Trillcat

I love the brand cobbie cuddlers. I have bought them for years for retail jobs, lots of standing, walking runing, etc. They are very nice on the feet, support and cusions where needed. Mine are butt ugly nurse shoes now, but they were the most comfortable of the stlyes of them I tried on in white, lots of room for the toes on my little weird duck feet. They have lots of styles though for those with non duck feet. :) They cost around $25-30. (all styles) within a tight budget that is a good thing, but, one bad point, they don't last really long. I would say 3 months tops and you have to get a new pair.

Great stories and advice so far everyone! lorelei1973, I also had the witten test 8am and my skills were not till 4pm! (also somewhere I had never been before) I didn't stay at the facility after the written part, I went home and came back. I don't think my nerves could have taken sitting there all day freaking out about my test mates responses as they left! To the poster who said it is like an audition, you may be onto something there. We are acting while doing the skills test, onstage alone so to speak, it is not "real life". Interesting as some would rather it be all that way, and some would have it be in in an actual clinical situation. Hmm, Any thoughts on that?

I have read so many posts, and shared in some of them, about the fear we all face taking the skills part of the exam. I was terrified going into mine! Scared to death, legs like rubber bands, hands shaking, brain swimming, nausea, wanting to just bolt out of there, or not even going, all of it. I was more afraid of the test than I as my first day of clinicals. I know we are afraid of failing, it is an important test, but no one freaks out as much about the written part, and that is just as important. So, why do we freak so badly at this part of the test? We have done the skills first hand on real patients/residents/clients in our clinicals, and had practice in the lab before hand. Those who challenge I assume have had some hands on experience, so why the major freak out? I ask as much for myself, as much as for others. I couldn't really explain why I was so, so scared! Is it the fact that it is a test, the whole test phobia thing? Is it the person sitting there watching every move you make with their clipboard? (that is what it was in my case, I think) I think so many fail this part because of the fear. Its not that we dont know what to do, it is our brains are stuck on being afraid and we go blank, make mistakes we would not normaly make (I forgot to rinse the soap on the front during female pericare, one of the skill I drew, and being female, well, that would be OUCH!, I never did that in clinicals) What made you afraid, tell it here, if we crash this wall down, we won't be afraid of the skills anymore! I would prefer to not have horror stories about bad promissors etc. here, unless that is something you are afraid of happening. (and arent we all, with the horror stories of nitpicking and just bad people) If we face the fears, we are not afraid of them anymore.

Yes to a,b &c . I wouldn't worry about annoying your assigned CNA, they will probably be grateful for the help! Unlike CNA Sam, I did ask the nurse (s) if there was anything I could do. Sometimes my assigned CNA (s) were busy with someone and there was something that needed to be done. Being part of the first class to do clinicals at my site, they were a little bit leery at first, but once they figured out I wasn't going to kill someone they were more than happy to give me things to do! As to "other", I would also ask the PT & OT crews if there was anything I could do to help out while they were with a patient (client? My clinicals were at a hospital, cardiac ward) , sometimes there was, sometimes not and then I just stayed out of their way and hung in the background and observed. Be a good observer, you can usually tell when you are crossing the line from diligent student into pest land, lol.

I did my clinicals in the cardiac unit of a hospital. We were also the first students to ever be there, and at first the staff was very leery of us, but they quickly discovered we were not in fact a buch of bumbling idiots, (well most of us anyway) We were there Mon-Thurs, 6 hours a day for two weeks. I was really sad when it was over! It was very interesting, but also scary, dealing with folks fresh from open heart surgery with tubes coming out of them from everywhere! There were quite a few diabetics on the ward as well, with very bad feet. That took a bit of getting used to, you really haven't lived till you rub lotion on a necrotic leg! One of the patients I was assigned to care for just had his leg amputated below the knee. I also was assigned a lady with suspected MRSA so I got to do the whole isolation deal, felt very cool in my gown and all, lol. We were assiged 2 people to look after on our own, but we all sort of paired up to help eachother out, the teacher was OK with that. I actually prefered to work alone when I could though, it was less confusing and easier to get into a routine. Sometimes that was improssible though, there were many 2 person assists, as you can imagine there were a few overweight folks there in the cardiac ward. My favorite patient was a lady I was not assigned to. 80 yrs old and must have weighed 90 pounds soaking wet. Just a teeny little lady. She had surgery and could barely walk when our class got there. Well, a week later, she was ZOOMING down that hallway, man that lady could haul a$$!!! Her student was a big guy, about 6'2 and very lean, looked like an athelete, it was hilarious to watch him barely keep up with her hanging onto her gait belt!

Do you have public transport where you live? If so, look into getting a bus pass, many have discounts if you are a student. Even if you dont get a discount, the pass is worth the money you have to spend up front, and I do know, believe me, it may be hard to get that money togethor if you are lacking funds, but it is worth it. It is always beter to go in person IMO, they see you, get to know you a bit, sending it in you are just words on a page among many others.

lol, I feel your pain, I'm 5'2" (And yep, had to hem the scrubs!) They are extremly easy to hem though! I used the excess I chopped of the bottom to make a hair band, everyone at clinicals asked me how in the world I found one that perfectly matched my scrubs!

I am in WI, and just took my test 10/3. (I passed, first try, yay!) Out of 12 people testing only 2 were in street clothes, all the rest of us were in scrubs. The women had hair pulled back if necessary, and no excessive jewlery, or long nails. (I cut my natural very long nails off the day before, they had grown back since my clinicals ) I don't think its particular to any state to wear scrubs to the exam, its just good sense! You wear scrubs in your labs, and of course during clinicals, (if you have taken classes, I see you are challenging) it stands to reason it would be a good idea to wear them to the exam. Good luck to you!

I passed!!! :anpom: I am ro relieved! Whew! Between the classes and medical pre-class stuff and paying for the test, had a lot of my very generous Dad's money riding on this! I passed both the written and skills. For skills I drew washing hands (everyone did that one) counting respirations, feeding, ROM on one shoulder and pericare on a female. I only made one mistake, forgot to rinse the soap from the front during pericare before I did the backside. Whoops! Hey, I was nervous! I thought I did terrible, was sitting in fear, almost crying, positive I had failed while waiting for the results. To my supprise, the tester told me I did almost perfect and asked if I am currently working in the field because I did so well and seemed so at ease! (minus that one mistake) I was stunned! I am glad though I came across that way considering my brain was screaming "YIPE YIPE YIPE" the entire time and I could hear my heart pounding in my ears! Congrats to everyone else who has passed!!!

I feel your nerves! My test is on 10/3. I have no victims, er, friends, lol, to practice on, though I do have to make my bed around a cat sleeping in the middle of it (does this count as making an occupied bed?) We will do great! The only fear is of fear itself!

I think you handled the situation perfect. Your family comes first, above all, and if they could not understand that, well, I have many choice words they might like to hear. It makes me mad that the nurse chewed you out, you gave more than enough time to find a replacement for your shift, and this was the first time you called in? You showed, IMO, incredible restraint for just saying what you did and quitting. I am glad your son is doing good. He is what was important is this, not the *swear words* that made your job hell for you. Hugs for you and your son, hope he continues to recover.

Heh, this thread gave me a good laugh! All the various naughty coments, lol. But seriously, NO, NO, and NO again, students do NOT preform pericare on eachother! Our class did give eachother bed baths, which was the face, neck, arms & arm pits, hands, legs and feet. We were in tank tops and shorts. The naughty bits were all done on manaquins. Other things we practiced on eachother were feeding, brushing teeth (I gotta say, that was a hoot, lots of toothpaste drooling down students chins trying not to laugh) dressing, (over our own clothes of course) placing bed pans, and putting briefs on eachother (over our scrubs) Those last two things were not a hoot, and very uncomfortable, not a lot of giggling in class that day. So rest assured beginning students, you will not be washing eachothers privates, well, not in class anyway, what you do on your own time is up to you! :chuckle

I may have been harsh, but it was out of trying to give a wake up call. It would be nice if we could pick and choose what makes us most comfortable. It is a wake up call for me to read that some CNA classes do not cover both male and female anatomy in giving pericare. I am floored, just floored. My class covered both, in detail, along with cath care for both, and I can not see any class not doing that. That to me is just, well, I have no words. I do appologize to the OP.

May I ask what CNA class you took that did not include male perineal care? Where did you do your clinicals that you didn't care for men? Something is very wrong here. You mention you don't date men, that is of no relevance for a CNA, I dont date women, but that means nothing, we are not in romatic situations with these people. I don't want to sound like bad gal here, I am not. But something about this skrikes me as odd. Did you try to avoid dealing with males because of fear? Were you afraid they may be sexaully attracted to you because you are handling those parts? (I was) We all have fear going into this, its nothing to be ashamed about. I was afraid of everything going into clinicals, for you to be a year into this and not know how to clean male anatomy?

Its not the dirty work I am afraid of doing, heck, one day into clinicals and I was over that. It is the posts of understaffing, infights, borderline or just out and out abuse of people, staff and residents. I don't know if I will hold up under that pressure. I have a big mouth, the censor in my brain sometime goes on a coffee break leaving me to my own devices, lol. Comes in handy sometimes, gets me into trouble other times. Edit: I dont mean that I will go off on the residents, or the staff. BUt, if I see something not right, I will speak up, its going to be a tough road.