amberrn

KaseyJo- Oh goodness how I relate! I am almost 3 years sober and am trying to get back in! My first plan didn't turn out like I was certain it would! So now I am looking at other ways to get back into nursing and maybe eventually anesthesia again. I am reluctant to contact old friends for references for fear of the same thing! I was telling my mom- The mountain just seems so big sometimes! And she said, oh honey just think how strong you will be when you get to the top!

Hope this doesn't get too lengthy! I was a CRNA who diverted drugs and was fired december 2007. Initially, I lied about it and went to treatment to look good. I actually did acheive some sobriety and came clean to the board. But I really wasn't working a program and ended up drinking again. I went to Minnesota and went into an inpatient treatment and then a sober house. I informed the IA BON, and after a year sober I had a probationary RN. For the next year I went to 4 meetings a week and took random UAs, and spoke with a case manager once a month. My plan was to get an unrestricted MN RN and attend one of the very few courses for CRNA's to get back to practice. I have to have an unrestricted MN RN in order to be admitted to the school. My IA RN is active and unrestricted. Well I applied and went through the long process of them reviewing everything about me! I did mention I would like an unrestricted RN, in order to attend school- looking back, that sounds a bit arrogant! They said nope, and just listed everything I had initially told them and said get 2000 hours of safe nursing practice and reapply. So Now any future Board's I apply to will get to read MN denial letter that includes things that New Mexico and other states don't even ask about! Live and learn. I am leery of going back to Iowa, and think finding employment will be very difficult given my history and my lack of recent experience. I was looking into moving south, and discovered GA has a ton of nurse re-entry programs. I am very interested! But I am leery about applying to another state. If I apply and they say yes with restrictions, but I find the restrictions too much, can I withdraw my application? Or am I then bound to do whatever the board suggests? If I accept, is my IA licence then going to have the same restrictions? I am assuming I will have some sort of narcotic restrictions, but does anyone know how those work for Georgia? I will have three years sober and clean in three days!!! Thanks for any info anyone might have!

When would you use a longer IV cath? In our OR we have 1 1/4 inch ones and also 2 inch ones- it is so frustrating when you accidently grab a 2 inch one and try to thread it through. It seems to me a shorter cath would have less resistance- so when would you want a longer cath? Their must be a reason we stock both that I am missing. Can anyone tell me a situation when a longer cath would be beneficial?

Do you use hgb or hct when figuring your ABL? I have been told the hgb will be approximately 1/3 of the hct so it really doesn't matter. My brain is programmed to think about hgb- 10 for a fragile elderly person with history of heart problems, 8 for mechanically ventilated pts, ect. I know the answer begins with the basic thought about what do the hemoglobin and hematocrit really measure and I know the crit is a measurement of volume of RBC in a given amount of blood. What I don't remember is how do we measure hgb? What are the factors or disease states that would make one more reliable than the other? Or does it really not matter? I'll admit it I haven't really searched for an answer- I should be working on careplans but it was just a little question that popped into my head and I thought I really should know the rationale to this.

Got in at mt marty, bridgeport connecticut, alternate at mayo and chose not to interview at youngstown ohio. Chose mt marty. Had a 3.98 for pre-nursing stuff, 4.0 in both ADN program and BSN. Worked in ICU for 3 years. GRE scores- verbal was 570, quantitative was 660 and a 4 in the analytical writing. Did not have CCRN but the usual PALs, and ACLS.

You have great experience- One thing I will caution you about is don't appear like you have it all. In your interview say you know you have alot to learn. I don't know about other programs but the one I am in, the director wants to know he is top dog. He wants students who want to learn. Confidence is good, just be sure to balance it with humility. You have an excellent resume, so if I were you I would downplay it a little- they can read. Let the know you are ready to learn a lot more info.

Jaffe and Samuels anesthesiologists manual of surgical procedures has the basic info you need for each surgery and special considerations. You might have to go to other resources but it is really helpful.

I have not yet practiced, just 52 hours of class remain- but who's counting? Anyhow, yeah ketamine does increase secretions. As someone else said it seems to be more so in peds- at least that is what lecture has said.

Review of Clinical Anesthesia by Connelly and Silverman is a quiz book that has alot of K type questions. Physiology Pretest by Ryan and Wang is another good quiz book, and I also like Costanzo. The problem that I find I have is how to filter information. You get so much thrown at you that it can be difficult to know what to concentrate on. I found sample questions really helped me be able to put info together. As far as getting the basic knowledge I have Miller, Guyton and Barrash. Different books are helpful for different teachers. You kind of have to get to know your teacher's style of teaching and the difficultly level they get to. I have one teacher who gets extremely deep into material and will often ask questions in which the information wasn't all presented in his notes or even his sources- this is the one class where the extra quiz books have helped a ton. I have another teacher who is pretty straight forward and expects you to know his notes. It helps if you can talk to previous students who can clue you in on each teacher and what they focus on. If I am having trouble with a specific topic I try looking it up on the web and often find some good info. Don't worry about grades- B's get degrees, and if you can't wake your patient up they won't care that you had a 4.0. That being said I have a 91% (B) in one class right now and yes it still kind of bothers me. I am a little further along and what I can tell you is the whole time you will think I can't even remember what we talked about a week ago. Somedays the peices will begin to fall into place and other days you will be reinventing the wheel. Most people do graduate, you have already overcome the hard part of getting in.

Mt. Marty- Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Start Aug. 25 and scared to death also

I was accepted at bridgeport, I declined because the program did not seem to be the best fit for me. The clinical experience seemed very impressive, but I had some misgivings regarding the academic portion. It appeared the communication between the hospital and the university was strained and students had difficulties with receiving loans on time. The cost of living was also a deterrent for me. My gpa is a 4.0 and I have almost 3 years icu experience in a unit that has 14 beds- we do hearts and get a lot of resp. difficulties, gi bleeds, sepsis but very little neuro other than the occasional stroke, and rarely trauma. I was accepted in another program and chose to go to sioux falls, sd. I start aug. 25. Good luck to you. I really encourage you to look at how you learn best, and what you feel comfortable with, when choosing a program. That was some of the best advice that helped guide me in the process of selecting a school. Don't worry which school is the best, look more at which school is the best fit for you.

This is my first time posting. I start school in August at Mt. Marty in south dakota. I am not sure I can give you the depth of informtion you are looking for on Precedex, but we have one main cardiovascular surgeon who uses it on all of his hearts. When the patient gets to me they have already had it started at 8 ccs an hour. I don't know why but our anesthesia providers rarely program the pumps for mcs/kg/hour. So no matter the size the patient has it going at 8 ccs n hour. I like the drug. Patients remian more calm as they emerge, and seem easier to extubate. Sometimes I have had to turn it off to get patients to wake up more. I can frequently run it at the lower dose of .2-.4 mcs/kg /hr, occasionally they need to receive a little more. Thanks to all who respond on this board, it got me through the application and interview process. I really appreciate all of the advice and I love the clinical discussions- however most of them are over my head at this point. I can't wait to learn more and be able to participate more. I have also found that I rarely have to use morphine or versed with the patients.