not worth it. I worked in a dungeon as an aid once. I was so happy to hear Hurricane Katrina wiped it from the face of the earth. I later saw the slab where it used to be, and I was happy for it. Don't go back to that dungeon; they have made nursing impossible and you are a nurse.

I believe nursing is the greatest possible profession. I believe it creates the greatest possible people. There is no glory in being a librarian. However, there may well be personal happiness. But no one ever touched glory without great pain and sacrifice. I'm not sure it's possible to have glory and happiness at the same time. Have you ever had a patient, an old person from WWII? No matter what they've done in life, it seems to be their service in WWII that is what they most want to talk about, what they are most proud of. When you are putting books on the shelf one day, you will remember how you survived your hardest shift and you will consider that to be your greatest glory. I'm not telling you that you should continue in nursing. I think you expect it to be enjoyable and give you a warm fuzzy feeling. You and I both know it doesn't do that. It is not in the nature of nursing to provide that. It is quite simply hanging on a cross every single shift. Annunciations are many; incarnations are few: not everyone is cut out to be a nurse. But you asked if it is worth it. It is worth it. You will never do anything as important as what you do every shift you go to work. And in the end, you will measure the worth of your life by how much time you spent as a nurse. No one in the world is as close to the heart of Christ as a nurse. And Christ suffered. So, we must suffer. Now, more pragmatically, for Christ's sake cut down working to two days a week max. You'll probably make as much as you would as a librarian. Two days only! Good luck to you, Tinderbox. Edward

I think you should do exactly as you plan, only I think you should visit the HR office in person. Make sure they know that that is the hospital you want to work in, and theirs is the ER you have your heart set on. Good luck.