Fitzy819

Thank you everyone for the tips! I don't know if we have peppermint oil available but I will definitely ask about it. I will try the bubble blowing next time as well. It is so nice to have such a wonderful resource like AllNurses!

Hello! I'm a new mother/baby nurse and am looking for any tips/tricks for helping PP moms (especially those who had an epidural) urinate after delivery. I had a mom tonight who tried and tried to pee but ended up having to be straight cathed. We tried the warm water in the spray bottle, running water, hand in water, frequent bathroom trips... everything I could think of. A few nurses suggested breaking an ammonia capsule into the hat, which helped a little, but not enough. :(So, what do you tell your moms to help them go? Thanks!

Ugh, I just had something typed up and then I accidentally closed the tab Thank you so much for the advice!!! I try, as do all my clinical group classmates, to do as many procedures as possible. The problem is there just hasn't been very much to do yet. Maybe that is just normal for first year type of clinicals; I'm not sure. We have been to: -Nursing Lab: We learned all of the basic skills here. I really wish we still went there because I still feel like there are so many more skills that I would like to practice first, even if it is just on a plastic dummy. -Nursing home: Only therapeutic communication and AM care -Med-surg floor: More therapeutic communication and a few procedures, very few -Psychiatric hospital: Even more therapeutic communication... but that was fine, it was a whole new world with therapeutic communication there -L&D/Postpartum/Nursery floor: Mostly observation. There isn't much to do there and when there is, the nurses typically won't let us do it I think we go to more critical care floors next year so maybe that will help. When we talk about stuff in class our instructors always say, "Oh, you will learn that later. Don't worry about it now." With only one year left, I'm just really getting worried that there is way too much to "learn later". I will also try to speak up a little more in clinicals when I would like to do something. I have no problem speaking up when my instructor is asking if I would like to do something, but if I see a nurse about to do a procedure I would like to try I just feel like I would be in the way if I asked them. I guess the worst they could say is no, I just need to keep that in mind. Do you struggle with that too?

Hi all, Well, after passing Mother/Baby I am officially a second year nursing student. Even though I should be happy, I guess, I am terrified. I still feel like I know nothing. I have done well in all my classes (mostly As, 2 Bs) and I know I have come a long way from when I started but it seems like there is so much to learn still and no way to learn it all in a year. I'm a champ at taking vitals and giving bed baths and we have passed meds, given a few injections, done some basic wound care, and a few other various things, but that doesn't even seem to make a dent in everything I know I will be expected to do and know after I graduate. We have already been told that we will not be starting IVs and that will be something we will learn "on the job" after we graduate. I hear about other hospital based RN programs in the area (my schooling is through a college) whose first semester students are already putting in foleys and starting IVs and this and that... I have only put a foley in plastic people. This just makes me so nervous. Is this a normal feeling in nursing school? I hear a lot of people say not to worry, because the majority of nursing knowledge is gained after graduation but... AAAHHHH!!! I'm doing everything I can to gain more experience and knowledge but just seems like it will never be enough. I work as a pharmacy tech, volunteer at a local hospital, and have started applying to summer externship programs so I'm hoping that will all help some. For the RNs out there, did you feel this way during school? Did you hear about other students getting more hands on experience and wonder how you would ever catch up? Any suggestions on things to do gain more experience? Thanks for the input!!! (Sorry if there are already a million other threads like this out there. I tried searching for some in the student forums but didn't have much success.)

I would guess borderline too... but that is totally just a guess. Not antisocial because you said that the male friend states that she feels sorry for her actions after she has hurt him. When she talks to herself, is she talking to voices or just "thinking out loud"? Does she have any thoughts of suicide?

I worked last semester (my first semester in nursing school) and did just fine. I tend to manage my time better the busier I am so working actually helped me plan more time to study. My only suggestion is not to work on days you have class. I worked M-F about 5 hours each evening and some days it was just exhausting if school had been tough that day. This semester I'm working 3 eight hour shifts on days I don't have class. I would say working and school is definitely doable you just have to plan your time well. Good luck!

My commute is about 45min or so. Luckily I have found 3 other girls that live around my area so we all carpool together. We live on a peninsula so there is only one main highway to school. Our profs know that we commute and we always leave with plenty of extra time so getting to class on time is usually pretty doable. The only time we have ever had problems was last winter with a freak white out storm. We made it all the way to school then school closed and on our way back home we got stuck behind a 50 car pileup and it took about 4 hours to get home. Just make sure you have a good time buffer and you should be good!

Depending on who I get together with for a study group they do help a lot, but I also study beforehand on my own. With the girls I normally get together with, we all study on our own and then come together for a few hours before the test and just share tips and tricks we have figured out and things we find interesting or ask questions. I enjoy study groups but definitely don't use them as my only source of studying.

VCU has an RN-MSN program; just went to an information session about it actually. Thing is though they only accept 10 or less students and I was told most programs like this want you to have some RN experience before they will accept you.

In our honor code at our school it states that if you ever catch anyone cheating, you are required to report it. A few fellow students and I have already had to let the professor know about some students caught cheating and it sucked. You can do it. Just know that you are not doing anything wrong by letting a professor know. I'm sorry you were put in this situation. Good luck!

Thanks for all the support! I mentioned something to the pharmacy manager tonight. I made it more from the customer service angle (like some of yall had said to do) and yay, he already knew, whew. I think the lady had already contacted him about it this morning. When I looked at her profile there is evidence though of the attempted cover up. I'm just so very thankful the mom never gave the med to her little girl. Sooooooo thankful! I was never eavesdropping on anyone's conversation. I really didn't know what had happened after his convo with her on the phone (except for who the person was on the phone and that they were on the phone for 30 minutes), I just knew people were acting shady. It wasn't until the next day until the lady came up there for her refund that I knew what happened. This was a life threatening error. I didn't feel the need to say something to get people in trouble. I felt the need to say something so this could be looked into so that measures could be put into place so this doesn't happen again. They are constantly putting more and more safety measures and updates into the pharmacy; something as simple as a conversion table by the computer could help to prevent this in the future.

Well, the dose prescribed was safe. The script was written for 1cc (1ml) every 12 hrs, but when the script got scanned in and typed into our system, someone typed it in for 5ml every 12hrs and it was verified by the pharmacist that way and sold that way. The pt had never seen the script to know what it said since it was faxed in, and if she didn't have any medical knowledge she would have just given the med like the typed up label says. I want to give the pharmacist the benefit of the doubt but it really seems like nothing was every reported. The records of the med sold are still in the computer (I went and checked tonight) and the script is still in our files I'm assuming, but the pharm manager obviously didn't know anything about this lady needing a refund based on the way he responded to me today when I vented about her clogging up our phones for 30 minutes last night. Bleh, this is just a crappy situation all around. Thanks for your advice and encouragement! I'm thinking about saying something like, Hey, that lady who had the wrong dosage on her Tussionex came in for her refund last night after you left. Did you need a copy of the leaflet or receipt or anything? If he knows about it then he can just say yes or no if he needs a copy of anything for his report, and if he doesn't know about it then I can go from there. Does that sound ok?

Hello all, I don't really know what I'm looking for by posting this, I guess just a little encouragement and advice. So, I work at a pharmacy and am currently in nursing school. I'm still doing my pharmacy tech training so I mostly just sell prescriptions, put in for refills, etc but I don't really handle the drugs yet. Last night a lady came in upset because her Dr hadn't called in her script yet. She had a little girl with her and they called the dr back and patently waited until the Dr finally got the fax in. Her script was for Tussionex and it was for the little girl. Our in store wait time was for like an hour but we tried to hurry and get her script ready. We got it done and her insurance didn't cover the med. The lady was angry that she waited so long and she was never informed that it wasn't covered but ended up paying cash for it anyways. Later on that night I hear the pharmacist on the phone with her. I was upset that this lady was taking up 30 minutes on the phone with the pharmacist and causing more of a backup when it was a problem with her insurance, not us. The pharmacist was acting kind of odd though and he had one of the techs delete that script out and doing all this stuff with it and I heard him tell the lady that she would get a refund but he was still being kind of secretive. My thought was wow, somehow this lady has convinced the pharmacist that she deserves a refund because her med wasn't covered. Whatever though, his call, not mine, so I moved on. Fast forward to today. The pharmacy manager (not the pharmacist that was working last night) was working when I got to work and I told him that this lady had called and held up the pharmacy for 30 minutes last night and he was like, well, her insurance doesn't cover the med, there is nothing we can do about it. He didn't seem to know anything else about the situation. This lady comes in later after the pharm manager had left and tells me that she needs her refund. I ask her if there has been a change in insurance and she said no, that we filled her script wrong. She started to explain and all of a sudden I figured out why everyone was being so shady last night. The Dr faxed in a script for 1cc q 12h and the med was filled for 5ml q 12h. This little girl was 4 or 5 and the script was filled for 5 times the dosage. Thank god the lady caught that the dose was high before she gave it to her little girl; that could have possibly killed her. The lady was so upset (and rightfully so) and said that she was in the medical field but if she wasn't then she would have just given the med and not thought a thing about it. Anyways, I'm pretty sure that this might have been covered up by the people that made the med error. I know I need to mention this to the pharmacy manager because IMO, this is a huge deal. This isn't like someone was shorted a pill or we took too long to fill their med, this could have seriously injured a little girl. I just don't know how to go about reporting this. I feel like I have a good relationship with my pharmacy manager but I don't want to go in and be a tattle tale if maybe this has already been reported. Ugh, I just don't know what to do. If they did cover this up and got fired or something, I would feel personally responsible for this happening. I'm and honest person (heck, I told my nursing instructor that my grade was wrong on my test knowing it could easily bump my test down a letter grade) and this just worries me. Anyways, any advice? I feel like crying and I didn't even do anything wrong

I ordered this (http://www.allheart.com/pma5.html) and planned on buying a different stethoscope later on when I figured out what I really wanted but I ended up really really liking this kit. So far, it has everything I need and works very well. I ordered the purple one

We were taught in class to lift the breast if needed, but I would check with your clinical instructor in the morning before your checkoff just to make sure that is how they would like you to do it.