RPN_2012

Anyone?

Hi everyone, sorry this is a bit long. I'm a Registered Practical Nurse, in Ontario. I work in a small privately owned retirement residence (not a LTC facilty, and not run by the gov). I have just over 5 years experience most of which has been in Geriatrics/Retirement/LTC. We answer to the CNO as nurses and RHRA as a facility. There are 3 RNs, 8 RPNs and 16 PSWs employed at our facility. (RNs and RPNs do the exact same job at our facility). We currently have 88 residents (capacity is about 100). The team consists of: General Manager Office manager (+5 front desk staff) Kitchen Manager (+ around 20 kitchen staff including cooks and dietary) Activation manager (she is a 1 person department and runs all the activities/programs herself with the help of volunteers and occasionally hires live entertainers) Maintenance manager (he is a one man department) Sales consultant (her job is to bring new people into the residence) Health and Wellness Manager (aka Nurse Manager, who manages all the nurses and PSWs and is responsible for admission assessments and careplans, scheduling, managing the healthcare staff, amongst many other things). The nurses, psws, and dietary staff are all unionized with the SEIU. The management is not. So my nurse manager found another job closer to home and left.. she was the best, we all loved her. The General Manager has been looking for her replacement for over month now... meanwhile a lot the nurse manager responsibilities have been informaly taken on by the GM and she gives the things that need to be done by registered staff to us nurses.. with a big chunk of it falling on me because I have the most flexible schedule and am the most willing to pick up extra work like doing assessments and care plans, when the other nurses like doing their shift and not have to deal with all this extra paper work and careplans, assessments and scheduling. So this got me thinking about actually doing this job. After long deliberations (for a month) I have decided to apply for the manager position since the GM still havent found anyone and interviewed a bunch of people, made 1 offer that the prospective manager regected so she is back to square 1. All my colleagues kept pestering me saying I would be great at this job... I have tried to convince some of my fave colleagues to apply, but they refuse.. so I applied. And got an interview next tuesday! OMG! I have about 4 years of supervisatory experience supervising and delegating to PSWs, but I have never been a manager. I feel really excited and anxious. I have been at this place for 3 years now and love the employees and the residents and I get along well with everyone and all the residents love me, and our management teamc is awesome. So this could be my big break. I have been looking for a full time permanent job that is not directly bedside all the time. I would have to leave this facility to get a gull time job, but Inlive ut here and dont want to leave, unfortunately out of the 11 nurses, 9 have more seniority than me and in the last 3 years no one left, only 2 came.. so the chance if getting a full time position in this facility as a RPN would take decades probably. So either I leave or I get this job and stay for a long time. There will be 2 interviews, one with the GM (who I get along with really well) and then after that there will be an interview with the reagional Health & Wellness Manager whom I've seen once, very breefly. Any advice the interview? I really want this job. The GM knows how much this facility loves me and how much I love it... and knows I will need some guidance the first few months. We have a very good relationship, so I know she will help me settle imto the new role. I really need to nail these 2 interviews. This is do or die for me. Another chance like this may not come for many many years. I would appreciate any advice or help, suggestions, sample questions etc. Please help! THANKS in advance!! .

Thank you for your respomse and bluntness, I dont like in sugarcoated :) Im not trying to be the best nurse.... Im just trying to fnd a job so I can get out of my curremt nightshift job that is taking it's toll on my life... We didnt learn anything about endo nursing (just the digestive system and briefly went over some gi diseases but I wanna know more!!) Is there any mends I should be very familiar with that pertain to endo nursing?

omg so sorry about all the typps... im horrible at typing on my phone while on the bus after a night shift...

Hi :) Guess we are kinda in the same boat. I was just offered a triat shift at an endoscopy clinic... hopefully they will keep me :) and I just posted a new topic asking averyone for advice.... So since you already started, do you habe any advice? What should I review from nursing school other than the digestive system? How do you like working in this field? Any advice at all would be great

Hello all, I applied for a job at an endoscopy clinic, I don't have any experience in that area, I'm a fairly recent grad (June 2012) and I applied there just tryjng to get out of my current job where I work nights only at a retirement residence. Long story short I was offered a trial shift later this week at the clinic and was told I will be working with the recovery room nurse. I'm not sure if this trial shift is instead of a formal interview or what not... All I would like to ask is any advice you have about this kind of role. What should I expect...and what material should I review from nursing school other than the obvious: the digeative system. I want to be very prepared because I really want this job. I would really appreciate any advice!! Thank you.

I LOVE SCRUBS!!! So funny!:heartbeat:clown:

Mercy was cancelled?

I do! I love Nurse Jackie!:heartbeat It's a fun show! I realize that she's a deeply flowed character, with all her drug problems, cheating, cursing, sex on the job, and many many other wrondoings... But hey, it's hollywood, and those things make the show entertaining... I also think she has some wery good traits, she's a good nurse, lots of experience, jugles everyhting, goes the extra mile for so many patients, gutsy, non-nonsense, loves her kids, her job, is a pretty good friend, doesn't take crap from anyone... so I do look up to SOME of her good traits. I just hope that some of the pre-nursing students that are not familiar with the legislation, standards and all that don't think that it's okay to be like her... drugs, cursing, stealing etc... It's a show!

Well, if they knew it upfront, then they can't be really upset! So just tell them that you didn't expect to get into a program this soon! And tell them that you are really exited for this opportunity to pursue your dream of being an RN and delivering babies and the you would love to stay part time or prn or what ever because you love this unit as well and you don't want to quit on them because they put in so much resourses training you an all, and you're very greatfull... something gallong those lines :) Good luck! Who knows maybe you'll have a L&D job lined up with them by the time you're RN! :)

I though unicorn have 1 horn and pegasus have wings?!?! lol am I wrong?! As for the sleeping part, why would you want everyone around you to be as misserable, even your SO? really? *sight* TURN OFF THE PHONE!!! when you go to bed, tel the mashine pick it up! (thanks whomever envented answering mashines and call display too!) Take a nice warm bath o before going to bed, then dring some warm milk or chamomille tea, and take a really boring read to bed, and in no time.... ZZZzzzzZZzzzzZZZZzzz :)

DON'T BE SCARED to follow your dream. I had 0, that's right 0! medical background before starting nursing school. The only thing medically related i did was take the CPR-HCP (mandatory) course a couple of months before school started.Like you I was interested in finding out about the human body, liked helping people and constantly needed new info to chew on... I spent a lot of time googling things, and watching the medical shows (no that they portray anything adequately, but still, it was "medical" and i wanted to be exposed to it! lol) and like you I was in office jobs, customer service, clerk, administrative assistant, cashier (christmas season), etc, etc... (I took a 1 year admin assist program at a community college, then had my stints as the above). But by age 23 I realized that I wanted to do something greater, something meaningful... and because I liked to help people I decided on nursing (althouh my mom kept saying I should go into social work, but that would mean mostly desk jobs again, and I wanted something different, and no office clothes, lol) so I still went for nursing. I took a "pre-health" program at a com.college (which was ok, but it was mostly A&P, chem, phys, math, and english, and some elctives) Now looking back on it I realize that only the elctive and the A&P were useful in the nursing program, and a tiny bit of chem too, but other than that it's not like I learned anything "medical ' in that program. I'm finishing up the 2nd semester of a Practical nursing program and planning to go on the BSN after... and although I "wasted" a little time on my office stints I don't I think it's okay because my organization skill, pro activness and abilit to deal with paperwork... is actually really helpfull :) So I say go for it, and they'll teach all things nursing, and it won't matter that you don't have a "medical" background, or if you want take a CNA or PSW course, so you'll have the asic stuff downa and out of the way (better than a pre-health program, I should have taken an aid course, it would be more usefull!). Good luck!

oops, i just saw that the last link is for physicians! sorry

What program is that? I've never hear of a LPN to RN program that is only 18 months... wow!

another interesting info site... http://www.health.gov.on.ca/english/providers/program/uap/guidelines/nrrri_guidelines.html

The George Brown College bridging to BSN program has ben put on hold and *might* be up and running again in Sept 2012... The ones I know about abe the Centennial-Ryerson program, OIUT, and I think McMaster Uni has it too, last time I cheked it was with Mohawk and Connestoga colleges, but I think it's E-stream...

I googled and found this, but it's in the US not Canada...I couldn't find anything in Canada http://www.sohnnurse.com/ent.html http://www.sohnnurse.com/chapters.html maybe they know of a similar organization in Canada?

I would get them to set up a callendar and everyday put check marks for every med, so they can keep track!

Another thing you can do is try to get some clerk position at the hospital just to see how things are run form the inside, and find a volunteer position at a hospital or LTC facility. Also google like the 50 or 100 most used drugs and start to familiarize yourself with them, and maybe even doing drug cards!

Well instead of just standing around ask if you're allowed to look up drugs for the different conditions patients on your floor have, bring your drug book to clinical and MAKE DRUG CARDS!!! Familiarize yourself with all kinds of forms... ask if you're allowed to look at the charts so that you can familiarize yourself with how everything is writen/done, as well as get used to shorthand and "decoding" some people's handwriting. Talk to patients, volunteer to do vitals on like every patient you see, help out making beds, and what ever else might be useful on your floor like giving out food trays and helping patients set their food up, opening containers etc... volunteer to sit in on therapy sessions like OT, PT etc... Do ROM on pt (ask the nurse first), restock the supplies like glowes in and hand santizer in all the rooms, ask the nurses if you canhelp with ADL, and if ou can observe when they do thing you're not yet allowed to do...there's like a million things you can do at clinical even whe you're done what you had to do, go the extra mile! Don't just stand around!

You can take the PSW program at George Brown College, get a job as a PSW and then do the "pathway" program to get into the PN program if this is what you want to be being a PSW first will make the basic stuff reall easy and themn you can concentrate on the harder stuff, if you are planning to do BSN then you could still do the PSW program, and work part time, while going to school, it would give you an edge in you clinical placements because you will already know all the basic care and ADL stuff... it might give you and edge when aplying to nursing programs... I'm a PN student right now, and if I knew better I would do the PSW program first then do nursing, instead I didn Pre-Health Science then PN, it was somewhat a waste of time except for the A&P and the electives, everything else didn't help me in the PN program.

I was researching this stuff a few months back, I myself am a PN student in Ontatrio, almost done semester 2 right now, and thinking of bridging once I'm done the program, and hoping to get at least partial tuition assistance, there is tuition help available, this is what I found so far: http://www.health.gov.on.ca/english/providers/ministry/recruit/tuition_doc/prog_guidelines.pdf http://www.health.gov.on.ca/english/providers/ministry/recruit/tuition_nurs.html http://www.rnao.org/Page.asp?PageID=749&SiteNodeID=263 Hope this helps! There is also such a thing as Second Career, but they pay only for college level programs not university, so if someone is in another career, and got laid off and want to change careers they can get some major help from Second Career... I know several people who did (myself included).

Hello to all, In your experience, which nursing specialties/or hospital units have assignments of 3 patients per nurse or less? Thanks :)

I 'm pretty sure that's all, I can't remember anymore, it's been a couple years...

I'm only a 2nd semester PN student so I'm not saving lives yet... I might have an insaney busy/hard clinical day and when it's done I'm exhausted but when I get out of the building and I think about all the things I've done, the people I helped, I get this fuzzy feeling it's kinda like a euphoria....priceless... And it's that feeling of satisfaction makes it all worth while... Every time I feel overwhelmed with work/school I just remember how good it feels, and that when I'm a nurse I will actually do even more important things, that keeps me going. Never give up on your dreams. :)