Danelle

Our administrator was honest and said it was so SHE (not the patients) and the other employees could walk on any unit/floor and know immediately who the nurses/techs/secretaries were. Which, to me, makes more sense than thinking the patients are going to figure it out.

Like they say here when there is a mandatory evacuation: A mandatory evacuation means that if residents choose to stay then there will be no one to rescue them if something happens. They can call 911 all night long, but nobody will be able to help. That is the chance they take. If residents think there is a hospital open close to them then they might stay when they shouldn't. That's why they evacuate the fire department- to drive home the fact that EVERYONE (including you:) ) needs to leave. Like someone else said-No patients means no patient abandonment. If your area is spared then you can come right back- if not then they are going to send all of you patients to other hospitals....Why fill a hospital back up that's already empty if there is no power, no communications, and limited ability to get supplies.

Like legalnurse asked, where are you staying? Here in Mobile, the state psych facility in the northern part of the county was advertising that they were hiring a few weeks ago. And I know of another in town that takes children and adolescents as well as adults that is always hiring.

I've run into this in nursing school. I met a lady the other day that just started nursing school who is a MA. I asked why she decided to go to nursing school. She said "Well, I've been working as a nurse and doing everything a nurse does for 15 years, so I thought I should get paid for it. " Apparently, she has worked for the same MD for 15 years and says she does everything, give all of the shots, answers patients questions who call and ask for the nurse. She started asking me questions about nursing school (I'm a senior) and I told her what she would be doing first semester when they go to the nursing home. You know, bed baths, cleaning incontenent patients, feedings, bathroom assists. She turned up her nose and says "Ewwww, But I dont do that! I DON"T take care of sick people, I take care of well people." :smackingf HeHe, I think she is in for a rude awakening concerning what a NURSE does.

My OB/GYN is female and has never had children and my husband and I absolutely love her! I could not imagine having anyone else support me during my delivery. I do understand where you are coming from though, my mother did not approve of my child's first pediatrician because she did not have children.(she was a wonderful Dr., by the way) That pediatrician moved away and we switched to one that happens to be a mother of 4, so, of course, Mom is now satisfied.

I will agree that it is not your place to inform the school. That being said, I completely understand where you are coming from. everyone that has been to nursing school can be as non-judgemental and supportive as they like, however, there is that teeny voice in the back of our heads saying about another nursing student, "Dear Lord how is he/she going to be responsible for human life?" I used to kid with my friends that I had a "list", which was my mental list of nursing students that I NEVER wanted to see walk into my or my family member's hospital room. That list has gotten VERY short now, though, as most of those people failed out of the program. Since you have this semester, and another to go, if she is TRULY incompetent then the problem will take care of itself.

I received Demerol IM post-op from ankle surgery. I hated it. It only worked for an hour or two, but could only be given every four hours. I had IV access, by the way. I was in pain all night and all the next day. My nurses called the doctor 4 times to change my medication and all he would do is up the dose until the final call when the nurse said "look, she's going home in a few hours, can't we switch her to something PO." He gave me Tylox and it worked! When I went home he gave me lortab, even though I asked for tylox. It didn't work so I asked for Tylox again, and he gave me a prescription for ....Demerol and phenergan. It caused muscle twitches, mood swings and made me MEAN. AND it didn't work any better than the lortab:madface: . Not only will I never use that ortho doc again, I will ask that I not receive demerol again.

At my school, they did teach dosage calculations. However, the dosage calculation test that we take is 10 questions and has to be passed with 100%. You have three trys and if you don't pass, you have to sit out a semester and retake the test when it is given at the end of the NEXT semester. So I guess what I am saying is that it is kind of the nature of the nursing beast, like you asked. Sorry, I know that is not the answer you were looking for.

A three ring hole puncher--I have a desk one and a small flat one that clips into my binder. Great for all of those handouts in class. On a lighter note....Vodka and apple-tini mix for AFTER those miserable Med-Surg tests

My cousin had a c-section last year and came out of it so upset because during the delivery the anesthesiologist berated her because she made the choice not to breastfeed. She basically told her that if she cared about her baby at all then she would breastfeed. :angryfire It was not the time or place for that!

I had a patient who has been a quad for over 25 years and he said that he used to have metal foley bags...said they were a pain because they would rust:rolleyes: Had an 80 something year old patient that was an RN trained in the 40's. She quit in the 50's because she got married. She said that if you worked when you were married back then it meant that your husband didn't make enough money to support you, which was an embarrassment. She never worked again after 1955.

Too bad you don't live here in south alabama or the florida panhandle. You could just put plywood on the outside of your windows and nobody would think it looked strange at all. Half of the houses around here still have the boards up from Hurricane Dennis. Seriously though, my dad bought a cheap sheet of white wall paneling and cut it to fit the inside of his windows with the white part facing out. THey block the sun out totally, but it doesn't look as bad as just wood or tin foil. He also bought an A/C window unit for the bedrrom window, so he wouldn't have to run the central unit all day with just him there asleep. It kept his room as cold as he likes it to sleep, the noise of the humming A/C blocked out the neighbors dogs, AND it cut his power bill in half since he wasn't cooling the entire house to 68 degrees during the hot,humid Alabama summer.

i used to have this written on my notebook to help me make it through med-surg: it's supposed to be hard! if it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. the hard... is what makes it great!----tom hanks, a league of their own this is a southernism that my daddy used to say: it's cold as a well digger's a$$

I had the seatbelt/helmet law discussion with my Dh's step mother who was a paramedic in Florida for many years. we both agreed that with the helmets, yes people should wear them, but it should be your right to choose. Some parts of Florida (I'm not sure if it is statewide) do not require helmets as long as you have insurance. (I guess they figure you can be as stupid as you want as long as you don't expect the state to pay for the damage) For her family, she hope none of us would ever choose to ride, as she has scraped many a motorcyle rider off of the pavement. My other MIL (husband's real mom) is an avid motorcycle rider who wears a helmet only because it is a law, and rides in shorts and a tank top....even after getting serious road rash from a wreck WHILE wearing full leather (it was winter) AND losing one of her ex-husbands to a motorcycle wreck!!!:smackingf However, MIL #1 made a good point about the seatbelts, in that, studies have shown that wearing a seatbelt allows the driver to maintain better control of the vehicle during an accident, or would be accident, by keeping the driver from being thrown around the car or through the windshield. This protects other drivers and pedestrians as well, so the law makes more sense.

Rarely, you have to be careful about the "if their cervix does not dilate, they are not in true labor" A friend of mine with scar tissue on her cervix from some sort of procedure to remove pre-cancerous cells started having contractions at about 4 am one morning. At 6, she called me asking if she should go to the hospital, and I said no, because she had an OB appt at 8:30 anyway, and to just go then. At the appt her doc says (no joke), " well, if I was going to be here, I would send you across to the hospital to monitor, but I am going out of town, so just go home and wait it out." she goes home. At 11 am, Contractions are less than 5 minutes apart, she goes to the hospital. They keep her about an hour, tell her she is not dilated, contractions still right at to just over 5 minutes apart, tell her to go home. By the time she gets home she cannot talk through contractions, goes back. Same routine, send her home again. Did not admit her until about 5 pm, Doc on call comes in, examines her, and breaks through the scar tissue with his fingers, and Ta-da, she starts dilating (and fast). Delivered a couple of hours later.

I fully recommend getting the HESI book. We have to take a HESI test for each subject we take each semester and an exit hesi. I used the book last semester and made over 1200 (99.99%) on both of the tests I took (psych and peds). There are sections in each chapter called "hesi hints" and a lot of those were almost word for word on the test. Before getting the book, the highest I made was a 92% (1100, i think).

For me, it's not the substance, it's the sound. I can clean vomit all day, but if I hear them heave, I'm going to heave too.

I'm getting a housekeeper! Not an every day one, just someone to come once a week and do the dusting, vaccuuming, bathrooms...etc--all the things that I really don't have time to do right now(nor have the money to pay someone to do it), seeing as how my 10 week summer semester of Med Surg II and OB are pretty much taking up all of my waking hours. Seriously, I can't wait until december and I can get my house is REALLY clean again!

No she didn't... ...tell a group of psych patients that another nursing student (male) was a doctor. (she wanted them to leave her alone, which they did when they thought a doctor was on the floor) ...get caught making out with a resident(doctor, not patient), during clinicals, at the hospital. What is worse, she was dating a resident, but one she got caught with was not him!:imbar ....ask the instructor "what do that does" in reference to the antibiotic ointment being applied to a wound.:uhoh21:

I didn't do this, but my best friend did. When you live in a moblie home and a hurricane (IVAN) is coming, you pack up your most important valuables to take in your car when you evacuate, the FIRST thing you grab is your nursing books...even before your wedding pictures.

Where I live, the local University offers an accelerated ADN to MSN program in which you can enter as long as you have a BS or BA in anything and a valid RN license. A friend of mine is doing that as soon as she finishes her adn (she already has a BS in education). From what I understand, it is geared to where you can work as well. Maybe there is a program like this in your area. Also, the ADN to BSN programs here are set up so that you can work full time, which is what I plan to do. Here, you can take all of the nursing classes online, or go to school every other weekend. Have you found out how the programs are set up at your chosen school so that maybe working is possible while you get your BSN?

I'm just a student, So I can't give an opinion one way or the other, but I do have an example from clinicals where precharting could have caused a serious problem. I had a patient that was a quadreplegic. He was scheduled for a 10am pain reliever. The nurse initialed the MAR before she gave it, then noticed they were out of that drug. Then she got busy and forgat to order it. While the pt. could not feel pain, his body still reacted to it. His BP and pulse increased and he started sweating. At 1200 his BP was 140/90 where his 0800 had been about 110/70. I reminded her 3 times about the med as well as told my instructor. When I left at 1330 she still had not ordered the med, but according to the MAR, it had already been given. My instuctor told me to inform the pt about his increase in BP, and to remind the nurse to give him the med. I'm not sure what happened, that was my last clinical at that facility.

That's what it is. sometimes it is listed in the chart, sometimes you have to find it in the history. Some big ones you can look for, if not listed, are things like diabetes, COPD, and hypertension. PM me and maybe I can help you with the info that you have.

Nope. I was in a motorcycle wreck at age 4. Dad rode one. I had my own little helmet and one evening he took me riding in the neighborhood. We had just turned the corner from the house and a teenager coming toward us cut the corner into our lane. My dad had the sense to throw me onto the neighbor's grass, so I was fine. My dad was pretty messed up though. My mom and grandfather heard the wreck from inside the house. As soon as my Dad got better, he put the bike up for sell. My mother in law lost her last husband to a motorcycle wreck. Three years ago, she totaled her Harley. She plans to buy a new one soon, which is entirely her business, but I did tell her I am NOT riding in my BIL's tiny little Prelude 60 miles, while nine months pregnant to come get her from the emergency room when she totals this one!:chuckle (which is what I did last time. What a miserable trip!) She also knows better than to suggest letting my 3 year old ride. I have a lot of friends that ride, and LOVE it, but I have had too much happen too close to home to do it myself, or let my child.

I have a quick question while I wait for my Drs' nurse to call me back. (I called 4 hours ago.) I am 5 1/2 weeks post op from ORIF of my ankle. Last night I had a fever of 102. I have been able to get it down to 99.5 with tylenol and advil. My only other symptoms are a headache, and extreme fatigue. I am so weak it was all I could do to get to the family room from my bed. My questions are, do I need to talk to my orthopaedist first, or do I need to go to my general practitioner? Has it been long enough that I shouldn't suspect or worry about infection in my leg? Am I just overreacting? Any advice would be wonderful, as it could be 4 o'clock this afternoon before someone calls me back. I have calls in to both Dr's, by the way. TIA, Amy