akj777

Your answer is an example of horizontal/vertical violence. Your response seems intended to belittle and demean.

Fear not my friend. If you want if badly enough, you WILL do it. And you CAN do it! Sending postive vibes your way!

Yes, but the point is...it can be done. If I had a choice, I certainly wouldn't have worked. But there was no choice. Pregnancy is a totally different ball of wax.

If I had the option, I personally would have done the accelerated program. It's like a bandaid. You just want to rip it off and get it over with. Although, as I have no experience with the accelerated programs, take that advice with a grain of salt.

would have been better had I spelled "experience" correctly the first time. :-)

ADN vs BSN...will it ever end? Nursing school DOES NOT make the nurse. Your experince on the floors and your own critical thinking skills make the nurse. ADN program = 2 years of gen ed + 2 years of nursing core. BSN program = 2 years of gen ed + 2 years of nursing core. My mother is a ADN of 30+ years and is incredible (though I'm biased). I have worked in a large teaching hospital for 8 years and find that more BSNs are lazier than ADNs. Some of them seem to think that because they are BSNs that somehow excludes them from certain nursing tasks. Like, for example, bedpans. "I need my tech. Where is my tech? My patient needs a bedpan!" Yes. YOUR patient needs a bedpan. So do it. And why the need to put BSN behind everything? Anyone who graduated from a 4 year university has a BS or BA in something. You don't see all of those professionals smacking down their degree initials after their name. Get your NP or CRNA and then I'll be more impressed. That being said, I'm a BSN nurse. And I don't use the initials. Cause I'm a nurse. Just your nurse. I'm here to care for you and comfort you and your family. That's what I do.

Poop doesn't bother me, never has. If you really want into this career, you get used to it. You also find out that poop is small potatoes. Try a necrotic foot with gaseous gangren. Now THAT will make your stomach turn. Or a patient in DIC who is bleeding out of every orfice and you are pouring blood products into him, knowing he's dying before your eyes. Looking in his eyes and knowing that he knows it too. You'll get used to poop. Trust me. It's other things that will haunt you. And those haunting moments will (hopefully) make you a better nurse and give you a new appreciation for life.

It can be done. I was in your position. My parents let me move back home rent free when I got into nursing school, but they didn't pay my bills, my tuition or carry me on their insurance. I had to do all that on my own. And I did it. I graduated today!!!! ;-) Now, I didn't have a life, or see my friends as often as I would have liked too...but the sacrifice was worth it. And whenever I would get down on myself I was slapped upside the head by one of my fellow nursing students. She was a year younger than me, a single mom with two kids and NO support system to speak of. She didn't even have family in the area. And she graduated right along side of me tonight. IT CAN BE DONE!!!!

Nice recovery on that one! I don't think I would have been quick enough to think up a story like that.

I had a patient once, post cardiac cath. Her sheath had just been pulled so she was still on bedrest. She had to use the bedpan so myself and my coworker were log rolling her onto the pan. As we were doing so, she was telling us about how hard it is for her to have a bowel movement, "On account of those pain pills I take." She then procedes to tell us that she often manually helps her bowel movements along. My coworker says, "Oh, well...you should be careful. The tissues down there can be very fragile and easily torn." Our patient cheerfully relpies, "Oh, it's okay. I just take a tub of butter and lube up my finger." My coworker face was priceless. I hope she designates that tub of butter for one reason and one reason only.

My only issue with APA is that every instructor I've ever had all seem to have their own way of doing it. And their way is the "right" way. My sister is a librarian and she always proof reads my papers...and we both shake our heads cause we know that somebody is going to say this, that or the other is wrong. Of course, my personal background is in english lit. So I really miss MLA and I'm biased. :)

It really depends on the location your in. There are jobs out there, but as someone stated earlier, you can't be to terribly picky. I currently work as a tech in a large teaching hospital and we hire BSN and ADN nurses all the time. And yes, once you have you ADN you can always go on to do a ADN to BSN completion. Floor nurses (where most any grad will end up for the first job) are not judged on the basis of ADN vs BSN. The pay scale is the same. Actually, (and I realize this isn't the case everywhere) the major university I live by (I won't mention the name but it's one of the Big 10...you'd know it) puts out 80 new nurses a year. And the community college puts out the same amount. And the ADN have better luck with getting hired in because the community college's NCLEX pass rate is FAR SUPERIOR to the major university grads pass rate. I personally am in a BSN program (not at that university...LOL), but when it boils right down to it, your license does not specify what if you have an ADN or BSN. It just says RN. Keep your chin up, there are jobs out there.

Oh, I hate a lot! LOL. But I'm getting towards the end and I am just sooooo over it. I'm tired of the papers, the ATI stress (we have to pass ours, I've heard not every school that utilizes ATI has to pass) and the information overload! I miss my friends, my social life and sleep. It should be noted however, that I am in nursing school full time and I work full time. I think that may play into my resent onset of crankiness. Seriously though, I have been lucky. You hear horror stories about nursing instructors and mine have all been INCREDIBLE! I've been very lucky. There are two things that I detest about nursing school though. #1. The amount of community nursing my school requires us to do. We have community/homecare every semester. I think that's crazy. And #2. Nursing diagnoses. We will NEVER use them. Ever. I've worked along side RNs for 7 years now in my job and we all laugh about them. Nursing Diagnoses do not exist outside of school. You can NIC/NOC and NANDA it all you want. You are never going to chart them, you are never going to use them. Those are the only two things that drive me batty about nursing school. :)

I appreciate all your input. You've all had great input!

Your information has been invaluable! Thank you so much! If I can think of anything further, I'll come a-begging you for more info. Just curious, and not at all my business, so feel free to tell me mind my own, but how did you end up in Australia? Where you looking for a change or was it just one of those things? And do you find the nursing in Australia is much different than in the UK?

LOL, it's funny you say that. One of my CCRN has been one for about 30 years and she said the same thing the other day. "It used to mean something...sigh."

Assuming your right handed...when you get that flashback, use the thumb and forefinger of your left hand to advance the catheter in. Just make sure you are touching the hub and ONLY the hub. Not the angiocather itself or the end of the hub where the saline lock attaches. You don't want to contaminate it. You shouldn't feel any pressure at all when you slide that catheter in. If there is resistance, and you have to force it, it's not going to work. Your angle should be not quite horizontal with the vein. Flash back, slide catheter off the needle, eject. When you get better at it, you will then be able to just slide the angiocath off the needle with the forefinger of your right hand. As far as resistance during a flush...I say if you have to question the amount of force your using, it's time for a new IV. Better safe than sorry! :)

I am not a nurse (yet) but I am a STAT tech at a large teaching hospital. I'm called in for difficult IV starts. This is what I tell the people that I precept. Just ignore me if you heard it all before.... 1. Don't go for the vein that you can see, but can't feel. If it doesn't have that bounce to it, it's not worth poking. Especially if your going to run Vanco or K. 2. Instead of a tourniquet, use a blood pressure cuff. You only need to pump it up to about 80 mmHg or so. I find this dilates the veins better and as a bonus, the patients LOVE you because it isn't as uncomfortable. 3. Really old patients, frail skin, fragile veins. Don't use a tourniquet/blood pressure cuff at all. They tend to blow less. 4. Often I'm called to patients rooms who have these monster veins...and yet nobody can get access because the patients skin is "too tough and the veins roll." And then I find out they are using a 22 gauge needle. I personally LOVE a good 18. Often those tiny 22's are not big enough to puncture through the vein wall...and as a result, the angiocath just pushes the vein around. Anchor that bad boy vein down with your thumb and go fast. I always tell patients who are hesitant about the size of an 18 that it's akin to trying to hammer a needle into a 2 x 4. Sometimes a nail is better for the job. 5. The one thing I hate about all those IV insertion videos is that they tell you to enter at a 30 degree angle. Then you get your flashback. Then you lower the angiocath and advance some more. And then you eject the needle. I think this will blow a vein more often than not. I approach at a very small angle and most likely, that vein is never as deep as you think it is. As soon as I get a flashback, I slide the angio cath off the needle into the vein. I don't use that additional advance. Anyway, I hope some of those tips are useful for you. I'm surprised your DON didn't have more helpful information for you. It's a shame that you and your coworkers are requesting to improve on a skill that would benefit patients and the response was to check out youtube. I'm sure the patients would be thrilled. Happy Poking!

So, here's the background info. I'm a tech at a large teaching facility and I am one of the few that work with the STAT team. As in, I get called for particularly tricky IVs, help transport ICU patients to CT/MRI and such and follow our stat RNs (who are all CCRNs) to codes and rapid responses. Basically I am there as a go getter and to help them with whatever they need. I am in a unique position as a tech in that I am able to get involved in situations that typically do not involve techs, vents and art lines and swans and balloon pumps are all very familiar to me. I've learned so much working with the RNs. After working with the CCRNs for so long, the idea of working on a Med-Surg floor makes me sigh. I just don't want to do that kind of nursing. I am also a senior nursing student who is made aware daily that being a nurse in ICU involves years of experience. As much as I want to go into ICU I am fully aware that as a new grad, going into an ICU situation would be dangerous. So what I'm wondering is this; how long did you all work on the floors before going into ICU? Any advice? Thanks so much!

At the hospital I work at (Michigan) pumps are only used for things like heparin, insulin, cardizem and all the other "big guns." Antibiotics and fluids all run via gravity drips. And I work at a LARGE 700 bed teaching hospital. My nursing school reviews nursing math with us all the time. And thanks be to God, because I'm one of those girls with the weak math skills.

Okay thanks!

LOL, well that explains a lot! I live just across the Canadian boarder...so it's now safe for me to assume that my Guinness here is most assuredly NOT made in Ireland!

Hello all! I'm a senior nursing student in a BSN program in Michigan. I have been employed at a hospital as a tech for 7 years, so while I am not yet a nurse, I am no stranger to the difficulties that face nurses. High acuity patients, high patient to nurse ratios, arrogant physicians who treat RNs like dirt and never return phone calls (okay, they're not all like that...but a vast majority...). While I know that the grass is not always greener on the other side, I'm wondering what the differences are between nursing in the US and nursing in Ireland. I am aware that the health care system is different, though I am not completely sure what makes it different. I had the pleasure of visiting Ireland about two years ago and I fell in love. I am considering practicing nursing here in the states for a couple years to gain experience but I am looking ahead to a possible move to Ireland. Can any of you nurses who practice in Ireland give me a run down on what it's like to work in health care over there? Any information would be much appreciated. Thanks so much! P.S--I miss Guinness. Once you've had it in Ireland you realize that something about Guinness in the states is sadly lacking. I don't know what that's about. Perhaps it was the atmosphere. Or maybe it's because Guinness in a bottle shipped from over seas just isn't the same as a Guinness built in a pub. Next time any of you have one, think of me!