jacksonvillelpn

I've worked in LTC, Rehab, ALF, but mostly memory care. Trust me when I tell you the residents may have dementia, but their families are DEMENTED! Just Tuesday, I spent 1.5 hours with the ED, DON, and a daughter complaining about Moms over-the counter compression socks not being put on and Dads urinal being left in the room. Trust me, I feel your pain. Turn them over to the ED...they get paid to deal with the crazies and families while you care for your other patients.

According to another post I read, the Texas board of nursing will fast-track both LPNs and Rns.

And, you are in WHAT state? I might consider moving, if I won't freeze to death 9 out of 12 months. Here in Florida, it's good pay to start an LPN at $18 and a new RN at $22 in an SNF. Hospitals are a different story, of course, but I can understand why they quit. Especially if they are RNs working under $25.

Zofran is supposed to be used to prevent nausea/vomiting caused by cancer treatments and surgery. It has also proved to be effective in treating gastroenteritis. However, one of it's side effects can be...wait for it...nausea/vomiting. Is the patient on chemo or radiation therapy? Have any other interventions been tried with this patient? Does he actually vomit if he does not get the zofran, or how does he do without it? How long has the patient been taking the medication? Is giving it RTC prudent or advisable? These are all questions that should be addressed by the patient's care team and PCP.

Would you like to know where those young, inexperienced RNs are coming from, and why they are so compliant? They have spent the last month plus one week in a local nursing home, where they spent the first month in orientation, and the last week dumped into a rehab unit were they were asked to care for any where from 12 to 30 SUB-ACUTE rehab patients with IV antibiotics, g-tubes, wound vacs, and a plethora of high tech issues that the hospital dumped way too early. They RUN out the door with NO notice and head straight into the arms of your administrators, willing to offer them twice as much money( which is still nothing for hospital work) fewer patients, and a promise that their high acuity patients will shortly be shipped out to the nursing homes they just left. Thank Medicare, Obamacare, and your elected officials who 1) Know LESS THAN NOTHING about healthcare, 2) are in the back pockets of your administrators and 3) think they're getting top-of-the-line health care at Walter Reed. HaHaHa...we get the last laugh there, anyway.

If you entered nursing school because you felt either called or destined to it, then, no matter what you have to deal with, you will love being a nurse. This is how, and why, you will be happy. If you focus on the "job", you will always be miserable. Because the "job" sucks. But being a nurse is wonderful and amazing. Serve your patients. Focus on their needs. That is what you were meant to do. Do your best to ignore the garbage that swirls around every corporate culture everywhere, whether you are a lawyer, car dealer...whatever, or nurse. You weren't meant to be a corporate lap dog. You were called to care for your patients. Heal the sick, comfort the hurting, love the hard-to-love. Let others deal with the business end. You have your own "business ends" to deal with. Good luck. Study hard, keep your chin up and your head down, and fly below the radar.

This also holds true in nursing homes/rehabs. And those hot-out-of-school-and-can't-get-a-job-in-a-hospital nurses? After orientation they work on their own for a week and run for the door, costing the facility $$$ in wasted training. The facilities are adding vent and cardiac units, with little to no change in the usual 1 CNA to 12 patients and 1 nurse to 20-24. Rx for disaster. Oh, and PRN nurses? Gone...they cost too much. Overtime is cheaper. A few years ago a doctor friend of mine warned that the way things are going, the healthcare system is destined to implode upon itself. Hopefully there will be enough nurses to come behind and pick up the pieces.

Depending on the doctor, the cream containing Ativan, Benedryl and Haldol is either ABH, BAH, or HAB. I just call it Happy Cream. Seroquel, or quetiapine is Quiet Time, and Xanax is Vitamin X. Can you tell I work in the dementia unit?

I don't know why, but it took me forever to say metoprolol instead of metoporol. I also call quetiapine "quiet time", but I do that on purpose.

Excellent! Next Monday, I will celebrate my 3-year anniversary as a LTC nurse, and I have encountered every single situation except actually turning away an admission. Yes, that includes replacing a pulled-out g-tube with a foley...we don't even HAVE replacement kits. That gets done at the hospital. As far as family goes, I think I've known the spectrum: from those who are there every day and are actually helpful, to those I've met ONCE, and those who need the anti-psychotics they want us to give to their parent. I currently work in the dementia unit, and I swear some of their kids are certifiable! But I love my job and my residents, and have no plans to do anything else in the near future.

Dear fellow nurses, I too, experience all the frustrations of the corporate climate, so here's what I do: I continue to remind myself that, in the end, I do not work for them, but for The One who called me to be a nurse in the first place. He expects me to love my patients and serve Him. While you are enjoying your Heavenly Hot tub in the Mansion that you have built for yourself every day that you toughed your way through the mess, "they" will be answering to The Boss! I hope this helps someone.

I have a different take on this all together. I have worked in LTC for almost 5 years now...2 years as a CNA/nursing student, and 3 years as a nurse. CNA's are required to do vitals at the beginning of each shift. It's that way in every facility where I've worked or had clinicals here in north Florida. Not that it always happens that way, and sometimes you have to stop and do your own BP, but most of the time it's the CNA's job.

I've been working 3-11 as a CNA part time/prn for the past 1 1/2 years and attending nursing school full time. Not a morning person...it was murder having to get up at 6:30 for school 2 days/week and 5:30 2 days for clinicals! Now that I've graduated and passed my NCLEX, I have been hired by another facility FULL TIME on 3-11, and I am thrilled! I'm going to have a longer drive, but if I were to stay at my current facility, I could only work PRN, which means any shift, with a lot of days...yuck!!

Watch out for those private, for-profit schools...they will cost you an arm, a leg and your firstborn child, and you may have a problem finding a facility who will hire their graduates. Often times, cities on state borders will allow neighbors to cross the state line and attend on in-state tuition. Are there any schools in Jersey or Conneticut who might do that? Also, consider how far along in the program you were when you failed...early, middle, or late? Consider the financial investment and how much more you are willing to spend. If you were on student loans, you should probably speak to a student loan officer before preceeding further. Good luck!

Don't let the material overwhelm you. The human body is a very logically put-together, all be it complicated, machine. If you are having trouble learning a system, google it. You will find web sites that give short, lay-person explanations that help to sort out the medical language. Once you see the big picture, you can start focusing on the finer points. For example, the heart is a pump...just that simple. Learn the flow of blood through the body...it goes in a perfectly logical sequence. Once you figure that out, then you can start to look at what happens when the heart doesn't work right. Sometimes, if you are in the middle of a class and completely lost, go back to the fundamental working of the organ and then work your way back to what was being covered in the lecture. I had to do that on MANY OCCASIONS, even though I had a BS in Biology and was making straight A's. I'd be totally lost. Hang in there, study, and think logically. Once you get the logic down, then you can start mastering the critical thinking. I just took and passed my NCLEX, so trust me when I tell you that that is the most important skill you have to master. Good luck. (Need to figure out how to change my online name. Just got a full time job as an LPN, so I'm not just a new student any longer)