ken-pin

My company recently drafted a glucometer quality control log for in-home checks. It requires the nurse to run a control solution before doing a finger stick when new lots of test strips or a new glucometer is used. The log sheet requires that the VNA nurse enter strip lot numbers, glucometer serial number, range, expiration dates...etc. Everything EXCEPT the results of the control solution check ??!! I was always under the impression that if results from a test are not documented, then the test, for all intents and purposes, never happened. To make a long story short, the nurse exec who drafted the form says it's not necessary to document control test values because it's home use and the regulatory bodies here in Massachusetts don't require it. Now as a former analytical chemist for 20 years..... this makes absolutely no sense. Results from control testing is ALWAYS documented...no matter what the setting, otherwise what's the point of the log? Can anyone provide me with sources that I can cite to prove my case. Their position is so counterintuitive that it's literally keeping me up at night. It has implications on pt. safety along with nurse and company liability. Thanks, Ken:no:

Summer, To respond to your follow up questions, I took a grad level patho course at MGH Inst. the summer before classes started at Curry. Then I kinda put them on the spot by asking them to take the credits. At first they hemmed and hawed, but I persisted to submit a detailed sylabus and course description along with my transcript. After that they had to accept it and I didn't need to take the undergrad version at Curry. Looking at the courses you excelled in, you have nothing to worry about. Patho is much more straight forward than the "nursing courses" from the standpoint that there's much less room for the typical ultra nebulous multiple choice questions you get with nursing courses. Patho is just facts. Glad to hear the skills lab goes all semester....that was a major complaint from our cohort....not nearly enough skills stuff. The health assessment lab was, for me, kinda fun. Don't worry.... there was nothing that violated anyone's sensibilities...but you can't help but grow a little closer to some of your classmates with all the touching, poking, looking and listening. Lastly....the course that I found the most challanging was Pedi...not that the material was challenging, rather Prof. SJ was challanging. No matter how hard I tried...I got the same friggin' grade on the first exam, mid term, term paper, final exam and of course final grade.....88. That term paper was probably the best paper I've ever written...but she wacked 10 points off for a few piddly violations of APA form....I would have had a 98. Don't get me going about her.....she's a very qualified instructor (she co-authored the text), unfortunately she knows it, and is very likely an excellent pediatric NP, but I found her to be the most arrogant, nit picky and supercilious professor I've ever had. great course....not so great instructor. As an asside....my area happens to be in pediatric and adolescent care....I love it. Good luck....work hard, don't fall behind. If I can help...lemme know. Ken

Hi Summer. Congrats !! Getting into a BSN program is very competitive these days:roll I'm very glad to hear that they started your reading assignments at orientation. I was pretty obsessed with getting A's so I spent alot more time reading the texts than many of my classmates did and I'll bet I was the only one in my class (first cohort) that did virtually all the reading assignments. Sure I graduated with a nice GPA, but there were a few other wise classmates that did just as well and they didn't read all the assignments or see all the videos. Each professor will pretty much tell you what to focus on for exam preparation and though you are officially responsible for ALL the reading at exam time, I found that they tend focus the exam questions on the notes alot more than the text. If they don't tell you ...ASK. In hindsite, I would have made it a point to know all the notes inside out and only cover the material in the text that expounds on material presented in the notes. Another thing....get a book or software on APA format that you can use when writing the many papers that will be assigned. EVERYTHING must be in APA format. Some professors like Susan James are obsessed with APA and will assign 10% of a paper's grade to how well you complied with it. (At lease she did with us..I complained bitterly to Dr. Caldwell so that may have changed). Also, get a couple of NCLEX prep books and before an exam, do the questions in the test prep books on the subject you're gonna be tested on. It will get you accustomed to the wierd, nebulous world of nursing exam questions. You'll discover that with many nursing exam questions, there are extremely fine shades of distinction between the right answer and the wrong answer. In fact, you must train your brain to stop thinking in terms of right and wrong answers and think in terms of finding the BEST answer. Many classmates of mine really struggled with this. Another thing.....ask your Med-Surg prof to schedule a workshop with Dr. Don Anderson and your cohort on test taking techniques. He's a renound expert on this topic, an awsome speaker and was a huge help in this area. Listen to evey word he says. Get to know Professors Susan Larocco, Don Anderson and the Lindas Caldwell and Tenofsky. They are wonderful people who are tremendous sources of advice and inspiration. They're awsome instructors who will go the extra mile to help you with anything, listen to your problems, and they also carry alot of weight in the nursing world and grad school when it comes to references. They're not easy mind you....but they are as good as it gets in nursing instruction. Anymore questions......feel free. All the best to you Summer !! Ken

All in all...I was very pleased with Curry's ACCEL program. I was extremely well prepared for the NCLEX....75 questions and I was done. Since graduating, I've worked at MGH and Lahey with new grads from all over the area and I honestly feel that I'm as well prepared as anyone else with the same level of experience. But bear in mind....as wierd as this may sound...the main focus of nursing school is to prepare you for the NCLEX and give you a little taste of a few types of nursing settings. You don't even begin to learn how to be a nurse untill you start working as one......so the moral to the story is go with a school that does a good job with NCLEX prep and provides you with quality clinical experiences at teaching hospitals. The other thing to look for with an accelerated program like ACCEL is how strict they are with transferring credits for pre-reqs. My science pre-reqs were more than 20 years old and they allowed me to transfer those credits. My 16 months at Curry often felt like a root canal that wouldn't end....but in hindsite, it's the nature of all accelerated programs. Today I look back at Curry very fondly. Hope this helps. ken

"give us tricker problems and some stuff we have not been told we needed to know how to do" Hmmm, I read the above statement you wrote a couple of times and smiled from ear to ear :) Because ... unless you want to be a Wallmart greeter, just about every job you will ever have will throw curve balls at you that no one EVER told you you how to hit...ESPECIALLY nursing. Your teacher was probably getting a feel for how well you and your classmates deal with that very common type of pressure.....the kind of pressure you will see again and again. You can chose to take it calmly, or freak out and threaten to quit. Which type of nurse would you want caring for a loved one with a complicated illness? Relax Honey...it's only a quiz...you'll do fine. ken

I'm a recent honors BSN grad about to enter the work force. Naturally, I need to get into a crit care unit to get the necessary experience for grad school. My dilema: Today I verbally accepted an offer in a tele unit from a major 500+ bed Level II teaching hospital that does a ton of open hearts and transplants. The idea was to spend a year in tele, get ACLS, PALS certified, move to crit care, get my CCRN then apply to anesthesia school. I got a call today from a 350 bed community hospital that's affiliated with the two biggest Boston Hospitals. This community hospital, Level III I think, is willing to bring me straight into a new grad crit care training program. No open hearts or transplants there, just cardiac caths, intra aortic balloon pumps, some thoracic and some neuro surg. I'd likely have to commit to three years or so. Both are evening/day rotations with similar pay and bene's. Crit care is every other weekend, the tele unit is every third. help Ken

I think I'll pass on the pin and the ceremony. My diploma and nursing license will do very nicely as momentos thank you. Same goes for the Sigma Theta Tau jewelry/accessories, except for a ring..everything's feminine. Now, if they had a nice buck-knife or cool holster for my .45...now that would be worth looking in to. stay warm...be cool ken

I'm about to graduate this spring and have to decide whether to buy a school pin or not. Honestly......what % of guys actually wear their pin? Where do they wear it? Am I supposed to go to the pinning ceremony even if I don't order one? That whole jewelry schtick is SO not me...I don't even wear my wedding ring. Ken

I see this as a way for hospitals and third party payers to increase advanced degree nurses' role in primary care and push MDs into more specialized work, to cut costs. They can pay the DNSc more than the MSN to give incentive to go for the doctorate, but less than the MDs, without missing a beat with quality of care. It's the same quality/economic factors at play that makes CRNAs so coveted by hospitals and anesthesia groups. With the doctorate, it will be easier to widen scope of practice laws and get more autonomy. As for LPNs and assoc. degree RNs...they'll never go away. You gotta have' em. There's just not enough BSN programs out there to fill all the nursing entry level positions. At any rate...General practioner and Family practioner MDs are not going to like it one bit.......nope, they're not. :angryfire Ken

Lauren wrote So, my question is: as a nurse what kind of lifestyle can you afford? What kind of home do you live in? Honey, let me tell you something. No matter what you do for work, the lifestyle you have, the home you live in and the car you drive will depend alot more on the decisions you make everyday with your money, than it will on how much money you make. Look around you...you can't swing a dead cat without hitting some undiciplined dolt with a regular fat paycheck and in debt up to his/her ears. When choosing a vocation, do what you love to do, be the best that you possibly can....and the $$$ will fall like manna from heaven. And remember...every week, pay yourself FIRST! (save, save save) and incurr no debt unless for house, car or education. Amen

What a refreshing post....a joy to read! As a future CRNA, hopefully anyways, thanks so much for your keen and sometimes funny insight. It has that beautiful ring of truth to it. -ken

GT-50 I just started in the program at Curry last week as a member of their first ACCEL class. Including me, there's five guys in a class made up of 32 students. As a pre-med major many years ago, I had fortunately already taken all the prerequisites and Curry was glad to transfer them. If you're serious about this program, start taking as many of them as you can now. Some are offered as online courses at other schools (statistics at UMass) some are offered nights at community colleges (developmental psych). As for the program....haven't had an exam yet..... reading and video assignments for first week were daunting.....hundreds of pages of text to read and about three hours worth of videos to be viewed at school. Quizzes weekly, five page pediatric research paper topic due tuesday. The quality of instruction (lectures) has be impressive so far. These instructor really know their stuff and are very comfortable in front of a class. Check out Simmons College as well. They have a similar accelerated program that I believe is 17 months. Good luck. -ken