Vtachy1

Do you give both meds anymore? We used to always give them together on most all of our patients. Is this not a thing anymore?

I am an old RN and have experienced 30 plus years of ICU and then hospice so LOTS of deaths! And many many many patients do tear up in the end. My own mother was 44 years old when she died when I was 16 years old from colon cancer and she was on hospice. She did cry when she passed, we were all at the bedside, she had been unresponsive for a few days, but when she stopped breathing my grandpa just broke down and my mom also cried. It was a sadness to leave us but also a happiness and joy to meet her new life of graduation.

What steps does your facility use and what type of place do you work?

I have a friend that has worked in a factory for 10 years after quitting as an RN.

At your workplace, have you had healthcare workers that use service dogs?

Well, that was a disgusting read!!! I am appalled at all of the horrifying evil responses on this thread. I have been a nurse for 31 years, worked every single scheduled weekend. never once called in or tried to get out of it! So quit attacking us! And the disgusting people on here that attack us for the one and only reason---- We attend religious services. It is really eye opening to see nurses act like this to people of faith. I am truly absolutely 100% disgusted by these responses attacking people because we are not as miserable and hateful as you. No reason to attack us. No reason at all. You do realize that holistic nursing care is the most effective? That means that people that have a spiritual need for healing as well as physical, mental, social etc. Wow!!!! Please do, Grow up, these people that call yourselves nurses. Just because we are sad to miss our fellowship and love and support we receive at religious services does not give you the right to attack us. *fact* There is actually another life outside of nursing, we all don't worship the career of nursing 24/7 like you do.

The focus should be on palliative, palliative, palliative. There are too many invasive, expensive, medical treatments. Living longer is not always the best. Also, I have a friend, whose husband is on medicaid for healthcare. He visits the ER every other night. It is abuse. I believe that if people want healthcare, then they should pay for it out of their own pocket and not use other people's money.

See that is what I also did. Until it completely caught up with me and Got myself in a horrible place. I would LOVE to get 3-4hours of sleep. I would give my right arm for that! I usually only get 1 hour at most. Maybe been there, done that is right I should not even entertain the idea of this night job.

I worked 18 years on the night shift. For the last 8 years, I have worked day shift. So at noon today I have an interview for a night shift position. My question is this: Is there a sleeping pill strong enough to help me sleep, if I do take this position? I struggle very badly with sleep. When I was younger I could do it on no sleep. But the older I get the harder it was to work night shift, I am a terrible sleeper. Any success with a sleeping pill strong enough for night shift workers? I tried everything in the book, when I worked nights, so try not to give me all the advice "make your room dark, cool, sleep hygiene." because I feel like I have tried every single thing on the planet. I tried melatonin for years, may as well take a sugar pill, it does nothing.

A lot depends on where you teach. Do you have a statewide CNA educators conference? I learned a lot from that and from my Train the Trainer class. Are there other instructors or is there a CNA coordinator that can help you along? I have been teaching high school health Occ CNA classes for 4 years. Our class is from 7:30 AM until 9:15 AM. We usually go to the lab to get them moving and waking up, practicing skills first, and then go back to the classroom. Get the book called "what the best college teachers do" and another book called " "Teaching Strategies for Nurse Educators." DeYoung, S. (2015). Teaching Strategies for Nurse Educators (3rd). Pearson Education, Inc.: Upper Saddle River, N.J. I use a variety of activities in the classroom to keep them moving and participating. We also have workbooks that they get extra points for completing. On your very first day of class, lay down the law. What is expected of them. The door is locked at 5 minutes after class begins and you are absent for the day for example. Attitudes, figure out what is non-negotiable. Cell phones are non negotiable for me, they are rude, and the faculty complain about rudeness of the nursing faculty on their phones, so I do not allow cell phones in class. Anything you can think of that you can hit head on before the problem occurs.

I was an ICU nurse for 12 years, med-surg nurse for 7 years, hospice nurse for 5 years. I believe that the ideology and concepts of ICU are futile and unnecessary treatments that hurt people. There are worse things than death. I do not believe in these expensive treatments to torture people. I am glad that it opened my eyes, but I think LTC nurses are the bomb. ICU, cardiac crapola crap, not so much.... I have never worked LTC because I do not have enough courage. You gals are amazing and awesome to the core.

Its been that way EVERYWHERE I have worked. Even at the schools when I was a school nurse, the teachers all hate each other too. I have learned that all women hate each other. Hopefully we will get more men in nursing. Because everywhere I have ever worked, its been awful!

Thank you so much for your responses! I loved PRN so much. I wonder why other businesses are so scared of working us 40 hours per week? Why can't I sign a paper or something if I don't want their dumb benefits. I do not want their health insurance and I WANT to work when I can and when I want to go to my son's basketball game, then I don't have to regret the rest of my life, missing cheering for him, watching him dunk that ball.

I was PRN in the year 2000 - 2009. It was really 40 hours per week, but I LOVED PRN because I was more in control, if my small kids had a doctor appointment, if they had a preschool event, I was able to get off work for it. But I wanted to help them out because we were ALWAYS short, so I loved helping out and getting extra money. They called me every day at all hours. ICU is so incredibly stressful and we were all moms and had families, I loved helping out. But I wondered how it looks in the year 2016? Do PRN nurses still work 40 hours if they want or can? Do they need you as much? I work at a college now, and they are ever so very careful that I don't work too many hours because then they have to give me benefits. It is sad because they need my help. Some students go without a class because they cannot pay me or let me work 50 hours in an entire semester because OBAMA has made is so they have to pay me expensive benefits. IT is a continuous juggling of numbers to make sure I don't work over the quota of number of hours per semester. It is sad because they need the help. Is there some contract you can sign? I am NOT interested in their stupid benefits. I like my own private insurance I do not ever want corporate insurance ever again. I like the medishare insurance I have had for the last 17 years. DO NOT WANT TO SWITCH? What does it look like for your PRN nurse in the hospital nowdays?

The answer is: You check with the policy at your job. But you can tell them what their blood pressure reading is, and then if it is high or too low, you reassure them that you will tell the nurse right away, and try not to alarm them.

Same here. I was in hospice and I was leaving the house at 4AM and getting home after my family was in bed. I wanted to be home more. My high school CNA class meets from 7:30 AM to 9:15 Monday thru Friday. I love the fact that I am home before noon and can have supper ready for my kids when they get home the house smells yummy for them. It has been the best job I have ever had for my family. I would ask how your employer handles IEPs and if they require a certain reading level before they can enter the class. It seems like we require a lot out of these CNAs. But they have a very important critical job. I wish they could get paid what they are worth!!!!

I asked one of the other high school teachers "how do you motivate high schoolers?" She said "you figure that out, you let me know!!" LOL I've had some difficult groups to teach, they are very busy! Some of them work until 11 at night and they are exhausted, some of them play volleyball, basketball, etc. They are stressed. And they have senioritis!!

I began teaching students by applying for the job, never dreaming I would get hired. But I did and I guess it was meant to be! In my state we have to turn in a master schedule to IDPH and we have to follow it perfectly. You can't let class out early or cancel. If there is a snow storm, we can send a revised schedule to Illinois Department of Public Health, who regulates CNAs. If you are required to take Train the Trainer in your state, that will help you tremendously. My favorite part is connecting with the students and telling them all of the funny stories from my experience. I try to really make it interesting because my kids are also high school students. They are used to being entertained and they just can't learn like my generation did. I mix it up with videos, we do play dough for wound care, I bring in wound Annie, we do Quizlet, i-clickers, and Kahoot. We also have workbooks they do for extra credit points. Let me know if you have any other questions.

NO, I have worked 25 years in the field but now I teach CNA students.

It seems crazy if it is not in their scope of practice, but I know that ultrasound techs cannot tell ANYTHING about the sex of your baby. So it makes me think that CNAs may not be able to tell the blood pressure. It says the blood pressure in broad daylight for them to read on the automatic ones. Just not sure about this question.

No, you are not alone. These women that are attracted to nursing have a TON of personal life problems, so life at work is insanely stressful and life outside work is even worse. I think that they have not had good mentors on how to treat others and have warm relationships. Its well known that nurses eat their young. Ask them about themselves. Make everything all about them, and not yourself. At some places you have to earn their respect and acceptance and that takes YEARS. Its not like that everywhere. If you can just find ONE just ONE person that is nice and friendly and a good mentor, then you have found life's biggest treasure. I pray that you can find that one person who has a wonderful work ethic, is generous with love, and a good role model. Just do your very best, have TONS of humility, have the best work ethic on the entire planet, be helpful always lend a helping hand. Work your butt off. If you know you do a good job, you can influence others to do good work. Don't be hard on yourself because I WANT my students to make mistakes, that is how they learn best. People that don't make mistakes are not doing ANYTHING but sitting on their ischial tuberosities.

You might as well try it, since you have gone this far. You can always try something else if you don't get the strength. If you work in a facilty that uses a lot of mechanical lifts, its nice. Do you have an illness that makes you weak? Maybe you can build up the strength after working for a while.

Are CNA's allowed to tell a patient their blood pressure reading after the CNA takes it? I know in real life, but for the state exam, do they consider it to be above your scope of practice.

How does your unit store stethoscopes? I have seen them hanging on a bar. Have you seen any good way to store all of them? They always disappear. Maybe under lock and key would be best!

We used them in the 25 years that I worked, but my group does clinicals in the nursing home and they are not used much with fragile older skin.