KirriG

Hmmm, my husband's list would look something like this (I'm still just a student): When he complains of a headache, out comes the BP cuff cos he has hypertension. He has to give me more information about his bowels than he ever assumed during our early married years. He has to put up with hearing funny/disgusting/nauseating stories from this website which have me ROFL. He hears far too many of them while he's eating something. He has to massage my feet and lower back a lot because I'm working as an assistant nurse to pay my way through university. But he's at least happy that we now have a first aid kit and someone competent to use it after raising our 5 kids without it. [sigh]

A handful of gloves, a pen, a piece of paper with the shift's showers on it (and probably by 2 hours into the shift, little notations next to names with bowel status) and the key to my locker. Assistant nurse in nursing home.

Wow, I would have loved to have more than 2 shifts training (I'm in a nursing home - LTC). I am totally with you too. I'm slow because I don't whizz through everything, especially with the really frail ones because they get so overwhelmed. BUT, I thought I would be the slowest one forever - and I may be - but I am still getting faster. Like another poster suggested, once you get to know your way around, you'll naturally and easily bunch tasks and areas to cut down on at least some of the time consuming 'wandering'. And yes I know noone wanders, but I used to fly from one end of the wing to the other because I followed the exact order on the duty list instead of realising the order was not always particulalry important! More importantly, I find that getting to know my residents helped a great deal, which is not useful in a hospital setting but worked wonders for me. Although a negative about that is they want to chat more because they know me! Hope everything picks up for you - let us know how your three day set went.

I've been working as an AIN (equivalent to your CNA but without taking vitals) in a nursing home for 5 months. Most of the people I've worked with have been great, very helpful at showing the newbie how things are done, but I have recently been put with an 'experienced' partner who's just awful! He's been reported by several other AIN's for his shoddy practices but nothing ever happens. He does doubles by himself - risky to him and the resident and heads rolling if a family member came in! He finishes early and doesn't do rounds properly so he can watch tv in the resident's lounge for the last 1 1/2 hours of the shift. The bosses know and I was told by the boss to just keep him on track - yeah right. So what would you do? My situation is that I'm going to be working casual hours so I can avoid that guy if I choose, but is there some way / technique you experienced CNA's would use on this guy? (Other than hitting his head in a door til he realises he isn't God or invincible. ) Cheers in advance.

I'm going for my registration... It'll take me another 3-4 years because I'm going 1 or 2 subjects a semester, but I'll get there in the end! Kirri

212. You have keyboard imprinbts on the side of your cheeks from falling asleep because you want to check 'just one more' thread. 213. You consider this site to be a valuable study resource, thus validating your continued dependence (and have every intention of changing that to a 'very valuable continuing education' resource when you graduate). 214. You only clean when the piles of detritus collapse onto the clear path between the door and the computer...and then you only clear the path. 215. You don't see the humour in "Who are these children and why are they calling me mum?"

You can tell him that I had one after my third child and my childless sister has had one too.

ummmm... Sorry Zoe, p&p is a bucket load of work, but super interesting cos you start to get the point of learning all that a&p. Put it this way, in my study group we could count 2 distinctions, 2 credits, 2 passes and 3 fails for P&P1. And we worked hard! I will give you one solid hint though - don't get rid of any of your a&p notes. Each section of p&p we revisit the basics of that system, and the info constitutes some easy marks in an otherwise hard exam. Cheers! Kirri Edited to add - I'm at Nathan campus. :)

Zoe, are you studying at Griffith Uni? I'm doing Pathophysiology and Pharmacology 2 this semester which also starts for me tomorrow. :) And like you I love it and can't wait to get stuck in again! Kirri

Lol, are you me? I'm 38 and just started my RN study. Because of having no experience, no family who are health care workers and finding it difficult to cope with people in pain I just hadn't ever considered the field. Then last year after having had experience in teaching, retail and admin and enjoying parts of those careers I realised I wanted something a lot less focussed on one aspect. RN's have high patient turnover, they teach, they chart and more! It turns out all those skills I gained in part-time work while raising my kids were just right! BUT ... There was still the "Can I handle people in pain?" question. (I don't really have issues with body gunk). So I started my study (2 weeks after my 38th birthday) and have gained work as a nursing assistant in a nursing home. And yes, it is hard. No question, but it's worthwhile and I can grasp that I will get the hang of it. I also feel better about the type of work I'm doing which helps! So go for it! If it feels like something you can spend several years or even the rest of your life doing, then you'll regret it if you let the opportunity pass. At least that's what I decided. Good luck in your decision, Kirri

ESFJ for me - apparently the 2 careers I've been tossing up (nursing and teaching) are both good fits! :) Kirri

I'm guessing because of the higher wages for more expereinced staff. Australia went through a bad patch of this in the 1990's where hospital admins were 'concerned' about growing health care costs and figured that getting rid of higher paid nurses was a good option. Never mind that the higher paid nurses got more money because ... wait for it .. their experience and skills. :icon_roll But firing them would have meant a lot of redundancy payments etc so their working conditions were rendered unsupportable and they left in droves. 15 years later and Australia has a terrible nursing shortage with government campaigns to get nurses to come back and try to encourage new people into the field. But I have a few friends who were burned in those years and they'd rather eat their own feet. lol Course, that's just a guess but if it is and your hospital is taking advantage of the economic situation to cut costs, I think it's probably a good sign that patient and nurse care is not a high priority for them. Kirri

So true - we were told in the first First Aid course I ever did that the ambulance the teacher worked in had been called out to a home for someone who had a seizure. They arrived to find ... and please be aware this is pretty awful before you read on ... that one of the men there had got a safety pin and punched through the victim's tongue and attached it to his lip. (As an aside I gotta admit to being really burned that the guy who did it didn't get his fingers bitten off which is a real possibility if you put your hand in the mouth of someone having a seizure!) So, no as others have said, clear the area, pad the area, protect the head as much as you can. NO restraining the patient! Afterwards put him/her in the recovery position, and as others have said, time the seizure and assess the patient for O2 needs. Then they'll want to sleep! Kirri

I kinda came to AIN (Aussie CNA) from the other direction. I'm a second year RN student (3 year Bachelor degree) and realised that with my course I'd be rocking out with very little experience in patient cares. Soo, I slowed down the study to part-time and swung over to AIN work in a nursing home. Excellent experience and in Australia it's also pretty reasonable pay. Base rate of $16.44/hour with 23% casual loading; 12.5% afternoon and 15% night loading and of course weekend rates are higher again. EEN's (our LPN's I think - anyway, endorsed to give out meds) get a couple of dollars more an hour and RN's a couple of dollars more again. Though weirdly the private sector (where I'm working atm cos of lack of experience) pays about $2-3 / hour LESS than the public health system. Is that the case in the USA? Cos it confused me. lol Kirri

This is great! Many thanks. I've just started as an AIN (the Aussie version of the CNA) and have been pretty cranky and sad about my slowness. I was partnered with an awesome experienced AIN and I think I may have been guilty of setting my speed and time managements too high for the moment. I always take longer than him because I want to do it right before fast. Here's hoping that speed will build! Cheers!

Love this thread. 1) (To 1 particular student) DO NOT spend the last hour before a very stressful final exam buttonholing me against a wall telling me intensely about how all the lecturers in 2 different universities have it in for you when you a) refuse to read the textbook and b) refuse to talk with them ... because they've got it in for you. Maybe also seek a psych evaluation for paranoia? 2) Love my study group peeps! You're the best!!! 3) Please, please, please - and I mean this soooo sincerely - shut the ^$#* up in lectures. 4) Do not say "Don't worry, it's fine" in response to a caller when you answered your mobile phone without moving from your front row seat in the lecture theatre. (This even gobsmacked the lecturer ) 5) I'm sorry that one of your friends and I don't get along - we don't dislike each other, we just have different studying styles. Neither of us have any problem with it so please don't make us uncomfortable with your discomfort. 6) Why (in the most despairing voice I can manage) would you ask a question of the lab leader you KNOW is now going to spend 3/4 hour answering your question and then saying anything else even remotely related that he can think of before getting back on track. You KNOW he's going to do it!!! 7) If you are going to look bored or stressed when I answer your question about the material, then - here's a thought - DON'T ASK.:icon_roll 8) (A pet peeve) Yes, you may borrow my flashcards which I make copious amounts of because they help me, but did it not occur to you that it was rude to take a pile of neatly sorted, organised and rubberbanded flashcards and return them as one big mess - with rubber bands on the side. :angryfire 9) I make quizes of the material to help ME. Yes I'm happy to send you copies of them but do not b***h at me because I didn't write answer sheets and send those too. I'm not your tutor! (And if I was I still wouldn't send you the answers lol). 10) Just because you are in my study group and we are becoming friends doesn't mean that you are exempt from the don't %^$#ing talk in lectures rule. Kirri

Hi again, I'm actually in Indooroopilly, across the road from that big mall. And yes, public transport in this area is also great (train and bus). I certainly agree that going to transinfo will help you make the best decision about places to settle. I'm in the 2nd year of my Bachelor of Nursing and doing it part-time, so I have a few more years of being an AIN before I can get my stripes and advance. lol So when will you be coming in? - if my shifts allow, I can pick you up at the airport. Kirri

Confession time - I was one of those patients! :icon_roll I'm 3 days post-partum and suddenly my new baby girl starts to hitch and make weird noises. Pressing on the nurses button, I'm calling out for help and crying and generally being useless and hysterical. My nurse flies in and looks at my baby where I'm gesturing wildly. She looked at me as if I was a total moron and said "She has the hiccoughs". I looked even more gormless and followed with, "Oh. Are they hurting her?" She looked at me with a very old look and said "Well do they hurt you when you have them?" I think one of the reasons I am becoming a nurse is because of that.

OK, well you couldn't have done better. :) It's a great hospital where I want to work as soon as I have enough AIN experience in Aged Care, and where I want to do my Graduate Programme. Also it's about 3 suburbs away from me, so feel free to drop me a message when you get here and I'll show you around. As to apartments - it's a pretty safe area you're coming to. In your position I would personally get one of the apartments or units which are within walking distance of the hospital - and there are heaps! You'll want Auchenflower or Toowong - and there's a great shopping centre right in Toowong too. The Chasely (I think I've spelled that right) are reasonably expensive but very safe apartments which are a) across the road from the hospital, b) are secure, and c) overlook the river (very pretty views). That all puts you within sight of the pretty side of the city, parks, bikeways, riverside boardwalks etc. Transport galore as well for when you want to move around! The train station is right next to the hospital and buses going into the city every few minutes leave from the main road there (Coronation Drive). Because it's the nice part of the city, you may actually have trouble finding something cheap. I'd expect you to be paying anything from $300 per week plus (and plus!) for a 2 bedroom apartment, and probably more than $200 per week for a studio in those suburbs, but the cost of living here is not high and having a nice, central place to live will save you money elsewhere - and bear in mind your wages should be pretty good! Also because it's close to the big university here, there's good nightlife and plenty of young people and lots for you to do, but be aware that Brisbane is a pretty small and parochial city. :wink2: This is a link to the page for Auchenflower on Domain, but try Toowong too: http://www.domain.com.au/Public/SearchResults.aspx?mode=rent&state=QLD&areas=City+%26+North&sub=Auchenflower&pcodes=4066&proptypes=&bedrooms=&bathrooms=&carspaces=&ssubs=True&from=0&to=0 Good luck with your move - don't hesitate to pm me or post here with any other questions. Cheers, Kirri

That's very true, but for myself I questioned the point of completing expensive training to become an EEN for the last year of my degree, especially with 3 daughters in their teens sucking every drop of income that sneaks past the landlord and Energex. The AIN work pays not much less than the EEN's for significantly less stress - an important point while studying - and the place where I work is happy for me to do occassional buddy shifts where I shadow the RN on duty. I can't do anything of course, but the experience of seeing and passing equipment etc is invaluable. They allow this because I want to do a mix of aged and hospital work with a long term career goal of nursing education. Anyways, moving to any form of patient care is simply better for my study purposes than staying in retail through the BNursing. And let's face it - we're still gonna be doing patient cares as long as we're at the bedside in many if not most acute hospital settings anyway, so may as well have those down pat. If you've got the money and time to do the training after 2nd year go for it - great experience - but it's not the end of the world if you take another road. Cheers.

I'm inclined to agree. With a background in academia and a graduate entry into a nursing degree which I'm doing part time, I have had only 1 prac in an aged care setting as part of a 6 week bridging course on Clinical Practice (to get me ready for 2nd year). Now while I appreciate the heck out of the opportunity to knock 1 FTE year off my degree, the hands on lack really worried me! So much so that I actually switched careers on the advice of a friend nurse to AIN work in Aged Care. The huge boost it has given my confidence has been awesome! In the degree I'm doing I won't have my first hospital prac until mid-way through Semester 1 next year and now I know I'll be a lot better for it! Of course that's just a personal case, and the AIN work isn't the same as RN work so I guess I'm trying to say that it would have been wonderful for more prac to be involved in the course but it's probably just not realistic with current nursing shortages, and like others have said - we're essentially an added burden to their busy and overworked days. It would have been wonderful to have a mentor who we would be linked with for our degree programme don't you think? Kirri

Hi Sunshine - good user name if you're moving to Queensland. A few things:- I've lived here all my life so I can give advice, but I don't know which hospital you're working in, and what your definition of 'decent' is for apartments. A couple of sites for checking out rental prices are www.realestate.com.au and www.domain.com.au. There are others too of course, but all the info you want for you apratment renting will be on there. The public transport here isn't too bad - it really depends on where you live. I'm close to the train line and a bus centre so I can get pretty much anywhere I need to go from about 5am to about midnight (not that I would recommend a person travel alone after about 9pm - earlier in some areas). Provided you live somewhere reasonably close to either buses or trains you should be able to get to and from shifts, just as mentioned being aware that although many train and bus areas are patrolled and there are emergency buttons everywhere, I personally wouldn't travel after 9pm. Brisbane is a lovely place to live, just bear in mind you're coming into a pretty wet winter here, so don't judge us too harshly. Good luck! Kirri

Hi Zoe, I've looked into this and it's provisionally true. The provision being that you finish 2nd year AND do a reasonably expensive EEN bridging course in the Summer Semester following that (offered through Griffith at the Gold Coast campus and a few TAFE's). Personally I switched to working as an AIN (able to work in aged care as an AIN after 1st year and 1 passed prac). At the end of this year with 6 months experience in aged care I should be right to get a hospital based AIN position. Otherwise I can after I've done the prac's in hospital which I won't be doing until next year as I'm a part-timer doing Patho and Pharmacology and some other academic subjects this year. Hope this helps! Kirri

Well that's just good timing. I just found and joined the forums about 10 minutes ago. I'm a student nurse in Queensland and would love an online-y type study group - all the study group working I can get my hands on! I'm also a part-timer, doing the academic subjects of second year in 2009, and the practical ones in 2010. Also have kids - 3 daughters at home and 2 step-sons who are in their 20's, so I too am not powering through the degree full speed. Cheers! Kirri