nurseshanti

Another option too, apart from all the great ones suggested above, is to check around and see if students from years ahead of you are planning to sell their old textbooks. If you buy a used text directly from another student, instead of through a bookstore or online service, you can usually save even more money because the store isn't taking its own cut. Plus you can usually bargain. I've sold a number of my old texts this way and I'm always open to buyers bargaining with me. This option is usually best only at the beginning of the school year though because there's usually a high demand for used texts and not as many students willing to sell old texts. I like to keep some of mine that have been particularly useful. Also, you usually don't have to buy the book in the same edition. Generally the publisher doesn't change much at all except for some page numbers. Another thing you can do if students in years ahead of you aren't willing to sell their texts is ask them if you can borrow the texts from them for a period of time. Either the whole term or a few days so you can photocopy what you need. I've done this too for students in lower years, lent my text out and had it returned to me. Good luck!

Hey, :) I think it depends on what services the PP offers and what type of volunteer program they have running. At the one where I volunteered they had 2 volunteer positions. There was a clinic position which involved labelling specimens and making sure the lab req was with them and properly filled out, cleaning/preparing rooms between patients, re-stocking supplies, bringing patients down to the rooms, and a lot of filing/pulling charts. The phone position basically involved answering phones, booking appointments, putting together packets of education materials, and greeting patients who came for their appointments or drop-ins. Oh, and putting together ECP packages. I believe that some other clinics have volunteer programs that are more extensive (such as doing sex-ed presentations, etc., which I only did when I was a paid intern there). The atmosphere and everyone who worked there was what made it so much of a great experience though. I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in that type of nursing!

I am aware of the option of seeing a chaplain or her pastor. I am hoping though that there is something that I myself can do to help support her through this. It's hard being far away. Plus, her very fatalistic outlook on life is very influenced by her strong belief in God and that He has a plan for her life and that this plan must be that her husband is meant to pass away at this time. Despite the fact that this seems to go against what all the physicians are saying about his prognosis. I'm not sure how helpful/useful her pastor will be to support her through this, when he shares the same faith and outlook on life.

Hi everyone, I'm putting this question here because I believe it does relate to hospice/palliative care, but if someone feels it is more suited elsewhere, then totally feel free to move it. My best friend's father has had Hep C for several decades and has just now gone into liver failure and is waiting for a transplant. He is very sick (jaundice, fatigue, some internal bleeding and just now some small cognitive impairment... from the build-up of ammonia I believe) and has been in the hospital for several weeks now. This family is like more like relatives to me and he is very much like my second beloved father. He and his wife have been told several times by the physicians that his prognosis is quite good and that he is on the list for a transplant. However, his wife (my best friend's mother) is having a really really rough time with this. She has a very fatalistic outlook on life and is very convinced that it's God's plan that her husband be on his death bed. She has no hope of him surviving this and strongly believes that he isn't going to leave the hospital again. He is in a small rural hospital across the country from me, so I only hear of this from my parents who call every couple days and from her who I speak with less often. My parents don't feel like this hospital is very supportive of her needs and concerns. I'm asking here because my understanding of palliative care is that it's offered along a continuum of the disease trajectory and her total lack of hope seems to me to be indication of spiritual distress in need of intervention. Also, I worry about it impacting on her own health and on her husband's health. What do you do for families when they are in this kind of spiritual distress? She has been to all the meetings with the physicians and my own father feels she doesn't necessarily need education about liver failure and it's symp. I just want to be supportive of her and to help relieve some of her burden and I'm not sure how to do that. Thanks for getting through this post! I appreciate any suggestions and thoughts you may have.

I totally echo the previous posters responses and advice. Volunteering at Planned Parenthood can do nothing but help your career. It certainly isn't going to be any kind of black mark against you in terms of getting nursing jobs in the future, especially if you want to go into women's health in your career. They do so much for women's health... it's not "just" pregnancy counselling and abortion referrals. Your mum may not be aware of the wide range of services they offer or she may not be in line with their philosophies as much as you seem to be. I volunteered at our local PP clinic for the first two years of nursing school and also worked there one summer as a paid student intern. It was fabulous experience and I think it's only helped boost my resume. I loved it, learned so much there and met so many wonderful people. I think you'll totally enjoy your experience and learn so much that will help you in your career. If your heart's in it, then I definitely encourage you to go for it! Good luck!

Hi! Starting in about 2 weeks, I'm going to be doing a 6 week clinical placement on the Burns and Plastics unit at a major tertiary care centre here. I'm just finishing up 3rd year of nursing school and this is my fourth big med-surg rotation. I'm really excited to be going to this unit (and a wee bit apprehensive I have to admit!) and I'm wanting to prepare myself before I go. I have the next 2 weeks off from school, so I have time to do some reading. I looked at the internet resources listed in the thread above but I'm wondering if anyone has any suggested print resources as well..... I would really appreciate any suggestions of reading to material to help me prepare myself!! Also, what exactly does the Plastics part of the unit mean? I hear different answers from different people and I'm a little confused. Is it for people who've had skin grafts and such? Thanks so much in advance for your help. It's my last med-surg rotation until my senior clinical placement in a year (we do mental health, peds and community in our last year), so I really want to make this an excellent experience!

I'm just finishing up my third year of a four year nursing program and I've worked part-time ever since I started. I used to work about 20 hours a week at a local arts centre, supervising in the box office there. I really want to have a more nursing-related job but I figure I'm learning good leadership skills and people skills in this supervisor position. Now, I work about 10 hours a week, simply due to clinicals and an increased school workload this year. I would love to not work during school but I have to eat and pay the bills somehow. My girlfriend is also a full-time student and works part-time. We have a really busy household!!

I do understand and agree that the global economic situation today is terrible. But honestly, a little compassion for the poor customer service rep on the other end of the line can't hurt anyone. The people who work these jobs are just trying to work their way through life and support their families just like you and I. They have no control over management decisions and no control over the global economic forces that have placed that call centre in their city, and I can guarantee you that berating them over the phone about things over which they have absolutely no control, is a) not going to accomplish anything at all; and b) going to make that person have a really terrible day. If you feel that strongly about the way things are run in a particular company, write letters to management about it. If you feel that strongly about the economic state of the world, write letters to your government about it and use your buying power to support change. There's no need to make someone have a really bad day simply because you need to complain about the state of the world. edited to add: I'm not sure how one can determine simply by a voice with a different accent on the other end of the phone that they're automatically from a foreign country. There are millions of American citizens who have immigrated to the States and who still keep their accents, even after they've crossed the border.

shanti means 'peace' in Hindi. I spent a fair bit of time working and travelling in India, around when I turned 21 and it was a huge part of 'growing up' for me. I learned a lot about myself and about people and about the world around me. I also really try to embody peacefulness in day-to-day life. And the nurse part, well that's kind of self-explanatory I guess :)

Dalhousie University in Halifax has a two year fast track nursing program for students with a full degree and the required pre-reqs. It's 2 years full-time, 24 straight months of classes. Dal also has a three year fast track program, which might be a little more manageable. I've always thought 24 months without a break is a little intense.

Maybe someone with more knowledge can clarify this, but it was my understanding that it's really rare to have Hep C transmitted with sexual contact, unless that contact involved the exchange of blood. I'm pretty sure that almost all, if not all, Hep C cases are transmitted via blood.

I'm a student too, in my third year... and these are great. Thanks for posting them. I would probably first check whether O2 is actually on, whether the pulse ox is attached and whether the cannula prongs are sitting properly in his nares. Do a set of vitals, Check his resp., lung sounds, ask him what he's feeling (short of breath?)... In the back of my mind would be the thought that the O2 could have kicked out his drive to breathe, given that he's a COPD patient.... so if everything else seemed normal, I'd probably look into that. I would have thought though that if he was tolerating 4L before that it should be ok..... Can the resp. treatment alter his O2 needs? Although we've been taught that COPDers shouldn't really get more than 3L.... I guess that's not necessarily the case out in the real world. Did I do ok? :)

Another A student, GPA of 3.96, here. It's important to me to get good grades and I do my hardest to get them, but I also know that my clinical skills are the most important thing to get out of nursing school. I fully recognize that academic grades and clinical competence aren't really connected, but for me.... I like to have both :) I guess I'm one of those Type A overachiever nurses *shrugs* It makes me happy.

I'm in nursing school right now and I have experienced a few moments of feeling really faint. The most memorable for me were once in skills lab when we were practicing wound care (which was the most embarassing because we weren't even practicing on real people or with real blood!) and once while observing in the OR. I've realized that the times I feel faint are when I don't feel like I have control over the particular procedure. Like if I'm watching someone else do someone else demonstrate venipuncture for example. But if I have to do something with my own two hands, like the times I've done wound care myself on patients, then it's a lot easier for me to just focus on the job and not feel faint. That's helped me a lot. It's also helped me to know other nursing students in my class who have felt faint at different times. When I know I'm going to be in the OR in the morning, then I make sure to eat something!! And if I do start to feel faint, like the one time in the OR when the anesthetist was demonstrating to me how to intubate the patient, then I just excuse myself and sit down for a few minutes. I've also seen a clinical clerk (3rd year med student) totally pass out after observing in the OR and that made me feel better too!!

Thank you so much mjlrn97 for such a wonderful post! and thank you to everyone who replied so positively also. This is my biggest fear for when I graduate and am at my first job. Like RN-PA, I have not ever had a part-time job in the hospital (although I am looking for one now) and, although I get good grades and I get positive clinical evaluations, I know that there will be a steep learning curve when I get out in the "real world" and I am so fearful that it will be made worse by the nurses and doctors and other HCP's I'll be working with. I so hope there's at least a few who will be kind and respectful enough to teach me some of the ropes!!