Lacourty

The hospital I work for has an MD who is also a doctor of Asian medicine. She provides acupuncture as well as other services to "balance the body and soul". The hospital also employs massage therapists. I have heard that DOs have a more alternative approach to medicine than compared to MDs. Doctors of osteopathy will do some chiropractic adjustments themselves. That's what an MD told me anyways.

I think it's an excellent idea. Not only will that organization already be familiar with you, you can apply for an RN job as in internal candidate. Most facilities will post openings internally first, then later on external if they are not able to find an internal candidate!!!

I had a forgivable loan that required that I work in an area of nursing in critical shortage specifying what type of facility. If you could not find employment in a facility of your choice you would be assigned to one that is in critical shortage. My choices were hospital, rural clinic, Native American or Hawaiian health care center, home health, or nursing home.

Her diagnoses definitely could be causing the symptoms. I've seen cases where tumors were a direct cause of the headaches but the location of the tumor and osteoma may have something to do with it as well. I wasn't able to view brain CT and probably wouldn't know enough by looking at them anyhow. You can always check with the radiologist. I know not many are very approachable but I used to work with a great one that always wanted to teach me. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

My personal opinion is not to dumb down anything. I would however stress that fact that you would like to stay employed with the same facility after graduation. Unfortunately, the world is not full of great supervisors that would see this as an opportunity to employ a motivated individual that could become a more valuable asset in the future as an internal candidate rather than an external one.

It is expected that the patient have some pain- they had a recent fracture. It definitely sounds like the patient may benefit from a different medication. Is the increased dose appropriate for the patient's body habitus/weight?

Have you looked in to nursing case management/discharge planning? You plan for the needs of the patient so when they are discharged, they have what they need in order to appropriately care for themselves. You may be helping them fill out for disability due to an injury, helping them fill out for Medicaid if they have no insurance, planning for a home health agency to come into their home, getting them set up to receive meals on wheels, or getting them signed up for different grant programs to get assistance paying for a ramp for their home. Many more things are involved in the job.

3M3RN, you don't have to be advanced practice. Minimum requirements for state of Wisconsin is an LPN or RN license. You may want to check out www.prefessionalhomecareproviders.com. They have info on getting certified for Medicaid/Medicare. I am not sure about how to get Medicare certified or if it is even possible from private duty nurses to get Medicare certified. All directions for how to get Wisconsin Medicaid certified were found on www.forwardhealth.gov.wi. I am still in the learning process as well. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

Currently all the tuition assistance in return for service has been discontinued in my area. Did you look into any scholarships? Write as many well written essays as you need to. Also, community colleges usually have scholarships that only that college's students can apply for. I serve on a local technical college's alumni board and we raise money for our own scholarships to give to students . I know applying doesn't guarantee anything but anything you may receive as a scholarship is free money. Hope that helps.

I can see why the facility is concerned. There have been innocent mistakes with metal in MRI rooms which have killed patients. MRI techs, for the most part, are very diligent at making sure no "metal" accidents occur but there is always that time when they may be in a hurry or have an emergency patient that needs to be attended to. Although I don't agree with the facility forcing the tech to take insulin injections the facility always has a defense when it comes to patient safety. If another incident like this were to occur that resulted in injury, everyone would be wondering why the facility did not take action to correct the possibility of patient injury. The facility may not have "forced" the tech to take injections but may reassign him to xray or possibly CT if he is qualified if he doesn't take injections.

I did start in radiology as a new RN grad but I also had several years experience at the same facility as a radiology technologist and already was an LPN. I did negotiate to have solid training in ER, outpatient medical, surgery, and oncology before starting as a new grad in radiology nursing. Keep in mind that the rad techs will not be able to help you if anything should go wrong because of the difference in scope of practice. Also, radiologists are doctors but it took them several years to complete their specialty training and they are relying on you as the RN to catch subtle changes that could be life threatening to patient during interventional procedures. Don't count on the rad to be able to help much in a code situation either. I would recommend a minimum of one year experience but with proper training, there's no reason why you couldn't be a radiology RN if a facility was willing to hire you.

I would have to agree that the attending physician should be making the decision when to remove the drains. At the facility I work at, I am only responsible for the patient during the procedure and during recovery. Once the patient is transferred to the floor, report is given to the floor nurses and they assume care. The rad does want updates but doesn't really care if they are good updates. It was my responsibility to report abnormal changes but it wasn't like the rad was going to do anything about it unless something was initiated by the attending physician.

The best way to learn film critique is to be sure you know what you should be seeing in a good film and decide if that is what is being shown in the critiqued film. You then need to decide what needs to be done to make the critiqued film "acceptable". Going over images with a tech is the best way to learn film critique. Even though you can't "read" the film, you still need to know what is going on pathology wise as well. It is definitely a learned skill. Good luck!

I recently got my NPI (national provider ID) in order to apply for state certification and Medicaid certification for private duty nursing. I got the directions for how to apply at the state health website. Don't have any more info since I am awaiting provider certification.

Bellin College has long had a good reputation for graduating good nurses. It is a private college which also equals high tuition. Both NWTC (tech college in Green Bay) and Bellin College are good nursing colleges. Employers in the local area will equally consider graduates of both colleges.