KYCFNP

We have a portion on the end of our WITT print off that has a recorder signature spot, a circulating nurse, and a physician spot to sign.

I've worked at 2 hospitals in my nursing career. The first, was in an ICU, in which we cared for highly acute patients, and traveled with them everywhere. I moved to a rural hospital, have been there for about 2 years, and the ICU nurses refuse to come with their patients. It's like pulling teeth even if we are short-staffed to have them help transport. I myself, having been a previous ICU nurse, wouldn't have wanted someone else to assume total care of my patient that knew nothing about them or what had been going on. The acuity is not as severe at this hospital, given some of them could actually walk down to the Radiology department for their stress test, but it's just really hard to deal with. We have 5 RN's employed in our department, that take care of all nuclear imaging/stress tests, all CT/MRI transports for ICU patients, all cath lab and interventional radiology procedures, and all para/thora/ultrasound interventional radiology procedures. I wish I could find some resources about the importance of continuity of care in these patients. What it runs into for us, is many days we do not even get to eat lunch, and the patient's nurse will have already eaten breakfast AND lunch, and not even help us unhook the patient for transport or reconnect them when we get backk. It's so frustrating.

No I think it's definately do-able. I've taken 2 classes each term, and worked my 40 hours. My husband is in pharmacy school and works 1 day a week to pay for his gas money. We dont' have any children though, but from a stressful standpoint, I sort of get where you're coming from. I work M-F, so I get home around 3 o'clock, eat dinner, and usually read until I go to bed around 10 or 11. Now, on Wednesday nights, 80% of the time I have time to watch my favorite TV shows, or on Friday/Saturday go out and watch a movie or eat dinner. You can make time by staying on top of things and keeping up with the reading. I recommend a planner, the courses will be ready 4 weeks before they start, so you can get access to the syllabus and required readings beforehand. A week or so before class, I take a few hours and just write all my readings in my planner, as I get them done, I highlight them. This helps me to visually see how hard I've worked. If one week I see no pink highlighter and it's Thursday, I know that I better get my butt in gear for the weekend. There are times that I'll sort of slack during the day, and stay up late and night and work on things too. I think that working one day a week will be just fine for doing 3 courses. It might give you a nice break from the monotony also. There are times in doing an online program that it's just nice to bounce ideas off someone else or talk about what you're going through. That day will come in handy. I'm going to quit work for my clinical practicum, and do 32-40 hours a week for it. I just took out extra financial aid and I'm going to live off of it for about 5 months. It will all work out. After your first couple of classes, you'll get your own groove and sort of figure out how to juggle your classes. Try not to take any incompletes if you can. I took 2 in the program, and it sort of gets you off track. Keep thinking of questions and I'll answer all I can!

Clinical Bound was wonderful! I'm so glad you asked because it still is so fresh to talk about. I think that the Frontier program is great for starters. Throughout the program I've worked 40 hours a week and been on call, and been in the program part time. Clinical Bound comes at the best time, it's a time when you're starting to feel maybe a little scared/nervous or feeling like "Oh my gosh I'm almost done, do I know enough?" Then all of a sudden you're there, surrounded by other people that feel the same way as you, and you're not alone. We did lots of case studies and scenarios, and you realize how much you've learned and that you actually can put it into practice. The skills are really helpful too, everything is really laid back. When you're at Frontier Bound there will be a larger group, you'll leave feeling so excited and ready to start, when you do CB, it's a smaller group, you leave feeling the same way, but you also are so empowered. You'll also feel so proud to be part of Frontier. I was proud of myself when I graduated with my BSN. But, just for me, not because of the school I went to or what it represented. When you are realizing that you're finishing at Frontier, you're a part of something much larger than yourself, and it's a really great feeling.

I just returned from clinical bound, and I know this topic was from a few months ago, but if anyone is still reading and considering Frontier, this may help you out. The pelvic exam portion is completely non-confrontational, there is a video playing, the lights are dimmed, there are exam rooms, part of the class is practicing pap smears on a model, part is practicing the pelvic exam on a model. By the time the course is over, no one knows who has had a pelvic done on them, and who has done one; this makes it almost completely anonymous except for you and your partner. I chose not to have the pelvic done on me, yet I had a classmate that offered to let me do one on her. Take my advice as someone who has been a victim of sexual abuse, it is a completely stress free environment. You are not made to say "I don't want to do this," there is no singling out.