el_peon

Nobody can tell you to study yourself silly or dont study anymore and relax. It depends on how you process things. I didnt study, because the more i study, the more confused i get when it comes down to taking the test. I took it back in the 90's when it was still a written test (actually, it was the last written test given in KY before they changed to computer testing). In my opinion, by now, you either know it or you dont. But the relaxing part doesn't come until you've got your test scores back.

There arent any that i know of that are CNA to LPN. CNAs just dont have the clinical background to skip into a nursing degree.

A recently dead guy laying on the ground would still be warm for quite some time (unless of course, its cold outside). Because he was laying face down, would partially explain the coloring, because once the heart stops, the blood stops where it is, then because of gravity, settles. It sounds like he had a catastrophic event, either a CVA or an MI. Either way, theres not much you would have been able to do even if you had been beside him when it happened. As far as your mother wishing you were there.....most likely, you will be the one your family, friends and neighbors will call for advice on anything remotely medical. For some reason, people think if you're a nurse (or in your case...are going to be a nurse), that you have all the medical answers.

I went from behavioral health to ICU. Talk about baptism by fire. I didnt get it at first, but once you take ACLS, the whole picture really starts to come together. I also got a rhythm interpretation book that had The Far Side cartoons in it to help explain what's what and why. It was goofy, but it really stuck. If you think about it, its nothing but a basic electrical system, with a few simple parts.

I think "taking the direct approach" will be taken more as confrontation. After years of experience, I never take what i get in report as the gospel truth. I always make a round as soon as report is over and find out the real scoop directly from the patient. Give them the once over and check dressings. Then come back later for the full head to toe and meds. It wont be the last time you follow a good nurse thats been horribly busy, and at the end of the day,doesnt remember which of her patients is which. Or is just a bad nurse that has been at the desk all night and hasnt laid an eye on her patients all night and has documented by looking at the documentation of the nurse before her. (yeah, i've charted dressings on the right that were actually on the left.....come back in the next morning and the night nurse has written exactly what i did). Just learn to be self-reliant.

Well, I am currently a 16 year LPN (which is actually a nurse and not a precursor to being a nurse...common mistake of new grad RN's who actually think there is a difference other than pay scale). I never wanted to be a nurse at all, and was sure i would absolutely hate it. Until my first day of actual clinicals. Of course i was anxious and scared to death. We all were. (and if you werent scared you were going to hurt someone, quite frankly, i would put you in the category of dangerous...blind self confidence kills). BUT, i ended up really liking it. Clinicals DO NOT get you ready for the real world of nursing in any way, shape or form. When you get on the floor under your own license, you just really have to grab onto someone who's been there for a while and knows the ropes. I've worked in Med / surg, BHU, ICU, ER and OH. Each area was completely different, and i felt like a complete moron for a minimum of 6 months. I was sure i had made a mistake in transferring. The more you learn, the more confident you'll feel. When you come across something new, ask questions, go home and research it. There will always be a list of things that you remember on the way home, or as you're falling asleep that you didnt get a chance to do or had planned to do, but ended up forgetting. You cant be everything to everyone at all times. Ask for help if you need it, write yourself notes. Make a list of priorities at the beginning of your shift. Make general list of MUST DO things and check, check and re-check to make sure those things are done. Which ones can you safely delegate if youre getting behind? Delegate to people you think you can trust to get them done. Dont be a micro-manager, but check to be sure that they were ACTUALLY done. Its not that you dont trust them, but it is YOUR licence, not theirs and youre ultimately responsible. Llike i said, if you were completely confident just coming out of school, then you would be a dangerous nurse. The fact that youre scared and unsure of yourself is a good thing. It means you are ok with questioning and have actually taken into consideration the gravity of the profession you have chosen. Those are the kind of nurses that learn the most and are the safest. Your friends that came out knowing it all, have probably already made LOADS of mistakes. Hopefully, they were small (if there is such a thing), and didnt seriously hurt someone. And at some point, you WILL make a mistake. But yours will be a long time coming if you remain on the cautious side. Good luck.

I worked ICU for a long time and we had the reputation of "eating our young". You have to have thicker skin and a stronger backbone. Its a high stress area, and people deal with stress differently. It makes some a know it all and others just come across as mean. I'm not saying its ok to treat other people that way, it just seems to be the nature of the beast. If you know what youre doing, act like it. When the military nurse started "instructing" you. Tell her "i've already done that....and that....and that...and that. If you have any suggestions of things i havent tried, please let me know" Be willing to learn from an "older and wiser" nurse, but you have to stand up for yourself and be confident in what you know or you'll always be walked on.

Anonymous notes usually get the file 13, because they cant be backed up or checked into. If youre going to be gutsy enough to write a letter, be gutsy enough to sign your name to it.

My experience was a bit different. I worked about 6 months med / surg when i first graduated. Then the hospital did a bit of re-organization and the last hired were the first to have to find somewhere else to go. I had a choice between mother / baby and BHU. I picked BHU with the stipulation that if i didnt like it, in 3 months they would find somewhere else to put me....I hated it !! 3 years later, they still hadnt found somewhere else for me to go. The whole time, i feared that i was becoming less and less "marketable". Because my nursing skills werent in use at all. Finally an ICU position came open and i applied. I was sure i wouldnt even be considered for it, since in my mind, i had become useless as a nurse. They hired me, and i stayed for nearly 7 years before staffing became a HUGE issue. I feared for my licence every night that i worked. I was assigned 4-5 ICU / PCU patients each night. I moved back to med / surg "for a break". Boy, was i in for a surprise. At least those 5 ICU patients were sick and didnt live on their call bell. They basically wanted to be left alone unless you had to be in there for something. These med surg patients (sometimes 10 at a time), call you for every single thing. And my preceptor assumed since i was from ICU i'd have it all under control. I had no idea how to budget my time for 10 patients that get together and all call you at once. I had no monitor to tell me what the patients rhythm and hemos were. I felt completely lost. So, long story short. Everywhere you work is hard. For a while. You can get used to just about anything. Just be aware that its YOUR license youre working on. If it gets out of control.....get out.

The ICU i worked in had open visitation, so we had a constant revolving door of visitors. Yet again, administration wanted to make everyone happy. Doesnt matter that its not whats BEST for the patient, or prevents the nurses from doing their job because half a dozen people are sleeping on the floor between you and your patient. Those may be future paying customers, so whatever they want to do is great with administration. I think thats what's at the root of the conditions in hospitals today. Too much catering, bowing and begging for your insurance dollars. Not enough focus on MEDICINE. If i could do my job, with a nurse to patient ratio that was SANE, actually with equipment that i didnt have to fix or rig to work, with the supplies required to treat my patients, I would be a happy nurse, and whistle while i work. But instead I got a mixture of 5 ICU and PCU patients, equipment that may work today, may not and constantly run out of stock. Go figure why people are leaving left and right.....which makes it even harder for the ones who stay.

I once worked in a facility that had trackers on your badges. I was once asked why i had spent so much time in the bathroom one night (it was something like a total of 13.4 minutes). I had to explain to my manager that i had diarrhea that night. That was one of the determining factors in my deciding to cease my employment at that facility. Its a rarity that you even get to go to the bathroom, but i'll be damned if i'm going to $hit myself so i dont get in trouble for spending too much time in the bathroom.

In the ICU that i worked in, you could see all of the beds from the station except one. That one had a camera in it with a monitor at the desk. The assistants had been giving the little guy a bath and pushed the camera to the ceiling to preserve his privacy. They forgot to put the camera back on him when they finished. The little guy was probably in his late 70's, early 80's and had seemed mentally OK at the begining of the shift, but had evidently started to sundown. He had had a cardiac cath earlier in the day, and was going to have to be sent to another facility for intervention, as our hospital didnt do interventions at that time. SO, the sheath was left in place and the patient was on a heparin drip. I noticed that the camera wasnt on the patient, so i went in to adjust it. I found a buck naked little guy standing in the middle of a room full of blood spattered kleenex (looked like a bloody snow storm. I had no idea there were so many kleenex in 1 box), holding a little corner of a kleenex to his groin. He had gotten up and pulled his sheath. He just kept saying "i'll clean it up hunny...dont you worry" over and over and over.

I had just arrived for my shift in ICU, and was given the first patient. I got report from Endo, who told me "she has esophageal varicies" So, i'm thinking " and that makes her an ICU patient because.........why? Later on in the report somewhere between I&O and vital signs, she mentions that air evac has been called and they are enroute. Then tells me, that i need to get an NG down, because she's swallowed so much blood. "hold on.....what?!?" Of couse she had just come on herself, hadnt laid eyes on the patient and "was only telling me what she had been told in report".OOOOOK. So i told her to get her up to the floor asap and DO NOT try to put down an NG. Hung up on her and called the Endo Doc that did her, who laughed at the esophageal varacies story. This woman had an aneurysm that had gotten big enough to rub a hole through her esophagus and was leaking into her stomach. As she arrives to the floor, she begins to vomit a wash basin completely full of blood. We pumped so much blood into that woman, i lost count. It honestly looked like a horror movie in her room. Everything, including us was dripping. Sent her with a box of blood for the chopper trip to UK. She coded several times enroute. Never made it.

That's hillarious !!! And right on target. Unfortunately, you cant fix her. Theres nothing you can tell her that will make her feel better, because i'm sure she feels that you are just telling her that you feel nothing and arent attracted to the women in your class, your patients, female doctors etc. just so she wont worry. This is her battle to fight. You need to decide if its one you are honestly willing to deal with, or if its a deal breaker. If she's not being honest with her therapist, then she's not putting the maximum amount of effort into getting her issues resolved. If she doesnt trust her therapist enough to confide in him, then she needs to get someone else.

Why would you go to a doctor you dont trust? After all, you are trusting them with you LIFE. Ask around and get some recommendations if you dont know of someone else you'd like to see.