northern_RN

I filled out an employee incident. What happened is a resident fell on me when I answered the alarm and my knee twisted some and hurt a little that night. I filled out the form in case it really hurt the next day because it has to be done in 24 hours. Next day my knee was fine and when I got workmens comp forms I called workmans comp and told them I didn't have a claim because no doctor was seen and no work was missed. Told workmans comp they can close it. I am going to fight this. I will not stop until the residents are safe. She admitted herself in writing that I brought staffing concerns to her. This is retaliation by her and she has decided to go after me. Im not going to just walk and only care about myself. I will not stop until I prove her lies. She is flat out lying and the video will prove it. I should not have to endure this hostility being called a liar and incompetent. She will be the one escorted out, not me when the lying in brought to the surface. Yes it is a headache and walking is easier. Walking just doesnt fell right.

Meeting over accept days or be terminated. She basicly accused me of being unsafe to leave me in charge of the building. She threatened to take my nursing license. She called me liar and and said my time study was an absolute lie because she reviewed the survailance tapes. She accused me of trying to miss lead her with it. She is the one lying and I will prove it. That time study was dead on and I had the CNA with me fill out one just like it with what alarms and call lites were going off. I know exactly what night the time study was done and someone would have been going to the room I indicated when the alarm/lite went off. I think she watched the wrong nights tape or is lying. They told me there was a night when no one, not CNA or nurse was spotted on the survailance system for over 3 hours. I know that is impossible. I asked if that was a night I was working and I got a not sure. She sent me a certified letter that I never got addressing her concerns. I only got a card in the mail that there was a certified letter at the post office. I figured it had to do with my knee injury and have not picked it up yet. Actually now I wont to make sure it gets sent back undelivered. When she didn't get a response from that she felt justified in what she is doing. I dont need a lecture about my fault for not picking up the letter and knowing about her accusations earlier. I can kick myself in the orifice all day long w/o help. She also accused me of not being a team member for not going to a manditory meeting. A meeting posted on Mon and held on Thurs. when I was off work until Fri. noc. I am going to ask the boss for copies of the survailance system for the nights in question. I am going to talk to an attorney. Its flat out lies and harassment/hostile work environment. The tapes will show I am not lying. Just because she is the DON does not mean she is right and can do anything she wants. I will fight this and they will have to give me unemployement to get rid of me. I also will report them to the state board that oversees nursing homes. I am not the one causing these unsafe conditions and I have been doing all I can to keep residents off the floor. I am sick of residents being on the floor and doing 5 page incident reports and neuro checks. It eats up close to an hour of my time plus all the other things that go along with falls like data sheets and monitoring for 3 days, calling the POA to tell them dad fell again. With what she is accusing me off, I will never get a job anywhere. It's all lies and i am being railroaded. Im off to look up employment attorneys.

Im actually considering letting her be a B**ch, with just me in the room but have a tape recorder running on my phone. When she says she didn't say that, I have proof she did. I know she will not remain professional.

Thanks everyone for your comments. I meet with her in 4 hours. I have written down my points on why this change does not work for me to start with. If that is not enough to get her to back down, I am going to ask why force me to the shift 5 others would want and why this change is neccessary for the better running of the facility. Im also going to ask her about her comments about supervision and time management and why she has not brought these items to my attention until this letter with a forced shift change. There has to be a way I can work on her percieved problems without turning my schedule or my fellow nurses schedule around. I that doesn't work I am going to follow Ashley's advise about the boss. I am pretty sure he is not going to be happy about this. He has repeatedly told me he trusts me on nights and trusts my judgement. The only times I have been in his office is to talk about when the CNAs have complained I am to strict. He and the previous DON trusted me to handle the CNAs and based on the little complaints from the CNAs they knew I was handling it. CNAs cry fowl when they are caught not doing their jobs. Never will they admit to not doing them. The boss knows I am on top of them and keeping them doing their jobs. As for the comment about her grooming me to be a better nurse or the DON. HAHA. I could have applied when it was advertised for a month plus and would have got it over her. Never, did you read, 6th one in 3 years. Three interum DONs and 3 permanent hire DONs. And this place does have several long term employees many over 20 years. Just nurses they cant keep. I love my residents and coworkers and leaving is a last option. I just want to go to work, do my job, and not be harrassed. Once this blows over she will be out before Christmas. Only one other DON that was this power hungry and she got escorted out in less than months. Another with the same critical care and no long term expericence was out before she hit 3 months (off new hire probation). The only advantage this one has is she is past 3 months with her being a part time nurse on the floor for a month or two before becoming the DON. The power hungry one was there 7 years and lasted 1 month as the DON. They got rid of her by proving she falsified documents because they wanted her out. If it goes to the boss, then I am going to bring up her unprofessional and wrong comments and behavior. I am not going to give her a chance to find a defence to this stuff during this week. I am also not going to say anything about her talking about coworkers to her son until in front of the boss. The meeting today I am going to be calm, professional, and prepared for it to not go my way. When this doesn't go my way I am going to write up a letter summarizing our conversation and request she keep me on my current schedule until the boss is back and it can be discussed farther. Then I am going to call him like Ashley suggested. When the meeting with the boss goes down I am going to bring in a board member I know to be present. I am thinking about bringing the nurse directly below her in today. I trust her, but I dont trust that anyone cant be pushed into covering her ass at this place. I am seriously considering tape recording the conversation on my phone. I am hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. This may be a case of hostile work environment or harassment. I also am considering that the harassment may get worse once I stand up to her. I'll update after the meeting.

I have looked all over this site and can't find any advise. Some support and advise would be appreciated. My boss is forcing me to an inconvenient shift to try to force me to quit even though I am one of the more senior nurses at the facility. First some background info.... I have been at my current job on 12 hour night shifts in LTC for over 3 years. Last month a new DON (director of nursing) took over. At first I really believed someone new would be great to clean up some of the problems. I quickly realized that she is on an instant power trip and out to blame anyone and everyone for the problems going on. One of my first encounters with her, I shared some of my concerns with her regarding staffing at nights and the wide spread of the facility and the inability to hear some alarms when patients get up at night. Our fall numbers are at record highs (she is well aware) due to the acuity of the recent admits and decline in condition of some patients. Even with the increased acuity staffing remains at night, me as only nurse and 2 CNAs. There are a lot of people who are to cognitively impaired to understand they need to call for help to the bathroom and have to have alarms. Frequently more than one alarm is going off at a time and there are some very demanding residents that are on call lite all night with requests; change the TV chanel, make me some tea, adjust the covers, snack etc. One resident that fell is in one of the rooms farthest from the nurses station. I told her that even though I was at the nurses station by the time I heard the alarm the resident was on the floor after being in the bathroom and on the way back to bed. I told her for the residents safety he should be moved to the empty room right by the station. She immediately snapped that is not going to happen and proceeded to drill me about why I was at the station and not out walking the floor. I explained I have a lot of paperwork. She asked me to keep track of how long paperwork takes me and what I do all night. The next night I worked I downloaded a company form that breaks down into 5 min segments that is used for time analysis by management. I filled out one to show her the number of alarms and call lites that go off and on the other kept track of what I was doing. The next morning she was in bright and early to drill me on what I do. She glanced at the form and told me it takes me to long to fill out certain paperwork. (she has been with the company months, like 2 months b4 moving to DON and has never filled out the paperwork, believe it or not I actually have to look up stuff not just guess which box to check to fill out forms) She accused me of being the reason the resident fell the other night. She twisted that I was at the station doing paperwork into, "you told me yesterday you dont answer alarms because you have to much paperwork." She accused me of putting the resident on the toilet and he fell because I left an alarmed resident alone in bathroom. I immediately pointed out there was a definate communication problem because I did not say that and I did not put in the incident that I put the resident in the bathroom. She actually argued with me that I put that in the incident report. I advised her to read it again because since I wrote it I am pretty sure that is not the event I charted. So that very night I am out on the town and run into a coworker and start talking to her and her BF. Im introduced to the BF and he asked how we know eachother, oh work. Well his mom is the new DON. He asks my name and says oh its nice to have a face to go with the name his mom was ranting about this week. Im like ***. I play it cool and I am pretty sure he didnt go home and tell his mommy he ran into me and told me she rants about me. So on to the reason for the problem. On Monday I get a call from the DON stating she had to adjust my schedule and put me 3 nights in a row. Sure no problem. Then she says and I need/want to move you to 8 hour day shift. I was speechless. She told me to call her the next day to set up a time to meet and talk about it. The next day I call her and of course get her voicemail. I leave her a message basicly stating that a change to 8 hr days will not work for my family situation and if any further discussion is needed to please call me. This weekend I go to work and find a note telling me that in 2 weeks I will be starting 8 hour day shifts. She is totally disregarding what I said about being unable to switch to that shift. In the note she talks about working with me to develop skills to supervise the CNAs, so basically saying I dont know how to do the job I have been doing for 3 years. Also she has not brought any CNA supervision problems to my attention. She also states what a great opportunity it will be to work with time studies and management. So telling me I dont know how to manage a job I have been doing for 3 years. I really can not switch to day shift. I have kids that cant be left home alone during the day when my honey is working. I have worked out a perfect night situation and in 3 years have never called in because of daycare or ill kids. So here is the real kick in the teeth. A new nurse's name on the schedule doing only 12 hour night shifts. MY shifts!!!! Of all the nurses there are only 3 have been there longer than me, including management. Two of them work day shift and one of them was actually told this week she has to go to pms temporarily because a night nurse is going to days. Temporarily, like what until she can get rid of me. However there are no pm hours to be had so I think the DON expects me to blow a gasket and quit leaving the day shift gal exactly where she is. Either that or she wants me there during the day so she can scrutinize everything to do and try to write me up to get me fired. I strongly feel this is retaliation on the DONs part because I told her about problems and that she is trying to get rid of me. Think she is trying to force me to resign. To top it all off she starts this switch around the day her boss starts a 2 week vacation. So there is no one above her in house to go to about this until the schedule will be out. Either I have to call the boss on vacation or go to corporate to stop this before the schedule changes come out. I do have a meeting set up with her on Monday but I can already tell she is not going to listen to me and will insist on pushing me around into a shift I dont want. Stupid thing is the full time 8 hr day shift is the envy of most of the staff. She has at least 5 nurses that would jump at it. So bottom line, I want out of her a reason why I have to switch. There is no reorganization going around. My shift will still exist only with the newest hire getting my prefered shift. The things she mentioned in her note (supervision of CNAs and time management) she has not talked to me about to let me know there is a percieved problem. She has never worked night shift in LTC and has no idea what my job entails. I really dont want to find a different job because I really love my residents and the other staff are the best. Also I am finally vested and eligible to get retirement contributions. I feel if I can ride this storm out she will hang herself very soon and be escorted out. She doesn't do her job and is not properly trained to be a DON in long term care. She only has the few months she worked here as LTC experience. This is the 6th DON in my 3 years, yeah really, so they go quickly. I want advise on what to say or not say on Monday. I plan on having a witness come in so there is no miscommunication. I will be bringing my points and questions writen down so I cant get ambushed off point by her. I plan on writing down exactly what she says and I have thought about bringing a tape recorder. She has a history already of being extremely unprofessional and talking down to her nursing staff even the RNs. If I cant get through to her do I immediately go above her head? Do I call the boss on vacation? Do I call the corporate? Do I wait for a week for the boss to be back from vacation to contact him. I really want to get this fixed before the schedule comes out. If I do get to stay on my shift because I get my way from someone above her, but the schedule is out it is going to mess up a lot of my coworker's schedules too and I dont want that. She is not going to get rid of me that easily. If I have to I will do the day shift until I can get this settled. If she pushes me out she will have to pay unemployment and I may fight it up corporate. For those wondering no union, and right to work state. But just because its right to work state, the boss above her is very careful about firing anyone. He knows people in this state, in this town, in LTC, have sued for wrongful termination and gotten back pay. He will not want that. If I have her hovering trying to get me in trouble I will not give her anything to write me up. I will remain calm and professional and do my job properly. I am sure I have more ability to stay calm then she does. She has already spouted off unprofessionally on many staff and word has spread of her comments. For those who made it through this to long post, thanks. Please give me your 2 cents.

First I would get some RN nursing experience in. When the hospital or others in your area are looking for a HR person or nurse manager look into it. I think it would be ideal if hospitals used nurses in the hiring process more than HR person. Just my opinion though. Another idea look into being an administrator at a nursing home or similar place. Most administrator jobs are looking for a BA in business management, with your experience you are already qualified, being a nurse also would be the icing on the cake to almost garantee you the job.

When you say eligible for rehire, what do you mean? I didn't do anything bad, I quit. However they will not hire me again. So can they state that they would not hire me again? Or would it have to be that I did something to make hiring me again against policies for them to state I'm not eligible for rehire? I am using my nursing instructor as a reference and she will be a great one. I am also using other instructors from college. I can not get another job as LPN as I have my RN now and need an RN graduate nursing job. I think from now on I will just check the contact box as no and if asked state that the employment was some time ago and the supervisors I worked under are not there anymore anyway. I am wondering if there are any nurse managers that do hiring out there? When looking at an application if someone checked you can not contact past employer would that send off a red flag?

I agree with the friend that works in nursing law. You followed the procedures in place at that practice, you didn't do anything wrong. Good luck.

I have a question regarding my past employment as a CNA coming back to haunt me. Situation is before going to nursing school I was a CNA/CMA for about 4 or 5 yrs at a LTC facility. When I was working there my kids were young and I was doing evening shift 3-11pm. I informed my employer in April that the next fall I would prefer to work day shift because my kids were going to be in school all day and then in day care until 11pm and that days would work better. I told the employer that I would still work some evenings such as in the case of nurse calling in and being needed for medication passes as I was one of the few employees that could do the evening medication pass. I was super flexible with this employer coming in on days off, letting them schedule me days and evenings when most employees did self scheduling and only one shift. Employer said ok and actually started me on days that summer. A few weeks before school started I took vacation to spend the end of summer with the kids and prepare them for school, shopping for supplies, clothes, etc. I came back from vacation on an evening shift and knew it was eveing shifts for that week. I picked up my schedule and found the whole month was going to be eveing shifts!! I went to talk to the director of nursing regarding previous conversations about doing day shift and that I had been doing days. She stated that I was hired for evening shift and that over the summer others have been hired and promised days. I was upset and pointed out people that had quit in just the last month that were days and there was no way day shifts were not available. I also pointed out being I had been there for years and expressed the need for day shift why would they hire others and give them shifts over me. The DON told me I would be on evenings and that was that. I told her that my family comes first and that I quit if that is how they treat long term employees. Anyway a little history. The DON and I did not see eye to eye on much and I was not one of her favorite employees. She had her favorite employees she would give preference to that could get away with almost anything. However I did always show up for work and did excellent care and she knew that. During 4 or 5 yrs of employment she took many opportunities to write me up. However it never got close to terminating my employment. So fast forward a few years and I have completed LPN school and wanted a part time job while finishing my RN. The LTC I worked at before is hiring. The DON I didn't care for is gone and a new nurse whom I do not know is in her place. I apply and the new DON will not even consider me or talk to me about what is in my file and why they will not hire me. HR relays to me that there are things in my past employment file that makes me an unfit nursing canidate as far as working for them. I was upset and wanted copies to know what they were talking about but decided to drop it and that I would never give that facility my time once I have my RN. So here is my problem. When I am applying for jobs now that I have my RN I need to put down my past employment at this place. I am worried that this new DON will say something about something in my employment file which is now 5 yrs old. The DON does not know me at all and wouldn't even know who I was if I walked up to her and started talking to her. I feel that nursing school has changed me and made me way more mature than I was 5 yrs ago when I quit that job. The new me would have stuck out the job because I loved it. I think the DON did this to get me to quit because we didn't get along and some of her "favorites" didn't like me on the day shift with them because I wouldn't kiss their butts or do their work for them. The DON got fired because of her favoratism to certain staff and covering for them, allowing them to get away with things that should have gotten them fired, etc. I am filling out applications and almost all of them have a spot to check if they may contact previous employer. I wanted to check no but was worried that they would just discard my application if I did. I read that in many places they can only contact previous employer to verify if you worked there but i am not sure if that is true. I have excellent references since I moved on from this place, however it is one of my most recent work experiences and needs to be listed. I also don't know how to answer an interview question if they ask something about my employment at this LTC facility. I simply state scheduing conflict as reason why I left which is true. I am worred that this past employer has and is ruining my possible future employment at other places but have no way to prove it. It's a relatively small town so if I apply at one place they know who the nurses are at another and they all know eachother from working together in the past, talking on the phone to cordinate care, etc. When i fill out applications I put down the old DON name as my direct supervisor and don't list the new DON because I don't know her and she wasn't there when I worked there. So, even though this nurse was not involved with the LTC facility when I worked there other facilities will call there and ask for her knowing she is the DON and all she has to go on is junk in my file that she knows nothing about. I honestly feel if the old director of nursing was there she would give me a good reference because she knows I was a good worker even though she wrote me up at times. This new DON only has the negative things in my file to go on and doesn't really know me or what my work was really like at the facility. Any ideals how to deal with this situation?

What do you mean you will lose your license over this? I understand that you gave meds that were not documented correctly due to that facilities charting policies however YOU are the one that reported it and you left due to the unsafe conditions. Has the DOH threatened your license over this? If I were you I would talk to someone on the BON in your state about the situation. I don't think the DOH can take your license away, only the BON can. I doubt the BON would take your license for this, but I don't know what the laws are in your state. IF it does come to the BON considering sanctioning your license or taking it go to that board meeting and explain yourself. You have 26 yrs of experience don't let them try to take your career without knowing all the facts. Best of luck and I hope nothing happens to your license over this. Keep us posted.

Just an idea out there for pinning. Our nursing instructor instilled in us for the pinning it is her honor to pin us as in she is passing on the profession. She said that as nursing students we were really under her license at clinicals even though we were all LPNs at the time. You should take it as an honor to be pinned by an instructor. I have heard many stories out there of people having their kids, spouse, or parent pin them. That is what my LPN class did and although it makes for cute pictures, think about the meaning behind the pinning and it should be a fellow nurse. Now if your mom or someone that is a nurse is going to do the pinning that makes sense, however if not I would seriously consider having a nurse do it.

I agree with deadhead, this is your day to celebrate and don't invite anyone that would ruin that for you. I would say a small celebration for 10 or less people that really supported you would would be more fun for everyone than a drama production of 20 or more. Congrats on your accomplishment.

I would say a bad nurse is one who doesn't really care about patients but is there for a job and to do as little as possible. That and RNs that think care partners or LPNs are below them and treat them badly. That care partner works harder for her paycheck and gets paid half if lucky than the RN. Please treat the people doing most of the real work with respect. Sorry if that offends anyone but it is true and that is from an RN. Nurses that are annoyed with patients asking for pain relief and label everyone on pain medication as an addict. It's a hospital since they are patients maybe they really are sick and hurting. Nurses that delegate everything except their signature that it was done and take credit for things they had nothing to do with. Nurses that consider their patients a pain to care for and do as little as possible for them. Maybe nursing really was not a good career choice for them.

I agree with all the above posts. Nothing was done wrong to warrant a report since the order said up to 10. However I feel the nurse was saving her own butt. With narcotics she should have been there looking at the amount drawn up before you gave it. It should need a double sign off also or witness. The other thing that crosses my mind is that as students were were not allowed to push anything IV push. Nothing, IV push hits the system much faster and there are so many time limits to IV push such as over so many minutes. A nursing student (not from my school and years before) at the site i did clinical gave potassium IV push and almost killed someone. There was new policy in place no student does IV push not even with instructor or hospital nurse present. I think other places should have this policy before they learn a lesson the hard way. Not saying students are irresponsible just ultimately the hospital and nurse are responsible and a policy like this could save a life. As a nursing student the only recourse is you won't become a nurse. Ultimately the hospital and nurse responsible can be sued, along with the school you attend, and would if something like the IV push potassium happened. I want to say kudos for fessing up to your mistake and learning from it. I think some students would have covered their butts and said I tossed it already. You took responsibility and that puts you ahead of some nurses I know.

I agree with the above posts. Schools need to keep pass rates up to stay out of trouble with the state board of nursing. I wouldnt go as far as to say you shouldn't attend that school. My guess is that school just hasn't figured out that trick of using ATI or other standardized test to weed out the students that most likely will not pass boards. They will. It could be that school has such low pass rates because they let anyone into their program and as long as you get Cs you pass. The other schools could be much more selective on what students they will let into nursing programs improving their odds of students that will pass NCLEX. Now, the decision to attend is yours. If you are a good student and are going to put the effort in you can learn. I was in the same class with students that didn't pass and I got a quality education and passed boards easily. If you are not a good student this might be the best school for you because they obviously don't fail students and you can still try to take the boards and be a nurse. Just don't be surprised when they catch on to the standardized test in an effort to improve their numbers. OR they will mandate certain grades to pass from one semester to the next to weed out the poor students. Nursing programs are notorious for expecting higher standards in their classes. In mine 94% and higher was an A not a 90%. Which means passing with a C is 80% or better not the 76% in traditional classes.

I hear you. When I did PN program it was like the instructors were out to make you feel incompetent in hopes you would drop out and they wouldn't have to deal with teaching you. I found clinical instructors to be the worst. I just want to give you one piece of advice and I will add a story at the end to help you understand it more. Try to stay off the bad instructor's radar. If possible have a nurse at your clinical sites help you, explain things to you, and only interact with the negative instructors when needed, like if they have to be by your side to do a procedure. Spend as much time as possible in the patient's room with them and not in the hallway where they can accuse you of slacking or catch you to drill you about a medication or procedure. Keep yourself busy even if it is assisting other students with cares. These types of nurses like to catch you and drill you and even if you know your patient and their medications they will know something you won't (due to their years of experience) and love to point out how much you don't know just to make you feel bad. I have learned there are negative nurses and nursing instructors out there that just have a problem with students and new nurses and should never mentor anyone. Unfortunately these are the nurses that go into teaching thinking it will be easier than working as a nurse. I had two clinical instructors that were like that during PN program. They were older nurses looking for the easy buck of standing around clinical site, bsing with old co-workers, and annoyed with students. Also I live in a state where it was just changed so associate degree nurses can be RNs and many of these old school nurses feel an AD is inferior to BSN. I really don't understand that if they feel this way why teach in the ADN program except back to the easy buck in a college in the the small town where they live at the community college. They didn't need their masters in nursing just a BSN with experience. So they really were not even qualified to be teaching. I got on the bad side of one of these instructors on one of my first clinicals and paid for it the rest of the year. I live up north where the weather get very cold and nasty. It was winter and -20 some degrees outside. My car would not start and I took the only vehicle that would start to clinical early that AM, my boyfriend's car. School buses were called off due to the cold but there was still school. It was midmorning and school was starting 2 hours late due to the weather. My friend and back up parent well going to school could not get her car started. My kids had no way to get to school. I had my am meds and cares done and another nursing student said she would watch my patient's if I did leave to get the kids to school. I asked my instructor if it would be ok to use my morning coffee break to run the kids to school. She went into a rant on me about how unprofessional it was to ask to leave even if it would be for 20 min or less. That as a nurse you need to be at work for your patients no matter what was going on in your personal life. That those of us with children were told to have a back up plans for our back up plans. I told her that due to weather I took my back up's vehicle and my other back up couldnt get her car started either. She belittled me until I was in tears in a main area in front of patients, other nursing students, and staff. My children missed school that day and the rest of my year was hell. Had I known this would be such an issue I would have just let the kids miss school without a second thought. I was trying to be a responsible parent and get them to school. Anyway at the end of the school year with 6 weeks left in the PN program and spring semester over and just summer semester left this clinical instructor became the director of the program. The director, that had a masters in nursing, and that kept her in check left and the only decent clinical instructor, who also had her masters, and really liked helping students learn left for another job. She had the power to make our lives hell and did. She got one of her "old school nursing friends" hired as the new clinical instructor. She then decided to get all the students she thought were substandard kicked out of the program. She had the clinical instructor write up those she didn't like on almost a weekly basis. She wrote us up for anything she could think of. For example we were only allowed to miss two classes a semester. Well one day I had a sick kid and missed the day. At that point we were doing two classes back to back twice a week and clinical another full 2 days a week. In my mind missing that day was one. A few weeks later my kids got sick on a weekend thank god, but just in time for Monday class I get it and get very sick. It's a test that day so I get up and go take the test and go home to rest. My fellow student's said I looked so sick they are amazed I came in at all, but if you don't take the test when given it's an automatic deduction of 5%. Well next thing I know I am written up for missing 4 classes and she is trying to kick me out. She didn't succeed, but sure tried. Another write up was when I walked out of the door to the post clinical room, which was on an automatic close and lock and it always slammed, for unprofessional behavior for supposedly slamming that door. These two set out to ruin my career as a nurse before it even started. At final evaluations she asked me what my future plans were and I told her I intended on getting my RN and working in a hospital setting. We went over all the bogus write ups and I took the constructive critism planning to have a much better year the next year. She smiled and wished me well. Later that same day I am with fellow nursing students. I am told by a friend that the new clinical instructor said to the fellow students when I was away that I would regret not going through the graduation ceremony for PN because I would never make it through to RN. I had told some fellow students that I would accept the whole graduation ceremony thing when I reached my goal of RN and was done with school. The "board" was meeting the next week to determine which students from the graduating PN program would be getting into the RN program. I had the some of the highest grades in the class so I wasn't worried about getting in. Well the director and this new instructor were on the board. They succeed at getting me written up so many times that even with over a 3.5 GPA I didn't get into the ADN program at that school. I have a feeling that as director all she had to say to the board was not good canidate and it was over for me. Yet, I find out that a few students that barely passed PN were being allowed to go on for RN. Some she even met with privately to discuss their ability to pass RN when they barely made it through PN and they said they really want to try to do it and told them she would push for them at the board meeting. She didn't say anything to me in our meeting about not being a good idea to go on or that I might want to make other plans. She just smuggly smiled and said good luck knowing I would never get in. All my fellow students were getting their acceptance letters and mine didn't come. A week after all the acceptance letters are sent I get a rejection letter. My fellow students are shocked knowing I had some of the highest grades and that some students that barely passed were accepted. My story does end good though. I applied to a better school and with my excellent grades was easily accepted. I got to do clinicals in a bigger hospital with a wonderful RN, MSN that was nothing but supportive of us. I got a much better education experience than if I would have stayed at that school and gone through another year of torture dealing with her. I have talked to some of my past classmates and she was a terror and got a few to just drop out and others she kicked out or failed out. Unfortunately she is still director at that program making NS lives hell.

That your fellow students can be great lifelong friends and others will be complete annoyances. Be very careful what you share of your personal life with fellow students, if they think it will earn them points with instructors they will stab you in the back, accuse you of cheating because you get better grades than them, don't think you deserve better grades than them because you don't do study groups with them, and all other mayheim. Some fellow students will be your only sanity as you share midnight chats, help eachother through assignments, and vent with them. The knowledge is knowing which are which and holding your tongue until you are sure. I actually had a fellow nursing student be a reason I went to anther school. She befriended the new program director and during PN program said all kinds of nasty things about me and even though I had all A's and B's and over 3.5 GPA I was denied admittance into RN program. It was cut throat and only a certain number of us would be able to go on for RN. By getting me denied she and her friends with barely passing grades got in. OF course I got the better of it because they couldn't cut it and dropped or failed out. I went on to a better school, got a better education and clinical experiences in a bigger hospital and got my RN anyway. I should really send her a thank you note and sign it RN. Even though it hurt like hell at the time and I thought my nursing career was over, I am better and wiser for it. Another person said Ackley and Ladwig's nursing diagnosis book. Strong recomendation there. Saved me hours when writing careplans. Know your medications for your patient before the instuctor asks what it is for and if you don't know something for sure admit it and say I would look that up in the drug handbook, policies and procedures, etc. Don't be the class brainiac, people are annoyed and you paint a target on your back. Keep your scores to yourself. Don't be overly confident in your knowlegde or abilities or what you want to do with your nursing career. Normally confidence is a good thing but your instructor my look to kick you off your game and mess your life up. This happened to me when finishing PN program and I told the director I fully intended to go on for RN. She didn't like me from the first time she met me for some reason. I think she was jealous of a young confident nursing student since she was a misirable seasoned nurse and I was so niave and enthusiastic about being a nurse. Instead of teaching us she loved to tear us down and point out anything we didn't know that she did. She, the new director, and the clinical instructor (her friend she hired) got together and had to justify not letting me go on with numerous stupid write up that were untrue and I was not allowed into RN program. Funny all these write ups happened in the last month of program when the "hateful" director took over and pulled in her long time friend as a clinical instructor. This also had to do with her "friendship" with the back stabber. Once the old director of the program was gone and they could do whatever they wanted they set me up with the intention of not even letting me graduate with PN. Lucky for me there was only a month of the program left and with my good grades they just couldn't fail me. Without the stupid write ups based on my grade they couldn't justify not letting me go on well allowing students with lower grades into the program. At the end of the program the "board" needed to meet to decided who was getting into RN program. A friend of mine overheard the new clinical instructor say to the back stabbing friend that I would not be getting into the program. Funny that she said that before the "board" meet the next week. The write ups were just a way to justify to the board not letting me continue my education. Anyway this is about advice, I just wanted to vent about that and I hope no other nursing student has to ever go through that kind of experience. So moral of the story, on clinical know your patient(s) focus on them and don't draw extra attention to yourself at all. I pray you have good clinical instructors like I did for my RN, my PN exprience was awful. There are both good and bad clinical instructors, teachers, and program directors out there. If you get a bad one just try to stay off her radar.

Unforunately many schools do this to keep their percentage of graduating students that pass boards up. The board of nursing in the state looks at graduating rates against passing board rates. If a school is graduating nurses that can't pass boards the board of nursing will come down on them and the program risks loosing state board of nursing approval. If that happens the program can be shut down. Personally I don't think it is fair to have students poor blood, sweat and tears into the program and not graduate due to one test. My program had a remediation and second chance policy and ATI was not a condition of pass/fail. However one of my best friends was a fraction of a point from the 80% needed to pass a class and didn't get to graduate and take boards. Had she just scored one more right on a test or two she would have passed. It was the saddest day of my nursing school career crying with her as final grades were figured out. We went through 11 month plus of struggles, joys, and venting together in a very intense program and she didn't get to graduate with me. She had the heart of a nurse just trouble with book smarts and tests. She is one that would have had trouble passing the boards but once she did would have been a great nurse. But you have to think of it this way too, if my dad is in the hospital I would want the nurse that is able to critically think and had easily passed boards vs the sweetest nurse in the world who can't figure out what to do in a critical situation. However I do believe that personality is a huge component in nursing. In her case I think the thinking aspect of nursing ablities would have came to her with time. Also she was looking at going into LTC not acute critical situation, she knew she couldn't cut it in ICU or med/surg and had no intent of going there.

The predictor test is exactly like the other ATI tests, five questions on each page unless they change it this year. Most of the questions will be pick one of four answers. Remember ABCs when prioritizing. Normally you can eliminate one or two answers right away. Know what is in your scope of practice and when to report to the RN. There will be a few questions that say pick all that apply. Those are usually signs and symptoms you would see. There will be a few diagram where you need to pick the area of the body, for example to give a shot to an infant. There may also be a question or two that you need to put what you would do in an order. Example you walk into a patient room and they are c/o SOB put the following in order of what you would do first. A) get the RN. B) apply oxygen C) draw blood to check ABG's D) put up the head of bed I am willing tp help with preparing for ATI via email. Send me a private message if interested and we can see what we can work out. I have taken all the proctored ATI and still have them pretty fresh in my mind. If you are not a good tester and passing this is a requirement to graduate I can/will help.

I have not taken the 2008 but have done the 2007. I can't remember any specifics except that it's long like 180 questions. To help you I decided to go to ATI and look at my result for the test. The majority of the questions (110) are on med/surg, 20 on maternal child, 20 care of children, 20 mental health, and 10 on nursing management. Of the med/surg questions about 20 will be on fundamentals, then it is divided into systems with more focus on cardio, resp, and neurosensory. Of the maternal newborn it is divided evenly into antepartum, intrapartum, postpartum, and newborn. Care of children is divided into basic concepts, system disorders, ped emergencies and psychosocial disorders with half the focus on system disorder. Know your childhood diseases S & S. Mental health half are on psychologic disorders, then foundations and treatment modalities. The predictor test is just like the other proctored test but long and covering all areas. Between LPN and RN I have done lots of ATI tests. I think they are a good tool and really do predict how you will score on NCLEX in the areas. Boards are similar to the ATI and like ATI you can't skip a question and go back. The pressure to do well on ATI is similar to the boards and the types of questions on ATI are very similar to boards only boards are harder. I would say if you are worried about passing it read the ATI books. I never read the books and scored a 99% probablity on mine but I am just lucky and book smart. If anyone out there wants to save big bucks on the books I will sell mine. They are like new because I paid over $350 and they have sat on a shelf never read. The CDs are unopened with my books. Like I was saying with the probablity of 99% on ATI the NCLEX shut off after the minimun number of questions and of course I passed the first time. Another student nurse in my class struggled all year and didn't get a good predictor score on ATI and had to take NCLEX-PN twice to pass. That same nurse failed out the the RN program. They really do predict who will do well on boards so I don't blame the nursing school for using them. Nursing schools have to keep up their percentage of students who pass the boards on the first try to keep their approval for the program from the state board of nurses. Letting students graduate and try the boards when unprepared makes their programs look bad and risks the program being shut down.

The ATI predictor is pretty good at determining who will do well on NCLEX. Since you scored 88% chance of passing I don't think you should have anything to worry about. If you noticed the ATI have Levels 1, 2, and 3. Those that get level 2 and 3 should pass the NCLEX without much trouble. Those that got level 1's at least from my graduating group were the ones that didn't pass on the first try. Some of the level 1's passed some didn't. I got a 99% chance of passing and I only had to do the minimum number of questions before the NCLEX shut off. I pretty much knew I passed at that point.

Just wanted to send out a hello to all the ND nurses from Grand Forks.