candersonRN

To Awakened; I realize you think the nurses are not using nursing theories in their work, but you are very wrong. They just do not necessarily think of what they are doing in those terms. It was not until I began working on my masters that I realized how much I use nursing theories in my work. Just because nursing looks like it is merely following orders, a good nurse is also thinking about all the things the patient needs that are not doctors orders. Do the nurses have to get a doctors order to listen to their patient? Does the nurse need a doctors order to care for a patient with understanding of the patients cultural diversity? These are things we do almost automatically once you are more comfortable with the basics. Good luck with nursing if it is what you truly wish to pursue as a career.

Congratulations on your acceptance! The thoughts I want to add are that learning to work with people who are 'users' and others you just do not like is part of nursing. I have had to work with many people over the years I almost hated on a personal level but had to learn to work with them to do my own job. Also, the current trend in school (especially Master's level) is toward using group assignments to assist the students in learning to collaborate with a team. As for the nurse who does not remember her classmates or instructors, I can definitely appreciate that as I do not remember many of those people myself. However, I moved out of state after graduation, if you are going to school locally and will be working with these nurses after school, remember that those people can be a resource you can utilize later or if you are seen as a 'lone wolf' they can be someone who keeps you from getting ahead. Good Luck in school, try not to hermit too much. Study alone if you need to and don't get caught up in non-class related drama if possible, but be personable it is an important part of being a nurse.

OK, here is my 2cents worth...if you can handle lots and lots of snot go RT or if you can handle lots and lots of poop go ADN. I have not read all the previous posts, but I think shadowing each type of professional is worth investigating to see which position works better for you. Unfortunately there is a pay bias toward women in general, men get paid more nation wide and nursing is not exempt.

I was stuck by a needle after giving an injection to an AIDS patient in 1995. Talk about scared!! I have not ever tested positive for HIV in all the years since this happened, however I did spend 6 months crying every day. I get the freak out that you are experiencing, but the good news is that it was not an intravenous stick so that decreases the risk and if it stuck through a glove the glove can act like a squeegee to remove some or most of the blood on the needle. DO all of the above advise but most of all don't beat up on yourself. It can happen to any of us.

I would like to respectfully disagree with the posting about Blacks and Hispanics receiving lesser care, as these two posts refer to the prescriber not the nursing staff. Granted it is part of the nurses job to be proactive for the patient, however non-advance practice nurses are not allowed to proscribe medications.

Well I received my BSN in the early 90's but we had a 99% pass rate for boards and I knew who didn't pass (we all knew she wasn't ready-not a good test taker). Anyway my class was well prepared, we had been taking 5 patients during our last semester of clinicals and doing total care for them for 8 hours. But the new grads I see coming out now even in ADN programs are only given 1 or 2 patients and only for a few hours at a time, how is that preparing anyone for actual practice, theory not even an issue.

Okay, I just have to say that until nurses (not APRN's) can bill for the care they give, we will not be considered professionals by the administrators and financial officers who see nursing as a budget sink-hole. I have found that administration staff really have not got a clue what nursing involves and do not understand that it will sometimes take more nurses to care for the same number of patients but have different acuity levels, so the first thing they want is to cut staff when numbers are not what they want. I too like nurse-craft as a descriptor for nursing duties. I have enjoyed reading this thread, thanks Eric for the thought churner. One point I would like to make is that the nursing diagnosis and process are defiantly needed for those people who come to nursing with no common sense. There are people who go into nursing who have no idea what it means to be a nurse. Like the one on your unit who "didn't know there would be so much aide work", TV and other media have given this notion that nurses never get dirty. The nursing process and diagnosis are a great jump off point for these students, unfortunately those who come with linear thought processes often get bored and irritated with the repetitive nature of this learning process just have to suck it up. Well that my 2cents. ps. I have RN behind my name cause it was easy to remember for signing in purposes.LOL