benr98

I had a few 12 hour shifts in my senior practicum and I was working 2 12's as a CNA/PCP/NI-1 I had weeks I could not remember where I was supposed to be. I had to write down my schedule and check it every morning to see what set of scrubs I had to put on.

I said nothing about passionate thought. I said something you are passionate about. If you are passionate about something you are more likely to want to go through all the troubles as you will need to complete the research paper. If you are passionate about pediatrics like myself your research will go the long road to complete it and do a good job at it. If I was, to say, do a research paper about OB I would do the least amount of work and not be to concerned about if I made my point or not as much as I would care about my pediatric research paper doing the job right. If you are not passionate about your work, your work will fail in comparison!

My suggestion, do it on something you are passionate about. I found when I did my research articles that if they were about pediatrics I was passionate about them but when the articles were not about pediatrics I was not as passionate about the article.

Actually it depends on where you live on whether you get paid more for a BSN or not. When I started my wife checked this out and found that in some states a BSN will get you more pay to start out and an ASN will not get you as much. She found where we live now it does not matter but where we would like to move on the east coast you do get more pay for a BSN.

Check with your local hospitals. I am not sure about WI but where I live both major hospital systems have CNA classes for just the cost of the class which also covers the state exam. The class cost $128 and I did check into it and I found that there was no extra money made from the class.

I work in the pediatric department at a local hospital in N.E. Tennessee and our ratios depend on a few things. If a nurse is doing chemo he/she only gets 3 Pt's max and no more than 1 chemo Pt. If we have 2 chemo Pt's we have 2 nurses with only 3 Pt max and so on. Normally our day shift ratio is 1:4, maybe 1:5 if something comes up. Our night shift is only slightly higher with a ratio of 1:5, maybe 1:6 if something comes up and the night nurses do not do chemo. I also hear there are some hospitals in VA that have a ratoi of 1:3.

Normal is when a patient has no pain. Resperation rates go up when a patient has pain so in most cases when the patient has pain their resperation rate will go up. I work with children in the pediatric unit and their resperation rates always seem slightly higher than the so called normal. When working with the kids nothing seems normal from the adult world.

I am a CNA/PCP on the Pediatric floor. I have heard of a few CNA's in our hospital that have been caught faking vitals. I don't know what has happened to them but I would hope that they have at least received a write up. This is very dangerous as many of you have said and in my opinion a crime. I also do blood sugars, blood draws, and set up for EKG reads. I take my job seriously and if I was in the original posters position I would at least run it up the chain of command to my shift leader if not to our manager.

Poop with a sick Pt is sometimes different from a Pt that is not so sick, however, you do eventually get used to it. We don't have a major problem with abuse but when we do CPS is there sometimes even before the Pt arrives. And trust me they take care of the situation right away. Recently we had a 3 month old baby come in with a femur fx and CPS was there before the Pt arrived, she interviewed the parents and grandparents and took custudy of the baby before the next night. Since our PICU is secure and you can only gain access with a badge or being buzzed in we always move Pt's that have been taken by the state to that facility and lock them in away from the Parents if need be. And the baby with the femur fx his parents were charged with child abuse and I am always glad to know that I had part of making the Pt future more safe for them.

If you don't like pooh, PEDS is not for you. I am a CNA/PCP on the PEDS floor in a childrens hospital, so I am one of the ones that get to do most of the dirty work. I am also a nursing student at the local University. Now I don't know if you know this as a student but antibiotics cause diarhea, I know we have not gone over this yet in any class, and let me tell you some of these kids have explosive diarhea when on antibiotics. After saying that, I can tell you it does get better. I remember my first time assisting with wound care, I almost got sick but after helping but the next time was much easier and the worst one that I have seen recently didn't even bother me. I hate seeing the kids being sick but I love seeing there smiles when they leave and some of them even hug you on their way out. I can also say that I have helped out on a couple other adult floors in the connected hospital and the kids complain less than some of the adult patients that I have worked with.

I also start in August. I am so looking forward to class in the fall. I am working as a CNA now so that I could get a good idea of what it is like to be a nurse. I know this does not tell me a lot but it does give me a good idea of things that go on and more so an idea of wound care. I do know it is just a small step but I have heard of at least two students who quit their nursing course after their first day of clinicals. I get to help some of the nursing students when they come into the hospital to do their clinicals and I hate to say it but I also have to do damage control when they leave. Please before you say something that makes the patient question you please talk to your preceptor first.

I work as a CNA in a level 1 trauma center and our hospital DOES hire ADN's as well as BSN's. I think they prefer a BSN however with an ADN you can still get a job at my hospital.

I was accepted for the fall 2011 BSN program at ETSU and I find that the students who care the most about others in and out of the program are the adults who study alone. I have found that with my pre-reqs that sometimes group study helps when you do not understand something, however, I find it also to be very disruptive to others and I usually do not get as much out of it as I would if I were studying alone. Don't feel that you will be shunned because whether you are or not, like others have said, you probably will not remember any of them years down the road. Also the only people you have to satisfy are yourself and your family, not necessarily your parents but your wife and kids.

I have not had the time to read through all the posts, but I ask this, being a CNA, our labs (microbiology work) is sent to the lab in the hospital. So not knowing how to use a microscope should not be that big a deal. I do understand that you need to understand this stuff and how it works but as far as I have seen not one RN in the hospital I work at touches a microscope. Also your Professor might have a PhD but I highly doubt she is an MD, so once again how would she know if you would make a good nurse. In order to know that she would have had to work with actual nurses not nursing students, and if she is going by the fact that she has taught student nurses how does she know how most of them ended up? I'm sure not by working with them and I personally would not trust word of mouth from a student that they are doing so well. I hate to say this but I feel it is more important to understand the theory behind microbiology than how to use a microscope. I could be way off base here but that, at this point, is my opinion and we are all entittled to one even if his/hers might be wrong.

I actually had a friend tell me when I was out of work that I would make a good nurse. I love helping people in all ways and that is what he told me nursing really needs to have. After taking my Anatomy classes at school I decided to take a CNA course offered through a local hospital mainly so I did not forget anything that I had just learned. I was actually able to use what I had learned in my anatomy classes toward my CNA course. During my clinicals for my CNA course my clinical instructor told us many times that CNA is the hardest work in the hospital and she knows that there will be some at the end of the clinicals that will decide that being a CNA is not for them. I also am using this course as a stepping stone for my BSN degree and I have had patients ask me if I had every thought about becoming a nurse and they are all happy when I tell them that I am taking courses now. By taking the CNA class this has done two things for me: 1) it has confirmed to me that I would make a good nurse and that I would like the job. I will be honest I hate getting up early but I love going to work My patient load is usually higher than most other CNA's have because I work the pediatric floor and most parents or patients prefer to take care of themselves. 2) The other thing, by becoming a CNA and getting a job at the hospital, this has done for me is it has litteraly locked in a position for me at the hospital when I graduate. So the problem others are having finding jobs I have side stepped by becoming a CNA and attaining a job at the hospital. I will say one thing Pediatrics is not for everyone but I love it. Also how to know if you will like Nursing? A lot of hospitals have job shadowing which allows you to follow around a nurse to see if you would like it or not. I would suggest following a nurse around on a few different days and if possible on a few different floors to see the differences between what areas you might like and what areas you might not like.