StormRN

Does anyone know the answer to the current status of age waivers? I am 46 years and 9 months old. I have completed my application and physical with no problems. I have been told from the beginning of the process in May 2009 that I could get an age waiver if the process went beyond my 46.5 age max. My application is to go to the November boards and last night I received a call from my recruiter telling me that I only qualified for the 2 year service with no incentives. I am very disappointed! I signed a 4 year agreement with incentive bonus just 2 weeks ago. I have been trying to research the recently signed Public Law 111-84 (2010 Defense Authorization Act) for the language stating that age would disqualify me from a 4 years service agreement, to no avail. Does anyone know if all of this is true? My recruiter also stated that it is part of the new officers accession program (OAPP). Any helpful suggestions would be appreciated.

I met with my Army recruiter this evening to sign more papers. I was told that the Board meets on November 16th to review applications. I also am hopeful, but I also have 13 years of experience in a specialized field. I had my physical at MEPS last month. Hang in there as someone said in an earlier thread , there are a lot of people who don't have their license which should help you to stand out.

Hello all: Interesting stumper. Have you checked to see if your patient is dehydrated even a mild dehydration can cause the symptoms you described. Sometimes providing water will reduce headache and malaise. The elevated HR may also be due to dehydration. If there is no B/P issues try pushing fluids before the time she usually has a headache. Benzos can be drying. Hope this helps!

I've been a psych nurse for the past 13 years and currently run a 16-bed psych hospital. The best way to deal with contraband is to provide strict screening as soon as the patient comes into the hospital by having them remove their clothing to provide skin checks and to be able to go through all belongings and clothing in order to make sure that there is no contraband items on your unit. Tell your patients who complain that it is a policy, if it is not a policy it should be now that your staff has been threatened with a weapon. Further, tell the patients that it is to make certain that no one has any items on them upon admission which could hurt staff or other patients, and that you are responsible for the safety of everyone on the unit. Let them know that if you let them slide on the screening then you might let someone else slide on the screening who has a knife or worse a gun. That usually gets their attention and cooperation. Another activity which brings in contraband items is visiting hours. Make sure that your rules are posted at the door before visitor come in, and state any and all contraband items, you do not want on your unit, and ask if the visitor has read the rules. The rules should include language which bans further visits from occuring, if a contraband item appears on or in the patients room or belongings located with the patient. You will need to keep a strict visitors log and screen each visitor and remove belongings from the visitor for safe keeping during the visit. If a visitor "feels" sketchy monitor the visit with staff close by. Most important is if contraband is discovered, get a doctors order to ban the visitor from returning during the patients hospital stay. This sets an example and demonstrates that your facility takes safety seriously. You are in the business of keeping people safe. As far as room searches go, do a walking round with the RN from the shift before you, to visually inspect each room before the previous shift leaves. This promotes responsibility for unit safety and you can check on where your patients are, do a quick mental status, introduce yourself as their nurse and see if there are any safety hazards. Continuity of care is key. Each shift must be as diligent as the last. 15 minute checks are great, but patients get wise to when they are happening and will time you. They have nothing better to do, if they are up to no good. We do random room checks too, and that seems to help. People want to know that you care about their safety, so use this time as a tool to see if anyone needs anything and to spend a little time with your patients. If you are doing room checks, people will hide things everywhere. If you suspect there is contraband in a patients room, make the bed, sometimes you will find a hole in the mattress. The toilet paper holder is another place to look. Take it apart as a cigarette is easily concealed there. If you have electricity in your rooms, a piece of paper and a pencil will start a fire in an electrical socket. Don't forget to have the person thoroughly searched for lighters, and matches. The last thing you want to deal with is a burning mattress or worse your patient. I hope that the above suggestions help. It sounds like you are new to this field. We don't have doors or windows on our nurses station. We take preventative action when we feel a patient is becoming anxious. We spend time with them, talk with them, offer prn's and activities or just sit with them until they are ready to talk. Catching a person in an anxious state and alleviating the anxiety is much easier than dealing with a physically acting out person. I wish you the best of luck with your proactive endeavors to rid your hospital from contraband.